Pete Klein

Paul -- were they green or white paper?

Paul - would you mind sharing a picture of the tenjogane with the mei? Thanks.

Andrey -- if you look closely around the nakago ana you will see an ovoid area which is not pitted as the rest of the plate is. This is called the 'seppa zuri' and indicates the effect on the plate from a seppa. The tsuba thusly has been mounted, as is, and most likely just once. Pete

I believe this thread should be placed on permanent reference status under, 'Oh - so you want to have a koshirae made. Look here"... LOL PS: I'd kill just for the F-----G menuki. ROFLMAO!

Brian -- you just said a mouth full! Curran -- I was typing as you were posting -- Yup, money alone doesn't do it. Yah gotta prove your intention.

Just in case you missed it you were just given a 'Pop Quiz'! LOL

Hi -- I would think it to be a Sado piece due to the heavy rounded form on the metal. Here is an example and explanation of Sado and although a different motif you can see some of the similarities: http://www.shibuiswords.com/haynesTsu15.htm

Why not take a weekend trip to the Tampa show in February where you can see the real deal? It would be worth the investment. http://www.southeastshowsauctions.com/tampa-2016.html The show is in the Tampa airport Marriott so you literally don't have to go outside, just walk from your plane through the terminal to the hotel. It's a nice venue.

Thierry -- nice work!!! I am not familiar with it but it might very well be the same school from what I am seeing.

This is very bad news. I knew he had been quite ill the past few years but did not know he had relapsed. He will be missed. Peter Klein

Right Jean - as usual -- it is a form of 'Arbitrage'. They assume that we are so stupid (sometimes correctly) that we are not aware of the Japanese on line sites and profit from it. Just another reason to do you due diligence.

Henry -- you live in Japan. Look in the Yellow Pages... LOL!

Brian -- I believe that is supposed to be Daruma:

Probably Putin...

'Shame on him'.

Back page button working now. I didn't do anything here so it must have been resolved on NMB side.

Hi -- it does nothing. I have to go to the main page and start over. The problem is that all my bookmarks are on IE and Firefox is a pain with how their bookmarks work so I stick with IE. I'll try what you mentioned. Thanks much.

For the last week or so I cannot use the back page button when I'm on Internet Explorer which is my main browser. When I go to Firefox it works. Any suggestions?

Simple logistics. The paper was just issued to (most likely) the dealer in Japan in July, then had to be listed for sale, discovered and purchased. Travel time either by EMS or possibly he was in Japan and carried it back. As Eric was at the San Francisco show in early August there was added down time. Now then, we are looking at about three months at best to have it worked on. The patina is good therefore if re-patinated it was done by a proper professional. We all know that anyone so qualified have items in queue and iron re-patination is not done over night to be accomplished properly, ergo, improbable. Please note I did not say impossible. SH

Probably just different lighting. The paper is from July of this year (could be either April or June shinsa) and it is improbable that a re-patination was done in such a short time frame.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERB-17-18th-C-SIGNED-KATANA-TSUBA-NBTHK-Japanese-Sword-Fuchi-Kashira-Menuki-/281885494144?hash=item41a1af4b80:g:hY0AAOSwo3pWbzUf

Looks cast to me.

Barry -- the main thing to visualize on Omori Teruhide work is the depth and quality of carving in the waves. Other work simply doesn't have the same attention to detail or deep 3-D craftsmanship. Here is a fuchi kashira which was recently but no longer available on www.nihonto.ca: There is also a great tsuba on www.nihonto.com (I cannot capture that image). One characteristic you will see is at least one undercut wave. The kashira above has several. I've never seen any other work which comes up to this level. Pete

Same type of Juyo paper: http://www.nihonto.com/11.1.12.html I am wondering if they changed the paper background as these are more modern being in Heisei? If you read the fourth line from the left its says Juyo Token: 重要刀剣. This is Tokubetsu juyo Token: 特別重要刀剣

Here are links to information and two listed examples with corresponding paper, Juyo and TB Juyo: http://www.nihontocraft.com/japanese_sword_papers.html http://www.nihonto.com/11.5.14.html http://www.nihonto.com/niji%20kunitoshi.html