Bungo

not making fun of anyone, god knows we ALL make mistakes, but............. the only thing that looks half way " authentic ' in the whole set up are the two seppa. Don't know much about the " balance test " to authenticate Nihonto, but i guess they all feel sort of heavy in the hands. milt THe Ronin

more like made yesterday.................. check out " fake swords " at top of this message board. milt THE ronin

you guys don't have to worry about me sniping the yari.............but have fun bidding , just don't get carried away with the auction fever. With old green paper, full polish, the yari should sell for 1600-2000 at typical sword shows. milt THE jumonji-ED yari ronin

well, you really expect a genuine Nihonto for 36 beans ? Click on " fake swords " at top of the message board and compare......... all the signs are there and it's not rocket science. Now here's one e-bay auction i think is a " reasonable " deal............... http://cgi.ebay.com/YARI-SPEAR-TIP-NBTH ... 0065824927 papered and all and most likely you can re-sell at same price when you are done studying the thing. Milt THE ronin

as you can see, the history of the design went way back.................................... the vessel is of Chinese neolithic period.

hahhahaaaa, you are right..............must be the Monday effect. milt THE ronin

more.......................... http://www.cgfinearts.com/select_produc ... alleryID=3 tell Colin some dirty jokes and he'll lower the price. milt THE ronin

" the sword has the 1.5 cm slight blunting just above the habaki... " if you mean the ha is not " sharp " right around the ha-machi area, then this sign could mean it's a gendaito. milt THE ronin

" Prints are unusual art things and bring a lot of questions. By this I mean, the blocks themselves are the original artform and the prints are copies by definition " actually it's a collaboration among the print designer ( THE artist ), the block cutter and the printer. The artist takes all the credit ( with exception of Yoshitoshi, sometimes the woodblock cutter's name is credited ) milt THE ronin

indeed they are confusing........... big name print artists were " faked " when they were till alive ( Utamaro, Sharaku come to mind ). When I started collecting prints over 20 years ago with " minor " artists like Kuniyoshi , Yoshitoshi , there's no fakes ( that I came across ), only late print runs. Not anymore !! Now they are using laser tech. to duplicate the woodblocks on all artists ! In my opinion, if the prints are from the original blocks and printed around the time when the artists were still alive then they are genuine. Late editions when the artists were in Heaven ( to me ) are considered copies ( not desirable ), recut blocks to simulate the original prints are " fakes ". Modern print artists ( the early 20th cent. ) are especially tough, not only are the prices out of this world but there are so many various editions that it's just not possible for a casual collector to navigate what's what. Actually paintings is a " better deal ", at least they are one of a kind, but they do " copy " from masters though............ check out my hawk painting folder, you'll see the later ones do resemble the early Soga school paintings in certain ways . milt THE ronin

too many fakes and copies now on the internet , especially one cannot handle and examine the paper and it is extremely " dnagerous " to buy online. I bought most of them from collectors and a gallery in Canada years ago. milt THE ronin

gang, http://www.esnips.com/web/ukiyo-e just started to fill my ukiyo-e folder. Take a look see if so inclined. I started with Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki series. Most likely will continue with Yoshitoshi's later......then may be Kuniyoshi's 47 ronins series. My collection comprises mainly musha-ga, very few scenery stuffs . For Ironchef................ be sure to check out my " zuikan " folder, some good mouth-watering stuff. milt THE ronin

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/da ... clude.html " A Japanese Macaque monkey relaxes in the hot spring at Jigokudani-Onsen (Hell Valley) in Jigokudani, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Japanese Macaques, also known as snow monkeys are the most northerly non-human primate in the world. In 1963 a female Macaque ventured into the hot springs to retrieve some soybeans. This behavior was adopted by other monkeys, and eventually by the entire troop. " milt The ronin

hard to tell without peeking under the kabuto liner.......... but the miadate ( spelling ? ) of the deer antler design is modern. milt THE ronin

not anymore............. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1 milt THE ronin

http://www.esnips.com/web/fuchikashira or try the home page, then klick on fuchi/kashira folder. http://www.esnips.com/profile/54ee848f- ... ba8060dc94 milt The ronin

This may be a challenge for most of us but NOT Nobody........... this fuchi comes with my favoriate " assumed gimei " Muramasa katana ( will not pass shinsa as someone used it to wacked something hard resulting in a " split " in the ha ). The bufuko ( spelling ? it means war camp curtain ) shows three mon of two different design, one is a Tomoe, the other unknown . By the way, the menuki are tomoe mon ( triple side by side ) that matches the fuchi.Sadly the kashira was gone when i bought the sword, I replaced it with a simple horn. Need help to properly translate the mei........... I know it's a commissioned work for someone. p.s. klick on this.......... http://www.esnips.com/web/fuchikashira. While there, check out the other folders too, I periodically add pics there. milt THE ronin

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1 so what do you all think about the price ? getting cheaper everyday.......... milt THE ronin

actually I wouldn't mind a love letter from Napoleon to Marie Walewska............... milt THe ronin

Winning bid: US $1,532.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ended: Dec-05-06 21:15:00 PST milt THE ronin

just so i don't sound like an elitist ........... the seller has the same idea too............. " Though clearly his promotions lead to an increasing need to be schooled to a degree in reading an writing, to the end of his life, Hideyoshi lacked skill in these areas, though was not completely incapable of either as is sometimes thought. I think it is quite interesting to note how simple Hideyoshi's kanji character script is, which is clearly quite unsophisticated, having strong similarities to the characters written by a an adolescent. This would be in keeping with his level of abilities and generally unrefined background and education. The image and script may very well actually represent a work produced during a lesson to improve Hideyoshi's literacy, though this is only spectulation on my part " amen !! milt THE ronin

other than the famous name, honestly i don't see too much art talent in the one that used to carry straw sandles for Nobunaga.......... milt THE ronin

that's a very interesting site............ it makes me feel hungry. milt THE ronin

I think they are salted fish, the " eel " is a rope. milt THE ronin

they signed it under, on the side and sometimes they signed it as part of the design................ http://www.esnips.com/web/menuki?docsPage=1#files milt THE ronin