Andrew Ickeringill

Thanks everyone for your comments, it’s fantastic to receive all this encouragement!! Thanks especially to Ford for posting this thread and sharing the good news, I appreciate the support a great deal. And congratulations to Ford for his gold prize (again!), a truly remarkable effort!! Your skill and decades of hard work is evident in your tsuba for all to see, a modern day master. Also congrats to Cameron Appleford on receiving nyusen for his habaki. I met Kam at the Sydney shinsa and he impressed me with how eager he was to learn, so I offered to help him organize some training in Japan. He came to the NBSK sword craft workshop last year in Nagano where he was guided by the very best sayashi and shiroganeshi in Japan, he also studied habaki privately under a very skilled craftsman and friend of mine. Kam has improved his skills a great deal and shows the hunger to continue to do so, well done!! There may be a lot of people on this forum who do not know of me, that’s completely understandable considering I haven’t posted in years, however I’ve been a member since the early days when Rich Turner was running the site. My training here in Japan keeps me incredibly busy which is why I don’t get a chance to post on the forum, but I do sometimes have a little look, credit to Brian for running it so well, it can’t be easy!! Anyway, just a brief intro… I’ve been serving in a traditional apprenticeship under Sasaki Takushi for 5 years now, based in Misato, Saitama. I am part of the Nagayama Kokan branch of the Honami tradition, my sensei served as an apprentice to Nagayama Kokan who was a living national treasure togishi. For those asking for pics of the prize winning sword, you will have to wait until the exhibition catalogue is released unfortunately. The NBSK may upload the catalogue images on their website, I’m not sure. I didn't think to take any pics of the blade myself before I submitted it, but maybe I can take some after the exhibition if I get a chance. The pictures above posted by Adrian are from a wakizashi I polished over a year ago, a friend here in Japan had found the sword in the wall behind the family shrine in his house. It was badly rusted and completely bent out of shape. It's not what we would consider an art sword, however it held deep sentimental value to the family and so my sensei allowed me to take it on. It's mumei, late shinshinto, a low-rank smith, possibly made as a boys day sword, basically wakimono but it shows traits similar to Bungo Takada. It came out very well considering the condition it was previously in, and the fact that it’s not a high quality sword, the steel is weak and the hamon dull, however a good polish can work wonders!! Anyways, I do hope to be able to post here more often in the future, I will continue to drop in whenever I can, thanks again everybody!! Oh and FYI, the NBSK competition exhibition will be held at the Okura Museum of Art in Tokyo June 8th – July 28th, it’s well worth a visit, please stop by!!

For anyone considering going to this event, there will be demonstrations by craftsmen on the balcony of the museum June 26th and July 10th 1pm – 4:30pm. There will be polishing, saya making, habaki making and tsuba making I believe. I will be there on both days helping out with the polishing demonstrations, though I don’t know if I’ll actually be doing the polishing as I did last year, or just giving English translations, either way it would be good to meet some board members. Also, I’d like to point out that this exhibition isn’t just modern made pieces, you will see great swords from all periods on display submitted for the polishing competition. This year there are many highlights, Rai Kuniyuki, Rai Kunitoshi, Norishige, Ko-bizen Sukekane and many more. So, perhaps I will see some of you Tokyo guys there?

Hi Peter and all, I believe collectors can be hesitant to give away their polishing contacts in Japan because in giving you these details it means they would basically be vouching for you and in doing so putting their relationship with their contact at risk if something goes wrong. As Justin states, there are no polishers in Australia worth their salt, in fact I would say there are no polishers in Australia at all as I would not call what they do polishing. I also can’t say I’ve ever seen a real top quality polish on a sword in Australia, but of course I haven’t seen every sword in the country!! Sending a sword to Japan for polish is perhaps becoming more difficult (so I’ve heard) but it is really the best option unless you send it to a polisher who was trained in Japan but now living outside of Japan, of which there are very few. But do take care and research carefully no matter what you do, there are many shabby polishers about, even in Japan. I agree with Mark and Jean that finding a good candidate sword to send for polish is the most important thing, the best advice I can give you is to see as many Nihonto in the flesh as you can. Come to Japan if possible!! You can learn much more here by viewing the masterpieces in museums than you could ever learn from the purchase of a single sword at the same cost of a ticket. As for me, my plans are to head back to Australia to setup shop once my training here in Japan has finished, this will take some years so in the meantime pm me if you would like my help, I may be able to act as an agent for you or anyone else interested.

I have seen quite severe bends and kinks be corrected using only tamegi, no heat source required. Though using boiling water in addition to a straightening device is fairly common I believe... never heard of a blowtorch being used, sounds kinda risky!!!!

hi jeremy, i am a fellow aussie and let me assure you there is currently no one in oz qualified to work on your blade, steer clear of anyone in oz who says they can straighten it for you, it will most likely result in more damage. if you are totally against sending it to Japan, i would suggest takeo seki in canada, he has served an apprenticeship under a master polisher in Japan. or there's bob benson and jimmy hayashi in the US. however, the US or canada is a long way to send a blade to a polisher only for it to be straightened and not polished... if it needs a polish might as well kill two birds with one stone. just make sure you send it to a pro and you will be fine. good luck, take it easy.

Might as well take a stab at it since I can't sleep... although the details are a bit of a strain on the eyes, I would go for Rai Kunitoshi... ish. Sugata looks mid-late kamakura. Hamon looks quite typical for Kunitoshi, subdued and elegant, I can make out some ko-ashi. The boshi looks ok for Kunitoshi, it's not unusual for Rai school to have stronger nie in the boshi, and Kunitoshi sometimes used a slightly longer kaeri. The hada is probably the key and unfortunately difficult to make out clearly but it is tightly and finely forged with some masame in the shinogi-ji... it's not unusual for Kunitoshi to have some masame hada in his blades and I can't see any masame in the ji or running through the ha so I'm not automatically drawn to yamato... also there appears to be nie utsuri which fits with rai and some patches of hada that COULD be rai hada. Something that throws me off though is I do believe I see two small patches of sumigane which is more common for Aoe so... it's a tough one. But I'll hazard Rai Kunitoshi, good night.

nice post john, im glad you enjoyed your visit to senseis house, good to hear you learnt a lot from it. hope you and duncan enjoy the rest of your Japan experience!! ps for some reason i am rarely caught smiling in a photo so you did well with that one.

Take #2 hehe the nakago has kiri yasurime, clean cut mekugi... and something that I missed before, what looks to be a continuation of the hamon, there looks to be another peak or two of sanbon-sugi after the ha-machi... which leads me to think this blade is suriage, which could explain the sori, and open the door to koto. Kiri yasurime fits with Muramasa, not sure about Kanemoto. The boshi is jizo, not ko-maru as in a lot of shinto blades... both Muramasa and early Kanemoto had jizo boshi but this one looks more like Muramasa to me. Also, I may lean more towards Muramasa than Kanemoto due to the nie running along the hamon.

Might as well be the first at bat... Shinto Kanbun Darani school (Kaga) Katsukuni Lack of sori pointed me towards shinto and away from early Kanemoto, on close inspection one can see clumps of nie built up in the valleys of the sanbon-sugi, Katsukuni is known for this. That's my guess!!

G'day Paul, Thanks for the report, an interesting read!! I wish I could be there to check out the entries, good to see some mates doing well. Keep well Paul.

G'day Rich, I'm pretty sure there is no official wazamono ranking of modern swords. However, there are modern smiths that have reputations for making good cutters, I guess this spreads by word of mouth. I know that smiths will test their swords for strength and cutting ability themselves occasionally, usually when they are trying something new. Hope that helps.

G'day Pierre, it's been a while, welcome to the forum. Great to hear about Kiyota-san's success this year!! Hope all is well.

Hi Richard, Every year the NBTHK holds a shinsakuto competition and awards prizes for the best entries. These prizes increase the value of a smith's work and establish them a ranking of sorts. When a smith wins enough prizes they are elevated to mukansa. Toku-sho is first prize, Yushu-sho is second prize, Doryoku-sho is third prize and Nyusen means they were accepted into the competition. Here is a link to the results of the 2005 competition in English http://www.tousyoukai.jp/english/17th_e.shtml However, I personally would not base a choice on these competitions alone, it's important to track down as much info and pics as you can and make a decision based on your own thoughts as well. I have heard of Sadatoyo and Sadachika, I know that Sadatoyo is a student of the Gassan line, I'm not sure about Sadachika. Here is a link to Sadatoyo's website http://www8.ocn.ne.jp/~sadatoyo/ Good luck!!

Hi Ichi, I'm sorry, I'm not exactly sure what is usually written on the hako gaki. As for the price of a Kawachi Kunihira tanto, it's difficult to work out the average price because you simply don't see them for sale very often. The price on his tachi is around 3,500,000 yen I believe... so I'd guess for a tanto 1,500,000 yen approximately. My advice is to contact him personally, his site is http://www.mugenkan.com, it's always best to go straight to the source!! Good luck!!

Another reason for swordsmiths to use the power hammer in this day and age is the fact that the average swordsmith simply can't afford to have 2 or 3 deshi hammering away with him as is the traditional way, so a power hammer is necessary (or at least a huge help) to get the work done alone.