Lee Bray

If you're seriously interested in learning more then your best bet is reading until you're confident you can tell the difference between real and fake. Check out the general section of this forum for a book list and check the links at the top of this page. Knowledge is best learned, not told. Good luck on the very, very long road...

The Art of the Japanese Sword by Kunihira Kawachi and Masao Manabe is a very good beginner book. Chapters on sword care and appreciation, how a sword is made, dates and historical blades, pictures of various tooling, plenty of eye candy, essays from a few artisans associated with swords and a list of places throughout the world where swords can be viewed.

My first book was Connoisseurs by Nagayama but only because it was the only one available in Hong Kong. Shortly after Nagayama came Kapp, Sato and Yumoto. Of those, Kapp was the most useful and enlightening. Sato was good with perhaps more historical background and some good eye candy(always useful for beginners). Yumoto I did not find to be that useful.

My point being, will those fake, Chinese tsuba be collectible items in 200 years time? It's one thing to be old, it's another to be old and have quality. If they are collectible, what will they show? Will there be a forum in 200 years time saying, "Look at my lovely Chinese tsuba from 2010. How does it compare with a Ford Hallam or a Kawashima Yoshiyuki piece?" Gentlemen. Can we stop the bickering? Do half a dozen negative comments criticizing a negative comment really help anyone? At 39, I thought I was one of the youngest members of this forum. I'm honestly not so sure anymore. This is my favourite forum, especially since I've been invalided off work for the past 2 1/2 years. The way it is continuing, Brian's threats to close it down are starting to appeal.

Some hope indeed. I still think this is a book that needs preliminary knowledge of Nihonto to grasp what it says. Whilst I agree that much of the material in the beginner books is repeated, that material needs to be learnt before progressing. I showed my copy to a collector with probably 30 years in the field and he was impressed with the info contained. So much so, he's still got it and still keeps bringing up points from it. Basics first then this book, but I certainly agree it's a book well worth buying.

Eric, I see your point but in a way, you're validating modern day Chinese replica tsuba. In 200 years time, they may well be interesting to some collector but they will hardly be a good example of anything except fake tsuba.

You'll find two more threads on this same subject slightly lower down the page, John. A good book for students with some knowledge of Nihonto but not a good book for absolute beginners.

Well, if you think France is bad, come live in Hong Kong.

May I ask where you came across the comment? It's a topic I've been discussing with Mr.Robertshaw of hizento.net and any additional info would be useful. IF the information is correct, I assume the practice started with the Shodai Tadayoshi though this is purely speculation at this stage.

I had an old armourers tsuba repatinated professionally because it had been badly scratched in transit from the seller to me. There were two obvious signs that repatination had been done. Firstly, was the new appearance of the patina. It was clean and black and simply looked new. Secondly, was the seppa dai area. Originally the tsuba showed a fair amount of wear around the seppa dai from mounting. After the new patina, the wear was still visible but appeared 'underneath' the patina. The new patina was not burnished from years of contact with copper seppa. I think both points could be 'rectified' with some work by the tsuba-shi so they are not foolproof. I'm not so sure the web area, or insides, of sukashi would be a good place to check. My tsuba has no sukashi except for the nakago ana and the kodzuka hitsu. The hitsu has been chiseled, not sawn, and has an unclean appearance to it anyway. From my understanding, the web area could be left untouched while repatination is done to the face of the tsuba so that area maybe original and untouched save for the chemicals used in repatination. Writing my above reply, I see your point. If my post shows some of the tell tale signs too clearly, I'll be happy to delete.

Understood. I'll forward this thread and the ebay link to fwic2803. Ebay maybe able to act faster if an easy breach of copyright(fwic's photos) is shown, rather than having to prove the seller doesn't own said blade.

It seems you're correct that something is seriously amiss there. Have you notified ebay or fwic2803? The sellers offer of $1500 to 'skip the bidding process' is going to be attractive to some.

Probably, Chris. Here are a couple of pics of the handle of my piece for the record. Differences I note: Nanako pattern. Shading lines in Police insignia. Lacquered hessian(?) handle as opposed to samegawa. Steel scabbard retention catch.

Why? What is this 'duty' you speak of? If someone buys this sword, it is their own look out. The seller is not standing over us and threatening to kill a kitten if we don't buy it. He states, "It is signed...." He doesn't state if he thinks it is genuine or not.

Please, bore away, Sir. It's interesting to me and I dare say I'm not alone. Thank you for taking the time to reminisce.

Thanks, Stephen. Thanks, Eric, they do look the same. It certainly appears that were different models of the police issue tanto then. I'll add a couple more pics of mine later to make the differences more apparent.

This blade appeared on another forum and has made me curious. It's a police issue tanto from around the Meiji period. I'm curious as to whether it is genuine or not. I have a very similar piece but the detail on mine is superior, as shown in the police insignia. Note the shading lines and dimpled back ground. I wondered whether the first example was just well worn but there are no shading lines to the insignia. They are recessed so could not have worn off the first example. One would assume a fake but the cost of these blades is relatively small - US$2-300 - so unlikely. Anyone know if there were different models or know anything about these blades?

The cynic in me would say somebody was repatinating the nakago and accidentally left it in the ferric chloride bath for too long. The decay would suggest severe rust over long time - for example, fished out of a river - but the area below the machi looks to be in too good a condition for that, as does the rest of the blade.

That makes sense. It could make for an interesting database if you could work this from photos supplied by board members but I imagine the time and work involved would be massive, not to mention the variables thrown in by our photography skills. An interesting point of note in the new Nobuo Nakahara book is zori measurement. He states the measurement should be taken from the nakago jiri to the kissaki as opposed to the common mune machi to kissaki measurement. I'm not entirely sure on his reasoning yet and whether it will become common practice but perhaps you could include it in your measurements.

Can Autocad compensate for several hundred years of damage, polishing and minor changes by the smith?

If this guy is a dealer he should know that is a NCO sword. If he doesn't, his business will not last long. Certainly not if he tries to export it. As for calling the integrity of the Tokorusho system into doubt, it is either faked papers or a copy of one with similar dimensions. It certainly calls into question the integrity of the seller though, so thanks for the heads up.

Shibata has plenty of stock of this book in their store in Tokyo if anyone is heading that way or knows if they do mail order. Well worth getting and no doubt will spark some interesting debates.

I came across a small article in a US gun magazine from the 1960's and thought you guys might appreciate it.

I'm looking for help with this one. From the little clues I've got, it seems to be an address.

Ideas on? The first looks like it was a kashira. Correct orientation for the scene. The second doesn't look like a kashira. Too flat and and the boat would be headed to Davy Jone's locker or skyward if mounted. The workmanship on that second piece is fabulous. Their expressions are incredibly detailed given the size.