Gilles

Do you have another copy of The gun collection of Matsumoto Castle ?

You are right, such grooves are not unusual. I wanted to say that it's shape appears to me peculiar. The nakago seems to be very old, possibly koto era.

The red laquered flame groove is very unusual. Long karakubi is the sign of an old blade. The blade seems to have gone through an acid treatment. Some pictures of the nakago will help. I agree with Ken, something doesn't feel quite right.

Dear Piers, is this one available for purchase ?

Dear Alan, I saw them but I thought at that time that their price were very high.....

I've never saw one in person. I saw some menuki but no tsuba. this theme is rather rare.

I have learnt the hard way that most jitte that are on sale on the internet are fakes. This one could be legit but obviously it has a new shark skin handle.

Thank you for your answer Piers. I haven't found one for a while that is why I am asking our community.

Thank you Brian, I really hope our friend will be able to find old ones in Japan.

Dear all, I collect mekugi nuki and I will need some more for my little collection. The older, the better. Condition must be good. Please feel free to PM me if you have some to part with. Please have a look to the joined picture which show the one I already have. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much for all the members cited without forgeting Brian who is our grand master.

This army kyu-gunto seems to be legit. It is a typical early type with no decoration on the backstrap. The original decoration on each side of the handle (red circle on picture) seems to be missing . It should have been some sakura. Like John said the blade was sandpapered. Otherwise, seems to be OK. This sword dates back the russo-japanese war (1904-1905).

Very nice mask, congratulations.

Dear Piers and Gary, Thank you so much for your pictures. It is exactly what I was looking for.

Gentlemen, I am looking for pictures of horizontal single teppo kake made of wood. If you have original and old examples from the Edo or Bakumatsu era, I will need some pictures of those if you can share them. Thank you for your help.

Like Brian said, regular seppa(s) were used fitted with little tsuba (usually 3 or 4 milimeter thick) which protruded just a little form the seppa(s). You had also a corded handstop on the shaft and one or two small rings on the shaft too. You can also take into account a distinctive and scarce feature about the shaft. Real naginata made for fighting had a distinctive characteristic on the shaft. I am going to try to explain that correctly. The shape of the cross-section is usually round or ovoid, but on the side of the cutting edge of the blade you had a line carved in the wood of the shaft in its whole length which permit the user to know, by night, where the cutting edge was, it is refered to pear shape shaft. You can also find hirumaki (which were fitted at the end of the shaft) on ebay (beware of fake ones) their shape is different from the ones used for yari. I recommend the book Japanese POLEARMS written by Roald Knutsen. You will get a lot of info from it.

It is a chinese copy.....

Thank you John. I went on the link provided and I saw, if I have well understood, that this book is not published yet...!

Dear all, I understood a while ago that a nice book was going to be published about this huge collection. is there some news about it ?

PM sent,

Very nice hanbo, I like it a lot. To my knowledge, big drain hole is usually found on old hanbo. This one seems to be rather old also.

Sad news. I wish Guido a full recovery.

Dear Curran, PM sent.

Thank you very much Piers, very interesting visit.

Got the big tempo tsuba which was very well protected for this rather long journey. I am fully satisfied with this unusual tsuba which is very pleasant in hand. Thank you again Kyle.