kusunokimasahige

Well they are made all over SE Asia apparently according to an Indian dealer I know who sells re-enactment stuff.

Well Arnold : http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/13/trans-pacific-paternership-intellectual-property http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-gautney/why-the-transpacific-part_1_b_6598604.html http://www.citizen.org/TPP

I am sorry to say it is a 1000000000000000000000% Chinese fake which has been artificially aged by burying it, How I know ? I once bought the same type with the same lame inscriptions on a junk market here in Amsterdam for 2 Euros. I hope you did not spend to much on it and I advise you to start studying several books mentioned in this forum. Look at the top grey bar. Also start reading this site thorougly. That prevents you from losing money : http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/nihonto.htm

Though this might pose a threat for collectors, the TTIP and TPP pose a much bigger threat to us all.

Peter. That made my jaw drop. Gorgeous.

Love the fuchu-Kashira combo. Do not know the exact style but it does remind me of some Ainu carving patterns as well as ancient Chinese carving patterns. That is just the style of the pattern. I am not sure whether it has a name but it must have..

A friend of mine just visited the Stibbert two weeks ago and he took a ton of images of the Jaoanese department. If They are any good I will make a topic and post them here. KM

I do not know the seller. I only know what the guy posting the message in the Nihonto Collectors group on Facebook wrote down, and that is that it was not his sword but that it belonged to someone he knows who asked him to post this. I have PM' ed Reuben about it and when he answers I will let you know here or he might butt in himself. I have also on here sent a PM to Italsword to see if he has any explanations. KM Reubens original post : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1542406446018557/permalink/1634114040181130/

Gorgeous blade. What I find very nice about Aoi is that they include shipping. That is different with several other vendors who offer high value items ex shipping.

Interesting viewpoint Dirk. But understandable.

It of course depends if one criticizes the quality of photos and states that they make it more difficult to sell or if one criticizes the item or the price setting. KM

This is what the guy wrote : Attention this sword has been stolen in transit shipped from Toronto Canada to Kelowna BC via Richmond Airport BC

Dear all please keep your eyes open for this sword which was stolen in transit : Via Facebook : Tokubetsu Hozon Yokoyama Sukehira Custom Order Katana Title says it all. This is one of the best works ive seen from this smith if not his best! this is the full package, sword in new shirasaya,sword bag,koshirae ect.. katana sword has NBTHK tokubetsu Hozon papers dated jan. 2014 also has nthk papers done in april (so blade is double papered), koshirae was granted papers by nthk in april this sword is in new polish and is amazing.. it has only been submitted to tb hozon but I feel its def. a shoe in for Juyo. Sukehira is considered one of the top smiths in the shinshinto period and founder of the shinshinto period bizen yokoyama group. This sword was a custom order by the samurai himself. translation of blue frost could be the name of the sword or ive also been told quite possible the samurai whom owned it .mei reads yokoyama ise-no-kami sukhira dated 1806, biyo osafune junin, morisawa yoshizane/ yoshimasa's decendant nagayasu (seiso ) (blue frost) pretty darn cool and important if you ask me. blade is as follows Nasasa 63 cm. Sori 0.9 cm. Kissaki: 7.5 cm. Moto-haba 3.2 cm. Saki-haba 2.5 cm. Moto-gasane 0.8 cm. Saki-gasane 0.5 cm. nakago is ubu and has one mekugi-ana . the o-kissaki is just beautiful with a ko-maru boshi. hamon is suguha, kitae is itame, as I said this sword is Juyo quality in my eyes, just simply stunning . koshirae as mentioned got papers in april at Chicago. very nice tsuba and nice dragon fly them on fuchi-koshira. a complete papered package. Attention this sword has been stolen in transit shipped from Toronto Canada to Kelowna BC via Richmond Airport BC Contact : https://www.facebook.com/reuben.rancourt?fref=ufi If you have any leads.

Thank you Ken for that info ! I will check it out for sure. Plus commission of course. But interesting nonetheless !

I am sorry to say it is a Chinese fake. Here is an image of a real NCO sword : http://www.antique-swords.eu/Japanese-WW2-NCOs-katana-nagoya-arsenal.html

I am still looking for a nice gunbai or saihai, Saw a fair priced boys say saihai on Ebay the other day, A bit small but quite nice.

I mainly use Hepburn because that was what I grew up with.

All well above my paygrade. But eye candy and ! You can download all the images for reference

Here is the link. Enjoy : http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22472/#/aa0=1&MR0_length=100&w0=list&m0=0

Very nice

I used a Doyusha samurai sword model kit stand for my Boys day tachi : You can find these here but also on Ebay : https://www.hlj.com/product/DYS14022/Jpc Depending on the thickness it should work. And if you are handy with scratch building in wood you could make your own kake.

Dear all. I just found this online in Pdf format. It is a good entry-level book into Tsuba schools and styles. Enjoy : http://www.knifehelp.net/media/docs/Cooper-Hewitt%20Museum%20-%20Tsuba%20and%20Japanese%20sword%20fittings%20in%20the%20collection%20of%20the%20Cooper-Hewitt%20Museum.pdf KM

Dear Ford, though this is not the Tosogu no Kigen might the info you are looking for also be in here ? This is Tosogu No Kansho If so let me know. Otherwise you could ask Grey Doffin he has that book for sale on his website. http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b675-tosogu-no-kigen KM

@ Dear Stephen: Do I live in Japan ? I only have seen many photos of his work most high-res of the quality you also find on Darcy's site. None in hand however. @ Jason same here.And with me a lot of serious fans are really really angry that Disney has forced Bandai to stop selling to retailers who also ship outside of Japan like HLJ. But that is another discussion altogether..

Well how do you know if a polisher polishes himself you ask. In the case of a one man shop I gather the togishi does it himself. If he las living-in students some of them may work on swords in various stages. In general this is either told to the customer or known through information we get here on this board. cf. the topic of Kunitaro on polishing services in Japan. I am still wondering though what semantics you use because you seem to think I am recommending someone while I only assert the following two things : His prices are very, very affordable from the looks of it. I have followed him for a while now and I like what I see.