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Thank you Brian, every donation is highly welcome!

Thank you Peter, I already dropped you a mail from the indiegogo site, hope that it worked. @Brian: Unfortunately, that's indiegogo's new "restrictions": Please note: As of February 14, 2017, only campaigns raising funds in AUD will be able to enable PayPal on their campaigns. If you are raising funds in CAD or GBP, and haven't yet enabled a verified PayPal account, you'll be able to enable direct credit card payments only. As of February 2017, campaigns raising funds in USD and EUR will be able to raise funds exclusively through credit card. However, I would be happy to accept direct PayPal donations to "markus.sesko@gmail.com", with all the options for perks as offered on indiegogo of course

I have just started the crowdfunding campaign Thank you all for your support! Every donation is very much appreciated! Just couldn't do that project at the side, i.e. funds are necessary as many many hours have to be dedicated to feeding the database. It's my first crowdfunding so I am a bit anxious about its outcome https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gendaito-project#/

Please take a look at the link below. The Gendaito Project is still going strong and after my second announcement, I really got much data from you guys over the last couple of years. This is very much appreciated and more information will follow in couse of the planned crowdfunding campaign when I'm back from Europe at the end of February. Thank you for your attention! https://markussesko.com/2017/02/07/gendaito-project-2/

Hm, I think that the motif might be a so-called temochi-daiko (手持ち太鼓, lit. "hand-held drum") that comes with handles and which is today basically a kid's toy. And I think, as mentioned by Guido, that the left and right protrusions are for securing the menuki under the tsuka-ito.

Yes, it looks like KANEKIYO indeed. But I go with Morita's suggestion that the duplicate kanji is deliberately written different. There are more kozuka out there by this or these Masakiyo. On some of them, the MASA character is signed more "recognizable". Also the context of that there were indeed some Yamaguchi based Masakiyo smiths, that there are no Kanekiyo that would match, and that the Mondo no Shô title was used a (famous) Masakiyo makes me stay with the MASA reading. http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/227076454 http://nihontou.jp/choice03/tousougu/kk/kk/027/00.html http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c578315480

Yamaguchi Mondo no Shô Masakiyo (山口主水正正清). Two possibilities: 1) Gimei and aiming at the famous Mondo no Shô Masakiyo. 2) Made by a local Yamaguchi (Nagato province) smith who arbitrarily used that "good-sounding" name and title. I find several Nagato-based Masakiyo smiths (shinto and shinshinto) so I tend 70:30 towards possibility 2. These kozuka mei were anyway taken with a grain of salt.

The engraving part is actually one of Aoi Art's notorious glitches when it comes to the English website. On the Japanese site, the mei is (correctly) quoted as: 水心子正秀淬刃（刻印） Suishinshi Masahide yakiba/saiha (koku'in) Now the koku'in part in parenthesis - i.e. the "hot stamp" as we know, literally "engraved seal" - became "engrave" on the English site, probably because the blade also has engravings. Saiha/saiba with the characters (淬刃・焠刃) means "hardened by..." in this context, in short, the blade was forged by Sadahide and hardned by his father Masahide. I feature one of them in my Shinto & Shinshinto Kantei Zenshû (page 548). Now the saiha/saiba reading of these characters is surely correct but in a kantei session with Tanobe sensei where we had such a joint Masahide/Sadahide work on display, he told me that he rather reads the very term as yakiba because the (焠) character also has the reading yaku, i.e. like yaku (焼) in yakiba. In other words, (淬) and (焠) do both read sai but the latter one also reads yaku and as both were sometimes used interchangeably, and instead of (焼), in period documents, Tanobe suggested to just read them all as yaku/yaki.

As posted on my FB site, I will be in too, for the hardcover version to be precise. Checking my stats, I got a little over "500 people reached" status on my share but no concrete reply. So in order to let Paul know about the actual "real deal" backing of this project, I ask my readers to go directly to Paul's page or FB page. I think that this is a great project and an important must have reference on every bookshelf!

No worries Guidio, I knew that you didn't want to put pressure on me but I was curious myself about if your copy has been shipped already or if it was still marked as "processing".

Quick check with Lulu, your first volume was shipped on Dec 8. Not sure what's the nearest printing partner for orders from/to Japan but hope that the book arrives soon. And thank you all guys, and Grey for being so patient with my English We are working hard on the next volumes.

Reading through the thread I'm not sure if I missed it but there is also the thing that you started collecting but then you are facing personal changes and you need cash right now and what goes first is hobby/passion, i.e. swords or fitting which you don't really want to have to part with for less than you bought them for but where you are ok with to make at least some cash at that time. So you just swallow the loss for the moment but that does not mean that you are out of collecting or out of the subject for good.

Ich Danke Dir Christian für das Lob!

Yeah, I talked to another member earlier and it seems that, for whatever reason, the link doesn't work properly on Safari. Maybe it is just a temporary thing but Chrome and Edge work fine so far.

I think the proper name for the deity is matarajin (摩多羅神).

It's done, the Nobuie project is finished! I am going to start upload the PDFs to wetransfer.com tonight, adding the email addresses I have from you guys. So you will get an email from them in which I will include a private link to Lulu where you can order the print copy. Hardcover print copy with 210 pages glossy paper and color print (I added some color pics as promised) is $55. As mentioned, this is just the printing costs. I'm not making any money when you order your print copy. You all (or almost all ) paid me with the $45. What you will get is Ito san's explanation why Nobuie tsuba are so great (i.e. his artistic approach), a very detailed biography of Akiyama Kyusaku, a complete chronological overview of all Noubuie studies done from the Edo period until the 1980s (Ito includes all the pics and oshigata from these period publications), and Ito's own approach of classifying the Nobuie mei into two main categories with a few sub-categories each. Just a little reminder (I have mentioned that earlier in this thread): Please do not share or resell the PDF you get from me! The same applies to the private link to Lulu. As soon as everyone got his copy I will take that down anyway. I have explained before why: It is not about money, it is about that when everyone thinks he can get a copy later down the road from buddy or dealer XY, no one will join such little projects and nothing will be realized. So it is in our all sense to keep the making available of Nihonto knowledge going. Thank you. PS: If you don't get your wetransfer mail tonight, don't worry, it might take me another day to send it out to all ~60 participants.

I should like, if I may be so bold, to refer to my new -50% off eBook Super Sale that started today. Its done in view of the upcoming DTI and will therefore last until Nov 6. This time, it is directly via me and for more details, please check out my announcement on my site: https://markussesko.com/2016/10/23/new-ebook-super-sale/

I think it is a mixture of very few high quality Kaifu blades available (i.e. collectibility/availability) and the overwhelming focus on mainstream work. From my own experience, the far out of sight wakimono are often only addressed if someone has a special interest in them, e.g. by acquiring or coming across a very nice piece, and then he does some research and submits that. It is ususally not that experts who write day in, day out on the Gokaden wake up one day and decide, well, why not doing some research on the Kaifu group today? Or in other words, there is no checklist to work off topics. Suggestions have to come from outside. But that's just how I perceive Nihonto studies in general.

The Kaifu School is very interesting and I did some research on it a while ago. A theory says that the resemblance to Go (i.e. what the 24th Juyo setsumei actually means, not "transformed itself into a big river" as mentioned in the newsletter) goes back to the fact that the former owner of the Iwakiri, Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522-1564) had the Kaifu master smith Ujiyoshi, who worked for him, study the originals. This approach is supported by the "fact" that Nagayoshi was known for owning two great Soshu meibutsu, the Miyoshi-Masamune and the Miyoshi-Go, which were both unfortunately damaged in the Great Meireki Fire of 1657.

I usually translate (氏蔵) as "owned by (Mr.) XY," i.e. in reference to an individual. Also "from the XY collection" is possible but still in reference to an individual. In contrast there is (家蔵), which I usually translate as "in the possession of the XY family." And when it is (伝来), I usually translate that as "heirloom of the XY family" or "handed down within the XY family."

UPDATE ON THE PROJECT: I am glad to announce that the project is in its final stages and that everything should be finished by the end of this month. Again, I apologize for the delay and the stupid deadline that I announced first, not bearing in mind that its no longer me of ten years ago. I think I got all your emails and when the project is finished, I will make a short notice here and start to send out the PDF-based eBook to each paying participant. As I'm going to use wetransfer.com, you will get an email with a download link and at the same time, I will send you a private link to Lulu.com from where you can order the print copy if you want. As always, just drop me a mail if you have any questions. In the meanwhile, I tried to get in touch with two parties who participated via Facebook, but no answer yet (maybe my mesage landed in the filtered folder). Apart from that, there are three participants from NMB who have not paid yet, Alan Sue, Justin Orr, and Ed Harbulak. There is still time left until everything is finished but may these gentlemen get in touch with me in the meanwhile. Thank you all!

Geez, I remember your site being my very first place to go back then. I absolutely absorbed everything from your site! I can't thank y'all guys enough for providing the solid, earnest, and inspiring base for this whole internet nihonto thingy

The description box in the link should be left out as it's a "copy and paste" error (referring to shinogi-zukuri, chu-kissaki, a ko-notare hamon, a sugu boshi, and bohi on both sides). The actual juyo paper, which is not linked, says o-suriage.

It's actually a big clue as the first character is ubu (生).

I agree with Franco, great learning experience. And Darius, I think you made a good buy in the very sense of a study object that will keep you fascinated for a long time. You did your homework. I mean, there are plenty of other, standard blades out there by Kunisuke, so it takes some balls going for this one as you were following your taste even if such blades are surely out of the box. But smartly with a safety rope, the Tokubetsu-Hozon papers, what tells us that even if reshaped (and I still think it is pretty close to ubu), the NBTHK recognized its importance. I'm really curious right now how many remodelled shinto era naginata got Tokubetsu-Hozon (all juyo naginata by him are unaltered naginata of course). Kunisuke was surely a great master but as mentioned, it's not like that it passed Tokubetsu-Hozon just because there are only three blades of him known...