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I know there site but I thought you were referring to an online pamphlet. If you can get some pictures that would be great, there are not many pictures available online to show people and I am trying to find as many different styles and types as I can, thanks.

Piers, do you have a link to the pictures, I would like to see them.

It is sad really, I see some nice swords being sold on the forum by members in good standing that are not questionable at all and have very detailed images which leave no doubt as to the exact nature of the sword, and the seller has to drop the price to a ridiculous level to sell...and then you see something like this....and the rest of this sellers not well described or pictured swords sold equally as well.

The market speaks.....Winning bid: US $3,227.77

Looks like a a clone bidder is running up the bids.. p***r( 30) 100% of bids with this seller and has bid on all the swords and a lot of the other items listed by the seller.

All the same comments can be made about this daisho, besides having a few parts that are matched there are no real detailed pictures of the kind that would help a KNOWLEDGEABLE buyer make the decision to bid on these swords. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... _500wt_950

""TO SETTLE ESTATE. SWORDS ARE FOR SALE LOCALLY AND I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CANCEL THIS AUCTION." For sale locally? Were..in a pawn shop or antique store? I just took a good look at all the swords this seller has for sale and I have to agree completely that the pictures are just not of the quality that would allow someone to make an intelligent knowledgeable assessment on any of the swords in this group. The seller is not doing any favors to the heirs of this estate and is probably costing them quite a bit of money......unless the pictures are purposely blurred and not of the quality necessary to make an informed purchase?? I emailed the seller a question on one of these swords and have not received a reply as of yet..I think I will just pass on this one.

I do not think that you would put just any old blade in an outfit like that. Very nice work

The first clue is the small hooks (orekugi) on both sides of the menpo's face used for attaching the helmet cord, this should be square and bent not round and curved, a very easy way to spot a replica. Here is an example of how they should look The almost complete lack of wear is another thing to look for. While you can find pristine examples I do not think they will come up for sale on ebay, at least not at this price. I have added a link to some Antique Edo period menpo. http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... ?start=all

This menpo was listed a an "antique" and as being "cast iron", it is neither, the buyer should ask for a refund. The menpo is vintage at best and it is stamped not cast. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 7244wt_934

Malcolm, if you look at all the pictures on the scroll you notice a few interesting details. The samurai seem to be carrying only one sword. There seems to be a complete lack of yari on the Japanese side but you do see naginata being used. The mongols have yari in large amounts. You can see shields being used on one of the Japanese boat scenes, I read that this was due to the samurai on boats that were attacking the Mongols went without armor and did not have the large sode to protect them from arrows. There are a lot of bows and archery equipment in all the scenes, notice all the tsurumaki being worn, the round woven bow string holder, no accomplished archer would be without one, and huge amounts of arrows. I see what looks like a boat hook or two for pulling your boat up along side another boat. The horse related equipment seems the be much the same as in the Edo period. Some very interesting scrolls, thanks for the link.

Ian, I forgot to show the link to that armor, your right, really incredible details, from the unique lace to the fine metal work on the smallest fittings, and true scale dou. I have found several armors with wakibiki listed as accessories but since the parts are not shown individually you can not see them as they were hidden inside the dou. You can see also see how they would be among the first pieces of an armor to be lost or misplaced. I think you are right about wakibiki being more of an anti yari armor. Here is that link to the armor. http://www.shogunart.com/Gusoku22.html

I do not know the average weight of a man from that time period but that would be a lot of weight for someone to carry now. Here are a pair of wakibiki worn in the way Ian described, on the outside of the dou.

Piers, have you ever weighed yourself with all your gear including your matchlock and related equipment, the full load so to speak and then subtracted from your normal weight? I would be interested in knowing just how much weight you actually have to carry around. Since your using for the most part the same equipment as in the Edo period it would be a good representative way of calculating what someone from that period would have been lugging around. Of course food, and water and other essentials would have to be added in to the total, I would assume that would be a couple of extra pounds.

A good quote on the subject of wearing so much stuff..."A true bushi observed the strict rules of etiquette with regard even to the garments worn under his armour, and it was part of his soldierly capacity to be able to bear the great weight of the whole without any loss of activity, though the feat would be impossible to any untrained man of modern days."

Piers, I think that if you were facing the real possibility of being stabbed by an armed samurai with spears etc, having a huge open area around your arm would be a concern and a few extra cords would not have been a big deal. After the era when traditional armor was not being used for protection as much as a show of status and rank these "auxiliary" armor pieces would have been quickly stored away. Older instructions on the correct wearing of armor include these chest area protectors. Here is a print showing the correct way to wear a "manju no wa", another rare armpit and chest protector which along with the "manchira" are rarely seen, and another picture of a plate type wakibiki, this one has no cord for attachment at the bottom, it must have been worn inside the dou.

An interesting discussion on the subject of these extra long swords "nagatachi'' from: Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia 1891. Also an interesting discussion on the origins of Japanese swords. http://books.google.com/books?id=J2UUAA ... utput=text By Edward Gilbertson, Esquire, of Ilfracombe, Devonshire, England, " the leading English collector of Japanese swords and mounts,"

Malcolm, I think you can question the provenance of all the very strange unusual looking yari seen outside of Japan. I have yet to see any detailed history of these items or detailed close up modern photos, good question.

It seems to me that many of the yari in this thread would not be identified as being Japanese by their looks alone, and certainly when not mounted on an identifiable pole. Its reasonable to assume that there are other shapes and types not pictured here and possibly not yet identified as being Japanese or used by the Japanese by those "scholars". Again nice pictures.

Carlo, nice pictures and information, as for the scholars, unfortunately the scholars are not looking at what comes up for sale in the world for the most part, and since the whole source for information on this subject is seemingly from a single repository there are undoubtedly examples floating around unidentified or misidentified by under informed collectors and probably in some institutions as well. As for the Captain....I would hardly put him in th category of a "voyagers and sailor"....If he wrote his book in the early 1900s would he have had access to the Shosoin collection? Of course he could have been repeating something he heard etc. I just think that with so little information and images available on these early spears his description should not be totally dismissed. And Carlo....yes..you should be afraid..very afraid......OF THE FUTURE USE!!!!!

Thanks Malcolm, it does look like the one on your link. The interesting thing is that it is hidden from view.

This symbol is on the inner lapel of a kusari katabera, I was interested in knowing if it has some meaning.

Dull is a good description but full of interesting information, to bad he was not a photographer. With very old yari being so heavily influenced by Chinese blades it makes me wonder how many of these are seen but not even recognized as being Japanese due to lack of known examples, since they would not look like the typical yari that we are used to seeing. Is there any known evidence that Brinkley was correct in his description of the use of hoko yari "the hoko served almost exclusively for guarding palisades and gates."

Captain Frank Brinkley described hoko yari as being "sometimes wave-edged like a Malay kris." After doing some research on Captain Brinkley I do not think its entirely reasonable to hastily dismiss his description as a mistake etc. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." His description of hoko yari as "At the point of junction of blade and hilt a sickle-shaped horn projected on one side or on both" accurately describes the hoko yari that Carlo posted, its just possible that some hoko yari had a wavy edge just as he said. 40 yrs of living in Japan and marrying into a samurai family may have given him a access to knowledge that we just cant find presently. Francis Brinkley (30 December 1841 – 12 October 1912[1]) was an Anglo-Irish newspaper owner, editor and scholar who resided in Meiji period Japan for over 40 years. He was also known as Frank Brinkley or as Captain Francis Brinkley. In 1866, on his way to Hong Kong, Brinkley visited Nagasaki and witnessed a duel between two samurai warriors. Once the victor had slain his opponent he immediately covered him in his haori, and 'knelt down with hands clasped in prayer'. It is said that Brinkley was so impressed by the conduct of the Japanese warrior that this enticed him to live in Japan permanently. Life in Japan In 1867 Captain Brinkley returned to Japan, never again to return home. Attached to the British-Japanese Legation, and still an officer in the Royal Artillery, he was assistant military attache to the Japanese Embassy. He resigned his commission in 1871 to take up the post of foreign advisor to the new Meiji government, and taught artillery techniques to the new Imperial Japanese Navy at the Naval Gunnery School. He mastered the Japanese language soon after his arrival, and both spoke and wrote it well. In 1878 he was invited to teach mathematics at the Imperial College of Engineering, which later became part of Tokyo Imperial University, remaining in this post for two and a half years. In the same year he married Tanaka Yasuko, a daughter of a samurai from the Mito clan. Technically, the marriage was illegal under Japanese law, but Brinkley managed to legalise it by appealing to the British judiciary, with the help of some influential friends. They were the parents of two daughters and a son, Jack Ronald Brinkley (1887–1964), who also contributed greatly to Japanese culture and education. In 1881 until his death he owned and edited the Japan Mail newspaper (later merged with the Japan Times), receiving financial support from the Japanese government and consequently maintaining a pro-Japanese stance. The newspaper was perhaps the most influential and widely read English language newspaper in the far East. Japan and China: Japan, its history, arts, and literature By Frank Brinkley http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA156& ... utput=text

Ian, I was wondering just were those toggles would have been attached if they were worn on the outside. I have searched online for pictures and information but not much is out there. Here is a picture of the kind of wakibiki you mentioned, kusari and armor plates sewn to cloth. Maybe this other picture is the drawing you saw, of how a samurai should put on his wakibiki. I think that in the past people just thought these were just not interesting items that just got in the way, like so many other things and they eventually just got thrown out or recycled into something else.