cabowen Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Who is the smith? Do you have a high res copy of the photo? Might be able to figure out who it is from the sign on the wall in the last photo. Very nice tanrenjo.... Quote
w.y.chan Posted February 6, 2014 Author Report Posted February 6, 2014 Tsukamoto Okimasa. They are stills from a documentary "The Art of the Japanese Sword" by Tatsuo Asano in 1957. Wah Quote
cabowen Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Tsukamoto Okimasa. They are stills from a documentary "The Art of the Japanese Sword" by Tatsuo Asano in 1957. Wah Imagine that! I didn't think his forge- looks too nice from what I have heard.. I can't tell who the sakite are, with the exception of the man on the far right in the second photo- that is his nephew Tsukamoto Kotaro, I believe. He is well known for being a very big man that used to make taxis sag! There was a documentary film made called Nihon-to Monogatari (The Story of the Japanese Sword)-- is this what you are referring to? Where did you come across these? I have searched high and low for a copy of this movie....my holy grail! Thanks Wah... Quote
w.y.chan Posted February 6, 2014 Author Report Posted February 6, 2014 You are welcome. This one of the polisher in the same film Quote
cabowen Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Nice...Where did you get these? I would like to use them in a publication in the future....Have you located a copy of the film? Thanks. Quote
SwordGuyJoe Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Thank you very much for posting these! Quote
Brian Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Wah Very nice! Would you mind uploading them directly here, so that when imageflickr has lost them, they will remain for future reference? Brian Quote
cabowen Posted February 6, 2014 Report Posted February 6, 2014 Ah, ok, I see where these are....Thanks again. Quote
w.y.chan Posted February 7, 2014 Author Report Posted February 7, 2014 Ah, ok, I see where these are....Thanks again. I will let you negotiate with the owner since they are more important to you. Just make sure I get a signed copy of your book of Tokyo smiths when it is published I will ask MI6 to trace the film BFI didnt have it when I ask a few years ago but I'm sure it is about but not been transfered to playable media. Most films are only made available to the public when it is transfered to DVD. BTW these pics are saved in my Flickr page, if Chris gets them I'm sure you will see higher res scans in the near future. Wah Quote
cabowen Posted February 7, 2014 Report Posted February 7, 2014 Fair enough..... The film was 35mm and 27 minutes long, from what I have found...I need someone to get the ear of the NHK people to find out if they can be talked into airing it. Then it can be recorded....Provided they have a copy. I have wanted to check with the Diet library too... Quote
cabowen Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 I was able to win the auction for 3 of these stills. Unfortunately, after winning the first three for around 500Yen each, the last two turned into a bidding war and I stepped aside when the bids reached 20,000Yen for the other two photos. Hopefully, I will succeed in obtaining a copy of this film, making those stills unnecessary. Quote
w.y.chan Posted February 12, 2014 Author Report Posted February 12, 2014 Chris, which two did you missed out on? The images look too clean to come from actual film negative, it could be prints of photos shot on set during filming but I could be wrong. Still useful for publication even if you do eventually get hold of the film. I suppose someone might want to have them enlarged/framed and put them on display next to their Okimasa. The seller listed those last year unsold but this time round people go into bidding war. I was going to buy those for you to use in your book. I guess this is the price one has to pay whenever info related to an auction gets into the open on NMB. Wah Quote
cabowen Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 Yes, something is a bit odd with the auction for the last two photos....After winning the first three, I email the seller and told him I planned to bid on the remaining two and would asked if I could pay for all of them together after the last auction completed. I still haven't received a reply but sent another email asking for a total with shipping for the three I did win. We'll see.. I think one of two things may have happened: the seller, knowing I wanted to buy the other two photos, shill bid them way up. The other possibility, as mentioned, is that having the links to the auctions published here on the NMB alerted someone and they bid them up. Hard to imagine there are too many people that interested in these photos to bid the kind of money they went for (~$200 each!), especially after the first three went without any competing bids for around $5....Weird. The first two you posted above are the ones that were bid up. Funny too that the second one you posted he seemed to list in two auctions, one of which I won for 444yen....Hmmm... You may be right Wah that they were still photos taken during filming, rather than made from the film itself. Quote
w.y.chan Posted February 12, 2014 Author Report Posted February 12, 2014 Chris, most people would have bid on the many naughty ones he has for sale Most likely someone had visited NMB and did an image search match, can read Japanese or net savy. If true at least they had the curtesy of letting you get 3 of them largely unappose so that is a positive. Wah Quote
cabowen Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 Looking at the seller history and some of the negative comments made about the seller, I think I will be lucky to get any of these... I would think most people would be satisfied with the image they could save from the auction; I have a hard time imaging anyone actually bidding $200 each for these........knowing how much shill bidding occurs in these auctions, I am more prone to that as an explanation, but maybe you are right Wah, someone (NMB member ?) really really wanted them... Quote
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