Bazza

G'day all, Gasam, I believe the scene you mention is toward the end of this video: The polisher is Sasaki Takushi. EDIT: The scene start at 46.00 minutes if you you don't want to watch the whole video. Bestests, BaZZa.

> sorry to be the barer of bad news Beautiful neologism for stripping away the confusion and untruth (noun)!!! BaZZa.

Bob, Great stuff. I'd like to hear the story of the tooth dives. Is this a "fossil field" on the ocean bottom, or do you have to dig for them?? Are the rest of the shark remains there too?? And what sort of sharks are/were these and how old are the teeth??? The story mate, the story please. I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering. As Nihonto Chicken used to remark "Curious minds want to know". (How's ir going Rick??) Bestests, BaZZa.

Hmmmm. LHS: AKA ? YOSHI ? (maybe TSUGU??) RHS: not a clue. BaZZa.

Mr Magoo???? BaZZa.

Hmmmm, I get: ForbiddenYou don't have permission to access /wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Samurai-arms-and-armor-Tokugawa-period-B068_Heiner.pdf on this server. Any ideas??? BaZZa.

Thought I'd replied, but it seems to have been lost. Sent a PM to Jean with my error found, but like AlanK, I'm sure there is more to Jean's challenge than the date confusion. BaZZa.

Imagine my surprise when in post #28 Piers shows a tsuba very similar to one I saw recently on a Sue Koto wakizashi koshirae. Posted here for interest. The sword wasn't for sale but I liked the tsuba particularly and took a photo for posterity. I have no idea what it is, but the similarity to Piers' suggest a nice Jingo tsuba. The colour differences are due to my imperfect exposures. Bestests, BaZZa. aka Barry Thomas .

Well, as an Oz collector of some 50+ years I have had my share of "jeep springs". I remember one in particular. The old soldier's wife had been admitted to hospital for an operation and plainly money was an issue. As such he had decided to offer his WW2 souvenir sword for sale. He was a decent old bloke and I truly felt for him, however his sword was a (relatively) worthless jeep spring. Had I been better heeled I would have offered him a decent price for his sacrifice in the war, but sadly such was not the case. Like the OP, the Old Digger took it well. I have always had an immense respect for these men who served their countries in war. Bestests, BaZZa.

What he said - my humble opinion exactly. BaZZa.

Now we are talking hotshot - my impression exactly. BaZZa.

Hello Luca, I like this tsuba very much. Good buy. Ciao from Australia. BaZZa.

An email just in offers a Meiji period necklace: http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/an-early-victorian-Japanese-shakudo-fan-necklace,-391-c-0de4653915?utm_source=house&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=exclusive&utm_content=the101116 I draw attention to this as a possible example of tosogu artisan transition from making sword fittings. I did hear at one time of an offshoot of Natsuo's school working somewhere in Australia, no doubt in one of the capital cities. So that is a latent interest in the back of my mind, but I've never found any concrete evidence of such work being done here, apart from a good silver plate with shakudo and shibuichi decoration found in Sydney by a friend decades ago. BaZZa.

DING DING DING - and another donation races to NMB... Keeping count Stephen??? BaZZa.

I see HIRO for the last kanji. FUJIWARA KANEHIRO as a signature suggests a Bungo Takada blade. However, entering "FUJIWARA KANEHIRO" in google only gives longer signatures, no nijimei. More weight needs to be put on the blade itself, possibly even to the extent of a window. Personally, it looks to me as if someone has tried to obliterate the signature. BaZZa.

I'm sure it will be ECHIZEN JU BaZZa.

And here is the last snippet unless I find more. I know these two blades are of the shodai and therefore of no interest to the OP, but I have included them for completeness to assist any general search for the Doi Shinryo group of Hirado. Regards, BaZZa.

And still more ... A friend of mine has a massive ko-wakizashi signed DOI SHINRYO. It has been polished and submitted to NBTHK Shinsa where it was declined a paper. The story was that the NBTHK didn't know enough about the group to paper it, but more likely they didn't think it had the requisite quality compared to say the Tadayoshi smiths. It is no doubt a genuine work from the Doi Shinryo line, but the generation is not known. The nagasa is 37.2 cm and mihaba 4.2 cm. I don't have a measure of the kasane, but it is thick. The blade came in an unusual koshirae of all iron fittings in gomoku zogan. The person from whom it was acquired commented that it probably was worn by a Sumo wrestler!! Here are some images. Best regards, BaZZa. PS - there may yet be a little more to come ...

But wait, there's more (as a famous Australian TV cutlery commercial goes) ... The Osaka Shinto Zufu has an oshigata of the shodai Doi Shinryo. My copy is out on loan so I can only submit the images I have without noting the page numbers. I wondered what a Hizen smith was doing in Osaka until I read Eguchi's book - "... He returned to Hizen from Osaka during Tenna (c. 1681) and became a smith to the Matsuura family." For more on the Matsuura family I beg you all to read the following book: "Samurai William - The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan", Giles Milton (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2002). A most fascinating book indeed. Best regards, BaZZa.

The Hizento Handbook by Eguchi Soshin (translated by Gordon Robson, 1997) has the full 7 generations of Doi Shinryo listed on pages 166 - 168, with page 167 showing a number of 7th gen. oshigata. Knowing that extracts can be used for research purposes I have attached scans of page 166 and page 167. Page 168 is noteworthy only for a short additional reference to the 7th generation, viz. "Shinotsu. First signature of the 7th generation Doi Shinryo." Best regards, BaZZa. PS - I have a couple more snippets of information that I'll follow up on.

It was indeed a fun read. I'm discovering a few more as I go through the history of my own posts, mostly trivial responses on my part, but embedded in really good stuff from our virtuoso members. Something to think about Brian?? Bestests, BaZZa.

I've been holding back. Is there an exorcist in the House??? With deep sympathy. BaZZa.

He is certainly a cool looking dude and has an air of great age to him. He looks as if he is scared stiff, as if some big, bearded bloke is chasing him with a sword... BaZZa.

The crude habaki suggests some kind of refit of a Showato, or a sword of non-Japanese manufacture IMHO. That handle has to come off one way or another and would frankly be of no historical loss... I have a similar sword here where the handle with good same has been solidly glued on and my only choice is to destroy the handle if I want to see the nakago. Handles have always been replaceable items. BaZZa.

It also refers to a particular tang shape - gohei nakago: Gohei refers to its resemblance to the pieces of paper which are attached to the sacred straw rope festoon used within Shinto shrines. This tang form was first used by Ise no Kami Kuniteru in the Edo period. See: http://meiboku.info/guide/form/nakago/index.htm BaZZa.