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Hello: My question wasn't so much related to cost, which by the way, when comparing say between the US and Japan differential, must take into consideration many more costs and issues than just those related to those of the togi as such, but rather to the grades: iaido, average, above (average?), and top. The price quoted for above average by a sun doesn't seem out of line. I am thinking more about who has the power of decision on the level and what is the competence of that person to make such a decision. It is quite possible that a novice collector has a fine blade needing polish but a rather flat wallet. A decision to ask for an average polish could lead to great regrets. Every polish is a reductive process and an average polish, whatever that actually is, might entirely disqualify a blade for Tokubetsu Hozon consideration to say nothing of Juyo. I have no doubt that Tsuyoshi Morodomi is an accomplished polisher; and if he were to make the decision of level there would be some protection for the lack of knowledge of the novice. The novice making the call could be a disaster. To each his own, but the polishers I am familiar with in the US and Japan are sincere artists in their own right and would not compromise on the quality of a polish, as must be implicit in the levels mentioned above. Arnold F.

Hello: I am curious to know what Members of the NMB think about the concept of polishers offering services for different quality of polishes priced accordingly. Arnold F.

Hi: Excellent question! Brian is of course entirely correct about Western notions tending towards lock step type matching, however Robert Haynes used to refer to entirely nice and appropriate koshirae when the various pieces were, to quote, "consanguineous," which I think implies in the same general family or theme, congenial with each other, but not necessarily made to go together. If you look at old koshirae matching images which show koshirae of samurai, some very high, they are often "mismatched", and of course some of the owners could have ordered anything they wanted. Just good aesthetic taste is called for. Arnold F.

Hello: This discussion centers around words that only imperfectly describe reality, but which help us make our discrimination in observations more clear. In references I am familiar with "hitatsura" is always grouped under the discussion of hamon. Thinking of the hamon proper, without a nioi-guchi is just isn't hamon; it is a break in the hamon. All the references I could quickly lay hands on say something similar to Gordon Robson's Glossary of Japanese Sword Terms (JSS/US), wherein he writes: "Hitatsura-ba (ie, hitatsura-hamon). All over tempering. This hamon is marked by a particularly wild o-midare-ba with intense muneyaki. There are spots of temper in the ji between the hamon and the muneyaki..." Kanzan Sato in his The Japanese Sword (Kodansha), p.61, writes: " In the hitatsura style the marks left by the tempering appear in the area round the ridge as well as near the edge of the weapon." Hamon and tempering are the operative words and they direct us away from features that are the products of nie and nioi size, pattern and distribution such as utsuri, jifu utsuri, chikei, yubashiri, etc. I believe it is thus fair to say that there is a boundry involved. A few area of tobiyaki are tobiyaki and are encapsulated with a boundry; it probably is not entirely crazy to think of hitatsura as tobiyaki on steroids. Arnold F.

Hello: For hitatsura, if I understand the question posed, the scattered bits of hamon are encapsulated by a temperline boundry, whereas reference to ji nie is in the context of a peppering, so to speak, of nie within the jihada, differing only in individual particle size and density. Arnold F.

Hello: If you wanted to try a "home remedy" I would suggest a good scrubbing with soap and a toothbrush, a few tines of deer antler sharpened at the end, perhapsa few bits of ivory and some elbow grease to remove the rust. You might be surprised at the eventual product and no harm will be done. Wash the tsuba from time to time, let it dry well and then get yourself a little poppyseed oil from an art supply store, daub a very few drops on here and there, wipe any excess off with Kleenex, then brush with a horse hair shoe brush, let it dry for a few days and then repeat the brushing until it appears entirely dry. That might take a week or ten days. If the tsuba are soft metal or have the patina damaged to the unpatinated iron, then a hospital visit might be called for. Arnold F.

Hello: The Kanenori nakago is more than suspicious. In Meiji 35, 1902, he held the designation of Swordsmith to the Ministry of the Imperial Household and was not designated Teishitsu Gigei-in until April 4, 1906. It is possible that a faker knew only of the latter designation or thought that no one would know the dating dividing line between the two. Around 1920 Kanenori was ennobled as Sho, 7th rank. Kanenori was a very long lived and highly innovative smith. Arnold F.

Hello: I agree with Jean's suggestion. We should all remember though that price is a function of not only demand, but supply as well. Setting aside the tougher discussion of what might make one piece better or more desirable than another, the market price differences for two tsuba, for example, that are equally excellent but different pieces in school, design, time etc., could differ in market price only because one group was made in larger numbers. Of course for some collectors some things might be "better" just because they are more pricey, but I don't think you would subscribe to that point of view. Arnold F.

Hello: Thanks Steve, that is helpful. Arnold F.

Hello: The term "aikuchi" refers to a mounting of any length which has no tsuba. Arnold F.

Hello Paul: I would be interested to hear your take on post Haito-rei gendaito and post war shinsakuto. Arnold F.

Hello: The Kiku-sui inscription of the Minatogawa is not a stamp. Each is individually engraved! The authors are fully aware of that by now and I am told they do not describe it as a "stamp" in the new book. Swords made at the Minatogawa Jinja are most certainly traditionally made, as traditionally made as those at the Yasukuni Jinja and about them no doubt has ever been raised. There is literature out on the Jinja, see: Herman A. Wallinga. Gendaito Made at the Minatogawa Shrine, July 2000. Swords of both the Minatogawa Jinja and the Yasukuni Jinja have papered for years. The most casual observation of the stamps, by the way, each of which is superimposed on the shinogi of the nakago and thus intersected by the shinogi and the kiku's petals are intersected at different displacements blade to blade. That would not be consistent with a single stamp used for multiple blades because of the angle caused by the shinogi line (if that is the correct term for it there) which runs through the nakago. Arnold F.

Hello: Dig up your copy of Kishida's book on Yasukuni and you will find on p. 126 that was mei of Sakai Hiroshi. Arnold F.

Hello: B.W. Robinson's brother, H. Russell Robinson, wrote a nicely illustrated book, Japanese Arms and Armour for the Arms and Armour press, in 1969 that featured many of the pieces from the Museo Orientale. Onestill sees copies around at shows and they don't seem to fetch much. Arnold F.

Hello: I am sure it will contain useful information, however I would be curious to know if they list the Minatogawa Jinja group's kiku-sui mon found on all of their blades as "stamped". Does anyone know? Arnold F.

Peter: Thank you for your continuing stream of interesting references . Arnold F.

Hi: Fantastic Jean, a goal so easy to lay out and so hard to achieve! Congratulations! Arnold F.

Hi: When you say "...reproduced in the full size.", do you mean there are fold outs, or that what is shown is 1:1 as a partial portion of a larger object? Arnold F.

Hello: Excellent observation and question on your part Jean. I don't believe I have ever seen the "Den" notation on any tsuba, signed or not, and Dirk is quite right, but I believe that the meaning is something may be beyond the usual, but also that something might be missing from the usual, perhaps even both together. When used for swords it usually is taken negatively, the evidence for that being that things so indicated seem to go at a discount from the same call, other things equal, without the Den notation. I believe strictly speaking that one can't infer anything necessarily negative, and that it might also be positive. It is a nice looking tsuba. Does it have "iron bones" on the mimi? Arnold F.

Bernard: Please see my revised post above yours. Arnold F.

Hello: The tsuba identified as Onin isn't Onin at least in contemporary usage. Tsuba of that type are sometimes referred as displaying "dust inlay" suggestive of floor sweepings and would fall into the "Yokohama dock work school" in the eyes of most, though they are also called gomoku zogan. While the term "Onin" is entered in parentheses below mu mei, I cannot imagine where they got that, as anything called Onin would be either have shinchu suemon zogan or shinchu ten (taka) zogan and they represent an early and important group. Perhaps the small mon were interpred as suemon zogan, but the dominant feature is the scattered "dust inlay". Dr.Torigoye in his Tsuba Kanshoki (Revised), 1976, on p. 385 adds a small helpful section headed "I will show some poor samples as follows lest you should get such ones" and sure enough there is a photograph of a tsuba similar to the above, it showing several ko sukashi, much scattered brass slivers and a few tiny mon. These sort of tsuba date to pre-Meiji times too, but they are avoided by most collectors. Arnold F.

Hello: I believe Bob Haynes considers them legitimate tsuba. Arnold F.

Hello: Hi Barry. Well the old days when I was there when the group got going were fun indeed. You actually came quite close to answering the sort of compact questioning I had in mind. You might be right that the NTHK standard, never as fully specified by the way as the two recent versions of the NBTHK's that were/are on Danny Massey's site, should be interpreted as you suggest, i.e., that a 72 point designation for a "great smith" out ranks, say, a 78 point for a lower rated person. However that begs the question, from where does the rank come if not implicit in the paper value? I do have the three volumes that the branch of the NTHK associated with the late Yoshikawa Koen published and it is striking to note the Yushu saku designations that are given to lower ranking and fairly recent smiths, e.g., the grandfather of the current "Yoshihara brothers", Yoshihara Kuniie. I would like to see a more operationally specific criteria paper issued by either NTHK and then to know if both NTHK versions march to the same routine. Such a thing would be very helpful in understanding the confusion that some submitters get from the papers they receive at shinsa. Thanks for your reply as I am sure if gives a lot of food for thought. Perhaps Chris Bowen could add some further clarification. Arnold F.

Hello: Thanks Barry. As sheer co-incidence would have it I've been wondering recently about the relation between the status of a smith and the level of the paper actually received by the blade, other things equal. It goes without saying that smiths that are highly ranked, Saijo saku and Jo Jo saku for example, on average made blades worthy of those designations, and subsequent papers will tend to reflect that. The great unknown is what impact those rankings have on a judge when they, hopefully, look at the mei after examining the other features of the blade. There is probably an upward bias, but how would one ever know its strength? I suppose that ranking bias, and only on signed blades that are considered genuine would it be of any relevance, varies judge to judge. It would be really interesting to have a group, say of a dozen blades, signed blades of course, go through the two versions of the NTHK shinsa, which tend to have a single senior judge, that are held periodically in the US and then compare the outcomes. I also wonder how the two NTHK standards differ from those of the NBTHK? Wandering off topic here... We would be interested in hearing more about how that Toronto experience worked out for the blades you folks had. Arnold F.

Hello: If you have a blade worthy of a polish you should try to get it to the very best sword polisher that you can. Arnold F.