Bugyotsuji

Look at 9, 10, 11 under Tomomitsu in the swordsmith database, at the top right of this page. http://www.jssus.org/nkb/ PS There are two Bishu, and one Bizen å‹å…‰ on p.400 of the Toko Soran.

I don't think you need to stand corrected, Zanshin! What you posted about the Hojo clan was essentially correct, but as Nobody pointed out, these Mon were used by many other people too. Hojo's flat scales were not contained within a circle? It is astonishing how different the Mon usage was by Bakumatsu. The uroko were dragon's scales, by the way, and not fish or snake, apparently.

Mmmm.... lots of things to play around with in there. Nice to be able to put names, both J and E, to some of the faces.

I think you're right as to the Mei. Tsuda Echizen (no) Kami Sukehiro. Is that Echi- ? The second pic gives you the date of about Enpo, 1673-1680, but I can't read the character that looks a bit like 上, unless it means the beginning of... The third frame gives you the length.

Not professional, but I would agree with you 100%.

Can't you see a ghost behind it? I am hoping that he spoke out of jealousy. There is some occasional ghostly activity in this house, but nothing extra since the spear came to live here.

Today was our local meeting of the NBTKHK so I took the spear aound for some advice on rust removal. I mentioned that 2000 wetpaper seemed to dull the shine in the corner that I had tested. "Not paper, it's too rough. Powder", said a voice. "Compound", said three others. Well, I just spent an hour with three different finenesses of compound, fine, medium fine, and super fine, and it's looking 70% better already! PS They liked the blade, and said it had probably seen actual use in pre-Edo warfare. One wise guy said it had quite possibly 'chi wo sutteru'...

Funnily enough, someone did suggest that upstairs might be drier, and this just may be the answer, even though it is much hotter up there. Good idea, Stephen. I'll make the move forthwith!

Stephen, thanks for the vote of confidence, but do you have spears in koshirae and regular semi-loose saya, not in shirasaya? None of mine have shirasaya... Do you think a lot of them 'out there' are not looked after as they should be?

I hate this season. Everywhere in the house is hot and muggy. Leather and wooden objects grow mould on them if I don't check them for a few days. Metal objects start rusting. This evening I sealed the kitchen dining room area and turned the air-con onto super cool and super dry. Then I laid all bladed objects on the kitchen table and checked them one by one for rust. My best spear has a rust rash developing just above the nakago. It was in polish, so I don't dare use anything more than the uchiko, which is not really good enough to remove it. AAaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh.... am I really worthy to look after these things?

Have you considered -tsugu at 13 strokes? http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/kanji_for_mei.html

Just checking my Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, so ... that's THE Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1798-1861, and one of his pupils, Taiso/Tsukioka/Honen Yoshitoshi, 1839-1892. Died insane at the age of 53 with over 80 disciples (?)

Agreed, very nice finds. Although I prefer the latter. Looks like Tomomori managed to pull one arrow out before he gave up the ghost. Interesting background to the first print, but not my cup of tea, so I don't think I could look long and restfully at it. Are these from your collection, Milt?

Joakim, in my experience you should always be on your guard with any sword. Carvings on the blade could indeed be a smokescreen to cover something else. But they could also be, and usually are, quite legitimate. You will need to look very closely at the quality of the carving as one aspect of appraising a sword that you may be considering purchasing. Cover the carving and look dispassionately at the blade on its own. Is it worth the time and money to have asked a good carver to work on the blade? PS Just my personal feeling, but if the seller was really, really proud of the horimono, he/she would have taken a super close-up shot of the Bonji for us.

Used Melatonin for years but the only thing I can say with certainty is that it bridges the gap between the crows and that first coffee shop. White noise TV time. Before Melatonin I would wake up and no way could I fall asleep again. When I take it, I wake up at the same time, sure, but then drift off easily again for some serious bonus sleep, and that is a small blessing. The vivid dreams I always put down to the Melatonin, until one trip when I forgot to take it and had equally vivid dreams. 30 minutes before going to sleep the night of your arrival. The first pills I came across were 3mg jobbies, but then they started selling them in 1mg capsules. It took some years of travelling to find whether 3mg, 2mg or 1mg would work best for me. I now tend to take 2mg the first night, and then nothing or 1mg the next. The third night will be clear which way I should go. That gets me past the worst and by then my body clock is busy resetting itself. It still takes me 10 days to iron out the effects of jet lag on my sleep, concentration, hunger, and digestion cycles, regardless of whether I use Melatonin at the beginning or not.

Thinking about what you were saying Dan, as I was cleaning my guns. I use a variety of oils on the guns, always searching for the best one. I've got English, American and Japanese gun oils at hand. With a Japanese sword, however, which may have a life of a thousand years or more, and which is needing to be kept in pristine condition, I am much, much more careful what I use on the surface.

Don't give up too soon, Aldwin! Your message has only been here for one day and there could be some more ideas posted soon. Gentle probing questions so far. Nothing definitive! Give it just a little more time, I reckon!

The tsuba is either in exceptionally good condition, or it's a recent creation.

Oh, Guido... now I'm feeling sorry I spoke. Good luck with the move. You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Just re-reading it slowly... Guido, if you look at the wording of this, you can see why some people have misinterpreted it. This may even be where the rumours/rumors (quoted by Kevin above) started... "It should be noted that the Torokusho is not a certificate of authenticity; only the length, Sori, number of Mekugi-ana and the Mei (name inscribed) are stated, whether it's authentic (Shoshin 正真) or false (Gimei å½éŠ˜)." I know what you are saying, and so do we all, but someone in a rush could take that sentence to mean that... also included on the Torokusho registration form is "whether it's authentic (Shoshin 正真) or false (Gimei å½éŠ˜)". If you mean what I see...

Had a chat with the bloke I sold my Kabutowari to and asked if he'd be willing to sell it back. He has consistently said no, but today he hesitated for the first time and said, well, if you really want it that badly... Went to a couple of antique fairs today but the sun is so fierce now every day that it's a labour of love for both the dealers and the customers. Managed to purchase: 1. Plain fairly big Kachushi marugata tsuba with badly distorted Mei. å°ç”°åŽŸä½ä¿¡å‰(?) 2. Small tanto tsuba with carved dragon & faint Mei.　山代å£å£å£å£å£å£å£ã€€not yet figured it out... (is this little tsuba a tanzo-mono, I wonder?) 3. A long ubu spear pole with red whipped lacquer saya. Short sankaku blade (11-12cm) with Mei on nakago, only barely readable.　摂州ä½è—¤åŽŸè²žå›½(?) and at the second place 4. Very old and battered torn paper Chochin town lantern with Kuginuki Mon. Nothing actually missing though. Spent the rest of the day drying out the armour from yesterday's display, cleaning the guns, and messing around with the purchases, viz: a. The yari saya was very dirty so I brushed it and wet wiped it, dried it out and filled in the many and long cracks with wood glue, then rubber-banded the whole thing to dry under a fan for the night. b. Polished the blade somewhat using water and a series of papers from 600 to 2,000. This took about two or three hours, but starting to look bright and lovely, if you can ignore the foxing/dotting/pitting. Dried it and smothered it in choji oil for the time being. c. Wirebrushed the ishi-tsuki to remove some of the rust. Tsuba. Used stainless wire brushes and bone spatula to clean the rust off them, following tsuba collector's advice, trying not to expose the jihada, then dropped them in water and wrapped them in kitchen towel and froze them in order to help lift the red rust. ****************************************************************** Update. The spear saya repair went pretty well. The white wood glue has turned transparent and is barely visible on the surface. There is only so much I can do, though. There is a large section of the rim missing, and the red lacquer needs detailed touch-up, but what material and what colour? Autumn/Fall reds. The closest I can imagine is taking the skins off those little dried Korean Togarashi peppers and papering them somehow onto the surface. The blade sanding went pretty well and it now stays bright as long as it's oiled. I have wrapped it in Saran wrap, as that is how one spear came back from the Togishi some years ago along with instructions to feed the naked steel with oil for a year.

Shizuoka is one place that is rumoured to have some antique shops, but I've not been yet. Do you know what the three days will be? The first weekend of each month has a Toji antiques fair in Kyoto. Almost every weekend has one somewhere. Instead of doing three days in one place, how about doing a day trip to Nara, and then one to Kurashiki, for example, and one somewhere else? Kurashiki has a bit of everything, including a few jam-packed antique shops.

The photo is tantalisingly close, but that third (and/or fourth???) from last Kanji is/are faint in both shots. é–¢ä½æ¾ç”°...（勇？）...高作 Seki ju Matsuda ...(Yu?)ko/Toshitaka/Otaka?... Saku

That's a nice simple tsuba. I like it. Thanks for showing it to us! Oh and, Moriyama san, thanks for the afterthoughts. What you say usually makes sense! I always wish I had thought of it.... It's a bit like ç„¡å° the chain of shops, Muji, or Mujirushi. No trademark! But not really. )

It also says Mumei on the right of the certificate, meaning no Mei. Here, Mumon means no other lettering, inscription, as in poems, etc., I guess.