piryohae3

Is participation in the annual competition mandatory? Rick Polland of swordstore.com says that Yoshindo Yoshihara sells swords that he makes outside of Japan. Can anyone confirm? https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-best-katana-makers-in-the-world Has anyone commissioned a shinsakuto through swordstore.com? I can only find reviews from 10+ years ago.

I suppose there isn't info in English?

Is it called Shinsaku-Meitoten or Shinsakuto Tenran Kai? I can't find info on when and where it's hosted.

This is a short one about Fusahiro Shimojima: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/fusahiro-shimojima-samurai-swordsmith/index.html Another short one about Korehira Watanabe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2BLg756_4M This one highlights the Komiya(Kunimitsu) family and is about 30 minutes: https://vimeo.com/316262351 These aren't full length documentaries but there's some incredible footage in HD.

Interesting, I've never seen a nihonto in real life before. I suppose it's a whole different experience than from pictures.

Is it cleaned before viewing because the oil obscures the details?

I've read in a few books that when viewing a Japanese sword you shouldn't talk because spittle can cause rusting. If the blade is already coated with a thin layer of oil, wouldn't that be enough to protect it from spittle?

In the book "The Craft of the Japanese Sword" by Leon and Hiroko Kapp and Yoshindo Yoshihara, page 75 states that it's not produced by hammering but by selectively filing away sections at the edge of a masame pattern steel block when the blank for the sword is being formed. However, http://meiboku.info/guide/form/hada/index.htm says that it is indeed made by varying the strength of hammer blows. These 2 sources contradict each other. Which is correct?

Fascinating. I'd like to see a real life comparison between koto modern utsuri. I've read in several books that pictures are a poor substitute for the real thing.

Can't the shinogi-ji be polished like the ji so it isn't left featureless?

On pics of swords without a hi, the shinogi-ji is almost always masame while the ji will be mokume/itame/etc.

Ejapaneseswords.com sells one from Heisei 15 (2004) but I'm looking for something within the past few years.

Utsuri disappeared from Bizen swords by the end of the Muromachi Period so I'm curious if shinto/shinshinto/modern smiths were successful in recreating it.

This is from a video about Bizen's sword museum. At first glance I thought it was a partial samegawa wrap like on cheaper production swords but upon closer inspection, the narrow strips of wood are on the outside which seems to indicate it is indeed a full same wrap. I thought it'd be optimal to have as much of the ito to have direct contact with the same to prevent slippage due to the bumpy texture. Since rays aren't native to Japanese waters, who did they trade with to get the skins? I wonder how they came up with the idea to use ray skins on a tsuka in the first place.

Hi Tom, Actually I haven't bought anything yet ^-^; All I have right now are just ideas of what to get.

I wouldn't but from what I read it sounded like changing the blade between shirasaya and koshirae nightly used to be a common thing to do.

The website offering the tour said a sword by him starts at $50k. I can't afford a sword by him but getting to meet him at his workshop is cool enough for me.

Would popping the nakago in and out of the tsuka daily eventually cause the inside of the tsuka to wear out and cause a loose fit?

Hi Greg, I don't have a specific swordsmith in mind so I'm going to go through an intermediary such as Paul Martin and have him recommend me a smith based on my budget and what I want. Before I do that, I want to go on a trip to Japan and check out museums and sword shops. I found a tour package where I can meet mukansa smith Yoshindo Yoshihara at his workshop. There's a sword museum in Bizen that showcases a smith and various other sword related craftsmen, though you can only see them once a month. You can see Masahira Fujiyasu forge a blade a few times a year in Fukushima City. That's open to the public for free. I want to see all of those while I'm there. I've seen some documentaries on how to make Japanese swords but it'd be so cool to see it happen in real time in person. I plan on designing this sword that's representative of me. I don't care about recouping my investment as I don't plan on selling it since it'll be personally significant.

I know that shirasaya is for long term storage but what counts as being long term? Days? Weeks? Months? Longer?

Curious to see how much people spend on a nihonto. Antique or recently made? Made by someone well-known or not? Shirasaya only or fully mounted? Also I want confirmation that I'm not the only one crazy enough to dump $30k on a superbly handsome sword.

I don't plan on selling my sword as I'm going to design it to be personally significant to me. I'm bummed out that you're not taking orders, but perhaps I can get something commissioned from your former student Marcus Chamber I know there's no "one size fits all" for fittings so would it be preferable for you as the tosogu to receive the sword to make fittings that fit? Or would it be better to send the fittings to the tsuka maker in Japan to be integrated with the rest of the sword?

That's a great illustration that explains it really well! Did you draw that? Which opinions of his do you think are radical? I suppose for that matter, what are considered standard views?

I read that utsuri is fairly common in koto blades but not so much anymore. Why is that? Is it because sword smith became a lost art for some time? On another note, I've been reading Fact and Fundamentals of Japanese Swords by Nobuo Nakahara, translated and co-authored by Paul Martin. There's a section where he describes that a battle-damaged kissaki has to be re-shaped and re-polished and that some of the mune must also be sacrificed or else the boshi will "soon wear away or run off." What does that mean? I don't understand why the mune can't simply be left alone. Thanks, James J

I know a polish can be ruined from frequent drawing and sheathing, but does it ever fade out by itself? Thanks, James J