wisp

or, how dow I get rid of all those question marks and see kanji? I have tried ISO-2022-JP, Shift_JIS, EUC-JP and none of them seem to work (not that I can read kanji.... but) thanks, j.

That is a beautiful piece and I am reminded of one of the other forum members (the mantis guy), as I definitely have an affinity for dragonflies. I saw that it was Syowa (=Showa?) period, which means later than 1926 - but is certainly not in ww2 mounts. What is the general opinion of blades from this period? and given its mounts, is it likely pre 1941? (torn between wanting something old and wanting something nice) thank you in advance. j. PS: what is the basic process for buying from Aoi? shipping reliable? customs? I have never purchased anything from overseas, much less anything of this value.

Hi Grey, Thank you for the reply. I will keep looking (and learning) Best Regards, j.

Hi all, I have been lurking for a week or two now and have been reading up on as much info online as I can find. I am new to nihonto, but am a collector of other ehtnographic edged weapons (and yes, am a member of the 'other sword forum') - as such, my interests are pretty diverse. The sword I am interested in is here: http://www.antiqueswords.com/bq456.htm and while is it certainly nowhere near full polish, it does seem to have reasonable (if not flashy) koshirae, with the exception of the mismatched seppa. I am not really interested at this point in a blade that I can only keep in shirasaya for fear of scratching it - I very much see the mounts as part of the piece. Comments would be most welcome as to suitability, quality, price, merchant, etc... Thank you for maintaining such an excellent resource. Best Regards,