DirkO

Hi, I came across this Naotane, Sai-jo Saku: http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/0710_3031syousai.htm Now this item, beautiful in it's own right, brings up some questions in me (I can only read some very basic Japanese, so it could be that the explanation is right there on the site): 1) Why did a swordsmith make something like that ? Was it because the swordbusiness was slow and he wanted to try his hand at something else ? Was it perhaps made as a gift ? Or a custom order by a wealthy businessman ? 2) Why did it receive kantei-sho ? I mean, it has nothing to do with a nihon-to per se. I know swordfittings also receive kantei-sho, but this is some way out. 3) Why was there a koshirae created for this flowercutting tool ? Sorry for all the questions, but this item really has me puzzled (it doesn't take much to puzzle me ). I think it's a great curiosum and would love to buy something like this. Swordcollecting is all about finding out the story behind the sword and I think this could be a really nice one. Alas, my funds are kind of strapped at the moment

Steve, I'm one of his many happy customers and I must agree that his flashcards help a lot !!!

Would it be possible to get a sharp close-up of the inside of the rim ? Akasaka work can be recognized by their obvious layered work.

Hmmm maybe this is misguided, but wouldn't the following happen : Sellers can't flog their stuff because there are less buyers with extra cash out there => The ones that do have some extra cash get good deals, coz the sellers will inevitably lower their prices and start to work with smaller margins ?

most hamontraits have a certain practical aspect as well. Ashi make it more resilient, and so on. But what would this kind of hamon add in practicallity ?

Sa school was active in Chikuzen province (more info here : http://www.nihonto.com/abtartchikuzensa.html) whereas Mutsu no Kami Kaneyasu worked in the Tegai tradition (Yamato). That should get you started on your quest for more info There's no fun in it if it's all handed to you on a silver platter :lol:

What did he mean by "I think this will be worth 2 to 3" ? Thousands of dollars ?

Shan, I, for one, have never had troubles with PayPal and even now, this scam-attempt has nothing to do with PayPal an se. I am wondering however how the fraudster knew that I won the auction and how he got hold of my email address. (usually it's something like x***y) I guess this can be done by sniffing the traffic towards the ebay servers. My winning bid came through justsnipe.com, and maybe their traffic isn't fully encrypted ? The password will be encrypted with RSA at least, but maybe the userID is sent in cleartext. Once you have a userID, it's pretty easy. I don't know for sure, but it is worrying nonetheless. But never mind me rambling on here ! The important lesson to take home is : BE CAREFULL WHEN BUYING THROUGH THE INTERNET !!!

IP tracks back to NY, USA - and the reply-address is 38c44a90811110039t6f98c2e1t1af457901e98 ... .gmail.com So obviously bogus ...

Hi, I recently won an Ebay-auction of fwic2803 (Mitsuhiro-san). After which I started receiving mails from sales@auctiva-corporation.com. This person said he was fwic2803 and that his PayPal account was having problems, so I needed to send the payment in another way. Seeing these mails were sent to me directly I started to suspect him. Even more so when he said I only had 24 hours before making the payment, otherwise the sale would fall through. I then sent a mail through the ebay-messaging system, asking fwic2803 to verify. He said there were no problems with his paypal-account and that my payment had gone through. I asked him to report this to Ebay and sent him the mails I received from our fraudster. I did a quick WhoIs on the domain name found something very interesting and clever. The technical contact can't be reached by email seeing it's a bot. You have to a member of the domain's site to submit a help request, so there's no way for an outsider to reach them. Probably this is een SMTP-spoofed email address, but still, it doesn't hurt to inform people and make some inquiries. So people, when buying through Ebay or any other auction-site, be very very carefull !!!

A while ago I saw a tessen made by Gassan Sadakazu : http://cgi.befr.ebay.be/Japanese-Samura ... dZViewItem Sometimes tessen were used as a conceiled weapon, so I guess it makes sense that the more sturdy pieces with which one could deliver a blow, were made by armourers or even nihonto smiths.

Jean, mon ami. You hit the nail right on the head. Too bad I explained it poorly Thanks for correcting me

OK, first of all, I didn't mean to offend anyone. Zénon's thought was just that people tend to rely too much on the papers whereas papers are just that - a piece of paper. I think I worded it very poorly in English now I reread it Sorry guys !!!!!

edited for being too dumb a comment, sorry if I should've insulted anyone !

lol I was looking for these 24/7 on ebay, but this must've missed my radar. Now I'm in doubt, seeing I have several items I want to buy, but only that much cash to spend

Ford, I'm one of those dreaded newbies. But please hear this little newby out! I started out a good 1,5 year ago, with the intent of buying a (now) obvious Chinese fake. Being curious, I stumbled upon this forum. I posted some pics and basically was burnt to the ground for them But I learnt from some of the replies (especially the reply of Jean springs to mind - that was the reply that won me over), and I decided to take it a lot more serious than what I was planning to. Now sometimes I have an idea about something. When I see and read the replies, from people who I think to be far more skilled at it than I am, I try and hold that newgained info up against my idea. Sometimes the info is brought in a gentle, subtle way, sometimes it's somewhat less discrete. But I still welcome all the info I get. I realize that a lot of that info is rechewed over and over again, but we all have to start out somewhere. So please don't stop lingering here, because there are a lot of us who do appreciate it !!!

I think we can put this to rest Thank you all for a vivid discussion and some very interesting findings

I'm still a beginning nihon-to student, but what I understand from this is, that this Shisogane was something special. I can't find any other reference to it, except yours. The use of Shiso-gane was so special that the smith actually thought it important enough to engrave in his creation. Now why is this ? I know they sometimes enscribed the use of Nanbantetsu, because it was different from what they used to forge with. Was the ore from Shiso district special/different in any way ? Can anyone tell me something more about this "shiso-gane" ? @ Markus : again for your help. I was helpless when it came to these kanji

First of all : thanks for your efforts !!! I already thought this was a tough nut to crack hmm seeing this smith was quite good and also known under another name, this could be right (the steel of supremest purity bit). Can anyone tell me the hiragana and the literal translation? I'm following Japanese courses, but didn't get as far as kanji yet Domo arrigato gozaimasu !

Hi, I'm trying to translate this uramei (comes from a Naomichi wak): My guess : SHO-?-SADA-CHU-ZO/TSUKU-TO I'm not bad at kanji, but this uramei is written rather shallow and the kanji have way too many strokes for me to make an educated guess... Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated !

Nice article ! It was very informative, I must say. But I'm still somewhat confused by the two Hosokawa Masayoshi in my Hawleys. The nidai seems to be better and is extensively documented in other books as well, whereas the 1st Hosokawa Masayoshi is hardly documented at all... (although hawley's still gives him a respectable 40points)

hmmm I also thought that the mei was engraved in a confident manner, but I'm not experienced enough to make that call, that's why I ask you guys. I still think the "kawa" kanji takes up an awfull lot of space compared to the other kanji.... Here's a better shot of the tanto : Masayoshi

Merci beaucoup Jacques ! Just wanted to make sure ...

Hi, I've come across this mei and I read the last two kanji as masayoshi. But due to the mekugi, I'm still guessing at the first 2 kanji. My guess would be Hosokawa, but the space reserved for the kanji "kawa" seems totally out of scope, which I find disturbing (gimei ?) Now I've hit a few books, and I can find two smiths who signed as Hosokawa and I have various reference mei for Bakkashi Hosokawa Masayoshi (Nihonto Koza - Kanzan Sato's Oshigata Dictionary). I'm pretty sure it's not him, due to the kanji "masa" and the yasurime being totally different. So it could be the other one : MAS1402 - TK593. My question is twofold : first of all : is my translation correct ? secondly, does anyone have a reference mei for the remaining Hosokawa Masayoshi ?

OK I'm a total beginner at this (firsttimer actually so go gently on me ), but I'll bite :-) I'm not afraid of being wrong. Nanbokucho period Shinogi-zukuri Torii-Zori O-kissaki Horimono : shin no kurikara + kaen fudo Ko-mokume hada ? Ko-choji hamon with tobiyaki Yakuzime boshi ? I'll take an "educated guess" on Rai Kuniyuki...