Nihonto in the Philippines!!

[estcrh]

I am in the Philippines right now and on the top floor of a very large and busy mall in Manila (Robinsons Mall Ermita) I ran into a most unlikely site. There was a little shop with two samurai armors in the window along with a couple of katanas and some other samurai items and Japanese ww2 items. Inside there was a glass case with several gunto, two old wakizashi and assorted ww2 sword belts etc. The young shop girls knew next to nothing about the swords other then to tell me not to touch the blades and they backed away in fear when I removed the swords from the sayas. One wakizashi had a tag saying Hizen no kuni jyu tadayoshi 18th century and a price of around $2000. The shop girls did not offer to remove the tuska and I did not have time to try explaining to them. It was a rather interesting looking blade with an old but nice polish. This is the first time I have ever seen any antiques of this type in the Philippines and unfortunately the Japanese owner was out of town. I did not have my camera and took a couple of pics with my phone. I plan on returning in a few days if I can and try to take some better pictures. http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... 0antiques/

[Henry Wilson]

Fascinating.

[SwordGuyJoe]

I wish I could stumble upon a store like this. Very interested in your subsequent post.

[estcrh]

I do not know how the owner makes any money, his help knows close to nothing about the items being sold and I have never met anyone in the Philippines who collects antiques despite going there for years and the 5th floor in a HUGE mall without a lot of American or European visitors does not appear the be a winning combination but there it was. I really wanted to see all the swords and take pictures but I did not have either of my 2 cameras with me...I did not expect to see anything worthwhile in a mall. I will be back in Manila for a couple of days and I really want to check out the swords throughly....you never know. How to explain to young Filipino girls who do not speak much English that I would like to remove the handles of their bosses valuable swords?? An interesting dilemma.

[Brian Hancock]

Hi Eric,

 

I have been to the shop in Robinsons a few times. As with you the owner wasn't there and the shop girls just look at you as though you're wierd. I was told by a friend of my wife that you aren't allowed to take anything like that out of the Philippines but as you probably know anything is possible there if you have the money! I was also told that collectors of militaria have like a closed shop and meeting are held in out of the way places and you only get to know by word of mouth. Is the shop opposite still there called "Guns for good guys"?

 

Regards,

 

Brian.

[oniclub]

Im not sure if anyone else noticed from the photos but are they real human skulls inside of those caps Very interesting finds considering how many replica swords and weapons are made in Philippines.

 

-kieran

[Stephen]

but are they real human skulls inside of those caps

 

Not unless there's a new species that has a large neck bone for the base

[estcrh]

Hi Eric,

 

I have been to the shop in Robinsons a few times. Is the shop opposite still there called "Guns for good guys"?

 

Regards,

 

Brian.

Brian, small world, I will go back to the shop on the 7th on my way back and see if I can get some detailed pics, I do not have a clue of how hard it would be to get anything like this out of the Philippines but $$$ talk!

[Bugyotsuji]

Congratulations on a nice find!

 

Some Christian Daimyo went to the Philippines, including the very famous Takayama Ukon who should have been sainted. Good documentary the other night on J TV. Seeing those stirrups, I wonder if the shop is able to sell gear with crosses on more easily? (Such as Satsuma stuff, etc.)

[estcrh]

well I made it back to the sword shop for another try..and Brian, there was no gun shop that I could see. I managed to convince the shop girls to let me take pictures of the inventory and explained the necessity of removing the tuska in order to properly examine the sword. Everything was going good, I started on the katana in the window labeled 17th century and then on to the ''hizen no kuni jyu tadayoshi'' when out of no were a mall security guard enters the store and tells me I can not take any photographs in the mall!!!....possible an attempt to get a bribe? I never encountered this before and the shop girls appeared to be incredulous also but I decided to pack it up....oh well. Here are the pictures I managed to get this time. If any forum member is in the area you might to try your luck. Once again the Japanese owner was out of the country and I left my info but since the shop had no web site does not ship, and the owner does not sell online or advertise etc I do not think he will get back to me.

 

http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... ?start=all

 

[JippyZ]

What is the name of the shop

[Bugyotsuji]

Jippy, sadly Eric who posted this in 2010 died a while back. 

[Jamie]

Eric was an awesome guy. One of the very first quality swords I ever saw, was his fault.

[Shogun8]

What is the name of the shop

From the photographs, I think it's Yamasiwa.

[Blazeaglory]

The mall sounds really weird...

[jeremy]

I'm going to Philippines in Oct. I will go and check this place out