chi fan wong

i was just in contact with hiromi san from okatanabukuro about getting bags made. another super nice individual and replied promptly on instagram message. she is currently on a day trip to kyoto and so may be a bit delayed in response.

mr kojima is located in honjo shi in saitama prefecture. train plus taxi is about 2hr 15min.

mr kojima, aka naohiro the 5th, can arrange for sword making experience. either quenching or forging. you can contact hiim and ask for availability with time from his website. http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/catalogue.html its called project gotoba. he is super nice and knowledgeable smith from a very respected lineage.

hi eric, i remember that whole thing you had to go through. seemed a bit nightmarish. hi marcin, so the books i bought from Japan and had buyee ship to me into the us was handled by fedex.... and they left the box out in the rain. granted they didnt know there were books in the box but to leave it out in the rain is still a bit problematic.

thank you for the information guys. its seems odd that these things are only happening more frequently recently. i have had three swords delivered to me unscathed via usps from aoi art in the past few years. they usually leave a pick up tag asking me to go to the post office to pick up the item. but this time it is just unexpected.... first saying its delivered to a person, then two days later dropping it off at the door during rain. again thank goodness for the Japanese over-packaging that no water got it....

hello all, im wondering if any or some of you may have experienced shipping issues in the recent months that stood out more compared to the past. my recent experiences are as follows: usps: - two items i shipped from ebay sales using usps were just extremely delayed. something that would have taken 3-5 days took over two weeks to arrive. - a third item meant to go to a florida address is currently circulating in puerto rico. - a sword i bought from aoi arrived sitting unattended in front of my door under the deluge that was yesterday's weather. the tracking said it was delivered and left with individual. but there was no individual to receive it, just the rain. fedex: - two books i bought from Japan using the buyee app arrived in a fedex box sitting in front of my door soaking up the deluge from yesterday as well. the usps seems to be dropping the ball badly these days. did they also get doged or something? in the case with both items left in the rain i can only attest to the packing prowess of the Japanese. nothing was damaged and nothing important was soaked. but has anyone else experienced potentially problematic shipping and receiving issues in the us recently?

in looking at the 4th image down the bohi is just touching the koshinogi. this should cause some concern regarding the state of the boshi. as alex stated, pictures of the boshi is needed indeed.

second one is toranba. 濤亂刃。 濤 is also notare. 亂刃（乱れ刃）is also midareba.

many thanks mark! but i would up using bart's suggestion with the led lights and its working well so far.

in general, east asian cultures often dont operate with strict written rules. the unsaid rules, however, takes on a lot of weight and is mostly what guides the day to day. this is especially prominent in Japan. but i think the most optimal rule of thumb to operate under is respect. respect the culture, respect the objects, respect the knowledge, respect your home, yourself, your guests, etc.. this will lead to different results with different individuals but in the end, they may guide you to your optimal set up with what you have.

thank you jack and piers. so it seems like this guy was not from any school in particular and was self taught?

thanks for the info guys. dale, i didnt even notice that corrosion pit. yeah it does look. localized and not part of the general rusting. ilil have to shine a light there and look more carefully. the kao on my tsuba is also quite unclear. would anyone know what school he belongs to? on this website : https://tosogu-antiques.com/horses/ it has one with similar mei and kao and dates it to 1800-1850 but no other information regarding it. again, thanks for your help.

i know nothing about tsuba or tosogu in general. got this naomichi as part of a wak. anything worth noting about this maker? thanks for any information.

this reminds me of a wonderful movie, when the last sword is drawn, when the main character, played by kiichi nakai, a country samurai and a teacher, tells his fellows to stay alive and to not stop swinging the sword in order to keep the enemy away. he simply wanted everyone to stay alive.

looking at the ko-shinogi location and shape, along with the shape and depth of the futasuji-hi, it seems the blade may have been a bit over polished.

to add a bit more confusion to all this discussion about length, in the old days before the meiji attempt to standardize measurements, one shaku in kyoto was not the same as one shaku in edo. this difference even persists today in the dimensions and proportions of the tatami mats produced in the different regions. it seems then a more nuanced approach to these "rules" about measurements (and perhaps other aspects of Japanese culture as well) instead of a more empirical approach, may lead to better understanding of each other.

maybe the use of kanji can help again. sun=寸=inch nobi=延=extend so sunnobi simply means extended by 1 "inch", which is not the current english measurement system. its old Japanese which is a bit longer than the english inch.

maybe the use of kanji in this case may help clarify the nomenclature used for tanto? tan=短=short to=刀=blade 刀 can be called to or katana and it simply refers to the blade. so 短刀 or tanto simply means a short sword. wakizashi is a whole other ball of wax....

that habaki and the location of the shinogi now points to earlier chinese fakes.

it almost looks as if the nakago was much more rusted with raised clumps of rust but was filed off and repatinated. the file marks seem a bit irregular and not typical of the known types of yasurime? stephen's example has a clear takanoha common on mino den swords. the quick strokes of the mei does seem ww2 era unlike the more deliberate ones in stephen's example. perhaps some pictures of the blade would help?

many thanks. i have been looking for good lighting and the led strips are just not good enough and has too many dots of light which gets distracting. this looks like will work great.

may i ask what kind of light you guys use in those cabinets?

thank you andy for this heads up. i also took advantage of this and ordered a few books.

got it. thank you ray. i was just wondering because the mei on my sword was used as a definitive 6h gen goji mei by fukunaga and subsequently used by others as reference. and since the oshigatas in the fukunaga books didnt seem consistent, which would indicate different sources of oshigata being collected, i was just wondering if there is any way to track that bibliography. there was nothing indicated in the book itself. i know its a long shot....

hello all, i was wondering if anyone is familiar with where some of the current oshigata may come from in books. i have a tadayoshi whose mei and nakago is used in a couple of books. but im looking to see where it may have been reprinted from. the mei can currently be found in tokuno's toko taikan and in fukunaga's hizen no katana to tsuba. would anyone know where these authors get their oshigata from? thanks for any information.