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Jean

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Everything posted by Jean

  1. Hi Richard, First, happy New Year from France to all members. Here is a vey usefull link in Englishwith NBTHK information : http://www.touken.or.jp/english/english ... ation.html :D BTW, happy New Year from France to all members.
  2. Edit - Brian I have uploaded the pics after reducing the resolution from 300 down to a more manageable 120dpi. They were huge, and therefore blocked by the filters. - regards Brian
  3. Hi Martin, pictures taken last night and a description : Jitetsu : Mokume combined with ko-itame Hamon : Konie deki, pointed gunome midare. Ashi, yo, kinsuji. Jean
  4. Hi Martin, I'll do some pictures this week-end and post them, the blade needs to be polished and shall be next year for as I have already mentionned, Tsuruta San's notion of "polished" does not always match mine. Mind that nevertheless, his swords are top quality and match every penny paid for. Jean
  5. Hi Martin, To be short, Barry is right, I bought the 2 Sue Koto volumes from AFU, they are a fantastic source of information as Sue Koto is generally badly treated (because of mass production). BUY THESE BOOKS!!! Now, I have been interested in Shimada school for several years. If you look at a Japon map you will notice that Suraga province has a joint frontier with Sagami. Shimada school had close links with Odawara Soshu (Sue Sohu), Shimada smiths were well knwown for their tantos (watch Aoi Art, Tsuruta has frequently Shimada school tantos on sale - he has a Sukemune at the time being). The School started with Yoshisuke (aka "Gisuke") circa 1450. You will find "suke" in the main line smiths names (Sukemune, Hirosuke, Motosuke ...) and had quite a reputation during Sue Koto. I have a tanto from Hirosuke (a son of Gisuke) which I bought from Aoi-Art : Short nagasa (20 cm), gunome midare with a lot of activity in the hamon and a fantastic jigane (itame), muneyaki, chikei. Happy New Year to All members Jean
  6. Hi Stephan, Here are 2 addresse : For top quality polish, you have in Belgium, Zenon Van Damme, here is his website : http://www.japaneseart.be/frames.html and for average polish (quite good), you can contact in France : Jean-Claude DUSEHU 110, bd Albert 1er 76600 LE HAVRE FRANCE Phone: 33.2.35.44.14.62. Jean-Claude is also good at shirasaya, tsuka maki, saya ordinary lacquering....
  7. Hi Martin I have followed your 2 links and Koichi answer. I fully agrre with him. In Europe generally speking, unless leaving close to the sea or near swamps 'Bayou, Everglades ....' Store your swords in shirasaya without any oil and avoid uchiko, use a cotton cloth (clean) Cheers Jean
  8. In fact, leaving in Paris (France) I never oil and very seldom use uckiko on my blades. As years past, all my sword being in shirasaya, i have never encounterd any rusting problems even with freshly polished ones. I suggest that the oil process should be done only in countries where humidity level is very high. In our houses often overheates, there is no sense using oil. In fact in this case it is drag, because the scabbards are stained and that you have to use alcohol to remove the stains. I have got a lot of friends who have followed this method og giving up oiling there swords without any problems. Just check the hygrometry of your house
  9. I have bought a Tsunahiro hitatsura katana from Moses, he is a fantastic guy, very friendly and easy to deal with
  10. Jean

    Help - Mei/school

    We had our semiannual meeting yesterday and took some pictures of this mysterious F/K. Probably made during 19th. Nobody as so far has been able to discover the mei/school/mon.
  11. Jean

    Help - Mei/school

    Hi Tosogu specialists, I have got a friend who has no computer and who is trying to indentify the following F/K (mei/school). I do not know anything about Tosogu, but I have seen that there are a lot of specialists in the Board, can you try to identify it for him Thanks in advance
  12. John, Taking for example Tanobe Juyo sayagakis. You will almost always see his comment : Chin Cho or ChinChin ChoCho "especially precious/treasured", whatever the school or the smith. It means that criteria are based on the quality of the blade itself and not taste. The criteria is quite simple, it is the quality. For the Japanese, it is both the quality and the swordsmith, it seems they are very difficult to dissociate. Try to find a Juyo blade by a Chu saku smith .... But in conclusion, when you say "The intrinsic value of a good sword should not change as tastes change over time." you should rather write : "The intrinsic value of a good sword DOES not change as tastes change over time." Intrisic value shall always be the same, tastes have no influence on it whatsoever . Paris shall always be Paris (French saying) (whatever are the tastes)
  13. Hi John, Very good question, I am not too much interested in the mechanical aspect. I assume that the first aim of a sword is to cut well. The most efficient ones were Mino blades, I think. You will encounter in this school the greatest concentration of "Wazamono". Now, in my opinion, there are the less attractive. I prefer the stern Yamato, the fantastic Yamashiro Jigane, Bizen Hamon, flamboyant Soshu blades. But in fact, what is important for me is that the sword is truly representative of a school. That is what kantei is all about. For example as stated before in another topic, I have four katanas : Nio Katana (Nambokucho) : It should have been a reflect of Yamato tradition (cf Connoisseur's book of Japanese sword) : it is a fantastic sword with a big and long sayagaki by Tanobe, stating that it is a typical Nio school. I do not question the sayagaki but the sword should have had a high shinogi ===> it is not representative of the Yamato tradition/influence Enju Katana (cheaper than a Rai one) : It is an incredible fantastic healthy blade. Now the Jigane as described in Shoshin Website shoul be the following : "HIROMURA brings SHIKKAKE and RAI to HIGO. Finely worked KONE-TSUCHI "Mud" KO-MOKUME. ENJU famous for SHIRA-KERU "Turbid-white." This frothy off-white film clings in the grain and gives the appearance one might find in an aerial view of the open sea" I have never seen such a clearer jigane than in this katana, it is very very close to Rai (which was my aim in buying it) but is absolutely not representative of the school Soshu hitatsura Katana (Odawara - attributed to Tsunahiro): fantastic, but it is rather nioi deki rather than Nie deki ===> it is not representative of the Soshu tradition ... In conclusion : The important (for me) is to get sword really representative of Gokkaden schools. In fact, the aim of a true collector is to upgrade his collection, the only means is to try to get swords made by the first generations of a school. After the third generation, generally there is a corruption in the tradition. Take for example our friend Darcy. When he is submitting to the board members a kantei, the sword submitted has all the characteristics of the school and by the way of the smith. It is the only way to have kantei done otherwise you will only kantei the school if you are lucky, that is what kanteisho (papers) are all about (refer to Nihontocraft website and colonenl Goto's sword which is "kantei" to 3 different schools ... It is only my personnal opinion and I share it (French joke) :D
  14. Hi All, Everybody knows how difficult it is to photograph swords (even with Darcy's article help). Moses Becerra who gets excellent shots of his blades was kind enough to send me a photography of his installation. Conclusion : To make good pictures of blades, the first requirement is to have enough place. I know that several people in NMB scan their blades to get good pictures. For a kogatana, it is not much of an issue (I presume, nevertheless, I am going to verify) Is there any volunteer among the member to explain clearly and simply how to scan longer blades?
  15. Jean

    Oshigata catalog.

    I've got a copy of the Nihonto zuikan (2 volumes). In fact though they are written in Japanese for the koto volume, the index indicates in English the name of the smith. If anyone on the board needs a copy of an oshigata, I always can scan the page and mail it to him. Just contact me through my mail, using private message.
  16. Hi Darben, To answer your questions, I became interested in Nihonto 30 years ago, after having practiced Karate for 5 years. My first sword was a gimei suriage wakizashi signed "Izumi no kami fujiwara kunisada". Ten years later I bought my first serious sword from Robert Burawoy (now retired), it was a sunobi tanto by Soshu ju Sukehiro (Oeï) with a fantastic aikuchi koshirae (Fuchi/kashira/Kojiri/kurikata/waribashi/kozuka were solid silver) with a metal mekugi bearing the Mon of Maeda family, the blade had a sonokurikara engraved on one side and bonji on the other, then a year later I bought a fantastic Mino wakizashi signed kaneaki (sue koto). Later on I bought different swords, not great ones, till I had 12 blades at home. I must confess, I was searching quality blades but did not give a damn if signed or not, suriage or not. They were mainly short blades (waki) In December 2004, I decided to sell all my blades and start a new collection, made of 5 katanas, representing the Gokkaden or schools influenced by this Gokkaden (original ones are often out of reach). As far as now, I have 5 swords - A fantastic Enju (66cm Nagasa) , late kamakura Katana, atypical because of its fantastic clear Jigane, very close to Rai school (usually the Enju jigane is misty) - A Nio Nambokucho Katana, with a 70 cm nagasa, itame nagare. - A Bizen uchigatana signed Tadamitsu, 66 cm nagasa, slightly suriage (3cm) a delight to hold. All 3 blades are in shirasaya bearing Tanobe sayagakis, are "Hozon" and were bought from Aoi Art - I am very satisfied with Kazushige Tsuruta - If one deals with him _ you have to inquire by mail of the real satus of the blade you wish to buy _ He will tell you if there ARE small kizus not mentionned in his website. NEVER TAKE FOR GRANTED WHAT IS WRITTEN - ASK QUESTIONS!!!! Kazushige has a very Japanese notion of "the blade is polished" _ I had the Nio blade have shiage, had to have patches of rust removed fron the Mune and the shinogi ji of the Tadamitsu both given for polished (I shudder thinking what is for him an unpolished blade...). - A Fujishiro papered Eikkyo Bizen Wakizashi by Kosori Yoshimitsu (I keep it, because it is a text book sword) - An hitatsura katana attributed to Tsunahiro by Kajihara Kotoken that I bought from Moses Becerra who really is a great guy. My next and last sword shall be a Mino (Koto of course - papered) that I shall buy next year (Time to finish to spare money).
  17. Jean

    my sword

    Just a bit of sleuthing from a Frenchie for my friend Nobody (whose culture is impressive if not amazing) Why Muromachi? : From the Kantei, it is said that the nakago is slightly suriage (suriage for sure, slightly I don't know) it means that the lowest mekugi ana is probably the original one, it means the shortening may be around 1,5 inch (3,8 to 4 cm). We are just in the current size of an Uchigatana. Statistically, the booming of Uchigatana was around (1480/1532) I have seen quite a lot of blades of longer size starting from 1532 (Tenmon) far before Tensho (1573). If you take the middle of this period you are right in the Eisho period.It can fits the saki sori.. Now, why Bizen or Muromachi. It is not possible to detect from the shots the deki, but it must be nioi deki to fit the 2 schools. This type of hamon suguba+notare can be either bizen or Mino as well as other schools (I have no statistic available but I guess that about 25/30% of swords in Koto times were based on suguha hamon (Bizen Tadamitsu, Kiyomitsu and well before, Nagamitsu). But,what puzzles me is the jitetsu (hada/forge pattern). There are exceptions, of course (please just for the fun refer to late Jim Kurrash article "kantei is easy" or to Nihontocraft website where there is for sale a Katana with 3 different attributions and I am not talking of smiths but of schools...), but in the shinogi Ji we should find masame if it was Mino. The mokume in Mino (always be carefull) has a tendancy to be rougher than the Bizen'one. In fact the hada should (if readable) indicate Mino or Bizen. As for the smith identification, it is almost impossible to kantei from a shot (and frankly speaking, even with a sword at hand ... for me).
  18. Hi Henry (and All members), My name is Jean and I have been lurking on this site for quite a while before joining. I am 54, living in France (Paris) and have been collecting Nihonto for 3 years. To answer your question, it is not Jinkei but Junkei. He is a smith of Bizen Province ans is rated Sai jo, He was active during Ko-An (1278 AD) You can find him in Hawley "Jun 2" or in the Fujishiro K 503 Jean Laparra
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