Jump to content

Guido

Members
  • Posts

    3,242
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    99

Everything posted by Guido

  1. Thanks for the article, Ken. One small correction, though: 大太刀reads Ôdachi. The smiths already have problems selling the few swords they produce, so more swords would only mean more unsold items.
  2. If I read the grass script correctly, it says (in the middle column, under Handachi Wakizashi Koshirae) "Tsuba | Yama/San-?-Zu | Shakudo-ji". The old white papers (Kicho / Ninteisho) were basically issued for anything that wasn't an outright fake.
  3. A small correction: 鄭澤 (simplified = 郑泽) is pronounced Zhèng Zé in Chinese.
  4. Thank you so much! True, with me one can never be sure if I actually read beyond the first sentence of a post.
  5. A good explanation indeed - at least in theory. However, not being aware of all that, my Inrô and other lacquer wares didn't care, and survived constant changes in relative humidity between 5% and 90% sor far without the slightest damage.
  6. If the item is entirely coated with lacquer, i.e. the wood or paper or whatever is the core is thus sealed, exposure to light, especially sunlight, should be the only problem. The inside of a Saya, however, is raw wood that absorbs and/or evaporates moisture, which can lead to a cracked or warped lacquer coat.
  7. The dragon wrapped around a Ken is called Kurikara 倶利伽羅 or Kenmakiryū 剣巻龍, and is a manifestation of Fudō Myōō 不動明王, the Buddhist Wisdom King. It has its origins in a contest between Fudō and a non-Buddhist heretic in the course of which he transformed himself into a dragon, and threatened to devour the sword into which the heretic had changed himself.
  8. Guido

    Stamp

    Chinese export seals (necessary for every item made before 1911) look like this:
  9. The dates are on the Japanese website: http://www.touken.or.jp/pdf/2012_shinsanittei.pdf
  10. Judging from the pictures the Hamon is mainly Nioi-based, so this points either to Sue-Sôshû or Owari-Seki. The Nakago might be altered, but doesn't look Sôshû to me, and late Muromachi blades should also have a pronounced Sakizori. I therefore think it's a Gimei Owari-Seki sword, FWIW.
  11. Since Florida isn't an independant country (yet? :D) there's no embassy there - you probably mean the Consulate General in Miami ? Anyhow, it would be a violation of the Vienna Convention if they'd got involved in the internal affairs of their host country, especially since you're not even a Japanese citizen.
  12. Sounds more like the police are trying to discourage you than genuine safety concerns ...
  13. Piers, are you restricted (I'm not familiar with the Japanese law when it comes to firearms) to shoot blanks into the air (which of course makes sense at public displays), or do you also do "real" target practice, i.e. with bullets?
  14. Well, he already said in his first post In any case, considering the quality - or rather lack thereof - they don't warrant any "restoration". And BTW:
  15. That's the whitewashed version. Date Masamune used this sword in the Chōsen-eki (Korean campaign), and "Korombo" is a demeaning term referring to the natives of that country. The ころんぼ切 was a Tachi by Kagehide 景秀.
  16. Guido

    Iron Bones...

  17. Thanks for the advice ...
  18. 元 = beginning, root, origin, etc., so gan-nen means more or less root year (of a reign) - why reading more into it? Sorry if it gives you sleepless nights ...
  19. There's nothing mysterious about ichi-nen/gan-nen: ichi-nen is used for counting (ichi-nen-kan = the period of one year, ichi-nen-sei = first grader, etc.); gan- is used for dates, specifically the first year of a reign (gan-nen), first day of the year (gan-tan) etc.
  20. Not that I know of - IIRC it's a recent "discovery".
  21. Yes, I've seen/handled one in January, fresh from the Shinsa. Not "Den", directly attributed to the man. Soft metal Namako. Unfortunately there was no way that I could have afforded it ...
  22. The revised ones by Yamada Asaemon Yoshimutsu?
  23. Thanks, Brian, I had no idea about this feature - I tried it, and it works. I still like the automatic opening of another tab better, though ...
  24. I second H-J's request. And btw, what's a "middle click" and how can I find out if my browser supports it?
×
×
  • Create New...