Bugyotsuji

Maybe if we attack somewhere and reduce it letter by letter? 1. Do people see 知義　there?

The last kanji has a feeling of 作 to me. Or could it be 包家　ie Kaneie?

Yup, learned something today! So many of these only make sense with the benefit of hindsight. Very good indeed!

Just playing, but if not, then 雲州 ?

Yes, it does have a 'young' feel to the iron and shape. Here are some examples of very modern Sasumata used in schools and banks around Japan for catching undesirable types. http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B5%E3%82 ... m_sbs_sg_5 http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%A2%E3%83 ... m_sbs_sg_2 http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%A0%AA%E5%BC ... _sbs_sg_11 Many more on Amazon.

My pleasure gentlemen. Kunitaro San. The tsuba was on its own, lying flat in a darkish space between the koshirae on the right (which had a different tsuba in it) and the splendid blade and pieces on the left, as I remember. Brian, no I am too much of a coward to take photos when there are clear signs saying "No Photography". I saw a western youngster obviously snapping away with his mobile smart phone, which was a bit galling. Grrrr.......... There was a Kikuchi yari, two or three fukuro yari, several Oomi, and were some lovely Sasa-ho, several Jumonji, one by the famous Yari smith Masatsune. Perhaps fifty blades altogether, with some amazing Yari-saya. Look at the size of the Yari they had standing in the hall. '3 Gen-Han' Yari, just short of 20 feet? http://okazakipark.com/museum/iyeyasu/ka100.htm (Four pics. Two clickable links below.)

PS Afterwards we had the engine re-mapped at a tuning shop in Nagoya so the return trip was exhilarating. At just after midnight I got out of the car and saw a fire-blue shooting star dropping towards the orange half-moon hanging low in the sky. Walking back to the house I saw two fireflies in the garden among the shrubbery, reminding me of younger days feeling guilty as I stumbled home drunk to the wife, but sensing that Nature was somehow giving me forgiveness with a glimpse of things rarely seen by more normal folks.

Having started this thread I suppose I will have to take some responsibility for fleshing it out. 5 am start. 800km round trip in a lightly-tuned Mitsubishi and at least 15 pamphlets later I am safely back home. Saw the Yari exhibition at Okazaki Castle, in the Ieyasu and Mikawa Bushi Museum about 50km east of Nagoya. This alone is worth a visit if you have never been. A real eye-opener for me on the beauty and variety of spears. Included in the ticket is entry to the castle keep. Rebuilt, it is a bit of a familiar disappointment with the concrete and metal-railed stairs, but the grounds and moats are superb. Next stop Nagoya and the Tokugawa Art Museum. Set in beautiful gardens it is a bit of an excuse to stretch the legs. I was expecting a few Bizen swords to be thrown together but how wrong I was. They were pulled from everywhere, but it was gratifying to see how they had managed to find something representative of every age and place and personage linked to Bizen and Tokugawa. Some swords gave you three of four chances in a row to see a Mitsutada, a Nagamitsu or a Masatsune from surprisingly different stages in the life of the same smith. Famous names galore. Not a part of my remit here really, but the sword I liked best was a lowly unpapered Hikozaemon Sukesada from 1505. (Please forgive me, these things have to be subjective, so sssshhhh... don't tell anyone.) And now the bad bit. The lighting there was terrible. You could not see into the blades at all. (The Gakugei-in at the Osafune Sword Museum for example do go to infinite trouble to get the lighting just right.) Whoever was responsible at the Tokugawa Museum for placing those precious swords almost haphazardly on those inflexible stands got everything wrong. The katana were bad enough, but the tachi were impossible to appreciate. Sure there were a couple of better-lit cases, but most were under suffused and dimmed light coming through an overhead grille. What a waste! The Akebono tsuba too. Too far from the glass and in shadow, you could see nothing. Greasy spots from foreheads of people tying to get a closer look. To add insult to injury, what happened when we tried to shine a small weak torch/flashlight onto the blades? My sword teacher's batteries were getting low, so I enquired in a whisper to one of the attendants whether the museum shop sold batteries. Her reaction was, "Oh, no, you cannot shine lights on the swords!" Not only no photography, and bad lighting, but no personal lighting allowed? :headbang: The reason? Very Japanese. Apparently the reflected light off a blade had got in another visitor's eyes and there had been a huge row and an official complaint made. In order to mollify the offended visitor, the museum had had to introduce a policy of discouragement of personal lights. Luckily my Sensei produced a card saying who he was, and he lodged an official request to have the lighting improved. Let us hope that the attendant followed up on her word to pass the advice up the line to the absent Gakugei-in. There were other related displays including cases of fabulous hand-painted books on the life and times. (There was an Australian couple there yesterday, the lady in a red dress, the man with a beard. Members here?) Just to see all these swords in one place, with those famous names, was a real privilege and it made the discounted ticket price of 1,200 JPY worth it. Please add your voices (mentioning no names of course) if you have a connection to the Tokugawa Art Museum, in regard to blade angle, positioning and lighting.

Not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Yahoo's Japan news reports his death from pneumonia in Niigata at age 85 on the 26 June 2013. Amata Akitsugu (real name Seiichi). RIP http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130 ... 0-jij-soci

To make it a little more accurate those are overlapping or 'joined' petals on the Chinese flower pattern, so... "Maru ni kumo ni Musubi Kara-hana" ? :lol:

Book 2. *Notice on the left there is one with an 'external snow ring'...

Here are some pics, background info and family names, taken from two Mon books. Book 1.

Jan, congratulations on your Yoroi-bitsu. If it's still an open field, then let's have a go at naming it at least. It's all in a thick circle, so Maru ni... Then we seem to have a surrounding of clouds, so ...kumo ni... In the middle could be five petal 唐花　Karahana, so "Maru ni Kumo ni Karahana". Or Maru ni Karahana with a lining of Kumo! :lol:

Curran, a plain iron tsuba, named 'Akebono', it is described as 15th c, ie 1400s. 無地鉄鐔 号 あけぼの(12 刀 南泉一文字 附属) 伝豊臣秀頼･伝徳川家康･徳川義直所用 名物 室町 15

Kunitaro San, yes, I think maybe next week some time. A friend is going and I hope to get a lift in his car. That tsuba certainly has a lot of history attached to it!

6 June till 21 July, with the focus on Ichimonji-Ha and Osafune-Ha school blades. http://www.tokugawa-art-museum.jp/

On the blade, a version of Marishiten. (?) See here: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=c ... 80&bih=685

It's a genuine sword, but your question seems to be deeper than that. What exactly are you asking? "Is this sword really by such-and-such a famous Japanese swordsmith as written on the paperwork?" Is this your real question? Are you hoping we will produce a smith name that will coincide with what you were told?

Three "Heiei" no Jo? father, brother and son, (the others being Ueimon no Jo and Masatsugu Shichibei) Kawaguchi & Iida's Toko Soran, p 566. Dates of Heiei's listed works given as 弘治　Koji 3 and 天文 Tenbun 11. ...and you've looked at Fujishiro for Oshigata, Koto, pp 400 & 401 (in the Japanese version)? Edit. NB Honma and Ishii in the Nihonto Meikan record the second gen Heiei signed without 南部　Nambu before Kanebo/Kanabo

Superb effort. Something to be rightly proud of.

Hi Peter, if you want a starter hint, try 政次　Masatsugu of Yamato

Nice bits! 上 in a circle generally indicates some branch of the Murakami family, including the Murakami Suigun pirates of the Inland Sea. In this sense there is not likely to be a Murakami Mon on the back of a Shimazu Maedate.

Does the tick go left or right, Ian? If left, then the Christian possibility is strong.

Ah, excellent, Ian. I'll see if I can get a name for you if someone else does not beat me to it!