Ed

Welcomes are given in the new member section (though I can appreciate the sarcasm) after you introduce yourself and offer a little info on yourself along with your real name. You do realize this board is comprised of collectors? Can you grasp how insulting it is to ask for advice, but make it known that you don't like collectors or at least buying from them? As well as how willing you are to throw away your money on e-bay for a fake so obvious that my children could point it out? If you are no more knowledgeable than to inquire on the tsuba posted, YOU should ONLY buy from a collector, NMB member or established dealer and delete your e-bay account. I won't even go into the study first speech. BTW, manners are good too, I didn't see where you said thanks to anyone for saving you $600. Now, you want a real tsuba ? Here is a link to a page of tsuba that I have slashed prices on for the upcoming Christmas sale. It hasn't been put on the web site yet and you are the first to see it. http://yakiba.com/christmas_sale.htm Here at NMB we don't make the collector, we make them better!

Let me see if I have this right. Your friend has a problem buying from legitimate collectors but doesn't mind asking their opinions. He doesn't want to buy a genuine tsuba from an established collector, yet he has considered spending $600 on a pitiful POS fake tsuba on e-bay ?? Brilliant !!!

The copper sleeve sounds intriguing. I am interested to know about the edge of the nakago and the nakagijiri and how that was done. I can see that it was hammered or forged to look as though it was part of the original nakago. If it was a sleeve, was it hollow all the way through like tubing ? If so it had to be hammered then cut or filed to the proper shape. How was this seam dealt with? Was it soldered like a habaki is done or what ? What was the patination like on it ? Man, I would like to see that one!

Malcolm, Sorry, I had called it a night by the time you wrote however the answers provided are correct. A pin or rivet (pin in this case, rivet has a rounded head on one end) is placed through the hole and then the ends are flared with a hammer and punch. This widens the diameter of the pin on both ends which tightens the fit, reduces play or movement and prevents the pins from coming out. Chris, I have heard of them being welded. My thought is that perhaps it was done this way in order to prevent loss of the hamon due to the heat. By heating the nakago to forge welding temperatures of around 2200° F. and as it is only a few inches from the hamachi, it seems likely and at least possible that the heat transference could be enough to damage the hamon. This peened method would eliminate that possibility, though welding would be permanent and much stronger.

A friend picked up a sword which was a bit unusual, it has had the Nakago extended. A piece of material was shaped then peend onto the nakago with three pins. I had never seen one, and thought you guys might enjoy seeing it.

Nice find Bill.

Not as cool as Bill's Prototype NCO sword, but still a rare find, and I thought you guys might like it. A friend got a sword in a Shi-gunto koshirae and it has a Iida scabbard lock. They can be seen in Dawson's "Swords of Imperial Japan" pg 169. He didn't send me any photos of the tsuba, which is specialized as well to accept the locking mechanism. I am trying to get him to send me the entire thing to photograph, if he does i will post more photos. The sword itself is a bit unusual as well as it has had the Nakago extended (see post under nihonto).

I thoroughly enjoyed this thread, it is great to read useful information and see examples of quality work. It would be great if any others have good photos of their Jingo tsuba to share. Posts like these are what the NMB is supposed to be about ! It is such a welcome break from write ups and photos of low end / e-bay fodder presented for our viewing pleasures and comments. Thanks to all.

I was surprised that you could find the actual starting point, especially when I did not provide close ups of the entire skull. Very impressive. I don't know if anyone noticed but to the lower right of the skull are what I suppose are bone fragments. I always wondered whether they were rocks or bone but as they too have the writing on them, I am now thinking they must be bone fragments. Once again my most sincere thanks to Morita Sama for making a nice scroll a great scroll, for me at least.

Again, my thanks to you sir.

Wow! That is way more than I expected. As usual Morita Sama amazes me once again, my sincere thanks to you sir. Thanks to you as well Brian for moving the post. As it wasn't a sword or fittings I didn't want to put it there, a mistake. Surprisingly, my interpretation of the painting was not too far off. Not necessarily a battlefield, just a field where ashes of the departed are placed. In this case obviously the ashes and remains of a once vibrant and lovely lady. The writing relating to the scroll is a wonderful example of how transient is life in the millennial of eternity. It emphasizes the importance of preparing for the afterlife now, not waiting. Death can come at any time, unannounced and permanent, a blink of an eye and you mortal body is no more, yet your spirit lives on. Personally, this information adds a great deal to the scroll. Knowing the meaning and not having to speculate is great. Thank you again Morita Sama. One more small question if you don't mind. Is it possible you can translate the artist name ?

Tobias, No, those guys get asked to help too often as it is. I am sure most everyone has seen this, if anyone has time or wishes to comment they will.

Tobias, I had links to a couple of sites which sell nothing but scrolls in Kyoto and Osaka, but I can't seem to find them. If I do I will send them to you. Doesn't look like we will get anymore info on the scroll.

Hi Malcolm, I have owned the scroll for a number of years and often wondered what it eluded to, and always felt like it was a memory of old bones left to rot on the battlefield. Like you I can only speculate. Whether or not the script was done originally or added is anyone's guess. I had hoped one of our Native Japanese members might shed some light on the meaning of the writings and/or the painting as a whole. At any rate glad you enjoyed it.

I was looking at this scroll today and decided to post some photos of it here. It portrays a beautiful woman (vision, memory ??) emanating from smoke (fog, breath ??) of a skull. The odd part and reason I am posting is that some of the fissure lines on the skull are done in writing, not merely lines drawn, but tiny kanji. I am interested to hear your opinions as to what you may think the painting means. As well curious as to whether or not anyone has seen this type of work before, and most importantly if anyone out there has any idea what it says ??

Gendaito: http://yakiba.com/Kat_Kanenobu.htm http://yakiba.com/Kat_Sukemori.htm http://yakiba.com/Kat_Nobuhide_Takahashi.htm http://yakiba.com/Kat_Kanetomo_Gendaito.htm http://yakiba.com/Newlisting.htm

Yes, Darcy does a great job as well. I was unaware that his services were available in the US.

If you want full length, high definition photos, I suspect Richard George is the man you seek. Not sure if he is the only one to do this but he is probably the best. Richard is a member here "RKG".

Hi Peter, Perhaps Chris knows more, this is new news to me. I would think EMS is an acceptable if not the only method of import. If it is like it is here, when something is shipped to you it is automatically sent to a random import broker and a fee is generated. I had several shipments from the Europe and they were sent to Homeland Security and a Import Broker. I was automatically billed via my UPS account. What was odd was that only the UPS shipments were treated this way. DHL did not require or bill me for an import broker nor were they marked as having been inspected by Homeland Security. ???? As far as the fees, they are determined by the declared value.

George, May be changing for the worse. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13809

Received the following information regarding submitting gendaito for shinsa in Japan. Thought I would share it.

George, Depends on how cheap they are

Exactly Jean, people should be more aware that papers are nothing more than an opinion. No organization that I am aware of guarantees their attributions. Granted, their opinions are 1000 times better than 99.999% of us, but they all posses one fatal characteristic, they are human. Human in that they do make mistakes and human in that they don't like to admit them. So Jean, what do you call your organization, NBTHKJ ? What are your shinsa fees, maybe I can save a few bucks by getting papers from you

Interesting thread. I too, after viewing the examples would have to say they were the same blade. Though there seem to be some subtle differences, I think none which could not be attributed to lighting/angle. I did not see one inherently different stroke (up on one, down on the other), that combined with the individual shots other members added of corrosion and small anomalies seem to obvious to deny. Definitely disappointing, but not the first time something similar has happened.

Dirk, Do you have a photo of the Naomichi mei ?