Jussi Ekholm

I'm no tsuba guy but out of those two I would pick number 1, to my untrained eye it just looks better aesthetically. Unfortunately I don't like Tokei tsuba at all, it is just not a style I like. Out of curiosity what attibution the number 2 has?

飛騨守藤原氏房 - Hida no Kami Fujiwara Ujifusa, seller has it correct in my opinion.

Chris I think there is already tons of written data about characteristics of swords and what you should expect about various schools and smiths. I admit being sometimes quilty of "using easy search" on some of my great references when a great hint is being given and I focus on that single bit weeding out the crop (and I think your program would work in similarish fashion). Because I have great reference library and not too good eye (at least not yet) for me often text based kantei can be even easier than by picture or eye. Because usually text based kantei hints are made by very experienced person and he/she can give just the right hints to make it fun. You will need a lot more reference blades than 500 Kotō blades for example. It will be a good start but there is so much fine details that are seen even among the same school, some times even among the works of the same smith. I can see text based kantei program being fairly possible to make up, and it seems as Carlo wrote it is already done and tested by the INTK member. It is a massive project but if you use something like 5+ "nihonto bibles" as your database you'll get a huge amount of raw data which your program would then use. I am not a computer guy so I don't know how you set search parameters etc. but it will be a huge project of data gathering and then lots and lots of tuning.

Ōdachi have always been something I like very much. Heck there is something about large two handers be it European, Japanese etc. that just hits me really hard. However when you think about the large tachi, not all of them are really huge. I think you could throw 4 shaku as a divider, ōdachi between 3 to 4 shaku is perfectly usable for trained warriors and those over 4 shaku get increasingly more difficult to use as the length increases. I have been trying to gather a small database for myself of various surviving ōdachi, the unfortunate thing I found out that there are lots and lots of great tachi around 85 cm in length still surviving but actually only quite few when you go over 90,9 cm in length. I will hopefully eventually share that database when I get enough swords added to it. Unfortunately I am so slow in everything. About the use, I have lots of good information in my reference library but unfortunately pretty much all of it is in Japanese. And my own translation from Japanese is extremely slow process filled with errors... (might have to get Markus translate few of these articles for me some day). I wish that I could already share some more definite info but on my research it seems ōdachi were used by foot as well as on horseback. On horseback the momentum would have had aided in use, and on foot the size will give reach. I have started translating a short article from NBTHK magazine - On the use of ōdachi as seen in Bukō Yawa. However my process is full of errors and I probably can never finish it because it is way over my league. Here are some small tidbits that I hope I have translated somewhat properly. There is lots and lots of interesting things in this one article alone. It pains me I have so much amazing information that I can't read yet... I just looked at the Futarasan-jinja catalog and ōdachi number 8 attributed to Shizu 141,9 cm blade and 184,4 cm in total seems to have several large nicks on the blade which might indicate them being battle wounds. Same with ōdachi number 12 attributed as Kozori 98,2 cm blade and 129,2 cm in total has several large nicks on the ha and 1 one the mune (at least those nicks it is difficult to look such large swords sized to fit 1 page). There are also few other blades in the catalog that show damage that I would probably think came from battle use. I could spend the whole night writing something about this subject as it is one I like really much. I just tend to start reading more info while writing, or picking up a replica sword and feeling that. So I have to end here or I'll end up putting whole night into this post.

Awesome video Richard.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Here is a try at translation, more skilled folks will help on correcting it. 縁頭薄秋虫図銘寸竜子古川（花押）Fuchi - (describes the theme insects [mushi]?) Mei Sun Ryuu Shi Furukawa (Kao) 目貫雉子図 - Menuki - pheasant? 鐔 張飛図無銘 - Tsuba - Zhang Fei figure - Mumei 小柄 蘇東玻図 銘直悦（花押）- Kozuka - ??? Mei: Naoyoshi (Kao) さぐり花桐図 - ??? - 柄 白鮫着納戸色糸片捻撮巻 - Tsuka - white same kata-hinerimaki with x-color ito

It is always a great pleasure to read meeting reports by you Uwe. As I can't attend the meetings in Germany I really appreciate your pictures and write up about the meeting.

Looks very nice Antti. Like Stephen I'm hoping to see this in polish and at one of our meetings in the future.

I have to say the same thing as Brian said, those whiskers... I can't wrap my head around how good they look, of course the whole tsuba is very nice but that detail just gets my attention every time I look it.

That post on Hasebe was very eye opening, thanks for that Darcy. It is always very nice to read about high-top end collecting even though it is so far away from my own world.

Hello Yu! I refrained from writing a reply earlier to few of your topics but I followed them. As you have acquired some very good quality swords to your collection and by reading the few threads I got the impression you are bit puzzled about some of them. Have you tried contacting/visiting a local/localish (don't know your location) sword club. I am sure the members in there would welcome you with open arms and could offer some hands on assistance with your swords.

Also for everyone, read the description about database that Markus is planning and check out the preview. Markus is once again providing an awesome resource for the international sword community.

I think the wakizashi sized ana makes sense for it to be used as tameshi-tsuba for a small blade. On Markus' Tameshigiri book it says on tameshi-tsuba that for ko-wakizashi tameshi-tsuba should weigh about 560 - 750 grams and for wakizashi c. 200 - 450 grams. Of course it could have been made for totally different purpose too.

I am sure you will be happy with your purchase Rob. As for Mihara classification I think common age groupings are similarish to this. Ko-Mihara c. 1310 - 1390 (earliest dated Bingo sword is 1324 according to Nihontō Kōza) Chū-Mihara c. 1390 - 1450 Sue- Mihara c. 1450 onwards I think you could say Ko-Mihara is generally to the end of Nanbokuchō. Chū-Mihara is to the beginning of Sengoku and Sue-Mihara is Sengoku period swords. For Mihara you can see that in many sources they are being listed being very close to Aoe. Sharing many similar characteristics with Aoe etc. Now some newbie dewbie thoughts. I've been reading some good stuff about mumei swords from many sources and my own understanding about mumei attributions is getting more "open". I used to think them as too set in stone. You can sometimes hear seller/owner saying/writing that this Mihara sword looks like Aoe and could very well get attribution to that school. Which could very well be true but the opposite is something you don't hear too often. I believe Aoe classification on mumei sword indicates higher overall level than Mihara classification in general so you don't see dealers & owners wanting to make their swords "lesser". Like Paul said above about the Enju / Rai, you sometimes hear speculation about mumei Enju getting a pass for Rai but you don't often hear sellers/owners of mumei Rai blade saying it could very well be "only" Enju. That being said all that speculation above is way over my actual knowledge level. I haven't seen & handled enough Rai / Enju blades in person to know the subtle differences etc. same goes for Mihara / Aoe. But I keep following the sword market which is fun even though I don't buy anything.

Well I don't think it can be too bad buy for 39,99$'s. You can't really get even a decent Chinese made replica tsuba for that price.

As I do not have too experienced eye for details (or even too good eye sight) the written description is many times more helpful for me than pictures. However I think the hints Aoi had for this one might be bit too helpful as you could make a guess for Naotane without even seeing the blade just based on the hints. I must admit that without written hints and by looking at the blade only that would be a hard one for me and I am not sure if I would be able to arrive to same solution as with written hints available.

Good job guys. That is a beefy blade.

This should be a great event. I am really bummed I cannot attend this one. Hopefully I can get to UK another time.

I was thinking tameshi-tsuba for the one that Marius was selling. As it is very plain and the weight would be comparable to those listed in Seskos Tameshigiri book. Also as the nakago-ana is not too large so I would guess it was not for really big sword. I think it would fit quite well to description of tameshi-tsuba for wakizashi. Of course this is all just arm chair speculation.

I am not a tosogu guy. I like the animals in this but somehow I don't like the "base". As I see that Ford is checking this out we might get more insight on it.

I did my routine check of many Japanese dealers today and I thought I'd keep an eye out for Naminohira for you. Here are 4 examples. The 2 middle ones are in my opinion the most interesting of the bunch. Naminohira Yasunashi: http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/KT325453.htm(signed, dated, papered) Ko-Naminohira http://kimuratouken.com/01-287.html(papered tachi) Naminohira http://n-kosen.com/katana/A2756.html(papered mumei, very small slender sword with lot curve) Naminohira http://toyuukai.com/2016/09/%e6%b3%a2%e5%b9%b3%ef%bc%88%e8%96%a9%e6%91%a9%ef%bc%89/(papered mumei)

What Grey said above, that is an amazing book.

Uwe Amazing thread!

Thank you for the meeting report and pictures Uwe.