Bugyotsuji

One line each? I'll go first, then...　 活花図鍔　Ikebana Zu Tsuba.

Any luck in the end? *****To the USA? Any further ideas? (Not Canada in this case) Japan Post, EMS? UPI? What do most Japanese sword shops use? Just as an aside, is it possible to put one in your suitcase, or box it separately and put it in the hold?

佐倉家士　細川忠義作 Sakura Kashi Hosokawa Tadayoshi Saku Well, that's my guess, but I had to work with my books and the internet.

Yes, Ian, very true. People's names, and place names here in Japan can be a nightmare too, understood only by the select few. Nigoru also means "voicing", and it happens with English loan words too. A word like 'news' has a voiced Zzzz buzz at the end in English, but the Japanese have removed that to make it sound like, not nyuuz, but nyuuss.　De-voicing? They do it with bag, (baggu) which becomes back, (bakku) and bed/bet beddo/betto. A 'close-up' shot becomes a 'cloze-up', on the other hand. But getting back to Jigane for example. Someone suggested today that it might be the Tokyo word for Jihada!

PS Great article on rendaku, Jussi. One good learning one for me was my mix-up between Kosame and Kozame.

No.1 at Aoi Art he states he has no idea of the age, but with his iron jingasa he says "late Edo". Which would you choose? No.2 on eBay says it was made between 1900 and 1940.

Hi Jussi, good luck with your Japanese studies. It's really fascinating, isn't it. Your bible sounds like a useful discovery. Somehow we have to get exposed to Japanese as much as possible and pick up the rules between the lines. I have heard it said that very young children pick up their mother tongue pretty quickly, even by the the age of three, but it's when they enter the classrom and get laughed at by others that they start learning the exceptions to the rules. Over the years I have had too many J friends to count, but of those there is only one who would stop me and actually correct my language usage. A funny guy, but his Japanese was particularly delicate and deliberate, and when he spoke it was as if he was enjoying expensive French cuisine. Sometimes I feel really confident in Japanese and then the next moment I find myself suddenly completely out of it. Well, that happens in English too! One fascinating thing for me, though, is watching two Japanese disagreeing over the accent to a word, for example. Like meeting a Japanese person who dislikes fish, It releases me from the pressure of some kind of heavy concept and frees me up to enjoy things a bit more. OK, I'm waffling. I'll get my coat!

Already caught it, Jean. Many thanks.

Recently doing some translation work, I noticed that I was getting different answers from different people and different books on certain words. For a Japanese person it is simple to read and understand this 棒樋 without vocalizing it. Any translator into Romaji though, has to write Bo-hi or Bo-bi, choosing either one or the other, in the knowlededge that it might become a textbook influencing the future. Nagayama Kokan's book says Bobi, and the only example where -hi is used in there is with the groove in a Naginata, ie Naginata-hi. All of his other usages in the book, The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords, such as Futasujibi are -bi. An illustrated book by Gakken is more explicit, but different again, giving 1. Bohi 2. Soebi 3. Tsurebi 4. Futasuji-hi 5. Koshibi Recently I came across the word jimon. Is this the popular word for activity in the ji? Someone corrected me and said no, that there is ji, and jigane, and there is hamon, but no jimon per se. It sounds funny, he said. I was advised to change them all, which I did. When the proof came back they had all been changed back again to jimon. Do you read the nakago date as Nen Gatsu Hi or Gatsu-bi or Gatsu-jitsu? There was more, and more controversial, but perhaps this isn't the place to get into too much detail; I was just hoping to discuss the lie of the land in general. Other members may have better examples. When I was told that there is no final agreement on many words within the sword community in Japan, then it was that I began to understand the pressure on me or everyone to 統一 'to-itsu' (unify/standardize), ie come up with a standard word that we will all stick with, for the purposes of this one publication anyway. Is there a fear that troublemakers will step in and begin to ask more and more difficult questions if they see a chink in the chain fence? Is this a difference between east and west Japan, Kanto and Kansai, or is there some other factor at work? Is it a function of whoever is chairman of the local sword society? Does each society deveop certain word habits? My sword teacher says that some sword experts in Japan are sticklers for correct usage, and their opinion can sway everyone else in the near vicinity. I suspect that Japan is on the other hand a very forgiving society, where no-one will pick you up for mistakes, unless you are unlucky in who you meet. There is a tension around swords, though, manners being extremely important, for the sake of safety and respect for tradition at the very least. Is it a matter of 99 smilers and forgivers and one red-faced, overworked policeman? The floor is open...

The follow-up is winding down but never-ending. Now they have begun to understand that I want it to be right as much as possible in the detail, and more and more fine-tuning questions are coming back down the pipeline. Phoof... In this heat the hairs are getting up my nose.

Finally it has twigged! The first one only at the Tokyo Sword Museum is a split exhibition, Phase I on now, and Phase II running from 25 August until 1 November. The Sano Art Museum, and the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum displays are planned as 'whole' exhibitions.

Great write up and information, Michael. Many thanks.

Paul, don't let yourself be fooled by Malcolm. (He gets me every time, but I am old and foolish.)

Now I must apologize to Markus for my earlier criticism of the quality of the English in some sections of this excellent tsuba book. Having been involved in the translation of an upcoming event and book, it is easy to see how this can happen. Having spent over 100 hours on one part of the catalog alone, my manuscript was sent back full of changes, made with almost no consultation. I was also handed a standardized list of translations to follow, with no exceptions. The same word or phrase was to be used each time. Luckily I have been on the phone for hours sorting many but not all of these things out, through a secretary third party, but I still do not know who it is on the other end making the alteration decisions. Obviously it is someone who knows swords thoroughly and has quite a bit of confidence in his/her ability in English, and strong standing and face at least within the J community. He/She has spent a large amount of time working on it. This I can absolutely understand and respect. Many times it seems though that my rather poetic English has not been understood, and some of the corrections have meant my rewriting whole sentences since they no longer made sense any more to the English-speaking psyche. I have insisted that they send me the first printer's draught, so at least I am hoping to catch any sudden last minute cuts/slashes, and maybe polish them out a little. My aim all along has been to make the English faithful to the Japanese, yes, but equally, easily readable to non-Japanese audiences. (Beginners and sword afficionados alike.) The museum organizing the printing then said they were going to attach a page from the Japanese Cultural Agency's own sword vocab definitions to the catalog, but then, because I discovered that the list has quite a few probably long-standing boo boos in it, I was asked to correct that page too! Moving goalposts time? No end to the work! Now I am wondering if I should request them not to include my name in the credits for translation. Sorry gentlemen, just blowing off steam.

Brian, pm me some more detail. In katakana? He was charging 1,200 yen a piece, I think he said. I asked him if he could do one each for my daughters; I do need to get back to him on that.

Well, Malcolm, that's pretty impressive. Yes, he is a swordsmith by trade, the younger Ando. This was an event being held on Sunday for the public at the sword museum, and as a sort of side booth he was offering to cut your name for a small price into a rectangle of copper: a dingly-dangly tag. No mekugi-nuki though. (Ken may recognize him as the one who is experimenting with things such as meteorite iron inclusion, recreating utsuri, etc.)

It sounds like a lovely wakizashi, Stephen. Nothing to do with the price of fish, but a couple of years ago I was asked to show a Japanese couple around a sword exhibition and we stopped in front of an early 1500s Yosozaemon no Jo Sukesada. The wife proudly mentioned that her husband owned a Sukesada. When I asked which one she looked confused, and he finally opened his mouth and said Kozuke Daijo, from early Edo. Well, I was finding them hard work, so stupidly I decided to play a bit of one-upmanship and said I had a papered Mumei wakizashi that could be well by Yoso... Fatal. They both looked as though I had slapped them in the face and the interview was over as far as they were concerned. They turned around and left, as if they had lost all interest in anything else on show there. I do hope that I will have learned to keep my mouth shut in such a situation if ever it were to arise again. TPO!

The general answers are hidden in the photograph if you read Japanese, or if your antennae are sensitive enough. Four questions of differing levels of difficulty. He is sitting in the hall, just inside the open glass doors on a very hot day, getting occasional cool breaths from the air-conditioning. What is he doing, why, and what or who is he? Enjoy!

The Tokyo To-Ken Sword Museum is the HQ of the NBTHK, but the small display room means that not all of the swords making up this exhibition will be on display. The building is not earthquake proof either, so although they can use their own Kokuho, they cannot borrow from the Sano for example. Might be better to wait and see it at the Sano, or when it arrives in Osafune, where there is an anime/manga game character themed exhibition right now. Or better still, catch all three! This display will have some really special swords, I hear.

Hello Frederick, You can see this was already posted here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17252-bizen%E3%80%80to-ken%E3%80%80o-koku%E3%80%80%E5%82%99%E5%89%8D%E5%88%80%E5%89%A3%E7%8E%8B%E5%9B%BD-traveling-circus/

Thank you for the write-up, which I enjoyed. Nice material for kantei! Your enthusiasm comes across clearly!

There may be a Japanese one, but the multilingual one will surely not be out yet.

Rather hard to track down what exactly is happening, but part I of this is displayed at the To-Ken Museum in Tokyo until August 23, and part II until Sunday November 1. Each of these parts then takes to the road and goes to... the Sano Art Museum and the Osafune To-Ken sword Museum, I think. (?) So if anyone is in Japan for the next year or so, there could be a chance to catch this. There seem to be 73 swords, many of them spectacular in their style/forging, and/or in their historical association/meaning. Some blades make a first appearance. (They have also managed to collect a group of representative kozori within the display as a sub-theme.) There should be both individual English explanations and a bilingual catalog(ue)... in due course, I have reason to believe. http://www.touken.or.jp/english/index.html http://www.enjoytokyo.jp/museum/event/1199453/ http://grut.to/detail_id_601.php http://news.mynavi.jp/photo/news/2015/05/22/217/images/005l.jpg

Ah, yes, very good. Many thanks for the English translation, Andi. PS I have a strange memory that Ian Bottomley showed me an example of a Japanese blade in Western mounts in the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds. Might even have a rather fuzzy sneaked shot of it somewhere. (?)

Fantastic find, Andi. My German is not good enough to understand the explanation, though...