Gilles

Dear Markus, I am in for one copy to ship to France. I will paypal you 35 Euros tonight. Best regards,

I've ordered one copy, thank you again Markus

Dear Piers, Nice collection, congratulations. They are in very good condition. I love the little one. If I can gather some courage, I will post pictures of the little ones I have.

Dear Bill, Sorry for the late answer, here are the other pictures I took. Please note that I am a terrible photographer. The blade is heavy, thick and sturdy with a kind of double hamon at the boshi. Hope it helps,

Markus, I fully agree with Brian, you are going to bankrupt us all...... but anyway, I need this book

Very nice jumonji yari, piers :D Congratulations. Such nice ones are quite scarce.

What a nice naginata ! Thank you Mariusz.

Dear markus, As a recurrent customer, I am going to order your latest book despite the fact that my bookcases are full (partly thanks to you) . I am just waiting for a good discount rate from Lulu. May I add that I am really interested in a book about cutting tests. As you said, no book in English (to my knowledge) has been written yet about that topic. Thank you again, dear Markus for your work.

Gentlemen, Here are some pictures of the tang of the sword which was stored in the wooden box (see the Kanji written on a sword box topic in the translation folder). The blade rest in a good quality shira saya. Please note the habaki which is in solid silver. Please see also the marking C 17 on the habaki and on the tang of the sword.

Dear Kunitaro san, Thank you so much for your help. I am going to post some pictures of the nakago on Military Sword of Japan folder.

Dear John, Thank you very much. I think it is Yōsuke Matsuoka , (March 3, 1880 – June 26, 1946). He was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He was also vice-president and president of the South Manchuria Railway.

Dear gentlemen, I bought a long time ago a Koa Isshin sword with the logo of the South Manchurian Railway Company. The date use the zodiacal dating system, it is 1938 if I remind me well. This sword was stored in a box with kanji(s) on the lid. Can you help me translating them? Please see the photos. For what I understand, it says that this sword was given to an Italian official........

Gentlemen, Special mention to Grey Doffin, Paul Martin, Kunitaro san and a lot of very pleasant people. :D

Thank you gentlemen for those comments. I will try to do some better pictures. The blade is much more impressive in hand. This three sided blade was made in all probability to deal with armor. The point is stubby almost "rounded" which was made (to my knowledge) for this kind of utilization. The long nakago can be a sign that this blade was fitted on an extra long shaft and was seriouly made for combat use. I've heard that the warriors of the Satsuma han were particularly fierce during all eras and especially during Bakumatsu time. The "spirit" was preserved.

Gentlemen, Here is my last find. Please see the pictures. We have here a scarce yari which have a quite long nakago (66 cm) with a blade length of 13.7 cm. This yari is signed SAPPAN SHI MOTOHIRA and was purchased with a NBTHK Hozon certificate. On the excellent compilation INDEX OF Japanese SWORDSMITHS made by our friend Markus Sesko, it is written that this very swordsmith was allowed tu use the title SAPPAN SHI (Satsuma retainer) in 1785. The NBTHK certificate is quite laconic and state only the MEI, thus I can't conclude with it whose MOTOHIRA we are talking about. Thus, I think that this swordsmith is the first generation MOTOHIRA, what do you think ? Thank you for your help

Dear all, I am accumulating for several years all the serious datas encountered on the web about Japanese swords. I have now a good deal of pictures of high quality which sometimes help me in my buys. I also keep a quite big library at hand because I am mainly concerned my the data storage. Will my digital references be able to be run in the future ? Digital datas stored in old computer run by windows 96 (for exemple) are they still visible ? Does future computers will be able to read all those old datas ???? That is my concern but it may not be a problem for a computer engineer.

You are right, Grey is really a nice fellow and I have always been very happy with all the books and tsuba I bought from him. :D :D

Happy new year 2014 for all you :D

Wow, The very first one I see for sale !!!!!! I only saw one before, at the war museum next to the Yasukuni jinja in Tokyo..... What a grouping

Hello, You seem to have here a real signed naginata in its original length. The picture of the signature is taken too far to be readable and the other pictures are I'm afraid a little blurred which does not help us to have a better opinion. I see some varnish (which is for you the gold colour) on the blade which may be the result of the spraying of a protective coating like Rustoil. The point of this blade seemed to be rusted and was perhaps not enough protected or may have lost its protective coating. Close up of the two side of the point will tell if it is bad or not. To conclude, as a naginata collector I like the shape of that blade but I can't give you a definitive opinion unless you post other pictures. Hope it helps. :D

Dear All, I've heard that a tsuka with a white cloth cover could have meant that the wearer had already been wounded in action. If I remember well, one book of R.Fuller and R.Gregory stated that.

Merry Christmas to all of you dear collectors and thank you Brian for your wonderful work without forgetting our moderators.

Dear Chris, You are right, I am going to do that, I already have a good deal of examples and will collect other over the time. Alas, I would have prefered to buy all the Motohira swords I could

Dear Chris and Eric, The picture Chris have posted fits the description and the one Eric has posted shows that is is not an unchanging rule. The questions is why was is done or not ? Was it made at a certain period of the live of this swordsmith ? Can anyone answer that question ?

Dear Markus, thank you so much for this feature. I am quite sure that what you describe is exactly what M. Tsuruta san tried to explain. So, if I understand well, this smith had at least two different "secret marks". That is very interesting and to broaden this subject, it is quite possible that other swordsmith used "personal marks". Do you gentlemen know other sworsdmith doing those secret marks ?