John A Stuart

Hi Koichi-san, So is this fellows real name Kitagawa Katsukazu or Katsuichi? Plus, this really is important, how do you know when to use the Chinese sound or the Japanese sound. Like Hokugawa, the river and Kitagawa a personal name? This would really help me with these mei. John

Hi Kim, I do not think so. The sosho script for aki, yasu does not match at all. John

Hi, I was looking at that sukashi form again. Could that be the sosho character for moon, tsuki. John Here is the character. If you flip your tsuba around it sort of matches. J

Hi This river is north of Tokyo by the Shiobara Valley. I looked through the Tokyo index but could find nothing similar. John

Hi Nigel, I put these pics to compare. I tend to katchushi. What do you think? The bottom one describes a bound monkey, which is how hard it is to id a theme. Those rhomboid shapes could refer to something that actually exists. John

Hi Kim, Iread as follows; Hokugawa, maybe Naganori. I have trouble with the 3rd kanji down. John

Hi, Paulownia seems right and that could be a gourd or a hammer. I have some examples though there are many, that I drew (pardon). I flipped the tsuba upright and the other figure doesn't look like a pregnant rabbit anymore but I can't make a reference for it. John

Hi, The tsuba that most resemble yours, with that shape nakagoana, tagane, and that style of cutout sukashi is katchushi or perhaps tosho. They had very similar style. The geometric shapes seem more prevalent in katchushi tsuba but appear in both. Is that mimi slightly rolled, uchikaeshimimi? That would be another common characteristic of both styles. John

Hi All, I have a regular qwerty keyboard and my PC is set for Asian characters and alphabets, so, I get kanji etc. with no problem. The only way I can input kanji, for example here, is to copy and paste. I know there are special keyboards for this, but, I don't think a lot over here have them. So how are you guys writing them in posts etc.? Thank you, John

Hi All, I had always thought of shi shi being a dog, lion or deer representation. This seemed anthropomorphic, so, I delved deeper to find this representation and found Shshi-guchi,Ko-jishi and O-jishi masks used in kabuki. Is that how this form originated? Otherwise it was an animal spirit. I hadn't seen this form before. John

Hi Justin, Certainly not shishi. Some kind of daemon/oni creature. The face reminds me of 'The Creature From The Black Lagoon'. John

Hi Milt, I have had very few problems coming this way. Rebates have to come from the gov not the broker after it has left customs. The advantage of having the broker preaware is to prevent mistakes. I do not trust gov run outfits to always get it right. Guilty until proven innocent. At least if one is made your receipt of payment can be sent to your gov agency and you get the money back, hassle though. You have this too I expect, don't you? John

Hi Milt, This might help others as well. You can have your own broker handle all this by notifying them ahead of time . They intercept the item and do everything for you. They are not expensive, usually below $75. Milt, I meant by private carriers, a bonded shipping/trucking company not UPS, or FedEx. I get a fair bit of stuff shipped by UPS and items sent that way to me arrive at the closest terminal with an UPS contract about 1100 km from me and they just put it in the regular post from there. John

Sorry, I forgot to add what documentation is required. This is a declaration by the seller that such and such an item is a particular age. I have had these declarations just inked in on the US customs forms accepted. I have also had letters with official letterhead, phone no., address with est. age given accepted. I like the latter for proof of provenance when divesting also. John

Hi Steve, I generally have no problem when a declaration is attached to the outside of the crate by the seller. When I have had pieces go to packing companies for shipping, as some sellers do, and they have forgotten to attach the declaration, there is usually an invoice from the customs broker. At this time you can send your documentation by fax to them and they will get the fees adjusted with customs. This will cause a slight delay. On lower priced items they may come to you in two ways. One is with the invoice attached like a COD charge. You must pay this and send copies of the receipt and declaration for rebate by cheque. The second is an invoice will be mailed separately. It is easier to pay it and send in the forms for rebate, but you could do it through the broker as well. My biggest worry is sometimes the crates are rigorously searched/assessed which makes me fret over possible damage although this is done willy nilly. Another worry is the declaration alerts possible thieves just what is in the crate. Insurance is possible for big ticket items only with private carriers but you pay for the peace of mind. Our customs people are pretty good as long as they do not think they are getting snowed. John

Hi LDR, I absolutely freak sometimes when I see declared values excessively low or the box for gift ticked. If it came to litigation guess what would happen? I think the gov sucks enough blood from out of our veins as it is and don't want to bleed dry, but sometimes honesty really is the best policy. Here in Canada we can import antiques with documentation with no surcharge, though the GST tax of 7% is still sometimes applicable. Most times this has gone smoothly for swords, art, all the way to large furniture pieces. I had one incidence where documentation was refuted which cost me reshipping from SoCal back to Canada plus $600 for duty. Otherwise, litigation for who knows how long. The best thing is ring the right folk, Customs and Excise?, and ask what is needed in the way of docs and prepare accordingly. I don't reckon you'll have any real trouble. Luck, John

Hi All, I didn't even notice that stamp. Got to see the eye doc soon. Stephen, I hope the sword world will be a buzzing, all that bussing could get pretty sloppy. :lol: John

Hi Stephen, I could not resist when with half an hour to go there was no movement. Surprising how these good books were not jumped on. John

Hi Milt, The use of metals seems to be a little different, but the quality is on par. Marky Mark has some nice stuff available sometimes. I would have went for that set if it was within my means. Good'un. John

Hi Milt, That's a keeper. Got the kashira for it? John

Hi Steve, The type of fittings you have there are a very common type that you see quite often on lower quality koshirae. They are shakudo, though the copper looking sheen is showing through the patina. These are the type of fittings I would expect to find low ranking samurai using in the Bakumatsu period. They are pretty generic. When you look at the figures, even though wear is evident, the cruditie of the features shows the quality. I notice that your kashira has been wrapped into the tsuka without shitodome. Just your average set, nothing special but not bad so they don't suck at all. John

Hi Chris, I'll start the ball rolling with 'Sadashige'or 'Nagashige'. These scripted forms make it tougher. John

Hi All, I was a little light on what I thought they would go for. Final price was an even $28 000 US. Could get a nice sword for that. John

Hi all, The NBTHK worksheet has little pictures with hollow squares to be checked if I recall correctly. This may be what you have seen. John

Hi all, I just can't get my head around that second kanji being 'uji'. Actually it looks more like 'futatsu' but must be 'kazu'. Just doesn't look like 'uji'. Oh , well. John