That’s too expensive for only Hozon.
— Everyone
There are four levels of NBTHK papers: Hozon, Tokubetsu Hozon, Juyo and Tokubetsu Juyo. This four level ranking system unfortunately means that people end up with four slots in their head for placing an object’s importance and desirability.
This mistake takes its lead from the fact that it’s easy to grasp and remember four simple categories than it is to remember the vast and complex web of smiths, time periods, schools, their associations with each other, their place in history, as well as the myriad of individual qualities that make an item desirable.
All of that complexity is often boiled down into the thinking that an item with a particular paper should fall into a defined pricing range based on the paper.
This puts the cart (paper) in front of the horse (item).
My complaints about this mentality were bounced back in my face by Robert Hughes with two words that really grasped the problem well. He just said: Ladder Theory. And that crystallized it all for me.
Bear with me. This is long and rambling.
