Guido

Why? If he was of Jewish-German ancestry, the name isn't really that long; you need a lot of katakana to write "Aschaffenburger", "Kullenmeier", or "Pulvermacher" for instance.

And I thought I've heard it all ...

Gunsō 軍曹 = Sergeant

Looking at it again, it's definately デイ (dei) and not ディ (di) - in the latter case, the イ would have been closer to the デ, smaller, and more to the right. The name therfore reads "ko-rih-de-i-ba-i-mo (korihdeibaimo)".

Here's a link to the website with map: http://www.ginza.jp/archives/1725?lang=en & http://ginza-cinq.com/

The name of the sergeant who took away the swords was taken down (phonetically in katakana) as コリーディバイモ (ko-rih-di-ba-i-mo) or maybe コリーデイバイモ (ko-rih-de-i-ba-i-mo); although a rather long name, there is no ・, which is usually used between given and family names of non-Japanese, so it might well be just one name, i.e. family name.

Morita-san, were you able to find out who this drawing was made by? You posted it already some time ago, but IIRC, there is no name or seal on the scroll ...?

It does, doesn't it? At least my pain threshold is much higher nowadays, so I guess I have to be thankful for that.

One of mine, soroe-kanagu with crane motif:

Why does it sound like one? If "they" (whoever "they" are) were really after the sword, "they" did a pretty bad job. Why did nobody go to Mr. Tokugawa's residence and demanded the surrender, like it was done in many other cases? He handed it over voluntarily. And then "they" waited a month to pick it up at the police station. Wasn't very high on "their" priority list, huh? My theory: Sgt. Bimore was an alien in human disguise! They do exist, I've been abducted a couple of times myself. The extraction of information from my brain was rather painful, but I do miss the anal probing ...

Credit for the scans posted by Eric and me should go to Stephen Thorpe; all of them - and quite a few more - can be found in the articles sub-forum.

After the Declaration of Independence, and the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary, we now have enough material for the sequel "National Treasure III - The Lost Masamune", starring Nicolas Cage as the illegetimate son of Sgt. Coldy Bimore, and Sanada Hiroyuki as a shady Monbusho investigator.

I used to own a copy of that issue, and gave it as a present to another NMB member while still living in Tōkyō. Here's a analogous translation: The koshirae looks like from the Keichō period, the kashira is made of horn with the indigo-blue deer leather tsukamaki crossed over it makikake-style, large hishi. The tsuba has a diameter of 2 sun (6 cm / 2.4 inches), the menuki are kiri-mon in a circle, the saya is black lacquer without a kojiri, the sageo is purple, there is a kōgai. The koshirae is of classical elegance and 2 shaku 8 sun 5 bu (86.4 cm / 34 inches).

Making a new koshirae isn't only about using quality parts, it has a lot to do with good taste and appropriate fittings. Aoi Art is auctioning off swords for some time now that obviously come from the same colletion, and a collector who had new koshirae made for his blades; here's an example: http://www.aoijapan.com/katana-tairyusa ... tting-test Tsuba, fuchi and menuki have tokubetsu hozon papers, the lacquer and tsukamaki are of high quality. And the result looks ... just awful! I'm sure the owner spared no expenses, but the whole koshirae is less than the sum of its parts.

This is the description from the Tōken Meibutsuchō, which seems to come from the records of the National Museum: 拵は桃山時代の打刀拵で、柄は黒塗鮫に藍革巻き、三双の桐の目貫と、鐔・縁には菊と桐、小柄と笄には桐の金色絵を施している。 (The koshirae is a Momoyama period uchigatana-koshirae, the tsuka has black same, indigo-blue deer leather tsukamaki, the menuki are three kiri each, the tsuba and fuchi have a kiri and kiku motif, the kozuka and kōgai kiri in gold.)

First of all, the cut is on the mimi, and neither the ura nor omoto. Secondly, I think Mark means exactly what he says: the cut is on the rim of the side of the tsuba that aligns with the mune of the sword. Edit: Mark was a split second faster in replying than me.

It's more complicated than that. The sword was passed down from shōgun to shōgun - but they were not all from the main line. If there was no successor from the main line, someone from the gosanke of Owari or Kii clan (but not from the Mito clan) could become shōgun. Both Yoshimune and Iemochi from the Kii clan ruled as shōgun. Yoshimune established three new houses, the gosankyō: Tayasu, Hitotsubashi, and Shimizu. Yoshinobu, the last shōgun, came from the Mito clan, but was adopted into the Hitotsubashi clan to enable him to become shōgun. Tokugawa Iesato from the Tayasu clan was adopted by Ienobu, and became head of the Tokugawa after the overthrow of the Tokugawa bakufu. Tokugawa Iemasa was his eldest son and succeeded him.

Tokugawa Iemasa only complained about three swords going missing (see attachment). I don't know if he got the others back, or if he didn't care that much about them.

Sor far I haven't come across any publication or list after the KKB.

Thank you, and sorry for getting defensive. Since you didn't make any comments, but just linked to a well-known website, I was under the impression of being accused of plagiarism – I'm happy to learn it wasn't meant that way. I don't like the Tokuno values or the Hawley point system; I'm even not comfortable with the Fujishiro rankings. And especially not with the Honami values, as they were known to inflate the prices for important customers. The Fujishiro brothers probably came closest to the mark, but they are all subjective in the end.

Well, I can't rule out 100% that I didn't make any typos etc. I just compiled the list to the best of my knowlege and abilities. No guarantees ...

Tobias, I don't use Hawley. If you want to add those numbers, be my guest.

Eric, I worked with original sources; for instance, I own a first edition 1830 Kokon Kaji Bikō. I didn't just copy the (incomplete) entries in other books on the subject. My list contains all the kanji and additional, identifying information. I also don't see what good the totally outdated, arbitrary Yen values in the 20'th century Tōkō Taikan would do. In any case, you get what you pay for. If you don't like my article, feel free to ignore it.

Hi Paul, were the scenes of Yoshimitsu at work taken at Takano Yukimitsu's forge?

You say you re-tempered swords with the intent to deceive the NBTHK. You say you helped a Dutch blacksmith forge and manipulate a sword to deceive the toroku-shinsa (which, btw, is a criminal offense under the Japanese sword and firearms law). I find your claims hard to believe, especially if it was a shinsa on Mr. Tanobe’s watch. But true or not, it doesn’t really matter if you really did all that, or just fabricated the entire story. Furthermore, this seems to be just your latest attempt at discrediting the NBTHK, something you put considerable effort into, as is evident from quite a few of your posts. I don’t know the moral standards you grew up with, but where I’m from, you would be considered dishonest, a mud-slinger, and generally without honor. I hope this answers your question.