Derek

It was a pleasure to meet you! The Sadamori was excellent; I know they spent some time talking about it. The submissions overall this year were lower quality than 5 years ago, but the best were much better. I saw four submissions that were among the best I have ever seen.

Just over 500 submissions total. About 90% were swords. It was really great to see so many old friends from the nmb…

In April, I volunteered to help Chris Bowen in the shinsa room for the NTHK-NPO. My good friend Joe Kraninger and I spent all weekend matching shinsa worksheets to swords, and returning to customers. I met many of amazing people from this forum, and got the pleasure of seeing several hundred swords, and observed the process first hand . I have no affiliation with the nthk-npo; In fact, the majority of my swords are papered by the NBTHK. I can say that during the entire weekend, I never witnessed anyone interact with the judges inside the shinsa room, beyond saying hello. All questions about a judgement went through Chris or myself, and the judges would usually explain to Chris and he would translate. I do know that no one saw names or addresses matched to swords, other than Chris. I do agree that shinsa is only a professional opinion, however, I would take Miyano Sensei's opinion very seriously.

My magoroku Kanemoto is the only one to bite me in over 20 years. ????

I took a few pan photos to show how amazing it was to have a line of example tanto side by side. Hopefully, they upload here

Tanto

Presentations

The presentation was excellent. Markus spoke first, giving a high level discussion of the history of the tanto. He is a fanstastic speaker, and a true gentleman. Chris Bowen then followed with specific details of the lineage and style of smiths creating tanto since the Meiji period. He went into great detail about how each school influenced the folllowing generations. Finally, we spent as much time as we wanted to inspect over 40 tanto on display. As Chris said, this may have been the greatest single display of 20th century tanto that has ever been in a single room at any one time. I will add a few basic photos that I took with my phone. I know joe spent many hours after the presentation to take very detailed photos, and is planning a book based on them.

OK, I'm prepared to be way off here..... #1 - Early shinshinto based on sugata and health of nakago. Strong sori, very healthy blade. Ubu. Bright jihada, bizen, with some mino influence. Nice bohi, not cut down, imitation of older blade. Maybe one of the early shinshinto bizen guys..... Bizen Yokoyama Sukenaga. Tenpo Era-1830 #2 - Kanbun shape. A little machikuri, Shinto. Shallow sori, medium length. Jihada looks thin. Hizen. Later Tadayoshi school....... Tadayoshi 4th Gen. Genroku Era - 1688. #3 - Old Koto. O suriage. Deep sori, bohi through nakago. Tired jihada, and hard to see details as well as other two. Nanbokucho. Something makes me feel Samonji School, maybe a student of O-Sa...... Sadayasu. Oei Era- 1394. Cheers! Derek

Just sharing an announcement from Chris regarding Chicago NTHK shinsa papers———- NTHK-NPO Shinsa Kantei-sho Update The kantei-sho for items submitted Thursday and Friday will be in the mail Monday. Items submitted Saturday and Sunday will be shipped later in the week. Thanks again to all who participated....

Grats Joe!

I got asked a lot about the percentage of passes. I saw almost every sword and paper Friday through Sunday, and to be honest, I didn’t keep track. The shinsa team did comment that they were really impressed by the quality of swords this time, and that it rivaled or bettered the quality of swords they usually see at shinsa in Japan. I think 70-80 % pass for a ballpark guess. Maybe 400 swords roughly. The majority of the fails were not a surprise to me, or the owners. I noticed maybe three that got bounced that I really liked. I was very surprised at the number of really quality swords that are quietly held in collections, and no one ever sees. About five swords and two koshirae really blew me away.

Kidding aside, I remember that gentleman. Very nice guy, and I'm sure Fred will respond to you with his name. He did have quite a few really nice items, so good luck.

Silver / white hair, and smoked cigars? Hmmmmm 50% of those in attendance? ????

I had a very nice time at the show. It seemed like a good number of people, in a nice spacious room. I was impressed by the number of tables, and representation by sellers that I have not seen in Chicago. I saw a few of the dealers from Japan in attendance, which was cool. I only bought a few small things, but I always learn something when I go to a show. Some folks said that sales were slower, but I did see quite a few nice tsuba get snatched up. The staff were all extremely courteous, especially Tom, who is a true gentleman. The shinsa seemed to be very busy. The hotel was quite easy to get to, and has a free shuttle bus running the short distance to the airport. I only took one photo on my phone, which was of the shinsa team. I always plan on taking a few pictures, but the day just flies by, and I usually forget. I think that it is worth the time and effort to attend the show there, especially as it is comparatively easy to get into the SFO airport.