DaveT

I've been buying off Yahoo for over 16 yrs, the norm was that whatever you picked up was at least half price or even cheaper than what you would pay from a western dealer. But now I feel it's ruined. eBay has become a ghost town for bargains, the Japanese inflate their prices for silly gaijin all the time, at first they were not aware that we had hoodwinked them and we buying the same items from their Yahoo listings cheaper. Yesterday and today I witnessed two sales that were completely unrealistic. The items sold for three to four times higher than if they had been procured from an expensive dealer in Knightsbridge. What was once a great place to pick up a deal is becoming a joke. Firstly, the Japanese sellers are now educated to gaijin buyers. When you bid on an item using a proxy bidding agent service they simply look at the buyer's feedback rating. Agents have a high turn over of items, so they naturally have a high feedback. My JAUCE account was over 2,000 Sellers will then bid against you and inflate the price. If their shilling backfires and they win it makes no difference as they can simply terminate the listing after the winning bid. Now daily I'm bidding and fighting not only the seller's shilling but also other gaijin bidders that are prepared to pay more than normal. So if you want to win on Yahoo you need deeper pockets. Last month I conducted a little due diligence comparing prices set by dealers and Yahoo sellers for similar items. Mainly armour and polearms, coz that's my thing. In most cases, I could buy cheaper from a dealer, Kinokuniya being the cheapest. So my reason for this post is to say think about what you are spending on Yahoo, as we are in fact driving the prices up. I would welcome some feedback from other buyers here, not what or who's service is the best, that's boring, but who are still getting a deal from Yahoo and their experience to the market prices.

Late 2017 to early 2018 present some exciting opportunities to visit and attend some fantastic exhibitions and symposiums for Japanese Arms & Armour.

There is also another samurai exhibition in Nice France, I'll post the details when I gather more information.

The Masked Warrior: Battle stage of the Samurai "The Masked Warrior" curated by Dr. Bas Verberk, featuring 130 pieces from private collections, including that of the Dutch Royal Family. 8th December 2017 - 27th May 2018 €8 Euro Entrance Fee Japan Museum SieboldHuis (Siebold House) is a museum located at the Rapenburg (Leiden) (nl) in Leiden, Netherlands. It displays items that were collected by Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) between 1823 and 1829 during his stay at Dejima, the Dutch trade colony nearby Nagasaki in Japan. It also functions as a museum of Japanese culture. Siebold was highly interested in all aspects of Japanese nature and culture, and as such his collection is very diverse. Japan Museum SieboldHuis has a permanent exhibition of maps, rocks, animals, plants, utensils and art. Temporary exhibitions offer a varied selection of Japanese art. www.sieboldhuis.org/en/

age, momoyama to mid edo.

The concrete is car filler. You can see that there have been areas of damages that have been patched and sprayed over. Japanese armour moves and flexes, the original yoroishi would have used kokuso and sabi urushi which can bend. Car filler cracks apart. Upside is the do is tetsu okegawa design. One of the gessen has been eaten by rats, the gessen is rawhide. There are areas where the odoshi has been replaced with bootlacing. If you wanted to replace all the odoshi you are looking for 7mm / 60 meters. The menpo is gendai. I would source a little hanpo and Zunari kabuto, it would make a nice okashi armour

I can see some area's of concern. But only my opinion from the photo. I trust you will receive a more in-depth observation from the resident expert/s after you post further images. The do, the watagami and mune-ita look to be replacements, you can see the abiki is changed out on the kohaze. From the cracking on the mae-do it could be tetsu okegawa in construction, or possibly made from kawa. The kote look to be kaga, hence the shape of the tekko. The menpo, this looks like a reproduction.

For infomation. I currently advise for a manufacturer of gendai katchu called Iron Mountian, aka Tetsu Yama. USA based company dealing via FOB. Iron Mountian own one factory in china, they also buy from the two other factories in china that produce katchu. All commercially made gendai katchu for display is made in china, some of which is exported to mainland Japan for assembly. There are only two outlets that make reproduction armour solely in Japan, one being odwara san, the other making fantasy armour is in fact two smiths from china that now live there working from a small workshop. The suit listed above is a high quality reproduction that has been stamped in china, then sent to Japan for assembly. It is mild steel, gold paint and cotton odoshi. These armours were very mich in demand back in the 80's where corporations wanted displays in the receptions etc. Armours made today by Katchu.com and the old Kozan No Yoroi Do models are the most authentic versions. Chris is completely correct with his comment.

Renbu (ji) is a cool guy, based in Japan, send him a message via ebay, see if he will drop the price. Also it may be worth looking at Yahoo Japan, they have gendai armours listed every week, some sell cheap. You can search the listings via agents like buyee / Jauce and Samurai Kyobai. Good luck.

May I just clarify something.I am a member of the Japanese Armour Society, and a member of The Samurai Armour Forum. The Samurai Armour Forum hold a symposium called The Gathering, it is not my symposium. I'm Looking forward very much to attending both of these.

Its about 20-30 yrs old.

We now have a confirmed date. 5th May 2018 Entrance fee is £20.00 / pay per view live stream is only £5.00 if you cannot attend in person. Currently we have pre-allocations of 30 places. There will be only 40 places for the amazing event. If you would like to attend please put your name down and I can contact you later in the year with a ticket offer. We have five speakers, these include Ian Bottomley and Ian Chapman

I repair hitsu and tansu. Ill post some pics next time i do one.

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Samurai Art Museum in Berlin prior to its official opening. All I can say is wow! If you are a katchu fan you really must put down a visit on your bucket list. Here is some additional information written by Ian. Owner and collector Peter Janssen In the late 19th century Western culture was revolutionised when it discovered the sophistication and novelty of the arts developed in Japan during its 230 years of isolation from the rest of the world. Japonism became a craze as artists and collectors scrambled to acquire woodblock prints, lacquer ware and other items that had begun to appear in antique and curio shops. Tourists flocked to Japan to see for themselves the final days of a fast vanishing society, bringing back souvenirs to adorn their homes, not least being the arms and armour of the samurai, the hereditary military class that had dominated Japanese society for almost 1000 years. Many saw these items simply as curiosities, but others recognised the superlative quality and artistry they showed. Visitor Ian Bottomley, Curator Emeritus of Oriental Collections at the Royal Armouries UK seen here admiring an old akodanari style helmet. One of the collections many treasures. It was exactly these attributes that were recognised some 30 years ago by Peter Janssen who sought out and began to acquire examples of the finest quality, building up a large collection of Japanese arms and armour that can have few if any rivals anywhere in the world. In an act of unprecedented generosity, Peter Janssen is now making his magnificent collection available to others, both for study by experts or simply to be admired by others. In his new, purposely-built Samurai Art Museum, visitors can see for themselves some of the finest products of Japan’s armourers, swordsmiths, lacquer workers and makers of sword fittings. While some of the armours and helmets were made to protect their wearers on the battlefield, others were made for Japan’s aristocracy, to be worn as an indication of their rank and status. Also displayed are swords carried by some of Japan’s highest nobles, blades treasured in families for centuries and sword fittings produced by artists whose exquisite workmanship has never been equalled. Their products in iron, gold, silver and metallic alloys depict scenes from nature, from myths and legends as well as everyday objects in such minute detail as to almost defy belief. Art is displayed here in almost infinite variety. In short, the Samurai-Art Museum offers visitors an experience that will delight and surprise how imaginative and consummately beautiful Japan’s applied arts can be. The Samurai Art Museum is due to open to the public in late 2017 Website: thesamurai-artmuseum.com Also there will be a Gathering in May. A perfect opportunity to meet some of the forum members, socialise and look at great armour and swords.

This year the samurai armour forum held their first Gathering. It was a huge success. I'm very happy to announce that the Gathering 2 has now been confirmed and will be held in Berlin, Germany at the excellent Samurai Arts Museum. The museum holds a massive collection of arms and armour, they even have a national treasure sword, it is without a doubt the leading samurai museum in the west. The theme for the Gathering 2 is the dawn of the edo period and will focus on the transition of arms and armour from the age of war, to the age of peace. You will be able to attend the talks in person, or view via a Live-Stream subscription. Dates, speakers hotel information to follow.

Ian summed it up, there will never be another Victor. I had fhe pleasure of having dinner with him, talking swords and getting hit over the head lots at kendo. Dearly missed

Eric, Please don't point your finger at me, I'm not your blame agent. NMB is not a peoples court. Address Ian Bottomley rather than misdirect.

That's nice. All the best for the day, hope it goes well.

Isn't Google great for that, we have just applied for the SSL certificate, the site is very secure, yet we don't handle any form of e-commerce yet. The site is only a week old. There is a search page with links directly to the yahoo categories, just tap on any of the text. https://samuraikyobai.com/featuredandsearches/ We have currently commissioned an automated CRM / Bid Proxy system, so like Buyee you will be able to bid live, or use our personal bidding service. I would just like to thank all the new contacts that we have attracted from the board today. Be assured that we will do our very best to save you money on fees and win those auctions!

Dear forum members, I would like to make you aware of a new personal bidding service which will allow you to obtain items from Yahoo Auctions. The service is called Samurai Kyobai and unlike other bidding services Samurai Kyobai is operated by collectors, for collectors. Our team includes the following NMB members whom each have a specialist subject. They are: Ian Chapman (UK) Nihonto and tosogu David Thatcher (UK) Katchu Jan Petterson (Sweden) Teppo Guy De La Repelle (Japan) Nihonto Arthur Gotez (Japan). Logistics We had all been using services such as JAUCE, From Japan, Buyee for example, all of which are very professional. However we experienced a number of issues that reflected that these companies do not have the training or facilities to handle art objects. Should a problem occur, shortages, damaged, they were very difficult to deal with in order to achieve a resolve. Therefore we decided to take action and offer a service that would be of tremendous benefit to all. Samurai Kyobai is young, we only stated earlier this year, however during our soft launch we are experiencing a steady flow of throughput and repeat bidders on a weekly basis. To date we have delivered an unparalleled service. Where we shine is with our pricing policy. We keep this in mind, and being collectors ourselves we have your very best interests at heart. Our commission fee on Nihonto and tosogu is only 7% (other charge between 8-20%) so you can see that we are the most reasonable. We have also smashed the costs of export admin paperwork to only 6,000 yen. All Nihonto are cleared by Guy De La Repelle of Arte Japonica. Guy is a authorised antiques dealer in Japan who has been in the business for over 35yrs. He can also arrange shinsa and other services such as polishing, tuskamaki, shirasaya while your blade is in Japan. If you are interested in using our service please contact us. Our Facebook Page has a 5 Star Rating, many from board members that you will recognise. https://www.facebook.com/samuraikyobai/ We also have a development website, this will become fully automated where you will be able to bid live on auctions. For now it explains our procedures and has yahoo search page. https://samuraikyobai.com

The Gathering Seminar held in Leeds 20th and 21st May 2017 The Samurai Armour Forum / Royal Armouries By Ian Bottomley Some 30 people from places such as the US, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland attended the two day event held in Leeds. Those who arrived on the Friday spent the evening catching up with each other’s news since our last meeting before retiring for a convivial dinner in a local Indian restaurant. By Saturday morning all the delegates that not only included members of the Samurai Armour Forum but members from the four ToKen Societies of the UK, assembled in a room in which armour, swords and lacquering materials occupied just about every available space not actually inhabited by a human. The seminar proper was opened by Dave Thatcher who shocked the audience into attention by ripping off a large section of the surface of what appeared to be beautiful lacquer on a dō. His point was to show how moisture had caused the leather that acted as a base for the lacquer layers had become detached from the metal underneath. He then went on to describe and demonstrate how all the various lacquer foundation layers are prepared and applied to the metal or nerigawa of the armour, followed by a demonstration on how kokuso, mugi-urushi, tetsu-sabiji-nuri and tataki-nuri effects. Everyone seemed surprised at the amount of work and how much preparation was needed before any finishing coats of black lacquer could be applied to an armour. Our second speaker was Ian Chapman who had brought some absolutely staggering quality blades and koshirae from his sword collection. The point Ian made was that just because some swords had no papers did not in any way diminished their quality or desirability and that the opinion of others, demonstrated by their names on an origami did not make those swords any better either in quality or desirability. Delegates were then asked to select the sword or blade that appealed most to them after which Ian talked about it and why he had chosen to own it. To my mind the sword that stood out was a tachi in koshirae that Ian had known for decades and had finally managed to acquire. Even though it was not a very old sword, for me it was everything anyone would want in a sword. After lunch, it was my turn to bore people with how and why I thought the yukinoshita dō evolved and its association with Date Masamune and the Sendai han. I have written up the essentials of my talk and it will appear on the Forum with some of the images I used. Continuing the theme of Date Masamune and the Sendai Han, Jan Petterson from Sweden then talked about the guns the Han used and their characteristics. Unfortunately there was a bit of trouble with the software being unable to run his powerpoint presentation but that was eventually solved and we were treated to the knowledge that Jan has gained during his researches in Japan. Again I believe Jan will produce a copy of his paper. This same software problem plagued Natasha Bennett, a curator of the Royal Armouries, who nevertheless bravely gave her talk without the images and despite the fact that she had only just returned from Sweden the evening before. Her theme was how the Royal Armouries Museum acquired the Japanese armours in its collection. The Museum is lucky in having three of the armours that arrived in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. All three are on display, one in the Tower of London given to King James I (and VI) that almost certainly had belonged to Takeda Katsuyori, one at Leeds on loan from the Royal Collection given to and also given to King James I (and VI) and finally the famous mogami haramaki given King Philip II of Spain also in Leeds. Natasha described how these had arrived and how other armours were added to the collection during the 19th century by transfer and purchase. The formal part of the seminar was rounded off by a talk given by Steve Smith of the Northern ToKen Society, for whom the software mercifully did perform. His subject was on the tsuba made by armourers. Steve started by illustrating an archetypal tosho tsuba and showed how the style evolved to those made by smiths who described themselves as Saotome, conjecturing on their relationship with those of the same name who made helmets. What had been a wonderful and informative day was rounded of by groups of delegates sampling the restaurants of Leeds for a well-deserved meal. For those who stayed overnight, the weekend was rounded off by my showing a party around the Royal Armouries Museum and pointing out a few of the principle items. I had challenged some to find the armour of a shogun on display, which in fact none managed to do. It is in fact a highly decorated cuirassier armour, originally gilded overall, presented by the VOC. It was rather badly burned in a fire in the 19th century and was sold off from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Finally a sincere vote of thanks to all the delegates who made the effort to attend and to all those who made it a weekend to remember. (For more details please join The Samurai Armour Forum. www.the samuraiarmourforum.com)

Edo jidai

*edit by admin - contact Dave as below for a decent cheaper quote, this isn't the place for adverts* Drop me a PM anytime you see something special

Nice one Kyle. Ian's going to be doing a talk on Nihonto at The Gathering on the 20th, Peter is also attending, so please feel free to promote the token there too.

Hi Kelly, Guy De La Rupelle handles all nihonto clearances for Kyobai, his charges are admin based, and they are extremely fair. I'm not sure if you are aware but Guy is the proprietor of Arte Japonica an authorised antique dealer in Japan, a very sucessful person, established and with an excellent reputation. There's no need for either of us to pitch here, Ben has been presented with a number of options. Also Ben, if you contact JAUCE they will lift the ban on blades for you, as long as you inform them that you are aware of the paperwork charges, around $200. My inly word of caution is that they use a third party to store and pack the items, they are not trained or understand how to handle art items, I can send you photos where they dropped the ball and damaged my items. Have fun, happy bidding fella!