Friends of Toren Smith?

[Curran]

I'm looking for fellow friends of Toren Smith. I haven't spoken with him in years, but Darcy contacted me.

Word is the former collector and well known translator has died.

[cabowen]

If that is true that is very sad news....Toran visited me in Japan on several occasions. We shared many common interests. I had heard he was traveling extensively, pursuing his love of diving. I hadn't heard from him either in quite a few years....I wonder what happened....quite a shock.

[Curran]

Even if it is a moot point, I'd like to know how he died.

He added both to the Nihonto and Japanese Art / Anime world.

It should be given at least a moments respect here.

[cabowen]

Agreed....

[kusunokimasahige]

My condoleances to all who knew him.

 

He passed away the 4th of March, age 52.

 

Here is an obituary :

 

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/0 ... -obituary/

[Curran]

Henk-Jan,

 

Thank you for that. I was so starved for English when a foreign exchange student in Japan in 1989.

A classmate handed me a copy of 'The Dirty Pair' in both Japanese and English. I wonder now if that was some of his work.

[Toryu2020]

I may have met him only once but met with his work often, years of great manga reading thanks to Studio Proteus.

RIP

[Lance]

My condolences go out to his family members and friends as well. Many years ago I used to work at a small graphics arts company doing color separations and making negative plates for comics. One of these was working on was a reissue of the English Lone Wolf and Cub manga series. Aside from the enjoyment of being able to read these while working, It was one of a small number of catalysts that occurred around the same time that led me to becoming interested in Nihonto and Japanese art in general, I still have a soft spot for Ogami Itto and his son, and even though I didn't know him I'm still grateful for the impact such a small connection's had on me .

 

Lance

[Darcy]

Toren Smith was a good guy. I missed this posting before. I met Toren at my very first San Francisco sword show. Along with others from here and other places. He attended them regularly but he was a quiet guy. Well not quiet, but not one to draw a lot of attention to himself for the sake of it. I think I met him and Curran at the same time. I think he had tables from time to time but I am not often there so I can't say for sure. It's easier to explain his background by referring to his Wikipedia page, as he was an important guy in Manga circles:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toren_Smith

 

When he found out I was a scuba diver he offered to Fedex the keys to his condo in the Caymans to me. Just said it's there, go use it. He was kind and generous and far too innocent.

 

He took a lot of what he was told at face value and did not look deeper into people's motivations. That goes hand in hand with the kind of generosity he showed people. He saw only the good, and so for instance he is the one who gave me an enthusiastic character reference on a certain nefarious guy with many aliases and spellings of his name... should I name him again surely it will summon him here to everyone's regret. But you know that story from past posts, and I am $28,000 out of pocket as a result. But me too, sometimes too quick to just see the positive and didn't realize that Toren was going to see only sunshine in whomever he dealt with. I try harder these days.

 

He had built out a wide collection of low and mid grade items through his interaction with dealers and collectors, enough that he could have say bought a Go Yoshihiro and had change left over for a Rai Kunitoshi. But in what he had accumulated, nothing was higher than a decent but flawed Tokubetsu Hozon Jo-saku shinto blade. He had followed the "buy what you like" line to an extreme, and did not realize that the "what you like" part is something that is subject to refinement and necessary to seek out exposure to fine works in order to do so. He thought that what he was getting, that this was the be all and end all so just kept going sideways.

 

At the end of his collecting, he bought two fine koto blades, a Morimitsu and a Niji Kunitoshi which was Juyo. It changed how he perceived the large set of what he had bought. And he felt a great deal of betrayal over his experience, betrayal which he expressed right up to the months before his death.

 

I had asked Ted Tenold and Keith Larman to assist me with selling his items, the shinsakuto in particular as I don't know much of anything about them and this set of swords was overwhelming work. I became good friends with them through this process. As we continued Toren became more upset over where he ended up with swords and finally decided that he would just exit entirely rather than re-make his collection.

 

There is an old guard mentality that newbies need to "pay their dues", after this "due paying" process the newbie usually joins the old guard and makes sure that others "pay their dues." It is a cycle of predation.

 

Some do not have the kind of character makeup to do that. Some of these guys just pull the plug and drop out.

 

Toren decided that he'd keep three items, sell the rest, and drop out. His Niji Kunitoshi now sits among Juto and Tokuju by Go, Shintogo, Sadamune, Norishige, Yukimitsu, Hiromitsu, Samonji, Shizu, Akihiro, and others in a very fine collection and will be cared for for a long time.

 

Some years later he contacted me and said he was dealing with a personal crisis in his life and would need the money for the last three swords he had kept. For him he was a bit in shock and what he was going through was deeply embittering. His outlook was different, he was very upset. I invited him to come and scuba with me in Thailand but he would not come as he had suffered a pulmonary embolism so was no longer permitted to dive, and the cost of the surgery that might fix it was very high and risky. So had lost one of the remaining joys he had. If I had known how deeply he was sliding I would have tried to do more but it is not something that is so obvious until it is too late.

 

Ted sold one of the three remaining swords for him in San Francisco in 2012. I sold one off my website, and I still have the last one for sale with the funds going to his widow when it does sell.

 

Before we could finish this process, Toren was dead.

[Darcy]

This also indicates how people felt about Toren:

 

Lea Hernandez

 

My fiance saw the news on Facebook first and told me. I just collapsed across him and my daughter, I was crying too hard to stand up. I talked to Adam Warren at length, with Adam being tremendously helpful in steering me back to the present when I got very sad.

 

Posts from his fans and those he touched can be read here:

 

http://thehud.com/2013/03/rip-toren-smith/

[Gabriel L]

That's a very touching story Darcy. Thank you for putting at least part of this man's life and character into context. I've never read manga and hadn't heard of him before tonight, but you and the other contributors to this thread make me feel like I got to know him in a small way. I am very sorry to hear of his passing and any difficulties he may have had in life.

 

Requiescat in pace, Mr. Smith.