Guido

http://www.nippon.com/en/views/b02313/

For starters: IOW, the hoso(i) in hosodachi doesn’t mean it’s the more slender one if you put two similar tachi next to each other. Where that idea comes from is beyond me – the most expensive part was the koshirae, not the blade. Markus Sesko writes in his “Koshirae Taikan”: There was no choice of wearing a blade inside the koshirae or not, only proper protocol. Besides, the vast majority of hosodachi-koshirae extant do still have a blade. And along the same line, as to commoners wearing hosodachi: Hosodachi were only worn by those who held a court rank, being it kuge or high ranking buke, and it was worn together with formal sokutai court attire - and no commoner was ever granted even the lowest court rank. There are also extensive records of at what part of Edo castle what rank of guest was received – commoners weren’t even allowed to enter through the ōtemon, let alone having an audience that required formal attire. And on an entirely different note - I understand that the term Takemitsu was born in the part of the country you now live in, but using an Edo period derogatory term for tsunagi in an otherwise academic discussion is IMO not advisable.

How do you prove (or rather disprove) a negative? There's lots of info out there about gijō no tachi, none of it conforms to what you were told.

Piers, I'm afraid someone is pulling your leg ... I even wouldn't know where to start debunking all that BS...

Yes, I found 20 koban in hidden compartments. Just kidding, no such luck unfortunately. It measures 60 x 62 x 32 cm, and now is home to my tsuba collection.

Not exactly a box, but a small chest I restored recently (unfortunately no "before" pics, but but the wood was discolored and dented, the iron fittings rusted):

Joe, I think you mean the Honami.

I find it sometimes difficult to distinguish between hosodachi and efu no tachi (except when silver fittings are used on hosodachi [for lower court ranks]), and therefore like to lump them together as gijō no tachi. However, in the pics I would rather call the upper one hosodachi (more elaborate fittings, especially the obitori), and the lower one efu no tachi (less elaborate, more fitting for an efu [palace guard]). What reason were you given for the classification?

Come on, how about keeping private e-mails private? We don't need any witch hunts on the NMB. And for the record: no, it wasn't me.

Who would touch poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac with their bare hands? They contain exactly the same substance - urushiol - that causes the allergic rash in most people. However, when it comes to urushi, people just try and use it without gloves; has to be a psychological thing, because "it's just lacquer, or what?" They then learn the hard way that it doesn't matter if it's a leaf or some liquid stuff, you get contact dermatitis, the really bad one. And yes, that includes yours truly many years ago ...

The title is 家久連里 kakuresato (written from right to left in the print). And from here on, Google is your friend .

I'm pretty sure the tsuba depict Bashikō Sennin 馬師皇仙人.

That's what people always call me when I'm singing karaoke ...

As of March 2011, there were 79,999 hozon tōken 21,599 tokubetsu hozon tōken 10,950 jūyō token 920 tokubetsu jūyō token I think the NBTHK would be very grateful if you volunteer to put the data of all those 113,468 swords in an excel sheet!

But antique swords without papers? I hope you have perfect kantei skills then ...

Simon, before anyone can give you a meaningful response, you have to tell us why the swords failed. As was pointed out before, there are sometimes remarks on the self-addressed post card one hands in when submitting the sword. Did the agent show them to you / sent you a scan? Or did he ask for the reason when picking up the swords? If so, what did he learn? And if not, why didn't he? That the judges don't remeber every single item is evident from the fact that people sometimes get different results/attributions when submitting mumei swords or fittings multiple times. If the item has a very unique characteristic, they might remember it, but I don't think they would care, i.e. "punishing" you by failing it for that reason alone - after all, someone else could have bought it in the meantime, not knowing it failed before (the name of the owner/agent is not disclosed to the judges, that's why the tags have serial numbers).

https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/how-to-polish-a-knife-watch-as-a-rusty-piece-of-Japanese-metal-becomes-a-sharp-shiny-blade

It was all his fault, he made me do it! And he better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the NMB!

How about this version, Barry?

And for good measurement, iron with soft metal inlays:

Tankō

Kinkō

Robert sums it up quite neatly: No, this discussion isn’t about taste, despite the constant covfefe. It’s about real men (i.e. real samurai) who not only didn’t eat quiche, but used iron tsuba (with a few exceptions); real men’s tsuba; and the older, the more desirable to the sophisticated collector. And if in doubt, it’s older than it looks, by default. Some references to the more obscure Japanese philosophical concepts (as understood by non-Japanese) leave the novice collector longing for those qualities. It also makes sense financially, because that bling-bling of the nouveau rich, pimps and child molesters who sported kinkō is usually more expensive than the iron that eBay, Yahoo!Japan etc. is overflowing with. For US$ 500.- one gets only a damaged, single Gotō menuki, but two iron tsuba. And if you stare at them long enough, light some incense, and listen to shakuhachi music, you even might be able to see the face of the Virgin Mary in them. Because you were told by seasoned collectors that those random bumps are not slips of the hammer, but the embodiment of tea taste. Nod knowingly, and admire the emperor’s new clothes. There’s nothing wrong with having a bias for old iron – by all means, make your case for it. But that easily can be done without belittling other’s choices to make your’s look better. And please don’t compare apples with oranges, but items of equal artistic qualities from both sides of the spectrum. Btw, I personally don’t have any bias: I collect both, iron and soft metal, and combinations thereof – because I collect art (at least as I understand it), and not romantic notions. Anyway, after re-reading my reply, I realized it sounds harsher than I intended it. But what the heck, I’m quite annoyed by the constant attempts of “the iron guys” to prove their superiority. So feel free to wear the shoe if it fits, or simply dismiss my ramblings. I guess at least I won’t be accused of beating around the bush. To illustrate my point, I randomly selected 5 iron and 5 soft metal tsuba from my collection (well, actually not that randomly: I’m too lazy to get out my camera, so I’m going to post those tsuba I have [more or less] decent photos of). Furthermore, and to keep them in the same bracket, they are all tokubetsu hozon. Feel free to discuss, my feelings are not easily hurt. P.S.: I imagine that if Trump Tower had a tea room, it would look pretty much like Hideyoshi's!

Aoi Art was always in Yoyogi, a 2 minutes walk from the NBTHK, as Darcy said. They'll be moving to a new location closer to Yoyogi Stn. later this year if everything goes according to Mr. Tsuruta's plans.