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[Bazza]

Brian commented in another thread viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7595&p=61426&hilit=sweden#p61426 that he feared shipping of swords would shut down:

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From that little snippet, I am genuinely scared that we are about to see a worldwide new policy from EMS themselves, to not take any edged weapons anymore. In the politically correct mess-of-a-world that we have nowdays, it would not surprise me at all. It would be a tragedy here, as all other methods are unreliable and expensive here in SA.

Pray I am wrong and paranoid...

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I have just seen this on an ebay auction by Kanetoyo:

http://cgi.ebay.com/K-Japanese-KATANA-S ... 255ac4e260

 

Part of the auction text reads:

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For Australia, Europe, Canada buyer

*USA,Germany,France,Netherland, UK, Italy is no problem,

I will send sword at EMS or SAL.

 

Now, EMS and DHL and UPS not accept sword.

Shipping law changed about shipping item.

Therefor, I will use surface of Japan post office.

It take about 3 month from 2 month at surface

If you need soon recieve sword, I will send sword at Fedex.

In this case, Shipping fee is over USD250.

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I have a friend here in Australia who has personally carried 3 swords to Japan for polish. On landing at Narita he declared three katana to Customs, who apologised and said that they would have to call the police. A policewoman came with white gloves and explained about art swords to the Japanese Customs people - good English was apparently spoken to my friend. The necessary forms were filled in, signed and my friend was on his way with the swords in 25 minutes. Everything went very smoothly. My friend especially asked Customs about the 3 swords limit that we had heard about. They said no, you can bring in any number (of course, this might depend on the airline) and all Japanese Customs wanted to know was where the swords were going and what was going to be done with them.

 

Any other take on this??? It looks as if we here in Oz will be personally carrying our swords to Japan and personally picking them up after polish and shinsa...

 

Regards,

Barry Thomas

aka BaZZa.

[Goldy]

Sounds like a good reason to visit Japan.....

[sanjuro]

Goldy

 

You need a reason to visit Japan?

[Goldy]

Ahh, good catch. How about 'just another reason'...?

 

All jokes aside, I am concerned about the declining international transport options for nihonto. I strongly hope that they don't disappear altogether. Imagine what would happen if most of the world could not purchase nihonto due to their cartage restrictions? Dealers would go broke, customers restricted to their own domestic or continental markets, swords destroyed due to DIY polishing, the list goes on. Where could we, as quite a large international group, direct our pleas to prevent it happening?

[sanjuro]

Joking aside.....It is as you say becoming more alarming with the passage of time and increasing restrictions. It seems to me however that in the light of this, and the inevitability of it becoming worse, there exists a prime opportunity for an international carrier to provide a specialised service for such things as antiques and particularly bladed weapons, which has the appropriate permissions and clearances and the security of course. This in fact may be the way of the future in this security mad, risk conscious mess of a world. Such a service will of course be more expensive than registered mail, fedex, ems. dhl and the like.

[Bazza]

If someone will remind me in my problematic memory state, I have a line of query to pursue here in Victoria, Australia, for a specialist transport service. A colleague once had to leave our workplace due to some exigent circumstance and asked me to oversee some important art pieces (paintings) that he was consigning to an exhibition. This was duly accomplished (some years ago now) and it just popped into my head that this was a company I had never heard of who specialised in shipping art works. When I knock a few things off my one-straw-away-from-breaking-back, I will enquire about this company and make representations re Nihonto.

 

Regards,

BaZZa.

[Goldy]

Ahh Baz, may you survive the strongest simoom that lightens your load and allows us to bathe in your glorious deeds and memories.....

[IanB]

Bazza, Having worked in the museum world I have come across such shipping companies many many times. Objects were being loaned and returned on an almost weekly basis. These guys are fantastic, moving fragile and delicate art works around the world without any problems. Their service includes making specialized crates for the objects, handling all the clearance and shipping documentation and packing the objects in your presence. Although I never had to deal with that side of it, I would guess the downside would be the cost for such a service. Having said that, a sword blade is relatively simple object to pack and move. and It may be they could be persuaded to perform this function.

Ian Bottomley

[sanjuro]

Bazza.

 

May the gods of Nihonto smile upon your efforts. Personally I wouldnt mind paying the extra for a secure service to ferry nihonto around. Buying, selling and having them polished are activities frought enough with insecurities and restrictions. Any light at the end of the tunnel that isnt likely to be an oncoming train, is worthy of investigation.