DirkO

Brian, Isn't this you can simply see in your webalyzer or webstats tool? Most hostings have this and you can actually see the platform from which the pageviews or hits are coming...

I've always thought Choshu to be an underestimated school - this is a very fine example indeed! It's not all vague mountains and Sansui themes... Some of them were quite inventive. The cut out moon in reeds comes to mind (Choshu Yukitaka I think - should look it up in my books).

Hi Fred, A very similar, if not the exact same, tsuba was discussed here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4608&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Yuichi Hiroi is co-author of the books so that makes sense, thanks for all the info Piers

Hi Piers, I'm not surprised he didn't see the set - only 580 copies exist and it's quite pricy I myself currently only have 1 of the 8 volumes, but I'm actively hunting down the set - for a reasonable price. Weighing 18 kgs, it's also not cheap to ship from Japan :-) A few sets are for sale but they usually sell around the 250.000 yen mark. http://www.worldcat.org/title/nihonto-juyo-bijutsuhin-zenshu/oclc/20247054 http://www.isshindo-shoten.com/product/314 It's 8 volumes, all nihonto (so swords, mountings and kodogu) 7 volumes on swords - the last volume is actually 2 books. 1 on kodogu and the other one an index of the whole lot in English.

Hi Piers, Please do - from what I seem to remember, in order to put things straight, they (government?) asked Junji Homma to create Nihonto Juyo Bijutsuhin Zenshu - 日本刀重要美術品全集. Because there were some forged certificates as well. Homma verified them before putting them in these 8 volumes and this was to be the definitive list. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for explaining Guido! Always nice to learn something

Juyo Bijutsu Hin can't be exported - Like Jacques said, they lose their status if the blades are exported, so there are no blades outside of Japan with this status. The government has first buy right on these - so they usually try to sell them at the end of the fiscal year, when there's no budget left for the government to buy them. Also, in the current economic climate in Japan, they have other things to worry about than buying fancy (and really expensive) art swords. So it's a good time for the Japanese people who're trying to sell them to Westerners.

and another one.... I'm not even looking for these - but it seems you can quickly build a collection.... http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/tsuba-edo-abalone-katana-wakizashi-/131032064516?pt=FR_YO_Art_ArtObjetsEthniques&hash=item1e821ea204

Here's a very similar one- interesting to see what price it will fetch in Japan :-) http://page5.auctions.yahooco.jp/jp/auction/e140032074 .

Thanks Guido - never would've found that one myself! For completeness of the post : The Hakutaku (白澤, lit. "White Benevolence" or 白沢, lit. "White Valley") is a mythical, spiritual beast, said to advise only kings of virtue. It is generally depicted as looking somewhat like a massive lion and can be distinguished by the presence of single or double horns. Often it will have extra eyes on its face or back. It is usually considered to be quite intelligent and well-read. In Japanese folklore, it is said that a hakutaku visited Emperor Koutei (koutei is the Japanese word for emperor, so this is a fictional account). The creature could talk and explained that he only visited the greatest and most auspicious of rulers. The hakutaku went on to explain to the emperor that there were 11,520 youkai in the world; it also taught the emperor how to escape and exorcise the bad ones and deal with the good ones. The emperor set all that knowledge down in an encyclopedia of youkai. Some other pics (quite the looker!):

Seeing it comes from a knowledgeable seller, do you really think he would sell it at that price if it stood a good chance of being Gassan Sadayoshi ??? Prove me wrong with a shinsa and I'll be first to congratulate you and admit my sceptiscism was wrong! However chances are against you...

I came across this tsuba - no intention in buying it - but I'm puzzled by the theme? Seems to be some horse-like beast with a Chichi head and some dragon parts thrown in? And what's that 3rd eye doing there on top of its horn???? Was this a bad local rendition of some exotic animal? Like the elephant drawings you sometimes encounter?

Not ayasugi hada... here are some real examples to compare:

I'm waiting for the holidays - Lulu usually gives better discount codes then and then I can order a few - but this one will be definitely on the list! Keep up the good work Markus - Lord knows you're not in it for the money - the effort you put in, isn't reflected in the price nor in the amount of books sold - pity actually.

For more about mekugi-ana styles, please also read Markus's blog: http://markussesko.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/the-secret-world-of-mekugi-ana/

I actually sent them a mail about this book lot - it puzzles me that they didn't split it up - I think you'd have more buyers for a number of smaller lots instead of this huge library...

Isn't this sayagaki by Sato Kanzan? The writing of Tanobe-san is quite different?

Hi Gabriel, Here's a little line up - all the reference examples are papered and from 1911->1914 (so roughly the same era). Please look closely and you'll find a lot of differences in the strokes. The yasurime also don't look fine enough and quite superficial.

Sure, but I think it has reappeared: http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d144131128 Once again, a huge amount of bids, but nowhere near the old price....

not the first time something gets pulled from Yahoo Auctions only to reappear a few days later - also when they had a private offline bid, they can stop and cancel the auction as well - although some doubts were expressed on this forum, a lot of people were willing to gamble a lot of money on this one

could be Hon'Ami Chikayoshi from the Kozan lineage - Kanji seem to match.

It's a pity that none of the normal Proxies (YAC,...) don't want to deal with nihonto, because sometimes something really worthwhile pops up. http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r105221663 more pics here: http://hpcgi3.nifty.com/bugu/view126.cgi The end price won't be for the faint hearted....

Actually not a bad idea to try and do this using this very forum - if we could get a decent sample of verified polishes (so from togishi from either Hon'ami or Fujishiro tradition,...) and their nagashi, we could try. All we would need are the pics of the nagashi, who polished it, what tradition the polisher was trained in, and when it was polished. I know some people don't like to make pics of their collection public, but it's just the nagashi we would need. Maybe a nice idea for Brian to conjur up something?

George, I think you're right when you say that most probably very few of those original polishes will remain. I always heard that a good polish will last a 100 years, obviously there are exceptions and known examples of older polishes, but I think this to be correct for the majority of the polishes. Seeing the Kiya were apparently more low key than the Hon'ami, this also doesn't help any documentation. It would for instance already help a lot if we knew the nagashi-scheme they use. We know a little bit about that for the Hon'ami and Fujishiro trained polishers, but even that knowledge is sparse and far from being conclusive...