It depends on your definition of " ethnographic"
the Japanese would not define it as such...
I think it is real and old. The patina is heavy, brown and uniform, not artificially-induced. Several holes indicate that the handle was changed at the very least once.
Nihonto afficionados would insist on full polish. That would put you back several hundred bucks. Last time I heard, it's ~ $60 per inch. If you are a Nihonto freak, you have no choice but to sell your firstborn and send the sword to Japan for an authentic polish. Also, as it is not signed, you would have to request the NHBTK ( or whatever it is called) examination and certificate: another $1,000 or so.... Then you will learn that there are some defects that prevent this sword to be regarded as a masterpiece. I made a firm decision not to collect Nihonto: too expensive, too high-brow, time consuming and... they just do not speak to me
The several I have, are ready to be swapped for Shashkas: that is what I call a beautiful sword!
To each his own
