CodeWarrior Posted July 30, 2015 Report Posted July 30, 2015 About 6 months ago, my family purchased a more or less traditional Japanese home on the Big Island of Hawaii. The house was built in 1963 by the Shinwa Kensetsu Co Ltd from Kyoto. The original owner purchased the home prefabricated in Japan, had it shipped (along with construction crew) to Hawaii and built.After moving in, one of the tenants (the home has several additions that were being rented) presented me with a sword that he could not remember where he had gotten it (he had recently had a stroke and his memory was failing). I know next to nothing about swords. My only previous experience was in Afghanistan when a local at the bazaar tried to sell me an obvious stamped metal blade that looked like something a Klingon would wield for $3 saying that a General has personally killed like 100 people with it some 150 years ago; needless to say I was skeptical). Below is a link to a couple of photo albums. If necessary, let me know if I need to take additional pictures of something specific. I included pictures of the house and roof for those interested.The Sword: goo.gl/photos/JfFoVxwXyfRHN9cLAThe House: goo.gl/photos/sde2UY47iLGYVTFi6The Roof: goo.gl/photos/opVXMbWNbxksH4697What I am really looking for is an assesment of what the sword is and what it is not. I hold no illusions that I have some amazing blade that has found its way into my hands from centuries ago, wielded by some famous samurai. The blade is approx 29 1/2 inches from tip to the end of the handle, and 38 inches over all. If you notice in the picture where I have the sword sitting atop a chest (katana bako or a sword polishers tansu) it very nearly matches the width of that chest with a little room on each side.Please let me know what you think!CodeWarrior Quote
Guido Posted July 30, 2015 Report Posted July 30, 2015 Cory, nice house in a great location, I envy you (even taking into consideration the huge amount of work you have to put into the renovation). The chest, btw, is called katanadansu. The sword, however, is a Chinese fake. If you browse NMB, you'll soon recognize all the tell-tale signs. Quote
Brian Posted July 30, 2015 Report Posted July 30, 2015 Agree with Guido....Chinese fake sword. But wow..what a house! Hmm...traditional Japanese house, living in Hawaii.... Somedays living in Johannesburg just feels wholly inadequate - B - Quote
CodeWarrior Posted July 30, 2015 Author Report Posted July 30, 2015 I can't say that I am particularly surprised that it is not something more, but that is OK. The house is indeed amazing, but really it is going to be a long time before I can repair the damage done to it. The photos in those albums show me removing a couple of walls that were put up in the house to divide it for a tenant. They screwed the wall into the shoji track inside and the amado track outside. Additionally, a previous owner left almost all of the amado (20 out of 24) outside uncovered, and the wood panel rotted out, so they screwed 1/2 inch plywood onto the door frames. The amado when whole, could be lifted with one hand. With the plywood, they weighted roughly 50+ lbs. They ended up stacking all 20 of them on the deck near the stiars and the weight (about 1000 lbs) over the course of about 10 years caused the deck and the amado track to sag. The tatami (original and solid rush stalk core) were probably not beaten or taken outside for a good 20 years or more, the covers were allowed to get really worn and beaten up (the tenant had a dog that she let on the tatami and she wore shoes on it). We found a guy on Oahu that can repair them. He said he could come over to our island and do it for like 300 per mat (3x 8-tatami rooms = 24 mats). The tile roof has probably never really serviced since it was installed. A previous owner said that it was leaking heavily when they bought it, and that he got up and shifted some tiles back into place and that stopped the leaks, but there is evidence of more leaking, and many of the tiles are raised off of the tiles below. The electrical is a joke, most of it is original to the house (installed 1963) and is aluminum 2-cable wiring, very dangerous from a fire standpoint as it gets older. All of that is going to have to be pulled out and re-run. The plumbing throughout the whole house is a hodgepodge, and will also require redesign and re-install. And lastly, and most alarmingly, the termites have been doing a number on the house for some time. Since the roof tiles will break if someone walks on them in their current state (and fixing it is going to run me about $25K) I can't get it fumigated, so looks like I am going to have to use the Orange Oil solution, but that is about $5K by itself. I certainly have my work cut out for me. As I said, it will take a while to repair the damage that absentee landlords (and people who did not know what they had) did to it. Thanks for the info! If ever we get the place fixed up, and I have no doubt that we will, I think a nice addition will be a sword or two for display, but I think I will save up for something more authentic than something pumped out of a Chinese foundry. Quote
Stephen Posted July 30, 2015 Report Posted July 30, 2015 Please keep us updated on the house in the Izakaya forum, even with all its fault's its fantastic, That would be a dream project for me,good luck and good fortune to you and your house. Btw id see Bob Benson when your ready for swords he lives in Hawaii. Quote
Ken-Hawaii Posted July 31, 2015 Report Posted July 31, 2015 Please sign your posts, Cory, per Brian's rules. Those of us who live in Hawaii have a saying: The Price of Paradise. It was even made into a book. The cost of living out here is incredibly high, more than twice as much as it cost us when we lived in Louisiana, but is definitely worth it! Cory, if you happen to make it over here to Oahu on the first Sunday of any month (except December), our Japanese Sword Society of Hawaii (http://jssh.org) meets at 1:00 PM at the Honolulu Museum of Art. I can't remember a meeting in the past 10 years when there wasn't at least one Nihonto for sale. You can come as my guest. A hui ho, Ken Quote
xcivicdx Posted August 4, 2015 Report Posted August 4, 2015 this reminded me of a documentary I saw but cannot find. It featured a man who owned a home in nyc that was completely redone to Japanese home standards(quoting what i remember them saying). He had sectioned off a part of his home in a highrise i belive and made it almost seem as though he were in Japan, thats how well the re-model had be done. anyone know what im talking about? Quote
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