DirkO

At the top of the page, there's a button called "Suggested Reading" Maybe that's a good place for you to start

Hehehe, don't go over to the dark side, Guido. The only problem is, once you live there, you won't be able to sell anything on Ebay, as no one believes a Chinese nihontodealer :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tango is the name of a province Kami is an official title - meaning "god" or "lord" Naomichi is the real name of the smith Smiths often "acquired" an official title to give their name more stature. I put acquire as that because sometimes officials were paid to give certain titles to people. Tango being the province, however doesn't necessarily mean that the smith worked in that province, he just got the official title for that province that's all. You can read more about this on Rich T's site or in various nihonto books: http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/common_kanji.html

Yes, I'm also on the lookout for a European habaki maker.

It is however used and withheld if you want to export nihonto from Japan to somewhere else. At least that's what I think. This would make sense, seeing the "tagging" of nihonto is done to know which nihonto are in Japan. So if one exports a blade, then that tag is snapped up and the documentation for that bladenumber is updated. I don't know if a new tag is created when you import nihonto into Japan. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes Piers, extensively. The book I have (the newer one) depicts the evolution of the Japanese polearm detailed, with a lot of explanatory drawings.

Hmmm, can you tell me the difference in filemarks ? To me it looks rather the same. The fact that there is an ura-mei is not that important, I still have to decypher it exactly, but it should mean something like "made of pure ore" For me, the signature is a close match, but as you say, only shinsa can decide that If you ever decide to sell it, you can always contact me. If the mei match and it is kanemichi, then it would make a nice daisho set @ Grey : thanks for posting the fujishiro pic !!!

Hmmm, let's see if we have a match... does it ressemble this ? There are also lots of ko-ashi, but I'm not that good at taking pics Still : the page from Fujishiro's would be nice to compare mei's ... Jean ? ... Anyone ? You can look at more pictures of my wak here : http://www.anime-cels.org/PICS/wak/new

:-) I don't have a fujishiro's either, but if it would turn out that you're correct, it would end my quest for info about this smith as well !!! So please, anyone with a fujishiro's : please scan that page so we can verify the mei !

btw : here's a combined review on both books : http://www.yachigusaryu.com/blog/2006/03/book-review-Japanese-spears-and.html

:D ah quoting Cesar in Latin on a Wednesday morning :D

Yep, the negative feedbacks seem to be gone, now only the older (most current one being April 2005) pos feedbacks are there :S And what's worse, the "warning" feedback with the link to this forum is also gone ! Is this some twisted logic from Ebay ? Erase the disputed listings and have done with ? This way the sellers feedback is again at 100% pos .... so we actually did him a favor !!!!

Really ? I always thought the old one was more elaborate ? Or is it just that I expect it to be better because it costs more ?

hmmm beaten by Jean :-) ah well, there are worse things than that

I've got one from Hawleys about polearm terms - which is pretty basic. But I also have another one : Japanese Spears: Polearms and Their Use in Old Japan from Roald and Patricia Knutsen and that one is quite good and elaborate on yari and other polearms (nagamaki, naginata,...) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Spears-Polearms-Their-Japan/dp/1901903567 I know he also had an earlier book - Japanese Polearms - 1963, but I found it too expensive at the time, although I remember it being the better book of the two. Maybe Mike at http://www.satcho.com still has a copy, you can always try, he's good at hunting down books :-)

Although we managed to get this into his feedback : See http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3491 matsuzakaya ( 213) Jul-15-08 01:26 Exceptional JAPANASE SWORD ~DAISHO YOSHITAKE~NO RESERVE (#260262201752) US $20,000.00 View Item Seeing the guy doesn't have 90% pos feedback, a lot of cautious people out there will read his feedback and the previous post about this scam...

I've got a Tango No Kami Naomichi wakizashi at home and although I've found a few mei to compare it with, it was never the same. Yours however, comes really close. Here's a pic of the mei on my blade. Could you maybe take a better pic of the mei ? That would make it easier to compare. Although they seem similar, there might be some things we're missing due to lack of detail.

Hi, Last but not least. Tokubetsu Kicho - NBTHK - Akasaka Tsuba. I welcome all comments on this, my favourite tsuba. I'm sad to see it go, but I can't collect kodogu and nihonto. My wallet won't stretch that far. mumei Theme : Japanese ginger ? Edo Period Size : 7.3x7cm Weight: 90g

Hi, I'm looking to sell this tsuba and I just want to verify what I think is the correct info about them. So please, any remark at all would be greatly appreciated. I'm selling it to enhance my collection with a nice naginata. Tsuba 2: unsigned Heijanjo (in my humble opinion) Edo Period ? Size : 7.9x7.8cm Weight: 133g

Hi, I'm looking to sell this tsuba and I just want to verify what I think is the correct info about them. So please, any remark at all would be greatly appreciated. This was my first tsuba and I like it a lot, because of it's simple nature. But I like a good naginata better so I have to make some sacrifices :-) Tsuba 1: mei : Kuni Hiro Edo Period Dark patina Kakugata form and kaku mimi. Kozuka itsu ana and kogai itsu ana are open. Size: 78mm×72mm Nakago ana 28mm×9mm I don't know about these scratches on the 1st pic, could they be described as battlescars ? Is it something worth mentioning ?

I think they were made from simple steel and not tamahagane. Basically because it was more utilitarian than real nihonto.

Aaaaaaah :-) OK, I saw new unread posts so I thought it was a recent thread

Brian, Maybe it's a good idea to reopen the poll and let it run for a longer period in time. Especially given the holidays and so on. That way you would get more representative figures. Personally I'm running 1280x1024, like most 19" TFT's.

Well I dabble on Yahoo Japan. But the high end gear will always end up with a decent price. Don't go there expecting to find any hidden treasures. The stuff sold off on auction sites is mainly the stuff they can't shift on the internal market. Personally I use http://www.japanauctioncenter.com for this. They're nice to deal with, when you ask them something, they'll reply within 24 hours and recently they did some updates on the site which improved the experience considerably. But again, if you're looking to buy high end stuff, be prepared to pay high-end prices. Also never forget your shipping costs and possible customs fees. I always go by the motto "If you're serious about buying something, you should go through a serious dealer"

Very nice naginata indeed, especially the fact that the pole and mountings seem to be in good order is striking. I'm expecting this one will fetch a pretty penny. Too bad I've just bought myself another naginata, because this one would go high up my list