DavidF

Any gimei blade, regardless of quality, gets an automatic pink paper. I've never heard of an exception to this rule. If your blade does happen to get a pink paper, the shinsa team will usually record the reason for the rejection. Reasons I've heard for rejection include, gimei signature, poor quality, hagire (fatal flaw), and the polish was not good enough to judge quality. If you've already submitted a blade to a shinsa and got a gimei finding, you may want to compare it to an oshigata on file to try to see what they saw. Furthermore, most shinsa lean towards caution, and may designate a blade as gimei if they just don't know. It always pays to have a second opinion with a gimei result before having a signature remove. Also, some people on this board have a pretty sharp eye when it come to signatures. So you might want to get an opinion by posting a mei with an example oshigata. Hope it helps... DaveF.

Depends... How much are you paying for it? What does the blade look like? If (after it was papered) some teenager decided to "polish" it with a bench grinder, it could be a poor katana. If it is in full polish and good condition, it could be very good katana. BTW, bungo means "reject". Pay no attention to Milt's sense of humor. DaveF.

They look like different makers to me as well. Although the style is very similar and the pattern is almost identical. I think either one individually would pass shinsa. But, as a daisho from the same artist? :? I think the shinsa team has a lot sharper eye than either myself or Mantis Dude. If they were my tsuba, I would try to shinsa them as individual tsuba; then if they pass with the same attribution have them re-papered. But then again, I'm just a novice. Rich or Peter would probably know your chances a lot better than I would. DaveF.

Milt, you're are a gracious gentlemen and an asset to the hobby. My wife and I have enjoyed your hospitality in the past, and we have both enjoyed learning what you've had to share (and buying your tsuba). :D We would be more than glad to accept your most kind offer at some later date. Pete, I don't think there's any need to over-react. And I would like to publicly apologize to our esteemed Mr. Turner, I just finsihed my midterm exams and was operating on less than 4 hours of sleep and was a bit tetchy. Perhaps I was also being presumptuous in thinking that people here would be willing to share their bibliographies. Although I have every intention of sharing my research as I gather and publish, I can understand where others would not be as open to sharing information. I respect the fact that people would not want to share their bibliographies, but then again I would have liked to take the hobby to the next level. If you don't want to share the intellectual wealth, I place no obligation upon you to do so. IMHO, this hobby is more than just owning stuff (whether books or nihonto). I don't think there's any particular acheivement in the owning, rather if one is able to do quality research and then synthesize that research into something that benefits the greater community, then something has been acheived. If our hobby is nothing more than the accumulation of stuff, then all you have is dirt; because from the dirt nihonto came, and to the dirt it will eventually return. There must be more to a man than the sum of all his things. Perhaps, I'm being idealistic, but I also seek not to be hypocritical about what is just a hobby. If I tell someone "go buy some books, before buying your first sword"; I should practice what I preach. I have some beginners books on swords and tsuba (and a few beginner's nihonto and tsuba), but I would like to take it to the next level. Sure, if you supply me with a bibliography, I still need to hunt said books down, spend money to loan them, read and evaluate them, and then decide which ones are appropriate for me to purchase. Okay, I admit I don't have $20,000 to spend on Nihonto books, but my guess is that neither did Pete when he first started out either. But what I am doing is leveraging off what I do have at my disposal to make wise purchases. This is not cheating or doing things the easy way; it is just wise stewardship. I'm not looking to take an easy way to learning. But why re-invent the wheel either? DaveF.

I already have an indication of what is good and what is not--thank you very much. What I don't have is attributions. And I don't have a library to match, which is why I asked the question in the first place. Naval gazing is not what I asked for. And BTW, it was because I did such an introspection that I assessed that I needed to read more. What I asked for is the "straight goods" from people in the field who have more experience than I. By feel I can already tell a good tsuba from a bad tsuba, but that was not what I was asking for--handling a tsuba will tell you it's composition, quality of patina, rough period of manufacturer, but it can remain silent regarding other particulars (e.g. name of the artist). And I do not I think that I'm an expert. I consider myself nothing but an amateur who has plateau'd in his learning and merely wishes to learn more. Thus, what I was asking was, if you had unrestricted access to, for example, the Library of Congress, which tsuba books would you be on the hunt for (books you cannot afford, books that are must haves for any collection, expert books in specialized fields of tuba research, etc)? And I do believe that the question was germaine since while the NMB has a small but incomplete bibliography on blades, it lacks a comprehensive bibliography on kodogu. There are times, Rich, when you can act like a pompous twit, but I do appreciate the pointer to Gilbert's site. You guys do have the tendency to bash people who fail to buy books before their first Chinese crapper, and at the same time you hold out on those who ask for book recommendations; the attitude appears to be if you don't know, we're not going to tell you. Thanks, DaveF.

Milt, perhaps you misunderstand what I'm asking. I've already have handled a lot of tsuba (including most of your collection) , but I would like to take this to the next level. I'm more interested in knowing what's on your bookshelf? I've suddenly got access to some rare and hard-to-find books, and I want to know what books I should be looking for. Thanks, DaveF.

It's a "fantasy" blade of modern design. There are many of these out in the marketplace. The leather sheath is a dead give-away. DaveF.

Okay, What are the best books for tsuba identification? I expect Milt will have a definitive answer. Please, include full name and title--so I can actually look the books up. Thanks, DaveF.

How about an off-topic forum? General could be about either swords or Japanese but something that has a tangental relation to nihonto. An off-topic forum could be a dumping ground for stuff such as "What are the gun laws in your country?" or "Hey Milt, you still owe me money--just kidding." Either way an off-topic forum would allow those interested in pursuing a thread without it congesting the other forums. DaveF.

Yeah, it does seem odd that everything is in focus except the mei. Me thinks someone is trying to pull a fast one. DaveF.

Please supply title and author. What is the full title and name for "Fujishiro's"? Who is the author of "Yumei Koto Taikan"? Thanks, DaveF.

Milt, Is "koto zuiken" the proper name of the book? Or is this an abrreviation? Thanks, DaveF.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good oshigata catalog? I'm not looking for an auction house catalog. Specificly, I'm looking for a set of reference books that contain verified mei, and it does not have to be in English. A bibliography would be helpful. If anyone happens to know what the shinsa team used to verify signatures (i.e. what books did they carry on the airplane for the NY Shinsa), that would probably be of great help as well. If such a beast doesn't exist, a oshigata catalog of the Awataguchi school (i.e. Yoshimitsu) would be extremely helpful. Thanks, DaveF.

This is not traditional Japanese music, but it is Japanese music with a lot of traditional elements. And that is the Vampire Girl Miyu OAV soundtrack. It's also a favorite of mine to play around Halloween. I highly recommend it. DaveF.

I agree with David. Not true nihonto. But it can sometimes be questionable if true nihonto are okay for martial arts. Sure, when they were new, they were premium martial arts weapons. But after 300-800 years, there can sometimes be safety issues associated with using nihonto for their original purpose. An undetected hagiri can cause a blade to fracture or break. Although it is certainly much more questionable if those blades designed for martial arts will be any safer after 300-800 years. Cheers... DaveF.

Most of this stuff looks gimei or junk. Some interesting findings but not really worth the prices he's asking, IMHO. It would take a lot of money to get more of this stuff into reasonable condition. DaveF.

Unfortunately the Christian cross on tsuba is usually very hard to identify because there are several mon that also use a cross (e.g. Suzuki). Nevertheless, there were Christian Samurai in Japan for almost one hundred years. Below is the only tsuba that I've been able to verify that actually has an unmistakable Christian cross. It was recently auctioned off at Christies. DaveF.

:| Actually, this juyo blade doesn't look anything special to me. That gimei wak actually looks more interesting. I normally like o-kissaki type blades, but this one looks boring. Oh well... DaveF.

I agree with Milt (aka Mr. Bungo). This blade is easily worth $500 if not more. The blade is actually quite attractive. I would get a few oshigata (from more than one source) to compare with the mei before deciding to remove the mei. If it is obviously gimei, by all means have the signature removed. I don't think you can really go too wrong with this piece. It may be gimei, but it is still real nihonto that appears to be in polish. DaveF.

Ghostly white hamon. Smacks of an acid job to bring out the hamon. Looks very... unnatural. DaveF.

Hi, I would also suggest removing the pin to disassemble the sword. Don't worry, they are designed to be disassembled. The handle should come off in one piece--don't unwrap the handle. Don't polish or attempt to remove the rust on the tang (the rust is a very important indicator of age). Take closeup photos of the tang, tip, and hamachi (the notch where the blade meets the tang). And take closeup photos of any fittings or special marking you may find. DaveF.

Milt, Any idea (guess, hunch, rumor, etc) when the Chicago shinsa will start to take reservations? I know we just had the NY shinsa, but I'm already looking forward to the next one. :D DaveF.

I have the Nikon D50. It is a very nice and very affordable DSLR. It produces very beautiful images and it is compatible with other Nikon lenses. Even a modest DSLR is better than a normal digital camera. The reason is because the photodiode in a normal digital camera is about the size (and shape) of a pencil eraser, while the diode of a DSL is about 1" by .75" depending upon the size of the shutter. I highly recommend the Nikon D50. DaveF.

Gold painted on iron. Very common style of fittings. DaveF.

Okay, here's the skinny on Chinese crappers as they are affectionately known. If you notice most of these post have similar stories. "Chinese slaves were forced to make these swords for the Japanese during WWII." Or they are advertised as "Genuine, real--NOT FAKE--museum grade EMPEROR SAMURAI SWORD--very old." The real story is that they are contemporary fakes. Why would they do this? Because even though the starting bid is $0.99, the SHIPPING is $109.00. Yes, $10 for the parts and labor to make the crapper. Maybe, $25 in shipping. This mean $75 in profit guarunteed. For the Chinese counterfeiters, this is an excellent return on investment. You see, most people in the US have never seen a real Japanese sword except in the movies. So as long as it vaguely looks like something you'd see on film, you are bound to fool someone into buying it. It doesn't take much education to tell a crapper from a nihonto, but it does take some. Most people are fooled because they have never handled the real thing. At least you had the good sense to recognize it as a fake. Most of the time people ask us about their new "toy" after they've made their first mistake. Take care.... DaveF.