Bungo

the kanji are chiselled quite well on the nakago. While not saying this is fake or otherwise but I feel this COULD BE an authentic Nihonto but someone other than a mass producer of fakes decided to " spice it up " a little . The hamon outline and the lack of those prominent masame hada.............ummmmm, hard to tell one way or the other. milt THE ronin

http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=30#files file tanto mon 1 and 2. note the 4 punch marks at the corner............ any significance to that ? milt THE ronin

http://www.esnips.com/web/sujikabutosPh ... ge=1#files just added my second set of complete 12 hawk paintings from those folding screen. Seems like they are dismantlying them left and right ( two complet sets in matters of 4 months, what's the chance of that ? ) These are a bit later than the earlier Soga school ones I posted. I date these to late Edo/early Meiji. Take a look see if so inclined. Milt THE ronin

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-JP-sword-Pr ... 0048333833 box says ko-kinko........... I have seen the " foil " covered cinstruction ( sanmei ? spelling ? ) before but never with what appears to be a " soft rotten wood-look-alike " center. Was ist das ? milt THE ronin

added a few tsuba to the e-snip, the tsuba in question got buried.......... here's the new link that'll take you right there. http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=6#files miltTHE ronin

gang, please klick........... http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=1#files kindly look at file dragon 3 and 3a. The mimi is " strange "........ any idea as to school /maker ? thanks, milt

" was described as "well executed with a moon." I never thought of it as a hawk....hmm. Good observation Milt " I am partial to hawks and i see hawk into everything just like Mantis dude see that darn bug everywhere. For all you know, someone may interpret that as the " one eye monster "......... milt THE ronin

looking at the translation of the shinsa paper......... have a question. The part about the name of the person who turned the sword in for shinsa. You translated that as so and so " dono " and interpret that as a honorific ( as Mr. )......... I always thought that " dono " means submit, as so and so submit ( this sword ). Can anyone clear this up ? May be Herr Nobody ? milt THE ronin

hey Leroy, the last pic shows the Mt. Fuji as shown in most sword textbooks......very cool !! The kissaki with the " eye "......looks like a hawk !! milt THE ronin

in your gallery under the sword section, I klicked on the Bungo takada and get this.......... " Sonstiges Gimei-Signatur wurde entfernt. Danach bekam die Klinge ein NBTHK Hozon Papier auf die Bungo Takeda Schule ausgestellt. " Do you have pic of the side where the " gimei " once was ? Danke, Milt DER ( or DAS ) Ronin

showing your closet, Kapitan ? I have always wanted to photograph one of my early aquisition.....and here it is........my jumonji yari with dragon horimono on both side. For more detail pics........... check out http://www.esnips.com/profile/54ee848f- ... ba8060dc94 look under the " nihonto " folder. jumonji 1 and jumonji 2 represent each side ( you all figured it out already ) milt THE ronin

http://www.esnips.com/web/tsuba?docsPage=2#files

what a coincidence, I have a tanto size tsuba looks very very similar to the one in the auction. Forgot the term of that, but the cloud is supposedly made with mercury based amalgam with some other metal. milt THE ronin

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/internation ... 5182&GRP=D milt THE ronin

I don't know enough about anything to host my own website. Bad enough for my lame jokes already and I sure don't want to " misled " any visitor. jawbreaker inflicts pain............aka dentist milt THE ronin

just about done with the kozuka folder. Please take a look see if you are so inclined. http://www.esnips.com/web/kozuka/?refresh=1 The other folders will take a while, so drop by occasionally. They are like boxes of chocolates, you'll never know what you'll get next. milt THE ronin

while looking at the birds, check out the other " public " folders too.....will be periodically adding pics of my " better " stuffs to the various folders. Milt The ronin

don't know how you can do that but the following link is definitely cultural related. http://www.esnips.com/web/sujikabutosPhotos/ a complete set of 12 paintings taken from the folding screens (*byoubu 屏風), the artist is Tamura Chokuou 田村直翁. You van click on the various size options if you want to see more detail ( I think ) p.s. my thanks to the other member that posted pics on this site.......leading me to set up a free account. milt THE ronin

Isn't it an impersonated spider? could be an Oni ( note the stick like weapon ). I recall reading a collector has an ivory okimono of an oni missing the weapon....lo and behold, he found it on someone's junk box in the sword show and it's a perfect match !! It was written up in some sword society newsletter years ago. milt The ronin

as a rule of thumb............look for minor details. The big nodules of the sama, the cherry bark lacquer of the saya. All these are quite fine. Also I don't believe in the edo days all the various components of the koshirae have to match a " theme ", this is my personal opinion ( based on observations over 20 years of sword shows' piles of rusty swords ). Put in a another way.......there's everyday wears and there's formal wears. If the future generation judges the tuxedo ( high quality as befit in museum collection ) as the " norm " then they may have a " distorted " view of what people wear in the 20th century . And I am not drinking koolaid ............ milt THE ronin

as a matter of fact, I think the menukis is " box good " ( I think Ron Hartman invented that term meaning you keep the good stuff in a box suitable for display and fondle for details )................ looks like a handachi set up milt THE ronin

menuki looks alright to me, so's the tsuba............. milt THE ronin

A great legend, ummmmmmmmm, I reckon the garden was famous for the black pines too ? A great brew to celebrtae Tuesday and Wednesday............ milt THE ronin

hope you don't get drunk on this sake like we did on Wednesday........... milt THE ronin

how many juyo level swords can you get for one of these ? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/arts/ ... artner=AOL milt THE ronin