Rich S

I think (?) the front of the old Hawley's (big brown book) has something like that. Rich S

Just curious, but what organization are you talking about? Rich S

Morita san - Correct, my mistake. Crossed arrows, not feathers. Sorry. Rich

Sencho - I have a daisho tsuba in this motif. My attribution is Shoami. Rich S

blue-brown I think is company grade officers (Lt./Capt/)/ The colors are rather bright though. Hard to tell is original or repro from pic. Style is certainly correct. Rich S

I think (?) Ishihara Yoshisada. Hopefully others will verify or correct my reading. RIch S

IMHO, Hawley's point system is basically meaningless. Rich S

Hawley's is still in print. You can also buy direct from them. http://www.wmhawley.com/ Rich S

Not in Fujishiro. Hawley lists two possibilities: "Chikugo Kurume ju Kiyotsuna saku" (son of Kiyohiro) worked Chikugo 1844-1864 "Kiyotsune" (son of Kiyohide) worked Ckikugo 1830-64 both rated 10 points (for whatever that's worth :-) Rich S

No, once cured, it is basically harmless. Still I'd wear a dust filter mask when doing extensive sanding on any material. Rich S

Stephen - Try clearing your browser's cache. You may be seeing an old, bad download over and over. Then try the page again. Seems to work for everyone else, so I'm guessing the problem is in your browser. Rich S

Unless your sword has been pink slipped by at least two different shinsa teams, don't have the mei removed. We all have stories of swords being pronounced gimei, had the mei removed and then shinsa attributing them to the same smith as the original mei. IMHO, it's not something I would do. Rich S

They are polisher's marks. Many sword polishers (at least the better ones) place them as a decoration and type of polisher signature. Different school of polishers used slightly different designs (number of lines, thickness, etc). Rich S

And don't forget the uncured urushi is a close relative of poison ivy and very toxic. Handle with extreme care. Rich

I got a Hanwei practical katana several years ago to use for cutting bamboo. IMHO it was a piece of junk, barely rated as a wall hanger. I sold it (unused) for a lot less than I paid for it. Also IMHO, Bugei blades are very overpriced. If you want a Hanwei, shop around for the best prices. Rich S

John and Rich T - Thanks, but that large a file and small pics (probably not a whole lot of use in id-ing tsuba), I'll wait until a better version comes out. Thanks anyway. Rich S

John - Is it possible to post the Woods collection pdf files (hopefully in zip format) so folks can download them from here? How large a file are they? (I inquire since I'm on a slooooow dialup connection). Rich S

Besides fitting the tsuba, some schools used a distinctive style of punch/chisel marks (tagane mei) as their signature on tsuba. Rich S

I have an oshigata of this smith (Bishu ju Masasane) on my Showa oshigata page. There is also a Yoshihara Masasane (Masazane) listed on the Rikugun Jumei Tosho list, but don't know if he's the same guy. And the same guy (yoshihara masazane) listed on the Showa Tosho ranking page as Jo Saku (Kibin no Retsu). Rich S

The site may not be totally dead. I just get document contains no data report, not the 404 error. There is also the NPO-NTHK at: http://www.nthk.net/index.html Rich S

I don't know about brower settings being a mine field, but buying swords on the 'net certainly is :-) Try looking at my geocities site without Javascript - no ads, no popups, etc. With Javascript on, it is a mess. Javascript is the work of the evil ones IMHO :-) Rich S

Brian - Thanks, but that wasn't really necessary. I just click Javascript on or off as needed. Just two clicks of the mouse - no problem. Besides I also have a links page :-) Rich S

Brian - You forgot to mention that you have to have Javascript engaged for the links page to work I hate Javascript and usually run with it off. It prevents popups, ads, all sorts of nasty things. Of course also prevents some sites from working properly. Such is life. Rich S

Just FYI, Osaru's "Japanese Sword School" website is gone. Might want to delete it from the links page. Rich S

My point exactly. You never know on one of those "pedia" whether the material was written by a 5 year old or by a guy with multiple doctorates in the field. I fear a "nihontopedia" would be swamped with kids who just got a "genuine ninja sword" at the mall and/or by folks from the SF Japanese Sword Socieity (aka the ninja nation). At least with individual websites you know who is writing the material, likely have some indication of their background, expertise, etc., or can ask around the Nihonto world about them. Sure there are contradictions on the web and in books, but then how many folks have had the same sword or tosogu attributed to different schools/makers by submitting it to different Shinsa. Even the Japanese experts sometimes contradict each other. Rich S