Keith Larman

FWIW the NBTHK American Branch website now has an on-line kantei page. Basically a description, oshigata, and a form for people to submit their assessments. Check the menus for the page... http://nbthk-ab.org Best of luck.

Hi Keith. If you're going to make a tsuka from this, I would like to see the result. :D Actually... Howard Clark did exactly that a bunch of years ago. It is owned by a customer of mine and in my safe while he's out of the country. Kinda cool in an off the beaten tracking kinda way. Certainly unique. And having half my family tree coming from Alaska, I can certainly appreciate it myself. And I'd trust it a heck of a lot more than that fingergrooved shirasaya tsuka above. Looks to me like someone tried to modify a shirasaya tsuka and found a saya that happened to fit. Again, the issue isn't whether someone can find the obscure reference or the exception. I remember a Japanese blade, mid 19th century if memory serves, clearly tamahagane, but looked like a leaf blade from another culture with a kesho'd fake hamon that was fully mounted in a decent koshirae. What the heck were they thinking there? But that doesn't show anything other than there are always people doing odd things now and then. Finding one doesn't make it a good idea, the norm, or anything else other than maybe a good example of an anomaly...

Ever heard the expression "I'd pee on a sparkplug if I thought it would help." The point is that sometimes you use what you have. That might mean wrapping a rag around a nakago and using a bare blade. That might include picking up a large piece of eskimo art I have (Oosic) and beating some poor soul to death with it. In other words, there is a world of difference between what *can* be done and what *should* be done. What is "advisable" is probably a better distinction to make here. Conventional tsuka normally have a number of "layers" of reinforcement. Wood shaped and carved to fit usually glued with rice glue. A metal band is place over the end nearest the tsuba. The wood is (sometimes) totally wrapped in soaked, pliable rayskin and glued in place as the rayskin dries in its expanded state to a rock hardness. That is in turn tightly bound with silk/leather/whatever ito. It is a marvel of composite construction. Compared with a shirasaya tsuka which is generally oversized (difficult to hold correctly as a practitioner) and made solely of unreinforced wood glued together with rice. Hit anything with that and you will run a great risk of the shirasaya tsuka coming apart and the blade going ballistic. So... You *could* do it in a pinch. I wouldn't suggest it -- it ain't what it's for. Never was. You could have a sword cane or have a special tsuka made, but classic examples generally aren't all that nice either. Because it simply isn't a good idea. Maybe with modern materials and modern glues, but then again... then we're talking about something else entirely. It is silly to use a blade in shirasaya. Not advisable. But I'm sure it's happened. But then again I'm sure someone at sometime has used most anything as a weapon including small animals, toilet ballcocks, or whatever silly thing you can think of. Now excuse me while I go cry quietly -- I always thought superman was real... Thanks Guido for ruining my fantasies... Such a downer...

This is just a guess, but maybe Jacques is referring to the photo 244 up above? It looks like a reflection of something in the room on the shinogi ji of a shobu zukuri piece to me, but ... You see the same reflections in some of the other images.

Okay, nix that. Got photoshop out as a voice in my head kept saying "maybe it's just an optical illusion". So I took the image above with two tsuba side by side, traced the known piece and overlaid it. Still a bit off but not how I thought. Interesting... I don't know now... Still looks odd to me and as a first impression, well, odd is the best answer for me. Shrug. I'll leave it to you guys who know more.

Just fwiw... You cannot underestimate the importance of the functional aspect of these things. The thing that jumped out at me was the overall placement of the ana and the shape of the seppa dai. That tsuba would look odd at best mounted on a sword simply due to what *looks like* an offset and imbalance in the design. I think Ford's comment about copy of a copy is relevant -- to me it looks like someone copied a copy but didn't place the ana correctly. So either this was fit to a seriously oddly shaped nakago (virtually no mune machi and a deep hamachi which makes even less sense) or the person making it didn't understand the basic balance required to make a tsuba look correct on a sword (which strikes me as highly unlikely if it is authentic). It looks like a combining of a number of small distortions in shape that get magnified into a piece that is just, well, "off" for lack of a better word. Certainly an oddball piece IMO. Authenticity is beyond my skills. But on the purely "how would that get on a sword" aspect I find it odd. Just my single cent contribution...

Hence me marrying a 5'1" woman with small hands... At least I measure up as average now...

Ah, that's mostly from me... That was after last year's San Fran show. I've been trying to get various groups I know have some interest in Japanese culture, arts and swords interested in Nihonto for a while. That was my attempt to convince those martial artists studying aikido and related arts to consider venturing to the San Francisco show. Lots of folk in Aikido also do Iaido so there is some intersection of these things. I try to announce the shows here and there hoping to generate some interest. If for no other reason to help people educate themselves. I must admit I often feel like Don Quixote, however. Hard to get people off their butts especially if they're intimidated. And then there are those at the shows who don't seem to have time to talk to newcomers either. Oh, well, lots of windmills out there...

Absolutely. That often gets lost in these discussions. It is a royal PITA to do a show like this. And anyone who picks up the ball and runs with it deserves our thanks.

Actually that was why I asked. I was told I'd be taking photos at the kantei sessions but then that morning I realized I had no idea (for sure) when they were going to be. I wandered out into the lobby, didn't see a board, asked around and finally found a board member. That's when I noticed a 8.5x11 piece of paper up front with the info including your session.

And since I'm thinking about it... Friends joke with me about the amount of time I spend trying to write stuff on forums where few dare to tread. I got some good natured ribbing about that at Chicago as a matter of fact. "Why bother" or "Pearls before swine" is what I hear... I understand that. Lord knows I've walked away many times. I'm hardly posting myself anymore. And we tend to scurry to find a quiet corner like this forum so we can focus on what we do and what we all love. We then quietly hope the "unwashed masses" won't find it and flood the forums with questions about anime swords and silly mythology. And it is a very good thing *for us* to have this place. But... Each year the attendance at these things gets lower. Each year the room gets grayer (or more balding or both). And every year we seem to lose someone else. So while the signal to noise ratio is almost unbearable on some of these other forums, where are the next generation of collectors going to come from? Ted Tenold and I have done presentations (Mike Yamasaki helped out the last time too) on behalf of the NBTHK at Japanese sword art tai kai to try to get the martial artists more interested in the collecting side. I periodically gather up the courage to wade onto the larger sword forums. And a few guys I'd spoken to on-line did make it to the show. One bought a few books and went home with a tsuba and a gunto. It's a start. But most have written it all off. And fewer and fewer appear at the shows. So where will the next generation come from? And no, I don't have any answers either. Just observations. My plea on SFI was to hopefully get some of them off their butts. I *know* many of them are close to San Francisco. Maybe we can convince more to attend there. And maybe one, just one person, will catch the bug and continue coming. And hopefully that person won't get bent over a table by any number of people.

The highlight for me were the NBTHK presentations. Two Rai Kunitoshi, two Tametsugu, a Kunimitsu, Hiromitsu, and Unju. All Juyo and higher. And I was shown another blade in private that blew me away completely. Can't comment on it for a variety of reasons, but it was by far the best blade I've ever seen -- that includes the swords in the NBTHK ab session. I tried begging over on SFI hoping some of those guys would bother attending rather than just talking about swords! Like Barry said, very, very few walk ins. The sword world has become someone insular and exclusive. So mostly what was happening was the normal suspects buying and horse trading among themselves. I bought a few things I needed and took care of a few bits of business. But honestly I didn't need to attend a show to do those things. I know some guys made a lot of deals among themselves, but where is the next generation going to come from? I went to dinner with a number of the big fellas on Saturday and they weren't moving much. But yes, I'm sure lots of the inexpensive tsuba, fuchi kashira, etc. sold and moved around. I bought some menuki from Barry for a project and another set from Cole for another. In previous years there are times it is hard to walk the aisles. The last few shows have seemed like the aisles are a lot wider and there are fewer people in them anyway... Grey, out of curiosity, how many people attended the etiquette seminar?

FWIW here is a photo of a habaki Brian made for me about 5 years ago...

Sorry, the drugs didn't kick in. And it was dayquil, not expresso. So I spent an extra few hours face down on a pillow trying to extinguish a nasty cold. Now I've moved on to something my wife called a "hot toddy". I was hoping for something more exciting, but it'll do as I seem to be slightly numb now. :D But I digress... Okay, San Francisco Token Kai NBTHK Presentation. This year they opened it up for everyone -- no admission fee for the presentation. Ted Tenold was the "moderator" of sorts, introducing each person with a little history. He also acted a bit as the guy keeping things ideally focused. My understanding is that he is writing up something about the event for the NBTHK. So I'll be brief with my own take. Remember I'm watching through my interests and eyes, so some things I kinda glazed over and found myself back watching Jimmy working on the stones... It started with Jimmy Hayashi. He had a togi-dai set up and was scrubbing away. He was working an area on the blade first on nagura then to koma nagura then to uchigumori. It was interesting watching how he worked the blade on the stone, the small area he worked, etc. He talked as he worked. One of the best parts of his discussion involved the issue of "fixing" things. He talked about how the first priority is always preservation of the blade. Somethings can be fixed, others should not. And he emphasized the uniqueness of each situation. He pointed out that while on rare occasions a polisher may be able to "touch up" a polish by redoing just the shiage, usually there are shape and condition issues that require a more complete approach. He finished the window he was working on with each stone then set the blade out so we could see how the blade looked in each section. On his chu-nagura everything was somewhat visible. The Koma nagura was slightly different, more refined, and the hamon and hada were both fairly clearly visible. Then onto uchigumori where the hamon really started to "pop" and the hada became very easy to see. It is still a long ways from from a fully polished piece at this stage, but it was very interesting to see how he worked the blade. He also worked a small section of a shinshinto era yari with a gorgeous hamon that had an area that looked suspiciously like a hagiri. But after a few minutes with him first on uchigumori then going back to koma nagura and back up to uchigumori the mark in the area vanished under the stones. So it wasn't a hagiri but an odd scratch. So there was one very happy person there. And it was interesting to see how he was able to work the area to resolve the issue. Next was Brian Tscernega. Brian put out a display of 20-30 very nice habaki. He gave a sort of "cliff notes" quick summary of proportions of habaki and how they're fit. I very much enjoyed his discussion of how a habaki is supposed to fit on the blade and the dangers of using poorly fit habaki (most importantly how a poorly fit habaki can put tremendous stress on the hamachi). He talked about proportions, the depth of the slot on the mune, different styles of habaki, how foil is attached, and so forth. Really quite interesting. Mike Yamasaki ( http://ricecracker.com ) followed up showing off a variety of restored koshirae. Lovely stuff and he talked about how easy it is to screw up a perfectly good old koshirae through amateur restoration. So lots of very nice fittings, saya, etc. to look at. Right about then I started watching Jimmy working on that yari so I missed part of Mike's discussion. Sorry about that, but the yari was really interesting as it was a Yokoyama piece and I've seen a few of those over the years and really like them. And I knew the owner so I was quite interested in seeing how Jimmy approached the problem. Finally David McDonald did his presentation. He laid out an impressive collection of old tsuka cores, some split to show how the internal channel was carved, how it was shaped, how the samekawa was applied, etc. Really interesting. He talked about panel samekawa vs. full wrap and the benefits of each. He talked about different wrapping styles and all the issues involved in putting together a good tsuka. Interesting stuff as the craftsman has to carve things to exact dimensions such that once the same is applied and the ito wrapped everything lies flush and flows nicely. Not a trivial task by any means. One thing I found very interesting was seeing how thin some of the wood cores really even to the extent of a few having areas where the wood was literally paper thin or even gone. These were full wrap samekawa applications and it showed how much confidence they had in the strength of the samekawa and ito combination. At one point during the demo two young men came in wearing what looked to me like Yukata and Hakama. The first thought in my mind after "what the #**$*" was "Good lord, someone needs to show you how to tie those hakama correctly." And one of them was obviously a sword saint kinda guy since he was wearing a white hakama. Anyway, they also had their trusty "made in spain" wallhanger Japan-esque kinda katana thrust through their obi. One guy was banging his saya along the way in on most everyone (which shows how little he knows about the etiquette of wearing katana). Anyway, once things were for all intents and purposes over one of the fashion impaired neo-samurai brings out a sword with a gigantic wood slab handle to show Brian Tscernega the habaki this fella had made. Out of titanium. The slab of titanium was about 50% larger than the mihaba of the blade itself. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to get my cell phone out and photograph Brian's face... At this point Brian mumbled something about "file more" and the topic was changed... What I couldn't for the life of me understand was how the guy could pull that out after seeing all those incredible habaki on the table. On later discussion some of us wondered if they might have been students of the (in)famous Hoshino who apparently lives in San Francisco. Who knows... I must admit I was quite lucky in that later on in the lounge I spent a few hours sitting at a table with Jimmy Hayashi and Ted. Lovely discussion. Jimmy has a great life story and we discussed a lot of things about the craft today, the pressures, and then how the new generations are going to be trained. Jimmy came up in a very traditional training environment. And how he got there was really quite amazing. But that wasn't part of the public conversation and they really aren't my stories to share. I just hope someone someday writes a good article on Hayashi and his history. Later on Brian Tschernega joined us and we commisserated with him about the neo-samurai visition. Mike Yamasaki dropped by a few times but feigned disgust that we were still talking technical things about sword crafts. And for me, well, mostly I sat there trying to listen, learn and remember as much as possible. It was all good from my point of view. Enough for me. I talked with Ted earlier today and he said something about writing down something a bit more formal since he had moderated the discussion. My impressions were just my own and of course I tended to focus on Hayashi and Tscernega's presentations but that doesn't mean Mike and David's presentations weren't also very good. I was mostly interested in watching Hayashi work as I've seen some of his polishes and they are some of the clearest, most dazzling things I've ever seen. And Brian's work is of course totally top notch as well. So I was pretty much overwhelmed by the time Mike and David got to their parts. I'll also say that there simply is no way to convey how much I saw and learned. But what you learn sometimes is simply watching the work being done. And writing it down just doesn't do it justice. It was the highlight of the show for me. And I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time studying a number of Juyo blades. But of course I'm a craft-geek in a sense. I've seen all this stuff done many times but watching guys at the very top of the craft is simply amazing. So there you go, fwiw.

F) and G) actually. Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll post something a little later once the morning drugs have kicked in. As a preview... I thought they were great. With a little contrasting comic relief built in as a matter of fact...