Bugyotsuji

Nice find! Remember not to try to clean it up any more as the Police will want to be sure it was found as is. Any evidence of attempts to polish it, etc., will not be received well. They can be extremely harsh with people who try to register an old sword and the experience often leaves people feeling drained, I have heard, even when the transaction was successful. They try to pick holes in your story and can make you feel as if you are doing something wrong. Good luck! Broken swords were often used as farm implements, for splitting bamboo etc. Depending on the length of the blade it might be wise to tell them about that section too, showing your honesty and giving them something to take away 'in exchange'.

Congratulations. How would I go about getting one of each? Oh, it says they will be running this in a series, so we would have to collect all the issues to get the Japanese? Here's the Chubachi Art Museum 中鉢美術館 site. http://chubi.fam.cx/index2.html

Ah, so it was Les Dorfman in the minibus. Thanks, Pete.

Derek, :lol: they gave you 60 seconds per sword and then the buzzer and (repeated reminders over the speakers) told you to drop and move along. Do that 150 times in a morning... Go out of the room, sit down, recharge, and then plunge in and do it again!!! Now, which swords took your breath away? No Kokuho or Juyo Bunkazai there as we are not allowed to take them in hand any more, but the room was heaving with Juyo Bijutsu and Tokubetsu juyo token, many passed down through famous families such as the Tokugawa. For me several, including some nice Kotetsu, a couple of Sukesada and a Naotane, but surprisingly the Sadamune (lying next to two Masamune) maybe took the cake. Perhaps the piped arias and church music had finally gotten to me and some remnant acid from college days was stirred up, but the thing was three dimensional and moving subtly. (Or maybe it was the beer and Chinese Shokoshu sherry from Saturday night?) An arm and a leg, Henry, yes, and also parts of your undercarriage.

Haha, yes, even some of the Japanese found those Nobori slightly odd. The speeches went on forever it seemed, and I couldn't see much translation going on for the poor foreigners, all waiting patiently for the ladies in China dresses to break out the beer. Here is something from Shimane.

Agreed. Words fail at the quality of the showcases. Lines and lines of tsuba, by age and school, examples to die for. The only weak link I could see was when they arbitrarily changed the wording after two 'Heianjo tsuba' to 'Kyo-sukashi'. Some of the examples were reminiscent of tosogu on sale at the DTI at staggering prices, 5,000,000 ~ 10,000,000 JPY and beyond. PS Having read your post above, Henry, I must agree on Kane-ie. The display opened my eyes. I never understood why people go on about Kane-ie, having only seen so many copies and poor b&w photos, I suppose. Now I am converted. Such beautiful intricate delicate sense in the gold inlay touches for example. Also yes, I do hope they publish an illustrated handbook for this.

Did you manage to squeeze yourself into the front seat of the minibus (apart from your right foot) by any chance?

Sorry we did not meet, John. I was there both Saturday and Sunday. Didn't realize everyone was going to be wearing a suit and tie for the dinner. What an amazing experience for me though as a first-timer, for a number of reasons. (No photography was allowed in the main viewing hall...)

I took some at the NBTHK dinner too.

Jacques is saying that they never use tsuba in Katori Shinto Ryu, but as we saw on the previous page all the ones on those racks (of some other Ryuha) have tsuba. Hmmm... the tsuba in yours looks much like my latest, and the leather habaki also looks like two I just made last week. Nice long pole, though!

Derek, it very much depends on the dealer, but some of them are more intelligent than we give them credit. They will be learning about you, every word you say and every gesture you make. Be the way you are. Often the second and third deal is smoother, if they like the communication from the first, IMHO.

Hmmm... no tsuba then?

Nothing to do with the price of fish, but here are my toys, freshly patched up, mostly given to me over the years. At left, Kinai at 119 cm 2nd from left, Bokuto at 101 cm 3rd Bokuto at 99 cm 4th Old Bokuto at 92 cm 5th Old Wakizashi Bokuto at 63 cm 6th Mozo-to, large at 96 cm overall. No, Ken, I have not trained in how to use them. I hope I would look suitably posed and threatening if some funny guy came to the door.

Morita San, that sounds like an awful lot of work to ask you to do. :|

The Fujiwara Effect. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%97%A4% ... 9%E6%9E%9C Watch out this weekend for two typhoons (#27 & #28) interacting with each other, called the Fujiwara Effect, like two tops hitting and spinning off unpredictably. Sunday could get bad in Tokyo...

Thanks Alan. Yes I mentioned Clive Sinclair too.

This summer I was at a conference in London where Ian Bottomley spoke so eloquently. During one of the breaks I bumped into a good lady 'Objects Conservator' from the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. During the course of our chat we touched on Tsuba and her eyes lit up. "Do you know anything about them?" she asked. "We have drawers full of them and no-one to advise us." "Well, I have about 50..." I was saying when she broke in, "You sound like just the person to come and sort them out!" "No", I protested, "Most are rubbish, and I know very little about them. You need someone like Ford Hallam to look at them." I suggested she Google him first to understnd the breadth and depth of his knowledge. If she has contacted you, Ford, my apologies first and foremost, but I was hoping that you might be able to give them a pointer in the right direction.

Fantastic link, Ken. Thanks.

The 'new' one with the iron tsuba looks like a chokuto with a Chu-kissaki, missing the habaki. The other two have roughly the same sori and kissaki, the tanto missing a tsuba.

Eric, the top illustration is posted earlier in this thread, but Holy Maloney, look at that rack below! Chris, thanks for the link. On their travels through Japan this month, Anthony and Jan from Sweden did some of that in Kagoshima last week.

Thank you kindly, Morita San. It's full of honorifics! Sadly, I am getting less meaning from that than I had imagined. Is it referring to a blade that has been polished, or reset in new koshirae for an occasion?

Mmmm... nice!

Today I bought an old somewhat worm-eaten bokuto with a large rusty iron tsuba. Iori mune. Saved from the tip? This can go on the stand with the old tanto bokuto so now the display feels a bit more 'authentic'.

Inside this empty box was a small sheath of paper, possibly originally around the saya of a presentation tanto.(?) Someone has transcribed the description to a larger sheet fixed inside the lid. Can anyone read the brushwork? (Standard modern Japanese writing is fine.) Many thanks in advance.

A Showa smith named Imaizumi Toshimitsu, see in list under west of Japan: http://japaneseswordindex.com/rank.htm wished to pass on his craft to his son after WWII. The son managed to chop off several fingers, so sadly had to give up sword smithing. He chose to run a restaurant nearby in Bizen Osafune which he calls Meito 名刀 Udon. Five of us (four are members of NBTHK) had lunch there yesterday and one of the ladies ordered the Meito Udon Special, which came with a battered blade in it. We asked the waitress what it was, and she said Anago. Thanks and well done to those who ventured replies!