ckaiserca

When I bought this sun-nobi tanto it arrived dressed in koshirae without a shirasaya. I sent the blade to Tim Pepin at samuraisword.com and he arranged the crafting of a shirasaya for it. I also had a tsunagi made so I can display the koshirae.  
 

It took a while, but I think it turned out well. I am glad to be able to properly store my tanto. 

Andrew, welcome to NMB. You have found the right place to learn!

1 hour ago, rematron said:

Well, if I had an extra $23,000.00 USD laying around, I'd be all over that!  

I told my wife the same thing (only in Canadian money I would need more than 30K).

I have seen double-edged katana in comic books, but I have never seen an actual double-edged blade until I looked at Aoi-Art's website today. It's a beautiful sword. It was made by Tsuda Oumi Daijo Sukenao.

It might be worth noting that the current edition of The Samurai Sword by John M Yumoto being sold on Amazon right now is pretty crappy quality. I received a copy today and upon opening it, all of the pages fell out from the cover boards. They are sending a replacement, so it hope it is a bit better. 

Without looking at the blades, the tsukamaki should have been a clue to the sword's legitimacy.

I have found the book Study of Japanese Swords: Chronological Study of Japanese Swords and Japanese History

by Yurie Endo Halchak to be very useful. 

I second (or third, maybe fourth?) the recommendation of getting a copy of  The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords if you can find it for a decent price. It is available on Amazon.com for $60.40, which is a bit on the steep side ($89.00 CDN on sale at Amazon.ca).

Hello, 

I'm interested in finding a good example of a Kōa Issin Mantetsu. If you have one that you may be interested in selling, please contact me. 

Thanks!

That's beautiful. I look forward to seeing the photos of the blade. Thanks for sharing.

Could this be a Star stamp here?

The tassel (tosho) should be attached to the loop (sarute) at the end of the tsuka, not the obi-tori loop. 

I don't have enough experience in the hobby to be completely turned off by anything yet, but there are a few things that I am actively avoiding:

Green papers

Gimei 

eBay

And here I was thinking that nobody was answering my question… 😉

What happened to the koshirae for the Wakazashi? 

Hello!

I have posted a topic in the Izakaya about my business card, but I have a more specific question regarding the translation of the wording. I want to say that I am interested in buying, selling and trading items. The first translation that I got for this was: 

購入・販売・取引

Another user has suggested:

買取・販売・交換

Which do you think would be better, or is there another option that I should consider?

Thanks for any input!

I don't know why people are so upset by the prospect of learning for 5 years for no pay. Many people pay huge amounts of money for the privilege of learning at a university for more than time than that. I spent 8 years earning my degrees at two different universities. I was fortunate that my father paid for my undergraduate degree, but I paid for my master's degree out of my own pocket.

1 hour ago, Spunjer said:

Oh, I did not know this..

So once the permit is approved, they will contact my for an additional fee for mailing?

 

Aoi Art's prices usually include the shipping fee. In some cases it is separate. In my case, the fees were the import costs. As the swords were antiques, there were no duties to be paid, but GST in Ontario is 13% and is payable on just about everything. FedEx also has its own brokerage fees that have to be paid. 

My purchases from Aoi Art have all come pretty quickly. The export permits took about two weeks, and then another week for shipping to Canada. Where I faced delays was paying FedEx for the import fees and getting them to actually bring the parcels to my home. Even though I have a FedEx account, they would call me to ask how I wanted to pay the fees even though I have a credit card on file with them.

On 7/3/2022 at 12:36 PM, Peter Bleed said:

 A set of flash cards will help, and I think it is worth having both - dare I say it - Yumoto and Robinson.

Peter,

I would like to learn more about kanji. Where is a good source for these flashcards? I am located in Ontario, Canada.

Thanks!

On 7/3/2022 at 10:15 AM, Grey Doffin said:

Hi Charles,

Please tell us what you want to learn from the books and we can do a better job of recommending titles. Are you interested in blades or fittings, Nihonto in general or a specific time or school.

Grey

Hello Grey,

I am very new to the hobby, and currently only have a very small collection comprised of three Nihonto (one katana, and two sunnobi tanto) and one gunto. I also have a few tsuba. I am interested in Nihonto in general. I hope to collect more in the future, but as I am approaching retirement, my funds for future purchases may be very limited. I want to make sure that I get quality pieces for my collection. 

Thanks for your input!

My small library of Japanese Sword books is coming along. What do you feel is a must have that I should think about buying next?

6 hours ago, Mikaveli said:

What material is that - and how does it adhere to the Tsuka?

I think that is whale baleen. 

17 hours ago, RichardP said:

Basswood is easy to work with, and can be sourced in pretty large blocks for relatively little cash:

Basswood is a great suggestion! Thanks!

2 hours ago, RichardP said:

Very handsome!

Can I ask what modifications you made to the drawers?  Did the drawers come with sword racks?

The drawers didn’t come with racks and that is what I need to add. The chest and drawers are made with paulownia, so it is very light in weight. I need to find a source of paulownia here in Ontario to make the racks. 

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

don't rest your swords on the TSUKA as this might damage your SAYA in case you have a real blade mounted. 
 

 Currently, there is just a tsunagi fitted in both sets of koshirae. I suppose I should remove the kogatana from the wakizashi koshirae and the saya might fit that way.