Stever

Hmmm. Now I'm really confused, and hope someone here can straighten this out, as that is in direct contradiction to what I thought (Hizen and Higo being on Kyushu, Hida on Honshu). Help, someone, please? Thanks,

I'd love to see some pics after you get it polished, if you can. Small update on the previous info. Been looking into it (that Hitachi anomaly was bugging me), and it turns out my misunderstanding seems to have been due to me thinking in English, when it's a kanji thing. See the following link: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/kanji/prov.htm So it would seem the smith that made your yari is from Hizen or Higo, but not Hida (the "Hi" kanji is different). Yet another "Hi" kanji in Hitachi is pronounced differently with the "shu" kanji (or at least, that's how it looks to me). Interesting how the pronunciation changes with kanji depending on it precedes (or is preceded by?). I'd be interested to know if there are rules that govern this, or if it's just a huge memory exercise, lol? Cheers,

I'm just a noob, so wait 'till others chime in for more certain info, but I *think* "hishu ju" means "of a Hi- province" or something like that. Similar to "Bishu ju" meaning from Bingo, Bizen, etc., Hishu should mean from Hizen, Higo, or Hida. Note: I've also seen info that contradicts this to some extent; smiths from Hitachi would be "Joshu" apparently? Would one of the more experienced members care to enlighten? Hopefully someone else knows something about that particular smith. That's a pretty nice yari. I'm assuming you're the buyer? Cheers,

Ok, time for a stupid noob question. What am I supposed to see in the before pics, besides the obvious scratching? Do you just mean that all the surfaces had been ground down far too much, or is there something else I'm missing? Too much to learn! Thanks,

Cool. I've just never seen a blade like that before. The only info I've seen on hocho masamune blades regards these ones: http://www.universalswordsman.com/Swords-SmithPages/Masamune2006.html Didn't know he made massive 'hocho' for shrines as well. Thanks,

That's crazy! How wide is that blade? Votive, certainly...I don't see how you could wield that if you had to. Paul, I thought the hocho Masamune tanto were all functional blades. Is this one a copy of the others just made in a really exaggerated style? Is it a Masamune blade? Thanks,

Speaking of polishing costs, wonder what this one ran? http://www.nihontoantiques.com/polishing_large_sword.htm I think this one has a nicer sugata, as well. The other one looks kind of like something that's meant to be thrown, though I'd hate to see that coming back at me!

Hmmm. Makes me wonder if a bunch of ebayers are now going to get second chance offers, now that he has a list of email addresses for people interested in buying swords. At least they aren't listed anymore, hopefully the rest will come down, too. /steve r

Oh my lord. Was just watching the Antiques Roadshow, and this lady had a set of English silverware, but the handles were all kozuka. She also had a box of about 10 or 15 assorted kozuka. Had no idea what they were worth. Apparently her grandfather had gotten them from a collector around 1900 in England. The appraiser at the roadshow valued the set at about $1000 to $1500 (CDN!), because "the silver company was fairly good". He said the individual kozuka were worth about 50 or 100 bucks a piece. How do I get a hold of this lady!? Anyway, I just couldn't believe my eyes and had to write. Cheers all. /steve r

And here's yet another Moniwa family mon. This one turned up on google images search. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.samurai-archives.com/dictionary/moniwa.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.samurai-archives.com/dictionary/o2.html&h=80&w=80&sz=9&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=fm4G_IifHPjv9M:&tbnh=74&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoniwa%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dopera%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN cheers

Beautiful, Stephen. Can't wait 'till that one's done. As you already have mentioned you were planning, I intend to contact the winning bidders on each sword once auction is complete if nothing is done before then. I've also been trying to talk to the seller, asking for pics and whatnot. The only response was "You must be joking!" and then quoting his return policy. Hah! BTW, Usagiya has put a news bulletin on their site relating to this issue. Apparently, they've also tried to contact eBay about the problem with no luck. Nice to see eBay cares. It'll be interesting to see how much they care after the auctions are over, and the swords don't show up. cheers,

Considering sending this to Mr. Cobb at eBay. Thoughts?

Just my 2c, but doesn't the fact that it's gaku mei tend to indicate that it's real? I know that this was also sometimes done to put a mei on sword to which it didn't belong, but even in that case, wouldn't the mei itself be likely to be real (i.e. it was cut from a real tsuguyoshi sword)? I think the more important question is if the blade is representative of his works, since the inlayed mei could have come from anywhere. cheers,

Mr. Schiller, That resemblence isn't just obvious, it's positively frightening! Past life you didn't know about? cheers

Hi Bill, Do you have any pics of the nakago of the katakiri zukuri tanto? I assume it's unsigned (no mention of signature in description)? Thanks

That's ridiculous! The issue here isn't just copyright/intellectual property, it's listing items that are not in the sellers possession! I guess eBay doesn't see that as a problem!? Got a response from Usagiya, who said the swords are still in their possession. Hopefully they contact eBay about it.

I reported the new listings to eBay, and also emailed Usagiya about it. Interestingly enough, I found that the fraud reporting systems on ebay.ca and ebay.com are different. Odd. cheers

I can't believe it, not only have none of their auctions been removed, but they've listed 7 new swords, all of which appear in the gallery section of the Usagiya website. Cheeky beggar! http://search.ebay.com/_Asian-Antiques_W0QQcatrefZC12QQsacatZ20082QQsassZkitsunomonoka

That's sort of what I've been doing, except on the page to email eBay, it just has a box to enter the item numbers to be reported, with nowhere to put any other info. I have no confidence that anything else put in that box will be used in any way. Do you have information that suggests otherwise? Thanks,

Add mine, too. I just reported all the swords this seller is listing. I try to do this whenever I come across a questionable listing, but there are so d*mn many I don't know where to draw the line. At one point I was emailing bidders on chinese crap, which quickly becomes a full-time business for about 15 people! Where do others draw said line? There's everything from copied pictures to full listings to simple declarations of antique when it's anything but. On that note, it'd also be nice if eBay had better fraud reporting options - like being able to give evidence of the fraud (links to the original pics, etc). I can't see how they can do anything with their current system other than set a threshold for how many reports before an item gets yanked. Seems almost useless to me.

You mean like this stuff? http://www.sculptnouveau.com/traditional.html

Yoshii, I believe Wayne has posted a new thread about this sword in the Nihonto forum (though it needs better pics!). cheers

You're right about samurai_sword1185, Peter. Here's his ID history: Beautiful tanto, Milt. Really too bad about the hagire, but I personally wouldn't care so much unless I were selling it, and that doesn't look like a piece I'd want to sell. Gotta love that hitatsura! cheers

I would second Grey's thoughts. The shortening looks pretty roughly done, and the rust definitely looks newer than the rest of the nakago. Just for your perusal, here are some other tanto on eBay that seem reasonable: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ANTIQUE-Japanese-SAMURAI-KOTO-TANTO-WAKIZASHI-SWORD_W0QQitemZ170085750706QQihZ007QQcategoryZ73466QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/Japanese-TANTO-DAGGER-SHORT-SWORD-SHINTO-ERA_W0QQitemZ170086215329QQihZ007QQcategoryZ13957QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Terukane-Tanto_W0QQitemZ160091680908QQihZ006QQcategoryZ73466QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/Japanese-SWORD_W0QQitemZ160091990854QQihZ006QQcategoryZ4080QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/1963-SAMURAI-Japanese-sword-GENDAITO-ENJU-TANTO-KATANA_W0QQitemZ120093998775QQihZ002QQcategoryZ20272QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/EARLY-Japanese-SWORD-TANTO_W0QQitemZ160090179344QQihZ006QQcategoryZ73466QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I'd be interested in knowing others thoughts on these as well. cheers

Thanks, Milt. Before getting into nihonto, I never in a million years would've thought that there could be an art to rusting something, hehe. Pretty cool. I can kind of see the different shades you're referring to, but it still looks a damn sight better than it did to start with! BTW, 'Steve' will do, 'R' is my last initial. cheers