Dai Token Ichi

[Bugyotsuji]

Let me follow up on that Dirk. Bump this thread if I have not reposted by Monday. :lol:

[Stephen]

Photos G man Photos!!!!

[Bugyotsuji]

Dirk, you might be right, but my contact has not seen the 8 Volume work you mention. Is it all swords, or just a volume or two for Juyu Bijutsuhin swords?

 

He said that after the war so many good swords appeared out of the woodwork, originally listed in old inventories, that from about 1950 onwards they gave up on that system of evaluation.

 

They are not allowed to be sent abroad, but there has been a bit of a thing in the press just recently in Japan about the number of Juyo Bijutsu Hin that have mysteriously 'disappeared' off the charts, over 100 I believe. Each one needs to be re-evaluated at the point of sale to certify whether it can be released, or if it needs to be categorized upwards to Kokuho/Juyo Bunkazai.

[DirkO]

Hi Piers,

 

I'm not surprised he didn't see the set - only 580 copies exist and it's quite pricy

I myself currently only have 1 of the 8 volumes, but I'm actively hunting down the set - for a reasonable price. Weighing 18 kgs, it's also not cheap to ship from Japan :-)

 

A few sets are for sale but they usually sell around the 250.000 yen mark.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/nihonto-juyo-bijutsuhin-zenshu/oclc/20247054

http://www.isshindo-shoten.com/product/314

 

It's 8 volumes, all nihonto (so swords, mountings and kodogu) 7 volumes on swords - the last volume is actually 2 books. 1 on kodogu and the other one an index of the whole lot in English.

[Bugyotsuji]

He says he has the oshigata in digital form, but not everything was covered in those materials until the Bunka Cho ordered the Honma edition.

 

If I got this right over a rather bad telephone line, there is a former Bunka Cho employee named Yuichi Hiroi (he has written books on Nihonto) who continues today to issue certificates for Juyo Bijiutsuhin that may have lost their original paperwork.

He will certify that a sword someone possesses is indeed the same object as originally listed, although this paperwork is a private certification.

[DirkO]

Yuichi Hiroi is co-author of the books so that makes sense, thanks for all the info Piers