Gakusee

Well, the one which is the best I know of belongs to a friend and NMB member - out-of-polish Awataguchi Yoshimitsu which subsequently polished beautifully and papered to Juyo.

Well, please read Darcy Brockbank's blog entry on daisho. You will realise that the so called 'true' daisho are extremely rare.

Thank you George and Austin, for the great reminders. While I was aware of the other swords, I had not read about the Yoshifusa one. Is that one published or documented similarly to the other swords? Thank you!

John, the hada seems a newer / Shinto type hada to me and also the boshi straightish and shinogiji hada......Good patination on the nakago but that can be achieved. I had a blade with repatinated nakago and it had been done extremely well - one could not tell it was not Shinto patina but patina done 20 years ago.

Well, I have heard that customers have seen him in his previous smaller shop, the one that used to be next to the former NBTBK place, polishing swords…. I have not seen this myself as I have been there only once and that did not happen at the time. But I think he was doing one of his oshigata

I do not see chikei in this later blade. Chikei are thicker and black in colour. These structures in the photos above could indeed be scratches or also surface nie accumulation but not in the sense of chikei.

Peter, one has to start somewhere. We all learnt to walk by stumbling and falling first. yes, you will need someone who handles the sword but if you were in Japan, you would not need to deal with paperwork - so they are going sort of paperless. Also, you can view the results online rather than wait for the post office to send the letter to your agent, who then calls or emails you to let you know the result. Yes, it would be convenient if they did travel to us and the US is spoilt with the NTHK regularly doing the rounds there but the NBTHK has enough “domestic” business to frankly worry about travelling internationally. They can barely handle their own volumes as it is.

Brian, I have done this three times (admittedly not in the last 2 years with Covid). I have done it both at Narita and Haneda. Zero language skills but be prepared to sit there for hours - my wait time has ranged between 1-4 hours depending on how (in)experienced the young customs staff are and how they interpret the big tome of instructions what to do they have to consult…. The procedure is always as explained above. Narita is better and faster than Haneda…..

Thanks, Georg. This is a tour de force of sunagashi! We appreciate your great updates of this exciting journey.

Yes, Ray does not need any introduction. A great member of this community, who also generously shares his knowledge and help.

Well, they never asked me for my email, in response to Wolfmanreid. Even though, I have previously done online monthly kantei, so theoretically they should have it. But there are two other pages with my personal info that I did not attach. In there I have logins and my email will feature in the online profile. What I also find impressive is the letter is dated 26 Jan and I received it on 1 Feb, so quite fast. And also on one of the pages there is an email address of an actual individual too! So I don’t need to send them faxes anymore

Today I received a letter from the NBTHK letting me know that I can register online for Shinsa, can apply for a particular shinsa session online and can even view the result online!! This is revolutionary for our organisation :))

Mark Good points. Agree with most of them. But greater mass will lead to lower acceleration and hence lower speed (from the two formulae below). I was trying to make the simple point that often in combat you might not need great force or great strength (unless wrestling or weightlifting) but greater speed. A swifter strike might overcome a much stronger but slower opponent. Logically and also mathematically from the equations below solving for speed or acceleration given a fixed force or fixed kinetic energy, speed (or acceleration) is lower if mass is higher: 1) kinetic energy = 0.5 × mass × speed 2 2) Force = Mass * Acceleration Regardless, I agree that if you keep the mass fixed (ie do not become too big or heavy) and improve strength, while also working on flexibility, then you improve performance. The other thing I used to work on was endurance or stamina. So, not absolute strength (heavier weights and increasing weights progressively) while of course any training improves strength to some degree, but being able to deploy consistently the same performance over longer time (more repetitions but perhaps with lighter weight). Now, of course, due to family and work commitments this has gone out of the window and I barely keep fit….

So, Mark, you don’t think weight lifting, deadlifts etc also stress the joints and the body? I would train with a heavy sword any day rather than compress my body with these weights. Also, you talk about kinetic energy and linking. Surely, you are aware that a large body mass such as the one of a bodybuilder, weightlifter, heavy wrestler also slows you down to an significant extent. In the martial arts I trained (not JSA but in my system of martial arts we also trained with blades - thin swords, large swords, butterfly sword etc), superior speed and velocity were much more important than relative strength. In fact, smaller guys were faster and more dangerous than these big blokes above. Surely, overall body training was important and done but squatting, presses and dips were sufficient. Apologies for digressing from the bohi topic.

Paz, that does not seem relevant - neither the goods, nor the intended application of the regulation. Read it fully here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-trade-tariff-customs-procedure-codes/imports-home-use-with-simultaneous-entry-for-free-circulation

The retainers were issued with the spears ready for battle out of the arsenal. Then they marched in formation or patrolled the castle.

A sad loss indeed but time is advancing implacably for all of us unfortunately. May he rest in peace.

Mark, as John mentioned above, this text , despite being old, is quite insightful. It lacks inputs from Ian/ Leeds Armouries but many other UK museums with Japanese artefacts are included. Was very happy when unearthed it some 6-7 years ago as I was struggling to understand where the best collections in the UK were of Japanese swords. Now, some smaller or regional museums are missed out, eg Birmingham, Ashmolean and Pitt-Rivers in Oxford, Chiddingstone Castle, and of course Leeds Armouries is the glaring omission, but it provides you with insights as to what some of the largest UK museums own, what their approach is to displaying is (eg, now retired Tim Clark of BM said: "we are trying to get broad sections that will hopefully be quite easily intelligible to a general audience"), etc. JACUK_text.pdf

Hahah, agree Paul - she was not only the reigning monarch but one of the greatest queens we have ever had... . Of course, her consort would come second (which has been the case with Queen Elizabeth II too) in naming conventions etc

Ok, ladies and gents, as someone living in London, I can definitely recommend both the BM and V&A collections. In order to shed light on why these are not displayed extensively: Firstly, space is at a premium vs the vast collections of both museums and that relates to not only Japanese collections but in general. You can imagine what happens when you have thousands of prints, screens, scrolls, porcelainware, swords, tea utensils plus a mock team room, etc competing with each other for the limited (Japan galleries) exhibition space. Secondly, they need to ensure rotating displays to appeal to a broader audience. Sometimes (often) scrolls and prints are easier to understand and more appealing to the visitors. 3-5 swords plus one armour will tell the samurai story equally as well as 100 swords as far as the mass visitor is concerned. The museums need to ensure broad appeal rather than pander merely to us, nihonto enthusiasts Thirdly, and probably most importantly, it is contingent upon the curator's or Japan/East Asia department director's own preferences and area of expertise to curate the items in his / her departments and galleries. Before the passing (and even retirement) of our long-term friend and honorary president Victor Harris, the BM used to display more Japanese swords and more often. In fact, I still hear stories how people informally visited the museum and viewed some of the collection in the past. Nowadays, it is a different story - however, the BM is still very friendly to us and open-minded when we request (now, formally) to view items from their collection. We did so in 2017 and 2020 (pre-Covid). For a taster of the 2020 BM collection and visit, refer to this link: BM Jan 2020 visit Some of the other events: Meeting reports | to-ken.uk Similarly, the V&A Museum (Paz - please note that it is not Albert Victoria but Victoria and Albert - I suppose good old-fashioned chivalry of putting ladies first still prevailed when the museum was named; apologies if this is perceived as petty but to me accuracy is important) has wonderful items. Greg Irvine has now retired as curator, even though he remains an honorary research fellow. What the direction of the next curator will be remains to be seen. The story is complicated by the move of many items to the new site of V&A in East London at the site of the former Olympics ( see link: V&A moves East ). Some of the collection will be split. In particular, the so-called 'reserve' collections (items not on display at the V&A Museum in South West London) are being shipped to the new storehouse in East London. The present store cannot be opened even by the V&A staff as specialist packers are moving everything in the course of 2022. And then probably in 2023 items will be rearranged and prepared for the 2024 opening. I echo what Piers mentions above about Leeds Armouries: a great place to visit in general for all types of weapons (I am not sure if any other museum beats it for medieval weaponry). Ian Bottomley has the best knowledge of it as a former curator there. We have had several wonderful visits there too: Leeds Armouries events. In conclusion, a general visit to a museum, as a normal tourist will probably yield little satisfaction to the nihontophile and will probably only titillate one's curiosity and desires. However, as part of an organised event with the To-Ken Society or some other more formal organisation, will likely produce more gratifying results in terms of overall learning, but also experiencing and appreciating items which might not be on display.

The British Museum has around 400 blades, of which only a handful are usually on display. I hope the great ex-Compton Shintogo Kunimitsu tanto is still on display. It has very elegant Goto Ichijo koshirae. My personal favourite is the ex-Compton Ko-Bizen Yoshikane but there are some other great ubu Ko-Aoe (eg a Sueyuki), Ichimonji, some nice Soden, etc. With the To-Ken Society we have organised various study days at the BM in the past where we studied hands-on swords from the collection which are not on display. Normally only one armour is on display. The V&A must have over a 100 swords (just a guess) and some of them rather special. Again, on display you will have around 10. There are usually 3-5 armours on display. We have done study days there too and they also have great tosogu. The Tower of London has a handful of items in there but the vast majority of Japanese items were moved to the Leeds Armouries. Can’t remember about armours as have not been there for 15 years. in the South Easy you also have the Chiddingstone Castle museum which holds some decent swords and armours too.

My guess on the mei is : Kanemichi saku

Has not been the case for a long while. Perhaps you are getting mixed up with being able to submit for Hozon & ToHozon concurrently?

Gold members bantering = preaching to the converts indeed. There should not be naming and shaming of specific people who do not contribute, as that could be counterproductive and viewed as finger-pointing and victimisation. Mechanical, objective, software-imposed limits to how many items can be sold a month by non-Gold members is probably the most equitable. It feels like 2-5 sales per month is probably right but perhaps Brian and the other administrators can decide. I feel that beyond 5 sales a month is actually generating a recurring income and people who sell more than 5 items are month are running a business out of it. How one controls for private sales is different..... Unless there is 'big-brother' policing of private messages (which, I am sure, we all want to avoid), I cannot see that being feasible. I do not sell on NMB but feel that subscribing to the forum is a small thank-you gesture for the knowledge and relationships NMB has brought.

No, no special book. Have to work with the Juyo Zufu directly.