I Remember When ------------

[Tom Darling]

I RECALL WHEN SWORD SHOWS BACK IN THE  70'S AND 80'S, YOU HAD TO CRAWL OVER EACH OTHER. I EVEN SAW A COLLECTOR I WON'T MENTION WHO,  CRAWLED UNDER LEGS TO GET HIS HANDS ON A KAMAKURA BLADE.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND WHEN SHOWS WERE A JUNGLE.  THE BEST SWORDS YOU'VE EVER SEEN. TO LEARN 1/10TH OF NIHONTO WILL TAKE 10 YEARS, AND IN THIRTY YEARS YOU CAN COMMIT YOURSELF TO AN ASYLUM, NEXT TO ME.  THIS IS JUST TONGUE AND CHEEK, MAYBE?

 

TOM D.

[raynor]

Must have been some sword.

[Blazeaglory]

I could imagine!

[Stephen]

and it was nothing to see  buyer escorted to another table with a stack of cash from hand to armpit for that one great buy. 

i got into shows at the tail end of the Japanese buyers coming to each show not just SF and Tampa, at Houston a fellow had a great table full all at double prices of others. Seems he bought into in the 80s hay day then the market dropped, i dont think he sold more than one sword at that show. i miss them small shows at Houston an San Antonio, to me they had more public off the street and remember one or two became collectors. Why i agree with Peter B that more small shows would keep nihonto alive in the states. 

[DRDave]

I vaguely remember shows in Austin, too; or am I mistaken?

[IanB]

The situation in the UK during the 60's was just the opposite. With the end of WWII still raw in peoples minds, as well as the cheap imports of toys during the 30's, anything Japanese was viewed as so much 'rubbish'. At arms fairs, nihon to were usually piled on dealer's tables along with the bayonets. Former colleagues tell tales of tea-chests of armour selling in the London salerooms for shillings. In fact one of the principle auctioneers at the time was heard to describe Japanese armour as 'a beribboned mess'. Living in the far North, a drive around a dozen or so antique shops would usually turn up 2 or 3 swords, invariably priced at 30/- (£1.50) for katana and tachi (always described as executioners swords) and £1 for shorter swords or 'harakirri knives'. I remember clearing out the bottom end of my collection, selling 30 swords and a naginata for £30 to a dealer and making a profit.

Ian Bottomley

[Stephen]

Maybe Peter will chime in with his bundle swords tails.

[Pete Klein]

“He who builds on the people, builds on mud.”

Don Licio Lucchesi, The Godfather Pt. III

 

IOW's - the 'heard' lacks perspective.

 

[Stephen]

[Blazeaglory]

The situation in the UK during the 60's was just the opposite. With the end of WWII still raw in peoples minds, as well as the cheap imports of toys during the 30's, anything Japanese was viewed as so much 'rubbish'. At arms fairs, nihon to were usually piled on dealer's tables along with the bayonets. Former colleagues tell tales of tea-chests of armour selling in the London salerooms for shillings. In fact one of the principle auctioneers at the time was heard to describe Japanese armour as 'a beribboned mess'. Living in the far North, a drive around a dozen or so antique shops would usually turn up 2 or 3 swords, invariably priced at 30/- (£1.50) for katana and tachi (always described as executioners swords) and £1 for shorter swords or 'harakirri knives'. I remember clearing out the bottom end of my collection, selling 30 swords and a naginata for £30 to a dealer and making a profit.

Ian Bottomley

 

I started trembling a bit while reading this!

[Blazeaglory]

 

Think hes talking about ppl buying in masse hoping for a score but being stuck with the bottom barrel? haha

[Brian]

I'm not sure either.
Pete...remember to turn the nitrous off before you retire to the pc for the evening

[Dave R]

My first nihonto was a wakizashi blade in a same covered saya, no tsuka or tsuba, cost me all of £4. 10 shillings, and decent swords in ok condition were £18.

 

 A couple of years later and they had gone up tenfold, and soon after ten times more again. That was then, this is now.

[dwmc]

My Father, not yet ten years home from occupied Japan (1950's), took me to a storage room near the back part of our home. It was a small room and the early morning sun light was streaming through a partially open curtain. ( I was probably four or five years old ).

 

He reached into a closet and brought out three swords and a bayonet. (WWll bringbacks). The bayonet I now know was a late war talw.

 

The first sword I believe was a parade saber, however, it had white same' and unbelievably, a pristine Generals officers tassel attached. How or why the Generals tassel, I haven't a clue. Initially, I kind of preferred the saber because it looked a bit like an American civil war era sword.

 

The second was what I considered a bit plain, rather short, in a wooden sheath. Later papered as Shinshinto Jumyo.

 

The third was what struck me as spectacular, as my Father removed the sword from the saya, the sun light danced up and down the blade as upon shimmering crystal clear water. What type of magical instrument was this...Gendaito in Shingunto mounts. 

 

I've had an interested in Nihonto ever since that day. I've  only now have had the time to "attempt" to educate myself further in the subject only to realize how incredibly complex it is...

 

I still stop at almost every small pawn shop in my travels to see if they possibly have a Japanese sword, but it's rare now. I recall in the late 1950's and through the 1960's, many, many Pawn shops with Japanese swords lined up ten or fifteen in a row for $30-40 each....

[obiwanknabbe]

I don't recall "sword shows" perse, but i do remember when i was younger (mid 1990s), the Tri State Gun show would come to long island NY every year or so, and there were swords on every table for 150 bucks.. Pre internet, no one knew much about them or what they were worth... Time machine please!!