Bazza

A beautiful mei, just divinely elegant. This doesn't quite look like sousho - is it gyousho??? Ahhh, when in doubt go to google/wikipedia... seal script (篆書 tensho) (pinyin: zhuànshū) clerical script (隷書 reisho) (pinyin: lìshū) regular script (楷書 kaisho) (pinyin: kǎishū) semi-cursive (行書 gyōsho) (pinyin: xíngshū) cursive (草書 sōsho) (pinyin: cǎoshū). So, I'm no wiser as to the Yasutomo katana writing style. Help a drowning man Steve... BaZZa.

A friend sent me this link that others may find of great interest for the photos and comments: https://news.kynosarges.org/2019/04/19/samurai-helmets/ I left a comment plugging the Board so Brian might see an increase in first-time traffic. Best regards, BazZa.

Bruce, here is more grist for your mill. The attached photos are titled "Bazza's...jpg", but in fact the sword belongs to a friend of mine who has at last sent me photos of his Mantetsu. I don't have any other photos so can't comment on condition, but the tang suggests it has had a hard life. So in essence this is a contribution to your survey. BaZZa.

... and I think I see "chatter" on the file strokes, i.e., not a trained metal smith?? BaZZa.

Mmmmmmmm... I'd take advice on using Renaissance Wax ('ren wax'). Personally I wouldn't - the Japanese didn't have it, right?? But what DID they have? They had ibota - was that used on fittings?? Then somewhere rattling around in my brain is a kernel of a thought that I've read somewhere in the dim past that the Japanese did use a "vegetable" wax on their fittings. I have no idea. Does anyone know?? I think its an important question for tosogu preservation - I have some nice items that I wonder about in terms of both lifting their appearance as well as enhancing their continued preservation. BaZZa. EDIT: Mmmmmmmm... as in "Lovely" rather than questioning the use of wax... Just to be clear. Stunning tsuba Jeremiah.

Dear Georg, Yet another wonderful story of discovery. My salutations for the great effort you have made to present your horidashimono (lucky find) here on NMB. Yours is a beautiful and meticulous write-up that will be admired by all here, I am sure. We delight in seeing fine swords discovered and “brought back” to the Nihontô community. You have had great fortune in finding a good sword in neglected condition in unfavourable circumstances. In another time and place such a sword could have been cut up to make fishing knives - it has happened here in Australia! I once had a similar experience and was the lucky owner of a sword in just the condition as yours, but without any furniture, just the scabbard, handle, habaki and blade. This was perhaps 40 years or more ago. I knew the sword was special and did not send it to any polisher known to me fearing a bad result. After many decades it went to Japan and was restored perfectly. The blade wasn't signed, but as a kiriha katana it was judged to be a work of the Shimosaka swordsmiths in the early Edo period. I sincerely hope your lucky find turns out to be a genuine work of Yamaura Masayuki. It is a fine looking blade with a good sugata (shape) and very interesting hi (grooves). As Geraint wrote, we await with great interest the story of your continuing journey. Best regards, Barry Thomas aka BaZZa (Melbourne, Australia)

FWIW and OTTOMYH I think gimei. The kanji is "jagged daggy" and the ZEN kanji is not in the usual Hizen rendering. And o-sujikai yasurime??? BaZZa.

The book/booklet MEITO IN NORTH AMERICA had an important find in a signed and dated Koto sword. I've lent my copy but I particularly renumber this in the early 2000s. It was described as the (then) "find of the century". BaZZa.

Dear Ffolke, A friend has just sent me a link that has left me wide-eyed and full of anticipatory wonder. All Nihonto friends should be aware of the content and I'm sure it will provoke interesting comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/forget-everything-you-know-about-sake?ref=wrap Best regards, BaZZa.

Well!! the term "necropost" certainly should not apply here!! Yeah, maybe Anthony could have started a new thread - BUT - I must have totally missed this in the great wash of posts and topics. I really enjoyed reading this from start to finish and indeed might write up something for our local antique arms collectors magazine. What a fascinating topic. BaZZa.

Hello Ed and all, now this has raised its head again I must insist that "In Like Flynn" is the ridgy didg original expression.and not "In Like Flint". It is true that both are real, but gentlemen all, let me draw your attention to MY intended meaning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_like_Flynn Indeed, if one googles "in like flynn" one can see there is another whole genre around Errol Flynn. CONCLUSION: Ed is right and I am right - choose your "in"... BaZZa.

Now Boys and Girls let's talk sharpening... > you've just went our appetites. Steven I presume you meant wet, but I didn't start this to castigate you on that small typo. No. I'm simply wondering if in this usage the correct word is to whet our appetites, as in sharpening a sword... Lovely sword Franco, looking forward to more pictures. Bestests, BaZZa.

Rotsa ruck!!! BaZZa.

With the Board and everyone's good will this has turned out to be an amazing adventure for George - and us all. Without the Board who knows... RANT MODE ON It is EXTREMELY sobering to reflect that if an old soldier had handed that sword into a police station here in my State of Victoria in Australia, as a grotty looking thing and a SWORD it would most likely have been destroyed as it is classed as a prohibited weapon. A senior policeman is on record as saying prohibited weapons handed to police or confiscated will be destroyed. Many here will remember the battle we had back in 2006 trying to turn back the proposed change to the law, without effect. The many letters from overseas (NBTHK, Royal Armouries, To-ken Society of Great Britain, JSSUS and dozens more) had no effect whatsoever. The mindset of the politicians and high-level bureaucrats of the time was immovable and a widely held view is that the Police Minister of the day was an incompetent - obviously. To this day the number plate on my trailer bears the motto under the registration number "Victoria - the State we're in!!" I still grieve over this decision by our legislators. There is more background to the story though - a Parliamentarian's son was badly cut by a sword in an assault and one person was killed by a sword in a notorious nightclub assault. Allegedly killed by a sword - reports I read suggested it could have been a machete and these are still "legal" and used in countless crimes to this day. Our big, daily newspaper got on the case and hammered the Police Minister and everybody caved in. No voice of reason (I was told "they" had received 600 objections) could turn this legislation back. It was a fait accompli. RANT MODE OFF I'm deliriously happy for George and I'm quite "high" on a happy ending. I have a similar, though not so exalted, path ahead of me with a Shodai "Soboro" Sukehiro katana I found in a distressed state, though eminently restorable. I shudder when I think of the fate that it could have had... BaZZa.

Peter, A very nice group of most interesting and unusual Namban tsuba. Even though the last group of three are in less than pristine condition they would be worth a place in my collection. Likewise Tom Sinclair's tsuba. BaZZa.

As a proud Australian I have to point out that you haven't tried NUTHIN' until you've tried full-blown Vegemite. Aussie kids cut their teeth on it!!! When I was a growing kid my Dear Mother used to say "Don't put so much Vegemite on your bread/toast!". I would always reply "Mother, its a food not a flavouring agent..." BaZZa.

As in agaru?? BaZZa.

In the thread http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/28342-gorgeous-aikuchi-at-christies/ discussing the Christie's aikuchi auction, BIG (Peter Reusch, Post #5) gave a link to a print of Hokusai's GREAT WAVE bringing USD $471,000. Reading the auction comments and responses to Peter's link it seemed to me almost as if the bidders had been watching a TV program on Hokusai, wherein the Great Wave print is discussed and dissected. This was aired here in Australia a few days ago - watch it now while it is still up: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/hokusai-old-man-crazy-to-paint/video/ZW1723A001S00 There was a Hokusai exhibition here last July 2017 and the exhibition Curator, Wayne Crothers, appeared on a radio converstaion hour about Hokusai and the exhibition. For those who like to listen to audio go here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/theconversationhour/the-conversation-hour/8739862 I found this by googling abc hokusai download – ABC is the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Australia’s public funded radio network. BaZZa.

Another possibility - the kanji on the nakago looks dodgy enough to me to indicate possibly "sum wun" has put a mei on a blade that was mumei when the sayagaki was written??? BaZZa.

The same is celluloid, I believe, and not uncommon on later War period Guntou. BaZZa.

Shinto IMVHO BaZZa.

The "club" is possibly a tetsubou, lit. "iron stick", a formidable weapon in the right hands. Maybe the little guys are Oni (tho' there is usually only one) and the armoured bloke is Shouki, but I don't think so as he doesn't have a ken. OTOH, the (maybe) tetsubo has an eye for hauling, like an anchor, which gels with the water. Which brings us back to the bloke in armour with piercing eyes. I have a figure like that on a tsuba where the figure is assigned to Nitta Yoshisada, so the water is either the sea or (maybe?) the Minatogawa river. A seemingly confusing jumble that someone will crack I'm sure... BaZZa.

Funny, I couldn't open them all last night, but today I can open them all... BaZZa.

G'day Bruce and all, Yesterday I looked over an old family edged weapon collection out of the woodwork, a real sleeper. Two Japanese swords, a Burmese Dha dagger, six kris of various sorts, and a very smalI Indian Katar, the latter most unusual. One of the Japanese swords was a Shinguntô with a Mantetsu blade, so I post here FYI. Blade is 66.6 cm long, tang 21.3 cm. Blade is signed KÔA ISSHIN MANTETSU KORE SAKU and dated SHÔWA KANOTO MI HARU (Spring, 1941).with a nakago mune stamp. BaZZa.

On a point of pedantry, but I feel worthwhile pointing out to avoid slipshod usage, it is not the SHÔWA 昭和 stamp, it is the SHÔ 昭 stamp. BaZZa.