The Provenance Register
伝来台帳
The Provenance Register is the museum’s permanent record of the history of works. Each entry is a Record of Provenance: what the sources establish about one work’s history, set out as numbered findings, each graded by the strength of its evidence and cited to its source.
Records are numbered, and a number is never reused. Each version is kept unchanged at its own address, with a fingerprint by which anyone can confirm that it has not been altered. A correction is a new version; nothing is changed or removed in silence.
A record is not an authentication, an appraisal or a valuation, and it is not a paper of the NBTHK or of any other body.
The records
| No. | The work | Version | Revised |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 3 | The Hercules Tsuba: iron openwork tsuba, unsigned, pierced with the Roman letters HERCULESヘラクレス英字透鐔 無銘Momoyama to early Edo period, c. 1590–1640 · Tokubetsu Hozon TōsōguFormerly in the Collection of the House of Count Terauchi8 established, 3 well supported | 2 | 29 October 2026 |
| No. 2 | Tachi, signed 備 (the rest cut away), Osafune Mitsutada太刀 銘 備（以下切） 光忠Mid-Kamakura period · Nagasa 66.9 cm  Formerly in the Collection of the Kan’in-no-miya Princely House7 established, 2 well supported | 2 | 3 November 2026 |
| No. 1 | Katana, the attribution to Yukimitsu of Sagami inlaid in gold刀 金象嵌銘 行光 本阿（花押）Late Kamakura period · Nagasa 71.5 cm  Documented Heirloom of the Date House of Sendai6 established, 4 well supported | 3 | 31 October 2026 |