estcrh

Jason your right, the habaki and seppa look like they are snipped from sheet copper and once again there are no pictures of the tang or close ups of the blade...looks ornamental to me.

Something you do not see much of is pack horse equipment. Besides a personal horse a samurai would need another horse to carry his equipment, here is a picture of a pack saddle and bit, I am not sure if it is a horse saddle or not.

Ian, I see some of the horse related bridal parts, ropes etc from time to time but its hard to identify the actual use, pictures like these put the parts into context.

Thanks Martin, nice set..I have been trying to see pictures of all the equipment used for a horse but I never see the stands and now here are 2, Ian just posted a pic and you have a different style, and I didnt realize that there was a special shaped box...great information, good luck on the side protectors..I see them for sale in Japan from time to time.

Ian, thanks for the pics...thats 2 things I have never seen, the stand and the saddle cover....a really complete set had a lot of parts apparently.

Martin, any pictures??? Here is a link to the Soma clan horse festival, http://www.buzzintown.com/new-delhi/art ... d_660.html

All good police states need a lot of feet on the ground, and the samurai quickly adapted from soldiers to security forces...a soldier is a soldier no matter what you call them, they also became the civil servants who ran the country including police, fire, tax collection etc. They were able to keep the country under control rather bloodlessly right up to the end...and despite being called the "peacefull" period there was a lot of rebellion, riots, civil unrest, criminal gangs, etc...even a large war....they were not exactly hippies!! "ineffectual and unnecessary" I dont think so...they just changed with the times.

The Edo period was several hundred years....in that whole period there were no "real" samurai?..they never rode horses in the Edo period...because they stopped having huge wars within their country that butchered tens of thousands of their own people they suddenly became "decadent"?...The Edo period is were some of the best work was done in my opinion....the Japanese had the resources and time to develop their artistic and scientific skills....at the end of the Edo period they were able to transform their country from a feudal society to a world power within a few years...

Here is a picture of a very complete saddle set, age unknown but it seems to have most if not all of the required parts. from>> http://www.japanauctioncenter.com/view2 ... /f82135476

Jason, its a nice saddle but the seller does not own the items, they take pictures from items for sale in Japan and hyper inflate the price and re-list the item list on ebay....some of their items are sold already in Japan and they still list the item as it it were still for sale..

Ray, the Japanese have been faking signatures on weapons, armor,etc for a very long time, so you can get a sword that is an authentic antique that had a fake signature from the day it was made several hundred years ago. It was the equivalent of wearing fake designer items in our times I would say. It seems to me that it was no small task hundreds of years ago to forge a sword and especially a sword that would stand up to the test of time. Why on earth would someone go through all this effort just to sign with someone else's name? And being that the swordsmiths and lineages are well documented it also seems like there was no excess of swordsmiths. Ray, I can think of one good reason....profit....a big name gets more money....peoples motives have not changed much its the same today. The seller makes more money for selling a product with a famous name.

Ray, the Japanese have been faking signatures on weapons, armor,etc for a very long time, so you can get a sword that is an authentic antique that had a fake signature from the day it was made several hundred years ago. It was the equivalent of wearing fake designer items in our times I would say.

Hello, pictures of the blade will be required to.

Ron...thats a great sword and you did a good job on it.....your eyes must have popped out of your head when you saw it at that show!

Ron, I do not see any photos?

Jason. something I would suggest would be to make yourself a couple of searches in the antique and collectible categories on ebay such as ww2 Japanese sword, shin gunto, Japanese sword, etc and save them, then put every sword you thing looks good or interesting to you on your watched items list. Keep track of them and see how they are being bid on and the final sales price, this will help give you an idea of the current market value and it will test you own knowledge as well. You will begin to see which sellers carry good swords to. I do this all the time and its a very interesting way to see were the markets at and how good you are at spotting good swords....or at least swords that a lot of people think are good!

Are they wearing muneate or dou?

Jason, once again you have a seller who does not know how to present a sword for sale, no pictures of the tang, also you did not mention if you can see any hada, the seller makes no claim as to the type of blade it is.

Moss...."total loss??"...you could still end up with a perfectly good (but expensive) letter opener!!!....and the lessons learned can last a lifetime. Were else can you get an education and a neat tool for a few measly dollars.

Jason, to me the tang looks quite old, but obviously the seller has no idea of how to present a sword in order to sell it, there are no close up pictures of the blade....

It was from this site, one more interesting picture there from>>>> http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21151

Ron spotted the nail heads as a possible give away but never having seen a close up picture of an authentic bohiya (bo hiya?) it is hard to say how the fins would have been attached. here is a drawing of one being fired ( Ron pointed out the "ouch" very dangerous stance!) and it looks like his hand is tied to the weapon.... Looks like the same huge weapon Piers was showing us.

Here is one for sale which is supposed to be real. http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... /tanto.htm One more of these rare weapons from>>>> http://www.rwinterjapaneseart.com/index ... &Itemid=80

Ron, I figured that you, piers or Ian would recognize what this was....in fact the only way I knew was from Piers picture, thats what I like about this forum...I just thought it was funny that I would see one right after reading Piers description. *****One word of warning. Originals of these are very few and far between. There are some modern repros going around the markets recently, in an attempt to catch the unwary and capitalize pricewise on the rarity factor. How can you tell the real from the fake without something to compare it to? See any clues?

Ron, I figured that you, piers or Ian would recognize what this was....in fact the only way I knew was from Piers picture, thats what I like about this forum...I just thought it was funny that I would see one right after reading Piers description. *****One word of warning. Originals of these are very few and far between. There are some modern repros going around the markets recently, in an attempt to catch the unwary and capitalize pricewise on the rarity factor. Piers, I think that statement is true for just about anything rare and unusual.