Bizen To-Ken O-Koku 備前刀剣王国 Traveling Circus

[Bugyotsuji]

Rather hard to track down what exactly is happening, but part I of this is displayed at the To-Ken Museum in Tokyo until August 23, and part II until Sunday November 1.  

 

Each of these parts then takes to the road and goes to... the Sano Art Museum and the Osafune To-Ken sword Museum, I think. (?)

 

So if anyone is in Japan for the next year or so, there could be a chance to catch this. There seem to be 73 swords, many of them spectacular in their style/forging, and/or in their historical association/meaning. Some blades make a first appearance. (They have also managed to collect a group of representative kozori within the display as a sub-theme.)

 

There should be both individual English explanations and a bilingual catalog(ue)... in due course, I have reason to believe.

 

http://www.touken.or.jp/english/index.html

 

http://www.enjoytokyo.jp/museum/event/1199453/

 

http://grut.to/detail_id_601.php

 

http://news.mynavi.jp/photo/news/2015/05/22/217/images/005l.jpg

[DirkO]

If anyone could get their hands on the catalogue, I'd be more than interested in getting a few copies 

[Bugyotsuji]

There may be a Japanese one, but the multilingual one will surely not be out yet.

[Bugyotsuji]

It was published by the Sano Art Museum on 25 August 2015.

[Bugyotsuji]

Opening at Bizen Osafune Sword Museum from this weekend.

 

45 swords on display until changeover March 4, apparently, second half going until 27 March.

[Bugyotsuji]

Went to see this yesterday for the first time. "Upstairs you should start at the right and move round", they told me. "In historical order."

 

Everyone upstairs was intuitively flowing the other way round, breaking my concentration. Stuff this, I thought.

 

Is it just me or do others feel more regarding a sword that is known to have taken part in some famous event in history? Perhaps it is my lack of serious study that goes for the easy cop-out?

 

For example, there was the actual Yoshifusa that Admiral Togo Heihachiro wore on the top deck of the Mikasa during his epic battle against the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait in 1905. And here was an Ichimonji, given by Oda Nobunaga to Okudaira Nobumasa in thanks for defending Nagashino Castle against the hugely superior forces of Takeda Katsuyori in 1575. How about this Naritaka Tachi bestowed with gratitude by Minamoto no Yoritomo upon Sawara Yoshitsura for leading his supporting cavalry charge down the 'impossible' cliffs at Ichi-no-Tani in 1184?

 

Since the second part of the exhibition will be introduced next Friday I am planning to go again on a regular weekday before that, and look more deeply into those blades. Yesterday (Saturday) there were just too many people, headed the 'wrong' way round, although they said it had been quiet in the morning.

[Bugyotsuji]

PS The shop at Osafune Sword Museum ordered 50 copies of the illustrated catalog, which have now nearly sold out, so they have ordered in another 60, according to word on the ground.

 

PPS Re-reading the English captions at the exhibition I found several examples of odd English. How did those creep in, I wondered? 

[SteveM]

The odd English is a pet peeve of mine. In short, my guess is that the curators were cutting costs on the exhibition, and opted for someone who may have relied heavily on machine translation, and/or skipped proofreading. 

[Bugyotsuji]

Steve, absolutely agreed.  The problem for me though regarding this particular exhibition is that officially I am the one who did the translation! Did someone have to copy/type out the captions manually and in a rush at some point in the process, I find myself wondering?

[SteveM]

Well, now that would really piss me off! I think probably your assumption is correct. I would definitely ask about that. 

 

But what a disappointment - after going through the trouble to translate something, then having it get buggered up in the final step. I'm feeling your pain, Piers!

[Bugyotsuji]

Went back for another look today as they are changing the swords this very evening for the start of the second half. Very few people there so I was able to concentrate a little more this time.

 

The spelling boo boos are not a problem if you are not a grammar Nazi and you have a forgiving heart. They result from various causes, including probably predictive texting, and an ability to slip through spell checkers.

 

Off the top of my head, one panel said that Togo Heihachiro's Yasufusa steel is blight. One of the Nagamitsu blades had a flamboyant human. 宗吉 in English was Munetoshi in the first line of para 2, and Munyoshi in the 5th line. One suriage tachi mei was folded around and described as having been placed in a special flame.

[Bugyotsuji]

Well, I guess I am Mr Popular now. Not. Yesterday I went round (40 mins drive from here) to the exhibition to follow up on a promise to edit their English exhibit cards. After an hour or two I handed over five pages of hand-written notes. One classic comment was about a lovely Chogi blade, "It is worth nothing..." (instead of noting).

 

The young lady in the office who had been elected to type out the original captions stepped forward, extremely embarrassed, explaining that she had always been bad at English. "No-one who is bad at English could have typed all that", I said. "A misprint or two is completely natural. Blame Bill Gates for the predictive texting!"

[Rivkin]

The catalogue is really good. Almost each sword - high quality photo, oshigata, Japanese and English. I would love to see its being printed A3, as with many Japanese books, but at the price it was sold at - definitely a super-bargain. The exhibit itself was interesting but lighting, even at NBTHK, was not perfect and many swords were difficult to appreciate - as always.

Kyoto Meito exhibit is another big event.

[Bugyotsuji]

Great feedback, Rivkin, which I will pass on to the curator at Osafune.

[Rivkin]

Thank you very much for the captions!

[Greg F]

Would love to see some photos. Cheers.

 

Greg

[Bugyotsuji]

Photos of the exhibition, Greg? Sadly, no photography allowed!

[Greg F]

Hi Piers, thanks anyway. Cheers.

 

Greg

[Bugyotsuji]

Greg, some shots in this parallel thread:

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17264-bizen-swords-exhibition-at-the-Japanese-sword-museum-nbthk-Japan/?hl=yosozaemon&do=findComment&comment=178472

[Greg F]

Thank you Piers.

 

Greg

[Brian]

Well, I guess I am Mr Popular now. Not. Yesterday I went round (40 mins drive from here) to the exhibition to follow up on a promise to edit their English exhibit cards. After an hour or two I handed over five pages of hand-written notes. One classic comment was about a lovely Chogi blade, "It is worth nothing..." (instead of noting).

 

The young lady in the office who had been elected to type out the original captions stepped forward, extremely embarrassed, explaining that she had always been bad at English. "No-one who is bad at English could have typed all that", I said. "A misprint or two is completely natural. Blame Bill Gates for the predictive texting!"

 

If I saw a tag saying it is worth nothing, I would offer them 100 bucks, and take it

Sounds like you do good work assisting the various sword people with their exhibitions. well done Piers.

[Bugyotsuji]

Nothing like the work you do following up the posts here, Brian! Don't know how you do it.