Henry Wilson

I don't find Aoi Arts visitor friendly. As Brian said very cluttered but you can browse their website and ask to look at stuff. Actually, unless you have loads of cash or see something in particular that you can't live with out, I would not buy anything from a sword shop at all. Make friends and contacts in the sword community. The shops are in it for the money baby.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri My dinner tonight: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/43/98257 ... 29e96e.jpg

Two nice Higo koshirae http://www.nihonto.com/fwhigo.html http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/KOSHIRAE16.htm Leather hide wrapping would be what I would be looking at.

This is from the following article: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/kosh ... shirae.htm The 18th century (end of Edo period) saw lots of different styles of koshirae being worn by all sorts of people. My advice would be to have a look at as many different styles of koshirae you can find over a prolonged period of time and whatever style tickles your fancy, go for that. The bibliography at the end of the article gives you good reference sources to start with. Also Aoi Art has a few swords in koshirae of various levels of quality photoed and available to view as well if you are looking for inspiration. http://www.aoi-art.com/ For me I would go for a Tensho style or Higo style koshirae, both having nice and pleasing traits in themselves.

Looks like the mei is 山吉　or YAMA KICHI who was originally an armour smith from Owari or modern Nagoya area. The shodai worked around the same time as the first Nobuie (end of Muromachi) and nearly as highly regarded. Your tsuba looks rather brown which is not a bad thing however I would expect more of an ingrained purple tinge to the plate for it to be of the YAMA KICHI line. The MEI looks very cleanly cut which is unusual as YAMA KICHI used to add the signature and then fire the tsuba one last time to give the tsuba an overall melted finish. It could be a Katchushi tsuba with a MEI added later. Attached is much later, lower end YAMA KICHI I owned once. Might be fun to compare. Just a few thoughts

I love this one: http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/CH%20Tsuba%205.htm I hope Boris and Andy are well.

They are with this sword. Looks nice for the price. http://www.tokka.biz/sword/fuyuhiro.html

This quote seems to say lot...

A while ago there was talk of some Japanese books being translated into English. The one that I specifically recall is "Tosogu no Kigen" by Sasano. Does anyone have any more news on this? Cheers

Where will it all end, Captain Mainwaring? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100129/tod ... 0a197.html

I think the sword is gendaito. The file marks are quite clear and the mei has a modern look to it. I don't think many gendaito were made around the war, though. Shin Shinto wakizashi??????

The lacquer ware above, what is it?

I think Sasano states that folding and plate lines are usually found in what is regraded as lower quality pieces of the Akasaka group. From what I recall, people were not sure if Akasaka were layered or not, but a tsuba by the the 1st Akasaka was burnt in a fire and the outer skin came away revealing a well covered three plate structure. The current thinking is that all Akasaka are layered, just that the good ones conceal it better. Also, I could very well be wrong as I am by no means any sort of authority on this at all, just repeating what I think I read, so anyone out there in NMB-land feel free to correct me or join in on the discussion.

Evidence of a fold in Akasaka work is not desirable from what I have read. I think some schools of thought regard Akasaka folds as a sign of lower quality.

The signatures of some posts could also be regarded as sacrmarks. Two that come to mind are Guido Schiller Reinhard *These names are not listed in any kind of order. :lol:

All this intellectual commentary and use of large words is making me: i. Jealous as I don't have anything to add as it seems to be out of my league. ii. Nervous as there is probably going to be a mud-slinging match to end it all. iii. Bored as I have yet to actually read past the first paragraph of any ones post. Sorry, but what the hell are you all talking about????

For what it is worth, I would be inclined to not bother buying it as it doesn't look / sound very good and is sort of thing that you might want to sell later and have difficulties doing so. Save your money and buy something of a better quality is what I think.

Thanks for the replies. The tsuba is of a koshirae set I bought a while ago. Have a look. http://www.yamabushiantiques.com/KOSHIRAE16.htm It is a beautiful set and much much better than in the pictures. Also Martin, there are no clear folds along the mimi, however sometimes I think I see them and sometimes I don't. Could be wishful thinking on my behalf Merry Christmas all

関 This stamp is read seki and is in the second picture. If I am not mistaken, it suggests the sword was made during the 30 / 40's as part of Japan's war effort.

I got this recently. It is Ko Akasaka with a nice black / brown patina and depicts a crane, turtle (that looks a bit like a dinosaur) and bamboo. 8cm x 7.8 cm x 0.5cm I don't think it is the 1st generation because of the shape of the seppa dai and the kebori. Leaves only the 2nd or 3rd. Can anyone help me?

Enough said. Could this thread be locked?

I have posted clothes from the UK to Japan and it took ages. I think about 7 weeks. The boxes were a bit beat up too on arrival if I recall, but being clothes they were not packed that tight.

Easy on dudes. Peace and love.

I completely agree with Ted. Spray paint????? Come on!!!!

It might be best to send it to a professional. From my experience lacquer is tricky to work with and can be toxic as well. If you feel it is worth restoring, then a pro would be the best bet.