Guido

Now if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that nothing is more powerful than a Tsuba collector's wishful thinking. Except an Apache helicopter. An Apache helicopter has machine guns AND missiles. It is an unbelievably impressive complement of weaponry, an absolute death machine. (from the movie "Ted", slightly rephrased)

Are you really sure you want to post this, Stephen? They say "throw away the piece of paper" - it's only a matter of time until a certain NMB member will complain that they didn't recycle the paper ...

How to identify a Hadori polish according to George (hint: look under the Habaki ...)

I'm especially fond of this type of Shōchikubai … :D

Pete - Bob's listing seems to be outdated. David - just another urban legend. It's sometimes amazing what people come up with if their submissions don't get a favorable result.

I had a look at the Itō Hirata/Shimizu book, and # 163 shows the same motif, described as - you guessed it already - Bashō :D. Ken, the banana leafs in my back yard are ribbed with torn edges; I guess there are indeed quite a few different types.

I posted a reply on the other thread before I saw this topic: I already stated elsewhere why I always go for the highest possible papers, so I won't repeat myself here. Financially it makes perfect sense to obtain TH papers IMO, especially if sending the item to Japan from abroad, and taking the shipping/handling fees into consideration. If one collects without regard to re-sale value and what happens after he's gone, I actually don't see the need for any kind of papers. And there are also people who are so full of themselves that they are convinced they can recognize TH & Jūyō quality from a mile away - for them it would be an insult to have their opinion questioned by a Shinsa panel (except if that panel agrees, of course).

Pete, if I'm not totally wrong, the NBTHK fittings Shinsa fees are 17,000 Yen for Hozon, 30,000 Yen for TH if the item has already Hozon papers, and if submitted for both Shinsa at the same time, a total of 44,000 Yen. IOW, TH is "only" an additional 27,000 Yen.

IIRC, this design is called Bashō 芭蕉, banana leaf. Btw, thank you David for always marking the front and back of your Tsuba in Japanese with Romaji and Kanji, that spares me a lot of sleepless nights …

You might want to ask him where and when and from whom he learned polishing ...

The one with the Aoi no Gomon is Edo period; it's signed, but not dated.The second one with the lacquer directly on wood is 20'th century IMO, my guess is about 50 years old.

It doesn't happen often that you find swords with the original stand (it's also difficult to know if they actually belong to each other). In both cases I bought the stands because I thought they would go well with the Koshirae.

Although I can sign that sentence without reservation, you can't claim to try being neutral when in fact you condemn his work without having seen it, and allowed to have him named (or rather his teacher, but anyone with a single working brain cell left knows who he is by now). You have allowed polishing jobs and the people who did them being named and discussed in the past, and I think that's how it should be. You know me, I prefer calling a spade a spade, so let's stop beating around the bush, and name the polisher (for those who didn't bother to add 1 + 1 so far): Jon Bowhay. It's no secret that we used to be friends, until his ideas and behavior became more and more outlandish. Long story short: we haven't exchanged a single word in more than ten years. I'm just mentioning this to avoid the possible misunderstanding that I might stick up for him out of misguided loyalty. But may that all as it be, I've probably seen more of his work than anybody else, except for his teacher. I have a pretty good idea of what he's good at, and also the type of sword I wouldn't have him polished. Especially Hitatsura blades need a Togishi trained in this special field – as has been mentioned already – and I have seen poor jobs done on them even by Mukansa polishers. This is not the first case in which he was chosen as a polisher only because he can communicate in English. I have personally witnessed another case (involving Jon) of the owner getting cold feet, because he thought his sword would be confiscated by the Japanese government. You can't talk any sense into them once the paranoia gets a hold. Jon should have simply send the blade back, only charging for the work already done, but he tends to see himself on a mission every now and then. It's not only "buyers beware", but also "polishing customers beware". BMW technicians are highly trained professionals, but you don't let them service your Maybach. Different cars, different methods. Both, however, will do a decent job on a Yugo. Along these lines, it really doesn't matter much who polishes your Bungo blade, as long as it's a traditionally trained Togishi. But it's no incident that people who have a blade polished for Jūyō or Tokubetsu Jūyō Shinsa consult the NBTHK beforehand in regard to which polisher they recommend for that particular job. In an ideal world, Jon would have refused to polish the Akihiro, recommending another polisher. But he has to make a living (don't we all?). That's basically what people can rightfully blame him for. No, he probably didn't do a stellar polish on the Akihiro, but he also never would ruin it. The Sayagaki thing is so crazily Jon that I don't dare going into it. There's also another angle to this matter that I have experienced a couple of times: group momentum. Someone whom you trust calls it a bad polishing job, and soon everybody does. And to appear being in the loop, the polish gets worse with everyone you talk to. I'm not saying that Grey or Barry or anybody else who thinks that the polish is not up to par is wrong, but those things tend to get blown out of proportion. In conclusion: know your stuff. Know your stuff well. Know your stuff well enough to be in a position to choose an appropriate polisher. I'm afraid your life will remain as complicated as it used to be.

Ah, nothing more exciting than a little witch-hunt! Have you seen the blade in hand, Brian? And if that would be the case, can you properly judge a polish? If Mike, and offline someone else I know I can trust, tells me that the polish wasn't that bad, that's good enough for me. I don't know Chris personally, but assume that he knows what he's talking about when it comes to polishes, and he agrees, too. Btw, what has the price of the polish have to do with anything?I suggest that everybody who hasn't seen the blade in hand - including myself - should take a back-seat in this discussion. Couldn't agree more, even without having seen the Sayagaki, there are no attenuating circumstances for this - it's actually kind of twilight zone'ish, and I'm being kind here.

Does this meet your criteria?

Actually Jûyô Bunkazai and Kokuhô can be legally owned by people outside Japan, the items are just not allowed to leave Japan - one needs a custodian. Jûyô Bijutsuhin can be exported from Japan, but loose their designation in that case (although exceptions are occasionally made).

I think they are commercially available in Japan, I saw what seems to be the same manufacture often at Toroku-shinsa, dealer's shops, the NBTHK and so on.

My politics teacher (Prof. Dr. Dr.) always wore a mauve motorcycle leather jacket, and zebra pattern pants. He drove a pink Volkswagen beetle cabriolet with fake tiger fur seat covers, top always down, come rain or snow. I'm not making this up. His own teachers were quite famous, and authors of many books. I greatly admired him, he was kind of my hero. Not because of those who were his teachers, or because I thought he had a brilliant mind, but because he never, ever, voiced any opinion. He just presented facts, facts coming from a live dedicated to research. He left it to his students to interpret those facts. What can we learn from this? I have no idea, but his story just begged being told. Christian is probably the only one who really understands this.

I think that's how it should be, a slight difference in artistic value shouldn't lead automatically to a higher paper - what would be the point of that? Sometimes one is just working against statistics. I remember very well an Aoe blade I submitted for Jûyô Shinsa. Everybody I showed it to - including NBTHK staff - supported my evaluation. I was stunned when it was rejected. I later was told by NBTHK staff that 3 other Aoe blades were in the same Shinsa, mine was the "weakest" one and therefore failed. Well, it was: at the next Tokubetsu Jûyô Shinsa all of those 3 blades passed with flying colors! Again everybody told me to re-submit it, and to hope I wouldn't have such strong contenders/bad luck again. Instead, I sold it to someone who saw it for what is was, not even looking at the TH papers it already had (and I never told him my tear-jerking story about its Shinsa past).

You might be surprised to know that my name is on the back side . I sold this set about ten years ago to Ted; at that time I was haunting many swords shops in Tôkyô, looking for unpapered items that I thought worthy of submitting to Shinsa, and selling them for an appropriate price afterwards in order to upgrade my own collection - you are married yourself, you get the picture .

Since it's Yoshioka time … This is a Tsuba from my collection, depicting Tessenka 鉄線花 (clematis), signed Yoshioka Inaba no Suke 吉岡因幡介, 75.2 mm x 69.2 mm x 3.8 mm; this particular Tsuba is unusual in that it is done in Shibuichi Nanako.

Hello Kuraibu, my only criticismas (and please keep the Eda-mame to yourself) is the use of the term Chiisagatana 小さ刀 - that's a certain type of Koshirae for a Tantō, at least from the Edo period on. Since the length of this Wakizashi exceeds 1 Shaku 8 Sun (54.5 cm), it's an Ō-Wakizashi 大脇指.

This one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/S137-Japanese-S ... 1e870c925e ?

Chris, we both know that there are English teachers in Japan, and then there are English teachers in Japan. Bob is an Associate Professor at Tōyō University, Dept. of Regional Development. He also runs a couple of humanitarian projects in the Philippines. Collecting and dealing in swords is just a hobby (among a couple of others) for him.

Jean, you should know that it's all a matter of technique, not length!