Marius

Dear All, I know, it is just a plain boring Mino nihonto but I wonder what your opinion would be about this naginata (signed Kanemaki). It has been bought from AOI Art and it is nothing really special, but If you had any info on the smith and any opinion on that naginata, I would be very obliged. You will find my amateurish pics here: http://web.mac.com/mariuszk/iWeb/Site/Naginata.html I attach AOI Art's picture as well, with oshigata. Sword data: Blade length: 38.3cm or 15.08inches. Sori: 3.0cm or 1.18inches. Width at the hamachi: 2.34cm or 0.82inch. Nakago length: 30.9cm or 12.17inches. Thanks in advance and best regards [/img]

Hm... there is a reserve price. Regards

Dear All, could you help me to assess this tanto, purchased from daimyou54 on eBay and now offered on Allegro.pl, the largest Polish auction site? Pictures are to be found here: http://top.net.pl/~marco11/TANTOXIVw/index.html It seems to me that this tanto (or wakizashi) is: - very tired - suriage or o-suriage - has two very strange mekugi ana (drilled?) - has a ruined nakago, bent and possibly cleaned with something - never never never a Kamakura (as claimed by seller) - gimei, with the false signature done in a very clumsy manner Are my remarks correct? Please treat this as a learning opportunity for a nihonto beginner :-) Thank you for your time :-)

I will definitely be a buyer :D Wonderful that you will hacve it published. Thanks a lot Darcy :-) Please do keep up us here up to date

I have been googling for nioi deki hamon recently and I have found several pages from the excellent nihonto.ca site run by Darcy Brockbank. Since Darcy has no swords to sell at the moment and he has taken down the swords that have been sold, a big piece of educational material is missing, unless you google for it, that is. I would like to take advantage of this forum to ask Darcy if maybe he were prepared to publish all the information about swords that were once shown on nihonto.ca? Darcy's descriptions are simply excellent, his photographs are very detailed, so that every bit of information on his site is (or was) highly educational. Having everything in one place would facilitate studies. Obviously, it is Darcy's decision and I would understand if he declined to run a part of his site for purely educational reasons. I know it would take some of his precious time (which nobody has to spare) and I am sure such a site would attract traffic (which means costs of bandwith, hardware, etc...). Besides, he has put an enourmous effort in those descriptions and pictures. So, in a way, my proposal is indecent as the realisation of it would in effect be a free lunch at Darcy's expense... Maybe, should Darcy be so generous and agree to release his materials, we, the board members here could find a solution, maybe someone can host this, etc etc... Maybe someone could publish a book with Darcy's descriptions and pictures? (this one could be for profit, obviously). I know, that is quite far fetched, but I am just exploring the possibilities.... But the first, necessary step would be for Darcy to say yes. If he does not, I am sure everybody will understand. So please treat this as an idea only. I hope I have not put Darcy in an awkward situation. If I have, I would kindly ask Brian, our admin, to remove this post. In any case, please keep in mind that this is just an idea and it may simply be too much to ask for. Darcy, do not be angry with me, please? Best regards

Steve, the shinogi has been flattened. No easy way to repair this withouth removing too much "meat" from the blade. Besides, pictures do not indicate everything, while when you hold a blade in your hand you will feel that too much "meat" has been shaved off. Regards

Peter, that is a very interesting story! Wow, it is unbelieveable what idiots can do to a good blade. The polishing has been done by Kokaji (Kashima sisters) or am I wrong. Nice sword, it is wonderful that you have managed to restore it. Best regards

This makes sense :-) Thanks for the information :-) Regards

I thought that when you send a sword to be polished, you always get a new shirasaya. Right? Best regards

Before I forget: Many many thanks to everybody here for those very warm and encouraging words :D best regards

Just to sum up the topic: 1. Thanks First of all many thanks to everybody. It is great to see so many people responding to a novice's question. Great education, too :D Thank you ever so much, it really was a great experience :D 2. Verdict: The sword is a gimei and not a Hizen Tadayoshi. The giveaways are the signature which difers from the original and the lack of nie. The crisp look of the nakago may indicate that the sword might even be gendaito (I'll have to look at the nakago again, I do not think the patina looks as "fresh" in reality as in the pics) 3. Conclusion for the buyer (me ): Still, it is a nice sword and I should be happy having purchased it for $2300 (correct?) At least that is what I hope, but being a novice collector, I am not confident in my own judgements, so I do need assurance from experts. Please understand :-) Best regards

That is true, but I guess it would be necessary to notice (for all message board members who do not know him), that historian333 never makes any misrepresentations as to what the sword he sells could actualy be. Also in this case he has indicated that the mei is questionable at best. In other words, he has warned buyers that it is most likely gimei. BTW, many thanks for your opinion about the looks of the mei. It looks as if this sword is indeed gimei. Best regards

Dear All, I have recently bought a nice shinto katana from Mike Yamaguchi, whom I like and respect very much as a very honest, trustworthy and friendly nihonto dealer. Mike has sold this katana as gimei, probably being upright and honest as akways. However, I am not so sure, given the quality of the konuka hada and the suguha hamon as well as the boshi. I am a novice (for three years now), so I don't claim I can assess this ora any other sword (I wouldn't even recognise it as Hizen-to if it were not described as such). But if I had to make a guess, I would say it could be 6th generation Tadayoshi (please do not ban me for my arrogance) I am probably totally wrong, but regardless of that, I feel that I have purchased a very nice sword that I love (just got it today) at a fair price. Which is a good thing ina nay case and which gives me great joy What do you think of this sword? Am I right or (most likely) wrong? Is it Tadayoshi 6th generation or not? You will find the sword's pictures on my page: http://web.mac.com/mariuszk/iWeb/Site/T ... atana.html Sorry to bother you with that, but the friendly attitude of this board has encouraged me to post this question. Best regards :D

Grey, The problem with your Fraud Aletr auction is that most of people looking fo nihonto on eBay filter out the junk by setting a price minimum (I certainly do it). So maybe you should raise the asking price to, say $300? Best regards

Well, good idea. What about another - describing the story and sending it to the press. Best regards

Brian, your advice is good. I will comply even though it is hard to accept that you cannot do anything about this criminal activity. Best regards

Anything specific in mind? It seems we cannot contact the bidders, can we? Maybe we should bid these auctions up to absurd levels (say $100,000), then simply decline to pay and get a negative feedback, but at least we would have the chance to flood this criminal with our negative feedback? We could arrange it so that each one of us would take one auction, so each one of us earns only one negative feedback... eBay sticks to its policy of not policing (pun not intended) - this is quite logical from their point of view but it leaves those poor bidders to themselves... I don't know, what do you think? Best regards

Thanks and sorry about this, I should have RTFMed first Best regards

The seller is a criminal. His activities have been discussed and condemned on this forum, have a look: Â Â Â Nihonto Message Board Forum Index -> Auctions and Sales > you should see this - (fraudulent auctions) Regards

BTW, is Kao the name of the person who has done the sayagaki? Regards

Dear Koichi, you are a Treasure :-) I am very grateful for your kind help. Many thanks :D Best regards

Hello, everybody :-) I am probably not the first nor the last beginner to ask you a favour. I would need a translation of a sayagaki, if someone is so kind as to spend his/her time on this. I have published pictures of the sayagaki here: http://web.mac.com/mariuszk/iWeb/Site/Sayagaki.html Many thanks, and sorry to bother you with that. Best regards

Well, some wise collector has said that nihonto buying is like buying diamonds - if don't know what you are looking at, do not buy. I strongly believe that members of this message board have a far greater knowledge than I do, and even I, with my beginner's eyes, can easily tell a shinshinto or gendai nakago from a Kamakura one. Once you take the description (i.e. advertising) out of your calculation, you certainly can acquire decent swords from this seller. I am not defending him, but I would be the last one to judge him? Maybe his description is a reflection of his knowledge? I don't know, so I simply abstain from judgment. I would never want to frivolously accuse anybody. His pics are not the best, but they do not hide anything, otherwise we would not have had this thread about suriage tantos, right? To accuse somebody of fraud requires hard evidence. I would be very careful here. Best regards

I must admit, I have bought two swords from this eBayer (samurai_sword1185). We had email contact with each other and the whole transaction went very smoothly, the seller being friendly. Shipping was very fast too. The swords were just as described - I have ignored what was clearly the advertisement section aboout 'Masamune school' etc., but otherwise the descriptions were correct and they were correctly describing the state of the swords. This seler's auction pictures tend to over-exposed, but if you look carefully, you will see probably everything essential, like kizu etc... I am indeed satisfied with the purchase and the value for money, and if someone asks me to, I will gladly send the auction links as well as my own pictures of the actual swords so that you will see if buying from this seller is worthwile. Best regards

Ken, thanks for the link, and, of course, many many thanks for Guido's excellent synopsis of the respective Japanese regulations. Guido, I am confident that the effort put into the article will not be obliterated any time soon I guess you are right, thsi may be an attempt to create a sense of urgency. Sorry for having allowed myself to be drawn into this and for having waisted your time. I shall be more careful next time, I promise Best regards