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Nihon No Bi: Nihonto (The Japanese Sword)


Interest in orders of Nihon No Bi  

59 members have voted

  1. 1. How many copies would you purchase?

    • 1
      48
    • 2
      7
    • 3
      2
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      1
    • 5
      1
    • 6+
      0


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Nihon no Bi: Nihonto (The Japanese Sword) Out September 28th 2015.

The forthcoming book from Gakken publishing. A rare combination of sword eye candy and lots of information. Including many National Treasure and Juyo-Bunkazai swords all reproduced in the full size. There is a also a selection of top fittings and koshirae, with many magnified shots that really let you see the fine craftsmanship. And best of all, it is mostly translated into English (by Paul Martin of The Japanese Sword ) Price 6,372 JPY available for pre-order from certain outlets including Amazon Japan.

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Is it possible for someone in Japan to take orders and ship books out to members here who would pre-pay for the books. I expect that a larger group purchase would lead to a lower price and quick delivery. If some one wants to take this on I would be happy to email my club members and to ask them if they want one. That would probably lead to 10 orders that would be sent to me and I would get them to my club members. Volunteers??

I just saw that you made a similar posts. Great minds think alike.  :laughing:

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I don't have all the details, I was just employed as a translator. According to amazon it does have pages (252) . I have only seen a mock up and lots of large pages on a table.

 

I do know that it is quite large and comes in a box cover. The images are full size of the whole blade, but some of the ones I have seen have been cut into two parts on long pull-out pages. I haven't seen all the pages, but at least one of the handful of shots I've seen, the nakago was quite dark. However, it still looks like a VERY exciting book.The translation is not separate, it is in the main text of the book, and for 60 USD for a book of this quality with all the images (including top fittings magnified to 300%) I don't think that you can go wrong.

 

There is a massive sword publication boom in Japan at the moment, and this is the best one so far (and it's mostly translated). 

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There are over 50 that are accounted for in the poll.

Now how many would follow through, is anyone's guess. But if I was a clever publisher, I would make use of the forum to gather a list of people interested, offer a bulk price for a group buy, and have someone accept payment and dispatch the books worldwide from a central seller in Japan. They should be able to tie up at least 50 copies here, maybe more.

Of course, that is if they are interested in making use of a resource that is here and free.

If not, I guess it is everyone for himself, and probably far fewer sales. Can't expect a forum member, or even Paul himself, to put in all the effort for the benefit of the publisher with no incentive for himself or the buyers.

I am going to start pushing non-NMB member sellers of books, swords and related stuff very heavily from now on to give NMB members some incentive to spend money with them, as our NMB merchants and members have been doing here for years. They can't expect all the benefits of promotion without giving something back.

Am I wrong?

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But if I was a clever publisher, I would make use of the forum to gather a list of people interested, offer a bulk price for a group buy, and have someone accept payment and dispatch the books worldwide from a central seller in Japan.

...

Am I wrong?

 

Gakken Co., Ltd. is a major publisher with annual sales of about US$ 10 billion. I doubt very much that they loose any sleep over a group of (maybe) 50 customers.

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Gakken Co., Ltd. is a major publisher with annual sales of about US$ 10 billion. I doubt very much that they loose any sleep over a group of (maybe) 50 customers.

 

Lucky for them this $10 billion comes from 3 or 4 books, and not from hundreds of thousands of separate ones ;-)

I guess since this book will sell tens of thousands, 50 or 100 isn't a big deal to them. They can fire their entire marketing dept too and save some more $'s

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