Gabriel L

Hi Carlo, I have the 1998 Commemorative Centenary Edition, and I don't know entirely how it differs from earlier editions. There is a 2-page spread at the end of each volume that gives some changes on reference #s from the "Revised" edition, but that's not a lot of entries. I also don't know what specifically you are referring to with duplicate entries; I haven't been perusing the names thoroughly. There might be a ton of duplicate entries for all I know. As far as I know the system for arranging names is the same as before; currently it goes by first kanji of the smith's name, in order of number of strokes, then second character, then province, then date.

As Carlo said, plus more specifically you're right, Hawley pretty much ignored most gendai smiths (some of whom were actually quite good).

Let's just all agree it definitely isn't saki-zori. :lol:

Not only the tapering, but the big flash bloom placed way back, the angle of the pictures, the bright yellow habaki all pull the eye back as well. Below is the same sword traced very carefully in photoshop and then turned into a black-and white image. Also, rotated slightly clockwise from the above image. Suddenly looks a bit more tori-zori, doesn't it? I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other, actually. I would have called it tori-zori myself but I wouldn't be surprised if someone else called it koshi-zori. I just tend to reserve koshi-zori for more obvious examples, giving tori-zori some leeway towards the back end. Cheers, -GLL

Welcome to the forum, Piers. I cannot tell you how helpful a working knowledge of Japanese will be, even though the relevant vocabulary is specialized and even unrecognizably old. I'm jealous anyway . Why on earth would your friend discourage you from pursuing nihonto? :lol: Unless it's because of the expen$e, of course - but it's not as if antique matchlocks are a dime a dozen either. Seriously, nihonto is a rewarding study, full of artistry, history, and even science. If it's not too OT (Brian?) I'm sure we'd all love to see photos of your collection. Cheers, -GLL

Ah. Well, there you go. It's unfortunate, and it explains what I said about being "soft in the lines." Nihonto are supposed to have extremely sharply-defined facets and bevels coupled to very smooth contours, as illustrated in this photo: Regarding your sword, I've seen worse. The main problem is that if it were to ever be restored, even the best polishers would probably have to remove a significant amount of material to re-establish a nice geometry. This reduces the sword's overall lifespan and may prematurely expose core steel, besides permanently altering the original form of the blade. The other problem is that inexpert polishing may have already removed far more material than expert treatment. Some kinds of rust (black rust, or spotty tarnishing, for instance) are actually preferable to this sort of work, eating into the steel much slower than sandpaper. Sorry, I'm not chewing your friend out by saying this, I just wanted to explain the rationale behind our particular neuroses regarding polishing. Things like this are done all the time, with the best intentions, just out of a lack of obvious available information and advice. Your sword could be very restorable in fact (it would take hands-on inspection to confirm this). Anyway, I'll be hoping along with you that the damage isn't too bad, and at least you've kept it relatively clean since then. Looking forward to an assessment from any of the UK collectors - keep us informed!

Hi again Mike, There are definitely places to go in London! Check out the website of the To-ken Society of Great Britain, which holds meetings in London and has contacts with professional restoration experts both in the UK and Japan. I'm sure if you contact them, and bring your blade to a meeting, they could give far better and specific information/advice than anybody could from online photos. [Edit] About the polish, I didn't mean to sound dire. If you've owned the sword for the last 40 years and just wiped it down with a clean soft cloth then the probability that someone really mistreated it is lessened. It just looked grayed out and maybe soft in the lines, which is likely just the old polish and diffuse lighting. Without oiling and more advanced maintenance, the only likely consequence is the loss of polish / beginning of patina, and the resultant obfuscation of the true artistry of the steel. Thankfully, with this kind of treatment, I would be surprised if you had managed to seriously harm the blade. In the future, don't touch the blade with your fingers, though - skin oils are bad for the steel, and can cause rust. The correct upkeep of these kinds of swords is described in many places, including Rich Stein's excellent Japanese Sword Index. A professional togishi (Japanese sword polisher) can completely restore blades of varying levels of condition. Unfortunately this route is extremely expensive: $75-100 per inch of blade length is common. Of course, for that price you get a true expert and sword scholar, working off of strictly traditional methods to give you a museum-grade restoration and reveal the complete artistry of the sword. If this is something you truly want to invest in - and there's no guarantee that your sword is even worth as much, financially speaking, as a full polish - then the Token Society can put you in touch with several togishi, as I mentioned before. Otherwise, following the guidelines listed on Rich's site will preserve your sword in its current state. Do visit the Society meetings, though, since you can get hands-on opinions from knowledgeable collectors there. Cheers, -Gabriel L.

Hi Mike, This is a genuine wakizashi, suriage (shortened) as Mike Yeon mentions. Try lighting the blade with an incandescent lightbulb, or putting it by a windowsill with direct sunlight (mid-late afternoon), to get the hamon to light up whitish (and the hada to look darker). I'm not sure from the photos but it looks like it might have been through some unfortunate amateur "polishing" (fingers crossed such a disaster didn't occur). It could just be an old polish and the diffuse, cold lighting though. An in-focus closeup photo of the point would also be helpful.

You'll be reading forever then. Seriously though, just one of the introductory books should get you pretty far along in the basics. Hope to see hanging around though! Cheers, GLL

Hi Joey, It's actually Gassan Sadatoshi. Gassan Sadayoshi is the famous founder of the 19th century version of the old Gassan school; Sadatoshi is part of this lineage of excellent smiths. For more information, see here or buy the book Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present. Regarding blade development, there are several kinds of swords that change over time and many kinds of mountings to go with them. Books will give you a much more thorough overview of this progression, but for long swords, the tachi was used for much of the Koto ("old sword," roughly 11th-16th centuries) period, while the katana become more popular at the end of the Koto period and continued until the 20th century. After WWII, the craft was reborn as a traditional art, strictly not for combat, and so smiths make whatever kind of sword they like. Very early straight swords, originally imported from China/Korea and then eventually made in Japan, are called Chokuto. These were made from about the 5th century to the 11th century. They come in a variety of forms and workmanship and mounts, each of which has a name "tachi" but spelled with different Chinese characters; "chokuto" is the collective name for these early varieties. Some are folded, some have hamon (hard white edge steel from differential hardening heat treatment), some are flat, some have a ridgeline near the edge, etc. They were the precursor to the true Japanese tachi listed below. Tachi tend to be longer and more slender, with smaller points, and the focus of curvature back near the handle. They can have slightly stronger curvature. They are worn edge-down and have distinctive tachi koshirae (mounts) with various rings and chapes. They are signed on the side of the nakago (tang) that faces outwards when worn. Katana tend to be shorter, more even and shallow in curvature, and taper less. They are also signed on the side that faces outwards when worn, but since they are worn edge-up through the obi (sash), that means they are signed on the opposite side compared to tachi. Their koshirae (mounts) are sometimes called buke-zukuri mounts; this refers to the style of mounting, not the blade. I don't hear many people using this term in everyday speech though. Lots of these basic questions can be best answered by reading one of the introductory books. While we're happy to help "newbies" out with their questions, you'll probably find it easier and faster to read first and then ask questions on the more confusing points. Cheers, -GLL

Greetings Joey! You are already in the right place, and you've received some spot-on advice. I will plug my own brief collection of reviews on some English-language nihonto books, not because they're not already listed and recommended elsewhere but because I think it might help you decide on what to spend your money on first: The Paper Armoury: Japanese Swords. The only thing of value () that I will add to this discussion however is to get out and see the real thing, either at a museum, sword study group, or token kai. Nothing compares to personal experience! Over on myArmoury we had a discussion on this PBS special. I had a couple of minor criticisms of it, but hearing from you that it sparked your interest in nihonto sweeps all of those away as far as I am concerned. Gassan Sadatoshi is one of the best smiths alive today, and the brief glimpses of his work in that special were the highlights. If you ever travel to New York, there is a gorgeous blade by him on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cheers, -Gabriel L.

Hi Brian, Robert, Hah, I was about to quote myself for you Brian but it seems you've already linked the myArmoury thread. I am not much of a fittings person myself; my entire knowledge of guri-bori is based on an article by Hoa Benson in the Vol. 1 No. 4 (1980) issue of Bushido magazine. Anyone who has that series should check it out, there are some gorgeous examples. Also, I think there is a thread on SFI with comments by Guido Schiller, should do a search but I have to run! Cheers, -GLL

First access to a computer today. I called earlier asking for info on an exhibit by the A&A Dep't in October '08 on Japanese swords/fittings, and Information (after a minute of searching) came up with the following: "Art of the Samurai" Show opening October 28, 2008 That's all I got. Looks like it, though. I cannot guarantee the accuracy since Information didn't want to put me through to the Arms and Armour department directly.

Wow, that's incredible. I just called but the department closed at 5 PM; I'll call direct to the A&A dep't tomorrow morning. Thanks for the (very early) heads up! -GLL

I don't see anything either - how did you hear about this, Rich? What exactly are you referring to? Very curious myself because I live less than an hour from the city. Cheers, -GLL

Thanks everyone for their feedback, a couple points I hadn't heard or considered before.

Hello all, A small matter of curiosity: rattling around in my brain is the word "mete-zashi," tanto worn on the right side of the body with point facing forwards. I cannot find any decent reference of such practice, however. Besides which, even if it was done, the mounts or blade themselves wouldn't have to be different, would they? In that case "mete-zashi" would just mean wearing your tanto backwards . Basically I'm wondering where this term comes from and if it's something that slipped into my subconscious from inferior sources, or if it's genuine but just very esoteric. Cheers, -GLL

Interesting piece; I should read more carefully, didn't notice the length.

Hi, Isn't this just an umabari (horse needle)? Not that I wouldn't like to own a nice one myself, I love the design of this one. -GLL EDIT: oh, apparently it's properly called a "bashin," according to our good friend Nobody (in an older thread). Look at this beauty: http://www.kanshoan.com/special/dtls_00 ... tsune.html Someone on that older thread (running out the door, not going to fetch the link right now) said these were only on Higo koshirae, interesting...

In this particular case I'd call it "hacked to bits." Seriously, that's a pretty sad shortening job.

Lovely swords with great koshirae on the majority, all with very large nicely taken photos - thanks for link!

Regarding the photo... the jpg compression is very high. So much so that it really distorts some areas of the hada. [EDIT] Sword photos are one of those things that webmasters should be told need to be kept at very low compression; the details we want to see are too fine for anything else. This isn't to say there are no kizu on this particular blade, it's just a point of consideration.

That's just really, really sad. Whoever did it MUST have looked at it afterwards and said "oops," no matter how little they might have known about the subject. Seriously.

Sorry to hear it, Darcy - yours was one of the nicest sites to browse even if I didn't have the means to buy anything. And thanks for the Christie's heads up, looking at the lots now... if only to browse .

Hi Darcy, thanks for the input. Yeah, as I said it's not a pinnacle of art in steel... but even with its issues, I'd love to own this if only for a short time just for its age. Does that make me a bad person? Cheers, -GLL