Guido

Sō Tsutomo 宗勉 comes to mind, quite a few notches above Akamatsutarō.

What Wim said, Bob does it on a regular basis. keichodo@yahoo.com

It‘s expected from a LNT to teach his art to students (and he receives a stipend to help him doing that), that’s not really possible if he‘s retired.

Well, I guess it depends on how you define "politics". Although commonly called "living national treasure" (人間国宝 ningen kokuhō), the full title is "preserver of important intangible cultural properties" (重要無形文化財保持者 jūyō mukei bunkazai hojisha). One requirement, of course, is to have attained high mastery of an art / craft – which is already the case once a smith is rated "without judgment" (無鑑査 mukansa), meaning that his swords are of such a high level that they are displayed at the annual contemporary sword smith exhibition without examination of a panel of judges. But while technical skill alone might satisfy the Western view of "may the best man win", the Japanese way of thinking also puts a lot of weight on the general demeanor a person should display when being considered for such an elevated honor as jūyō mukei bunkazai hojisha. One quality that can’t be overemphasized is hinkaku 品格, which can be translated as (but doesn’t exactly mean) "dignity", or "quality of character". Constant self-promotion and assuming behavior isn’t something the panel overlooks easily, a likely candidate has to be of exemplary skill and behavior alike, representing the art / craft on both a technical and spiritual level. And finally: is Mr. Yoshihara indeed the best smith, or just the best known (especially outside of Japan)?

What you were told is wrong, at least when the NBTHK is concerned, especially in regard to tokuho.

Interesting. I never heard that, and always thought that toilet paper is chirigami.

What James said: no swords are rejected, but there are swords that are not accepted.

Everything is out of sync right now, and the Japan Post list seems to be more or less just a guideline. A friend shipped swords to the US a month or so ago, and all - except those that were supposed to go to NY - were accepted. Last time I looked, New York wasn‘t a country. A parcel from the UK was sent to me on March 30, and - according to the tracking website - was dispatched twice (no idea how that is possible), and finally arrived yesterday.

长安道, 长 being the Chinese simplified form of 長.

Let‘s settle for nakago.

A recent thread in which someone asked for kanji in a certain style, to be used next to a displayed sword, reminded me of a kakejiku (hanging scroll) that I commissioned about ten years ago. The original calligraphy is by Kanō Gyokuen 狩野玉燕 (1683-1743), and shown in the 2002 NBTHK-EB exhibition catalog "Selected Fine Japanese Swords". However, the artist who wrote it for me used a slightly different format and script. The poem says 檢書焼燭短看劔引杯長 – I recently added a transliteration into modern Japanese thereof to my signature on the NMB. In any case, a (non-literal) translation would be Book learning only burns down candles, but studying swords is like a full cup of saké. Besides my love for both nihontō and saké, those are my sentiments exactly: yes, it’s important to learn the basics and technical terms by reading as much on the subject as possible, but that’s never a substitute for looking at swords close up.

Guess so ...

Quite a mix of fonts. Also something I would expect seeing on a sayagaki, not a kakejiku. I find it rather odd.

This is the best I can do (couldn't really find the second one):

Different museum, Ken, this one is in Tokyo.

From what I can see in the photos, those don‘t appear to me to be authentic netsuke - which might explain why the signatures are not recorded.

That‘s what I told my wife. She disappeared, and now I can’t find our house deed ...

Nope.

I just received the latest Ginza Chōshūya sales catalog, and here’s your chance to own a ‘true’ daishō: It already has jūyō papers, so no extra legwork involved, and was polished by the living national treasure Honami Nisshū, bearing his sayagaki. It can be yours for a mere 11,000,000 Yen, or about 100,000 US$ (plus some change). P.S.: Peter (BIG) is probably already on a defibrillator right now, Naotane being his favorite smith. P.P.S.: Only through sheer willpower was I able to not comment on the polish …

Well, eventually I also did my taxes, watched a movie, and had a bottle of Shiraz. Still bored, I had a chat with my wife; she actually seems to be a nice person.

In Japan is since April 1'st a temporary suspension of the acceptance of international mail from many countries in effect. This includes - but is not limited to - swords.

Some background info on the katana-kaji: Mishina Hiromichi 三品廣道, real name Mishina Tōemon 三品藤右衛門, was a smith who belonged to the Mishina-ha 三品派. He was either the son or the younger brother of the 9‘th generation Mutsu no Kami Daidō 九代目陸奥守大道, records are somewhat conflicting. He worked mainly in Ise province 伊勢国 , but also in Iga 伊賀国. He was active at least from Kaei to Keiō (1848 - 1868), and was succeeded by his first son Mishina Hanbei Hirofusa 三品半兵衛廣房, and second son Mishina Tōkuro Hiromichi 三品藤九郎廣道. At that time the Kuwana domain 桑名藩 was ruled by Matsudaira Sadaaki 松平定敬, a descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu's brother. Sadaaki was the Tokugawa shōgunate's last Kyōto-shoshidai 京都所司代 (the shōgun's deputy in the Kyōto region, responsible for maintaining relations between the shōgunate and the imperial court, and controlling access of the daimyō to the court) until 1864, the year these swords were made. And finally, here’s the restored wakizashi-koshirae: It’s a pity that the katana-koshirae got lost, but at least having a koshirae (sans some fittings) that is contemporary - and even original - to the blade isn’t something one encounters too often. Last but not least: a huge thanks goes to Bob Hughes, who’s not only a good friend, but who also can make the impossible possible for you. He certainly doesn’t need yet another endorsement, but I do that gladly anyhow. Quite a few items in my collection come from him, and he also sold some for me when I felt the itch to upgrade. Also, his prices are *very* fair and competitive! I hope you enjoyed going with me on this little sword journey, all comments are welcome. If you own a “true” daishō, please post it here. Regarding daishō-koshirae, I’ll open another thread in the tōsōgu forum soon.

Without further ado, here are the swords: Dai signed 伊勢国桑名住三品廣道作 Ise (no) Kuni Kuwana jū Mishina Hiromichi saku Shō signed 伊勢国住三品廣道作 Ise (no) Kuni jū Mishina Hiromichi saku Both are dated 元治元年八月吉日 Genji gannen hachigatsu kichijitsu (a lucky day in August of 1864) The swords are shinogi-zuruki, low iori-mune. Sori, kasane and mihaba are moderate, strong hira-niku, chū-kissaki. Fine ko-itame-hada, the shinogi-ji shows masame. The hamon is ko-nie-deki gunome-midare with a bright nioiguchi; ashi, sunagashi, and kinsen. Profuse ji-nie, forming jubashiri towards the shinogi. Typical Mishina-bōshi and -yakidashi. Ubu-nakago, ōsujikai with keshō-yasurime, ha-agari-kurijiri, one mekugi-ana. Nagasa: 71.7 cm (dai) / 34.9 cm (shō) Sori: 1.2 cm (dai) / 0.6 cm (shō) Since sword photography and drawing oshigata isn’t exactly my forte, I had Mr. Tsuruta of Aoi Art do that for me:

I’m usually not much of a show-and-tell guy, but being more or less confined to my apartment recently, my mounting boredom finally drove me to make an exception. Or, more candidly: facing the choice over the Easter weekend between filing my tax return, another day of binge-watching, starting drinking at 9:30 AM, and writing something up for the NMB, my liver and brain convinced me to opt for the latter . When I started collecting Japanese swords more than forty years ago, I set my sights on a daishō as the ultimate goal – after all, it’s often considered the epitome of samurai culture. But progressing in my studies, and losing quite a few romantic notions along the way, I realized that it wasn’t really that important to me anymore. My collecting focus had shifted to Sō-den kotō, and there are simply no “true” daishō from that period: some are from the shintō period, but the vast majority is from the shinshintō period – and all of them are hard to find anyhow, being few and far between. I don’t want to go too much into what constitutes a true daishō, Darcy Brockbank already explained that in one of his excellent blog entries: https://blog.yuhindo.com/daisho/; he calls it jokingly “the holy grail for sword collectors”, but considering its rarity, this isn’t too far from the truth. To summarize: the swords have to be obviously made as a pair in regard to the deki, carry the same date, have consecutive tōrokushō numbers, and both blades are on one kanteisho. Other than swords and tsuba, I also collect and research koshirae, and over the years was able to add five daishō-koshirae to my collection; however, acquiring the blades themselves seemed to remain as elusive as ever. During my decades of collecting, I only saw a very few daishō up for sale, and those that were of a quality that I found desirable, were expectedly way beyond of what I was able or willing to pay. Well, while going on a road trip to the North of Honshū with Robert Hughes about 1 ½ years ago, he told me that he had bought a daishō at a dealers auction the day before – which immediately piqued my curiosity. About a week later, I was able to inspect the swords, and really took to them. However, the katana came in a very old shirasaya (saya only), and the wakizashi in a koshirae that had the ito cut off, and was stripped of tsuba, kōgai, kozuka, and menuki. Both blades needed a polish, as well as new shirasaya and habaki, but already had tokuho papers. And there it was, my new project to bring back this daishō to its former glory, kind of making an old, almost forgotten dream come true . Bob even took the legwork out of getting the swords to the involved craftsmen for me, so I concentrated on having the wakizashi-koshirae restored. (Btw, the polishing was done by Ikeda Nagamasa.)

I feel you, Ken - being all day long at home, I too tend to drink too much ...