Shugyosha

Sorry, date of shinsa is in the fourth column from the left in the first photograph: Heisei, 19th year, 1st month 21st day. I think that is 21st January 2008 (Heisei started in 1989). Best, John M. Johnson

My Japanese is a bit limited but if I have it right, in the second photograph, the first full length column on the right says "o suriage mu mei". Kind regards, John M. Johnson

Dear Jean, I'm trying to improve my Japanese so I took a stab at translating the mei - I hope you don't mind and I'm sure someone will correct me shortly. I make it: Suo Iwakuni Ju Masa Uji Saku. Unfortunately I can't come up with anything sensible for the two characters on the right. I think the character you are trying to tie down is 岩 from Iwakuni. I hope that isn't too wide of the mark and will retire to my bunker to dodge any incoming flak. Kind regards, John M. Johnson

Dear Dave, I too would subscribe to what you are proposing. Also, I am based in Hertfordshire, UK and would love the chance to look at some armour close up. Unfortunately, I am pretty much a katchu novice so wouldn't have an awful lot to contribute myself. Kind regards, John J.

Gentlemen, I'm sure this has been discussed previously, however, here's a link to an article by Albert Yamanaka on Japanese Sword Index which gives details of some of the swords carried by the 47 ronin. It is perhaps of interest that a number of them chose a short swords 2 shaku in length or longer. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/ronin.htm Kind regards, John J.

Hi Roy, There were a number of copies available in various conditions. I paid a little more for a better one (£10 or so) and Amazon kindly slapped £5 on for delivery. Regards, John

Thanks for that Roy. Amazon in the UK and US have copies for sale via their network from as little as £4.99/ $4.99. I splashed a big £15 including delivery for the one I just ordered. Kind regards, John Johnson

Hi Denis, This might be a bit of a statement of the obvious and sorry if that is the case, but I have found that having a basic knowledge of how Kanji work i.e. stroke counts and radicals can make life a lot easier. I have found Let's Learn Kanji by Mitamura and Mitamura very useful for this. It also fits in with my plan to have a working knowledge of the language beyond sword terminology. It can be a slightly less daunting task if you can find a way to break the elephant down into something more like bitesize chunks: most dated swords you will encounter will be shinto or later so this is a good place to start on dates and the Kanji do repeat themselves in a number of cases. Likewise with provinces, sort out the ones which occur most and least frequently and it just leaves all the rest... :D Kind regards, John J.

I don't see one I think I know the answer to too often. My guess is Yamashiro Ju Mizuta Kuni Shige. Best, John J.

There's a similar one for sale here: http://www.nihonto.com/rh432sale.html Kind regards, John

Hi Steve, I'm pretty much a newbie too so take this with as much salt as necessary. Though I bit unclear for my inexperienced eyes, I would agree that the mei in the picture reads Geishu (no) ju Fujiwara Fuyuhiro. If that is the case then it may or may not be the smith mentioned in John Stuart's post. According to Hawley's, there were a number of smiths of this name working in Aki (Geishu) between 1593 and 1864 but there was only one smith signing using "Fujiwara" as above and he worked in the period 1661 - 1675. This smith gets a ranking of 15 points. If you are able to post pictures of the blade itself you might well get some confirmation or rejection of this view as the sugata for the period around Kanbun when this guy worked is likely to be different from that of Tensho. I hope that this helps but if you hang on you might well get a more educated view in a while. Kind regards, John Johnson

Sorry, I've worked it out now. Duh. John Refers to what I thought was a previous post but which it doesn't look like I actually posted. Please ignore.

Dear All, I have been lurking for a while and hoping to soak up some information whilst avoiding getting roasted for my ignorance and so I guess I should take this opportunity to make an introduction. JP - here is a link to a sword advertised on the aoi art website as suitable for iaido or batto jutsu. I've no idea as to its suitability but I think it might fit your price range: http://www.aoi-art.com/iai/11407.html Kind regards, John M. Johnson