Robert Janssen

I'm glad this is happening, it will be one to treasure I think. Thanks to Ford for making this happen, and thanks to Bob also for the reminder. I would have missed it if you hadn't posted this

I'm in on this, a rare and valuable project by a great man! Keep going guys, we're over the 42000 of 45000 needed!

Hi Bob, first of all, I would definately call this pic decent I think most things have been mentioned. I would like to add something about lenses that hasn't been mentioned. You didn't specify which lens you used... When it comes to sharpness and correct focus of images, many people underestimate the part the lens plays in this. When you take a shot like this with lets say a 35mm or 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens and you compare it with the same shot made by a standard 18-200 mm or 70-300mm zoom lens... zoom in on the details of your pictures and the difference in sharpness will blow you away! especially when you go farther away from the image centre you will find shape and colour distortions and reduction in sharpness. So unless you have some expensive glass on your camera, don't underestimate the impact of the lens used. Also if you don't have a remote trigger setup, just using the timer function can help to reduce vibration when pressing the trigger in a normal shot. enjoy your new toys! :D

Alright, good to know, thanks! just wanted to make sure...

Hi guys, great idea combining both information resources into one poster, one remark though that I have is that we might need to consider copyrights of both information sources if we use and combine this info, and share and print it into the world... I for one would not like to get smited by Dr. Kanzan Sato or his publisher :lol: Am I overthinking this? :|

Hey Grev, the text next to the swords is in relation to the time line below. If you look closely the unmarked sword has a "era" of it's own, but it's a short one (about 60 years). Therefore there are no early or late sword shapes for this period, this is the only shape of that period. In this link http://www.jp-sword.com/files/basic/history.html you will find this info on that period: "From the view point of Japanese sword history, the Nanbokucho period should be an individual category, although the chronology of general art history does not separate it from the Muromachi Period. To put it into brief, the tendency of long and wide sword of the kamakura period is exaggerated in this age; the extreme example of which is so-called Seoi-Tachi (Tachi carried on the back), alias No-dachi which boasts its long and broadened figure. Its opposite is Tachi and daggers whose blade are so slender and short as never existed. Such two extremes were the characteristics of the Nanbokucho Period."

Sorry to rain on your parade Chris, but here's the same image almost triple the size which makes it better to read especially the eras with their time periods at the bottom. Your image made me look for a larger size though, thanks for that image!! http://new.uniquejapan.com/wp-content/u ... lution.jpg I was also interested in an image like this, big thanks to the 2 posters!

Actually, the "three friends of winter" (shochikubai) are the pine, bamboo and plum as they do not wither as the cold days deepen into the winter like most other plants/trees... Thanks for enlightening me guys, I'm actually very fond of the bamboo and plum theme on tsuba. Nice to see them in horimono as well.

Great!! many thanks to you both! It's nice to see your great site available all the time, although the earthlink hosting was great, some months you would get so much traffic you wouild reach your data limit and the site would go offline temporarely But that is just a testament to how great and valued your website remains to be. Also, it's nice to know my next donations will go to the preservation of BOTH websites in a way

thanks for sharing Darcy, truly amazing craftsmanship! Would anyone like to enlighten me which is the other representation of the tree? I see bamboo obviously, but which tree or plant is represented on the other side?

Hey Joe, for removing the tang: there are 2 screws on your tang that need to be removed before being able to take off the handle. I must be stating the obvious, but who knows... sometimes people are afraid of doing something wrong once removed there's a method of loosening tight blades that can be considered pretty safe when done carefully. I'll redirect you to the NBTHK sword care page which has a section about it with a good picture. feel free to keep tapping your fist until you're bruised http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm If this doesn't work there are other things you can try, but this should be the first thing you try. good luck!

Speaking a bit from personal experience I think most new (young?) collectors get their interest from movies etc. They like the sword for the look and the "myth" surrounding samurai swords. their first stop will probably be in the Paul Chen category, maybe learning more and going to the "real deal" forge folded Paul Chen swords coughing up 1500USD plus for those... Although I skipped the Paul Chen phase, in the beginning Nihonto seemed unobtainable, overexpensive and "out of my league" so to say... The ones that dig deeper realise they've been hussled by Paul Chen If they get over that disappointment and continue will most likely buy papered swords, so as not to get hussled again. This is a safe buy for them that covers their investment and in their mind return a profit in the future. The ones that can't afford papered Nihonto will try to find unpapered cheap ones, and probably again get hussled on Ebay with a Chinese fake The problem new collectors face IMO is that the amount of knowledge is too low for them to make a good call, and probably buy papered if they have the cash. The ones that do are the lucky ones, they have a good piece to start learning more. The others face a difficult route, and waiting and learning BEFORE buying is pretty rare nowadays. Anyway new collectors probably all THINK their purchase will keep it's value. the ones that buy papered might be lucky and not loose money, the rest will probably learn the hard way when they try to resell their item. my 2 cents...

Hi Denis, I think you forgot one 0 there... It's 100 yen to the $ Just for the record as other people might be put off by a 1700$ charge...

Adrian, the only thing you have accomplished with all this is to put off everyone that was interested in the project, and frustrate the people that are actually doing anything real. Nothing positive has come out of your bickering. So maybe you should think about a mountain of silence of your own... Brian: take your time, do some calculations etc. if you still want to and we'll see what happens, thanks for your efforts in this endeavor. To continue on a positive note: I will commit to one copy of the set of books!!

For those interested in Nihonto photography: In this youtube movie there is a short demonstration about Nihonto polishing AND photography by leading polisher Okisato Fujishiro (and his son). This was demonstrated at the MET museum as part of an exhibition in 2009. I found both aspects of this demo interesting, although lacking real practical instructions for photography. Enjoy!

Hi Brenda, As mentioned the "pebble" is part of the rayskin (samegawa) underneath the wrapping. These bigger nodes run in a line down into the rest of the rayskin. You see 2 smaller ones on the edges of the second diamond figure made by the wrapping. The size of these nodes (and overall size of all regular nodes) are also somewhat of a quality reference, the bigger the nodes the "better" or at least more expensive the rayskin gets. If you do an image search for samegawa in any search engine you will see what it looks like without the wrapping, and everything will become clear. greets

This might help aswell?

I agree here with Barry, I just got my copy of " the Samurai Sword", and it looks like a neat little handbook to quickly look something up that you forgot or forgot the name of...

Hey Jussi, just FYI: if you use firefox for android on your phone, you can tell firefox to force full versions of sites and firefox will hide the mobile browsing info or something. anyway: if you select that the site will refresh and switch for mobile to full version and it will stay that way. Nice stats Brian, the number of mac users (safari) is higher than I expected actually.

Curious to see how this goes... related to app developers though: the ratio of apple to android users will only tip in the favor of android in the future. cheaper android phones will only add to the number of android users browsing mobile and using apps. Although I think apple users are more likely to invest in paid apps, the percentage of android users that pays for apps is less than apple users. tricky tricky... my 2 cents anyway!

I too would be interested in knowing who this self-proclaimed restorer is, since I'm in the same area and might be in the market for some restoration myself... Would be nice to know so we don't make the same mistake, no offence... But if you are reluctant to share his name for any reason I understand of course... greets, Robert

Thanks John! a very nice summary with informative pictures, and I personally like the history summary and the scientific explanation behind the mechanisms of forging that they figured out over a thousand years ago! greets, Robert

Hi Joe, I had a slight déjà-vu feeling about this post, so I went back and searched for a similar thread I remembered and I found it: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11152&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=tachi It's mostly the same question as yours, with some good discussions and is an interesting read for sure. Hope this was helpful to you! Robert

I have another fine example that's worth sharing in my opinion... Don't know anything about the blade, but a nice horimono none the less. Bamboo and, i think, plum blossom? Greets, Robert

Hey Paul, Both galleries are in the Manhattan Art & Antiques Center. http://the-maac.com/Streamline?p=viewPage.jsp&id=62 Ogawa-san: The Akasaka Collection, Gallery #14 located on the left side of the lobby Flying Cranes Antiques: galleries 55, 56 & 58 http://shop.flyingcranesantiques.com/about.html Source: http://the-maac.com/manhattan-antiques/?paged=2 both galleries are on that page, in the middle and at the bottom of the page. Robert