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Announcement of New Swordsmith Index


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Recently I saw that there was again some talk about Hawley´s. I would like

to take this opportunity to announce that I am going to publish a complete

new and revised index (or encyclopedia if you like) of all the Japanese Swordsmiths

this year. First it will be available in German and later this year in English too of

course. It will be published as a two-volume set, containing about 18.000 names.

 

But what is new is that this index contains also biographical informations

of the smiths and not only the signature variantes. So it is basically more like

the Haynes Index of sword fittings than the Hawley. I think this is the first try

that such a mammoth project is to be published in German and English.

Further it was my concern to revise a lot of informations and give correct

readings of names and places which are wrongly quoted in Hawley´s. It was

also tried to eradicate double-listings.

 

I would like to attach two preview PDF´s, German so far, but you can get

a general idea of what it will look like.

 

Thank you for your attention.

:thanks:

 

PS: Schedule for the publication: German version ~ April/May this year.

English version ~ late summer, fall this year

Vorschau1.pdf

Vorschau2.pdf

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@Chris: As sources are used the Nihonto-meikan, Tosho-zenshu,

Toko-taikan, Mino-toko-meikan, Nihonto-koza, Fujishiro´s, the

Nihon-koto-shi and others. It is actually really a mammoth project

with consolidating all the major available sources. I try to mention

the basic tradition for a smith and when available the major theories

too so that one is able to get a good amount of information when

looking up for a certain guy. Of course this is not possible for many

of the minor smiths but all the major guys should be dealt with in

detail.

 

@Henk-Jan: Yes, there will be a character list sorted by strokes

(like it is the case in the Haynes Indexs). But I focus on the readings

used in swordsmith signatures and am not quoting all possible readings

(on, kun, nanori). But the latter does not mean that the kanji list is

incomplete or insufficient.

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Great project and big applauds. I read your 2 german preview pages and this seems to be almost perfect reference in my mind. For a novice like me Hawleys leaves a big question mark as I can find the smith but no further information. In your preview pages the biographical information was really good and just what I and probably many others too need. I wish all the best for the project and hopefully I will be able to get a copy of this!

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It sounds very similar to what Hawley did, though I suspect there will be a little more editing involved :D

 

I have a lot of kindai/gendai smith names that aren't in the usual sources which I would be happy to forward if you are interested in including them...

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@John: Yes, hardcover definitely. Paper is not decided yet.

 

@Chris: You are absolutely right ;) But my main impetus for this project was that

I thought it is time for a little "update". Thank you for your generous offer and I

will come back to you when I am going to work on the gendai smiths. :thanks:

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Markus,

:clap:

Put me down for one, and I think at least another 5 for collectors here in SA. Hopefully there will be an early reservation (pre-release) special..perhaps with a deposit or full payment.

Obviously this will not be a cheap publication, but a price indication when you have one would be welcome. Hurry up with that English edition :)

 

Brian

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It sounds very similar to what Hawley did, though I suspect there will be a little more editing involved :D

 

I have a lot of kindai/gendai smith names that aren't in the usual sources which I would be happy to forward if you are interested in including them...

 

Hi Markus, I really value your "Genealogies and Schools..." so I look forward to further work from you. Like Chris there are a number of us who are focussed on makers from say late shinshinto through to today (although I end at 1945)...when you do your gendai people, please don't hesitate to ask questions on NMB for feedback from members about these listed and unlisted smiths...there are a number of them and although we don't know who some of them are, it would be of great value to list them...perhaps in an "unknown" section. Being listed in your book may bring forth new information from scattered owners and who knows, maybe one will have a clue that brings the maker into the world of "the known"....

Great stuff...(PS do you intend to stay with a Hawley type letter/number code?

Regards,

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Thank you all four your encouraging words! That is exactly what you need because

as you can imagine, this is REALLY a lot of work. :D

 

@Franco: The index will contain the wazamono and Fujishiro ranking. I desist from any

other "valuing" because this is IMHO nonsense anyway and who am I who could give

any value to a smith just on the basis of a name I type into my computer. Just kidding.

 

@Brian: The price will be somewhere 240+ Euro at the moment for the set. I know its

a lot of money but as mentioned, a lot of work too ;)

 

@George: There will be no letter code, just the names.

 

Regarding the thing with the gendai guys. When I started this project I thought for a while

I stop at shinshinto, i.e. Meiji, only adopting the major smiths of the gendai era. But then

I realized that there are a lot of gendai smiths who just HAVE to be listed and it wouldn´t

be an extensive listing without them. In short, I include them too.

 

So I have a suggestion. When I am finished with the gendai guys, I will post a list on NMB

with just the names (and characters) and any of you who has reliable information of a smith

who is not on this list can get in touch with me and send me over the data he has.

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Hi Markus, I have been considering Hawleys, and various other references like fujishiro etc, this seems kind of ideal, as each of the others have some area not covered, or are in Japanese etc etc, apart from the cost as well..... So I will definitely be interested in a copy. Have you considered releasing in volumes like Koto, Shinto etc ? And yes please, hurry up with the English version!!

 

rgds, Mark

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So I have a suggestion. When I am finished with the gendai guys, I will post a list on NMB

with just the names (and characters) and any of you who has reliable information of a smith

who is not on this list can get in touch with me and send me over the data he has.

 

My suggestion would be forwarding to you the results from the last few sword contests (showa 18, 19, 20) which have the name, location, and ranking of all the entrants. You could then compare this to whatever you have already complied. If you wait for others to check for you, you may not end up with as complete a listing as if you did it yourself....

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@Chris: An excellent idea, much better than my brainstorming ;) Cheers.

You can PM me for my email adress when you have time to send me the lists.

 

@Mark: No koto or shinto volumes. "Just" two volumes with alphabetically

ordered smiths.

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Markus,

I agree with you that it is worthwhile to include as much about the gendaitosho of 1868-1945 and 1954-present as these form important phases/movements in nihonto history IMHO and an attempt to upgrade and enlarge the knowledge of these in European languages is important.

With this in mind may I mention that in addition to the wartime lists (with Kanji) on the Ohmura site, Jinsoo Kim site and Rich Stein's site , I think the sword contests of Showa 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,19, (not sure if there was a 20) mentioned by Chris are included in the series of sword journals called "Nihonto Oyobi Nihon Shumi" edited by Kurihara Hikosaburo 1934? to 1945 (I don't have these but many oshigata are shown)...also of value for names, details etc is the re-published facsimile edition of "Dai Nihon Token Shoko Meikan" 1942 by Nihon Token Shimbun. Also, a very valuable source for gendai swordsmith names, schools and lineages 1868-into postwar times is the series of articles called "Nihon Gendaito Shoshi" by Uchiyama Takashi in TOKEN BIJITSU magazine in 1969 with sequels in 1970 and 1998 (total about 90 pages). I presume you already know about these works?

I hope this is helpful.

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