Curran

There was a lot of spin on that one. Proper to call it some wicked googly?

This was a good read. Nice to see a Kunitomo, as I know their tsuba.

All those years knowing DB, and I never knew he was a fellow D&D geek. Hey DM, another roll of the 20 sided dice? I was always afraid he'd die on one of those dirt bikes. I always wanted one myself, but that ended one day when uncle's bike had a sudden mechanical issue and flung me head first over a hill into a full grown corn field. By the time I met DB, he'd already had two or three concussions from dirt bikes accidents. Montreal cops just loved him.

Ah. Good link by Geraint. In response to the question: I don't know. The few I handled never had any sense of looseness or give to them. If with pitch or pins, they seemed secure sandwiches.

It is a sanmai. Bob is correct. I owned a near identical one many years ago. Attached is another of this sort of 3 piece construction. Top and bottom plate are pressed or hammered out and then finished, often including addition of gold. Often held together by a little shakudo fukurin, and sometimes two discrete pins through the seppa dai area.

I was told the link isn't working. Trying it another way: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xl9u44b855x6tvo/gojo.pdf?dl=0

Hi Bob- glad to see you here. I remember Darcy was already flying along back then and learning from you. He was already writing and having me proofread some of it. Especially on Masamune's 10 students. I have a lot of them saved down. For the sake of memory, I've attached one of his early writeups from 2003. About Gojo instead of Masamune and his 10 students, I went up to Montreal to see this one. I'd never seen a Gojo before. **heck... it exceeds the maximum file size. Edit: Thanks to help from another member, trying a Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/home/darcy?preview=gojo.pdf

Hi Joel, Sorry that we make introductions this way. I've known your two brothers for a long time. Just let us know how we can help. Curran

I remember arguing with him about those funds. I thought they were too leveraged and concentrated. I told him to avoid. I'd make the same mistake before the Pandemic. Karma is a bitch.

Darcy grew up in Windsor, Canada. He was one of 3 brothers. When younger, he worked in an automotive plant there. He would go onto McGill in Montreal to study Computer Science. He would start his own company and sell it to INTUIT during the Dot.com era. He bought a red Ferrari thereafter to impress the girls, but he rarely drove it. He preferred his dirtbikes, for which the local police gave him hell. He’d give them hell back. I’d visit him in Montreal. Generally, he was interested in the science of finely made things. Be it Scottish whisky, the chemical composition of rare gemstones, or nihonto, we would stay up late talking. When I went to Scotland, I’d bring him back some good stuff not available in the USA back then. He helped me design the wedding ring for my wife. We set it with a diamond he owned and I believe he was keeping for his own marriage. There was a pretty long haired brunette girl for him back then, but it didn’t work out. One of the many random memories I have is that he would do things like get a bunch of sleeping bags and give them to the homeless on the coldest nights in Montreal. We’d be friends for 20 years. We would meet up every few years and have a meal together, starting up again as if we had just seen each other last week. In recent years, life took us further apart- but I will miss the guy who could brutally argue statistics with me while we made hamburgers on a flame grill at 2 am. Curran

A+ topic. Most cool.

I saw that one and appreciated it for being very different. Your linking it to Starry Night is brilliant. I wish I had thought of that first.

To add: During WW2, The Gifu area in Mino Province was the largest center of WW2 sword production. Many smiths there signed Kane+the second character of their name.

We have members with full sets. If you search NMB, I believe one of them posted images of his full mounted daisho. It is one of the most impressive fittings sets I have seen posted on NMB. It isn't a style I personally like very much, but it was quite the Bentley of its day.

Not Akasaka.

Japanese like their poetry. Basho and his banana tree. https://seetheworld.travelforkids.com/poet-basho-haiku-tokyo/

Thank you Steve. I should have read that as Noriyuki. The Moto character of Hiromoto was beyond me.

Ciao Ciro. Come e' Stuttgart oggi? The first kozuka is signed _____yuki. Probably it is signed Naoyuki. Certainly of the Hamano school, but there are a lot of forgeries. If you remind me later, I will look it up and give an opinion on the signature. The second kozuka is signed 'Joi'. It is a very famous name. It is extremely likely this is gimei (false signature) The tsuba is signed 'Hiro____ (I cannot see the second character).' This form of Hiro character was mostly used in the 1800s, often by the students of the Uchikoshi school (a Mito sub school), but not entirely. When I can read it, I will look it up later. Curran

Nice tsuba. I've seen all sorts of mon configurations on tsuba, up to somewhere between 5 to 7 on one tachi tsuba. With this Edo period one, the NBTHK could probably put it to several schools I'd guess in northern Japan. If they are being lazy, they probably would just say tachikanagushi (as Jean said).

As per John.

He has had two of the non Sahari ones from the Owari Blue Book sell before. Whatever his source, they cornered the market on the non Sahari Kunitomo.

Hi Charles, Putting together a koshirae is often a fool's errand. I know because I've done it 1.5 times. I'm impressed by your results.

Interesting explanations. --I always took them to be the two blocks used to hold scrolls open when reading or writing. See any Korean or Chinese historical drama whenever anyone is reading, writing, signing anything. Also good for knocking noggins.

I can't. To add to the complexity of this art or hobby interest, the difficulty of passing Juyo has changed over the years. --There are some Juyo that I think would barely pass TH. Conversely, there are some tsuba that would barely make Tokubetsu Hozon these days that are Juyo. Omissions like why no Juyo Saotome? There are a few incredible ones, but I've been told "There are no Juyo ones, so the NTBHK won't make any Juyo" And so on. Incredible work by Jussi.

Gwyn, Does it really matter? Here, now, this object has this value to my existence and identity. To borrow a very ancient quote, "You never step into the same river twice" As Jean says, " I have a suspicion that many TSUBA nowadays are sold very cheaply. Most of them could not be made today at their actual sales price" The level of craftmanship for the price, somewhat ridiculous. Then again, it was very different in the 1980s.