Ken-Hawaii

Has anyone viewed the DVD "Murakumokai - World of Best Nihon Token Swordsmiths Masters, Katana, Gendaito"? A brief summary is shown here: http://www.tozandoshop.com/product_p/019-spd8801.htm. On our recent trip to the Bizen-Osafune Sword Village, we met the son of one of the master togishi shown on this DVD, & I was wondering if it would be worth buying at around US$60. Thanks! Ken

George, feel free to use methanol, ethanol, or isopropanol (isopropyl) - they are all alcohols that are suitable for cleaning blades. Please note that unless they say "denatured," that they contain up to 30% water, especially isopropyl alcohol, so be sure to oil them immediately after they are wiped dry. Ken (Chemical & Petroleum Engineer)

I hope not, Chris! It has a nice sanbonsugi hamon & decent hada (please excuse my quick photo): Why would anyone "scribble" a mei? Ken

How's this, Piers? Ken

I recently got a katana in a rather complex trade, & can't decipher the mei: http://imageshack.us/a/img805/9693/img0686m.jpg Any ideas on the signature? Aloha! Ken

I sure wish I wasn't 7,445 miles away from Paris! I've been collecting Hiroshige prints for many years! Ken

Hi, Tobias: This will at least get you oriented (no pun intended!): Ken

Adam, it probably makes more sense to just post a link with the larger - & quite useful - chart, rather than having to send it to everyone via PM. Ken

Eric, would you please explain to us how we can get a Yahoo Japan account set up? I've tried multiple times over the past two years with zero success. Thanks! Ken

Still under discussion, Alex, but I hope we can hold these exhibitions annually. This being our first since 1960, we had a lot of details to figure out, & of course we learned a lot of lessons. I want to send a special thank-you to Guido Schiller who gave us a lot of useful information from his vast experience while we were still puzzling through our initial stages, & probably saved us a few months, too. Although we expected about 1,000 attendees, we really didn't understand the magnitude of having that many people coming through in two days. The parking area at Soto Mission holds only about 50 cars, which was a real bottleneck but also a blessing in disguise as it kept the line full, but not overflowing both days. I'm sure we lost some people to frustration, both with parking & the viewing line that took an average of 25 minutes to go through. We lined up the Nihonto by age, starting with Gendai & ending with Kamakura, so it only made sense to have everyone go in one direction, but there were always a couple of people who wanted to buck the flow, & then complained when they didn't understand our setup. Probably more signage next time to explain. Our Governor was really astonished at how all the attendees would spend time looking, learning, & asking questions of our members - he was used to having people just wander around & peering at each item for a few seconds - so he wants us to expand our exhibition. My board & I will have to figure out how to keep him happy while protecting our valuable blades, of course. But just having him come in unexpectedly & being so pleasantly surprised was a real feather in our collective cap. Ken

How interesting on the timing of this question! I just finished talking 10 minutes ago with a military member who is bringing back a tessen from Japan next weekend for me to see, & probably buy. Ken

You're welcome, Grant. It's unlikely you will be able to handle our blades as neither our liability insurance nor that of Soto Mission allows anyone to do so. I'll double-check to ensure that the blades are more visible (i.e., less oil) in future exhibits. Aloha! Ken

Okay, our first sword exhibition since 1960 is over & done with, & a great success. Just over 1,000 attendees, 48 blades on display, bonsai, ukiyo-e & calligraphy, kendo & iaido demos, & of course Bob Benson's togishi skills (http://www.staradvertiser.com/multimedia/Island_Images_September_2012_Part_2.html. Coverage by six newspapers, two TV stations, & a private production company that wants to team with us to produce a two-hour documentary. And this is while the Blue Angels were performing at the same time across the island. We had a surprise visit from the Governor of Hawaii, & were pleasantly surprised that he was actually interested in the Nihonto, rather than just shaking hands for votes. He spent nearly an hour, & had some really interesting things to say: he noted that the line to view Nihonto was moving slowly, but no one was in a hurry & each was spending time really looking at the blades, something he didn't remember seeing at other exhibitions. He offered to get us some grants to bring our exhibition to the neighbor islands (there are eight islands in Hawaii, separated from 35 to 120 miles), but we're really not willing to turn over our valuable blades to TSA to fly between the islands, so I don't know where that will go. He did get us to agree to hold our exhibition annually, with active help from his office. My most memorable moment was when two elderly Japanese men came over to thank me for the exhibition - they said, with tears in their eyes, that they never expected to see anything like this again in their lifetimes. Really struck a good note with me. Our exhibition was fairly small by most standards, but evidently something that our community really wants & enjoys. I'll post some photos as soon as we pull everything together over the next week. Time for sleeping right now. Ken

You did a great job during our setup, Alton! Thanks for all the help. Hope to see a lot more of you at our show, starting bright & early tomorrow. Just found out our Governor is coming to view our Nihonto, too. Ken

Well, not quite all of us, Kunitaro-san.... Aloha! Ken

To head back towards the original tameshigiri question, there is a much longer thread on the topic at . Some applies, some doesn't. Ken

Kunitaro-san, please read http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13898 & you will see why I am asking. Ken

Wow! This has been quite a learning experience, & I thank all of you who have responded. I have had saya made, bought tosogu for project blades, & had a tsuka rewrapped, but a full-blown dressing-out of a major blade turns out to be in a whole other realm. I plan to contact several of the people suggested in this thread, including Chris. Once I have an idea of what is appropriate, I'll choose what I like, set up a budget & schedule, & then get to work! This is of course a long-term project, but I'll rejuvenate this thread as things progress. Aloha! Ken

Thank you, Kunitaro-san! I've been looking for information on that group for several years! Do you happen to have a Web-site or any other contact information? Aloha! Ken

You know, Pete, I don't recall anyone ever asking that of me on any of my other Nihonto in koshirae. Do you think it will make a huge difference because of the smith? Ken

Eric, those are wonderful shots! Just what I need! Yes, I could have certainly gone off on my merry way to choose koshirae & tosogu that I (non-Japanese, non-Samurai) think are appropriate, but having images of his students' choices will likely get me a lot closer on this once-in-a-lifetime (& not inexpensive) venture. Mahalo nui loa! > Dome arigatou gozaimasu! > Thanks a lot! Ken P.S. If you happen to have those shots in high-resolution, Eric, please e-mail them to me at jssh@catii.com

I remember hearing somewhere that there is a society of owners of Kiyomaro blades, but can't find anything on it. That type of group would likely be a good source of the info I want. Keith, I hear you, but I gotta' say that I'm not an expert on which koshirae would be period-correct in very late Edo. And I'm not even sure that Kiyomaro's clients would have been Samurai at that late date. Ken

Thomas, I've already tried to do that, but there's even less info on his clients than there is on his koshirae. If you know his history, Kiyomaro started early, ran away, & finally came back & built an unknown - but small - number of blades in an 8-year period. I expected one of my references to at least tell me at which museums his blades are archived, but no luck there. Then I started looking for koshirae from his teacher (Toshitaka) or his students (Kiyondo, Nobuhide, Masa-o, & Sane-o), but again I'm striking out. If you have some good leads I'm ready & willing to do the legwork! Ken

Hey, Barry: I like that idea! Now all I have to do is figure out how Kiyomaro mounted his blades & I can get to work on finding the appropriate starting koshirae. At least it's late Shinshinto, so there ought to be some good ones available. I'm really quite amazed that I haven't been able to locate ANY source that shows a mounted Kiyomaro! Do you think that he just didn't bother with anything except shirasaya, Keith? Ken

Well, it's my Kiyomaro, Keith, papered & very special. It has very nice shirasaya, but seeing it in koshirae has been my plan for quite a few years. If it was Koto or Shinto, I know just the artisan in Osafune, but he refuses to work on koshirae for Shinshinto or newer blades. There isn't a lot of information I've found on how Kiyomaro mounted his blades, even in the Sano Museum book "The Flores of Japanese Sword Masters of the Edo Period," so I don't have a lot to work from. Even the old Google references from Christie's show just the blade, rather than the koshirae. That's been a large part of what has slowed me down on this project. Ken