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JH Lee

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Posts posted by JH Lee

  1. Something I've always wondered--

     

    Unlike katana/wakizashi, where the saya remain in the obi after unsheathing, the saya of the yari and naginata are not worn on the person.

     

    What did samurai do when they needed to unsheath their yari/naginata for battle?  Toss the saya into a collective bin and sort through them later?  Toss them on the ground and hopefully find them afterwards?  Squeeze them into the right side of the obi?

     

    I'd imagine the samurai who could afford the fancier stuff also had other retainers/assistants to hold onto those things for them.  But what did everybody else do?  

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  2. I have been a student of JSA for 22 years.  The vast majority of my practice is still done with a simple bokken.  For iai kata, a Japanese-made iaito from alloy is more than sufficient.  For tameshigiri, there are also tons of good options, none of which involve using an antique.  In those 2 decades, I have met many hundreds of other students of the sword.  NONE -- not a single student, regardless of skill -- would contemplate using an antique sword of this caliber for any kind of training.  The oldest blade I've seen used in JSA context were some WW2-era showato and gendaito, and even that very, very rarely.

     

    Antique nihonto are finite in supply.  There are no more being made.  Arguably, they are getting fewer in number every year due to amateur "polishing," poor preservation techniques, neglect, theft, abuse, etc.  Please heed the well-intended advice and feedback you're getting and not use an antique for training.  It's just unnecessary and not a good way to preserve these irreplaceable works of art.

     

     

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  3. Congratulations!  Becoming a father has been the best and most rewarding adventure of my life so far.  Again, congratulations!

     

    I would absolutely liquidate my entire collection without hesitation to be able to give you your full asking price.  But probably someone else with deeper pockets will snatch them up now..... :sad:

  4. 6 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

    Beyond the very early ones the visible Hada is likely a product of the steel grain. The whole concept of the Koa Isshin was to avoid the traditional forging process and create perfectly uniform shingane and kawagane and bring them together using the rod and tube method. 

     

    Exactly.  It would seem to largely defeat the purpose of this innovative method if the outer jacket was traditionally folded steel....

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