AndrewA

I first met Richard at the 2nd KTK convention in Tokyo in 2006 (as well as George Gaucys) and the three of us have been close friends ever since. We have been in contact pretty much on a daily basis for the last 19 years so needless to say Richard's passing has hit us very hard and we miss him dearly. We did a couple of trips in Japan and several road trips in the US after KTK conventions and we had a lot of laughs along the way. As people have already mentioned, Richard was an excellent photographer who put everything he had to getting the perfect image. He was a true scholar of nihonto and tosogu and a beacon in those fields. Richard was an engineer and his memory for detail and his intellect always impressed me but what I will always remember him for is that he was a genuinely nice guy; a fine upstanding guy who always cared about other people over himself to a fault. He was always happy to help someone out and give his advice and opinions which were worth hearing. The last three years of his treatment for myeloma has been a rollercoaster and he has been through hell with good days and bad. Richard is one person who absolutely did not deserve this but he maintained a stoic and strong attitude while not knowing how much longer he had until the very end. We had a FaceTime call shortly before he passed and he seemed chipper and coherent but the cancer won and his passing came as a shock. Richard was a few months younger than me at a young 66 years old. My deepest condolences to his wife, daughter, family and anyone else who knew him well enough to be saddened by his untimely passing. Andrew Amble Sydney, Australia

Love it.Thanks for sharing.

I have this set of shiachi kanagu in my collection. They are each approximately 4 inches long! Andrew A