The Various Japanese Japanese Katana Signed Katana (Mei) is a Edged - Japan first produced in 1481. It carries a scarcity score of 68/100 based on tracked survey data, with 42 active listings currently on the secondary market and a global benchmark price of $123,217.
This signed katana dates to the Muromachi period, an era spanning roughly the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries during which Japanese sword-making reached a level of technical and artistic refinement still regarded as a high point of the craft. Japanese smiths of this period forged blades through repeated folding and differential hardening of tamahagane steel, producing the distinctive hamon temper line and layered grain structure that remain hallmarks of traditional Japanese swordsmithing, and the finest smiths signed their work on the tang, or nakago, in an inscription known as the mei. Swords from this era were made during a period of near-continuous civil conflict among competing regional lords, when demand for well-made blades from skilled smiths and their schools was especially high across Japan. A signed blade surviving from 1481 represents an increasingly rare direct link to this formative period of Japanese sword craftsmanship.