paul tsubadotinfo

Hi Robert, sorry this comes too late. I always go in the morning from 9 am Japanese time. That would be around 7 pm on the day before in NEW YORK, now with daylight savings maybe 8 pm?! I will post something as soon as I arrive there, but casting starts usually when I hit upon the first item. There will be some interruptions between the posts as often I have to reply to people asking me things via chat as well as talking to the people on the market. If there is nothing more to find, I will definitely post a goodbye message, so you would know when it is time to leave. I hope that helps you to accommodate for the next one. See you there Paul

Hi Stephen, you got unjoined from the FB group or the telegram group?

Hi there, sorry I didn't see it earlier. It is really difficult to find the right media for this format it seems. For me the Telegram channel is really the most direct and easiest to do this and I would hope that it is usable by most people with a smart phone. However, recently Telegram's reputation suffered quite a bit which is a pity and I understand that people might avoid using it due to these issues. If anyone has a good idea for alternatives let me know. I hope next time you have a chance to join.

Hello Treasure hunters, Time has come again for a new hunt!!! On 13th of March I will go to the Tokyo international forum antique market. Again you can join live via Telegram. https://t.me/+1JKJ01sQGZcyMWI1 For all of you who had trouble joining telegram, I have created a Facebook group and will try to post there as well. Might be a bit delayed vs. Telegram though. Best technical solution still to be found I guess. https://www.facebook.com/groups/434768394971014/ If you wanna contact me during the fair, telegram would be the best, but Facebook messenger also works. If none of those work, iMessage is a valid alternative. Contact me for details. I hope to see many of you there. Happy hunting! Paul

POSTPONED TO 3rd of May due to Covid19

Hello Treasure hunters, Time has come again for a new hunt!!! On 4th of March I will go to the Antique market at heiwajima. I expect much more items and definitely a higher quality than on the flea markets. I very much hope that the dealers there will let me take pictures as well. This is actually a three day event, so I will consider going on 5th and 6th as well, depending on your requests. For those of you in Europe, I will consider going on Saturday afternoon to make up for the time zone. Again you can join live via Telegram. https://t.me/+1JKJ01sQGZcyMWI1 For all of you who had trouble joining telegram, I have created a Facebook group and will try to post there as well. Might be a bit delayed vs. Telegram though. Best technical solution still to be found I guess. https://www.facebook.com/groups/434768394971014/ If you wanna contact me during the fair, telegram would be the best, but Facebook messenger also works. If none of those work, imessage is a valid alternative. Contact me for details. I hope to see many of you there. Happy hunting! Paul

Dear members, I have recently ventured into the field of sword photography. After getting a great tutorial by a close friend who has mastered it professionally I also wanted to try. My first object was a Yukimitsu Tanto in Moroha tsukuri, so there is a lot of Hamon and hataraki to see! I will upload a lowres version of the result and would be happy to get feedback. Do you think the quality is competitive with what is state of the art? Also a much bigger question for me is if I should offer this as a service, so people buying swords in Japan could get a photo of their sword which would very well be suited for a life size picture for their wall. I could simply visit the dealer and take the picture before they export the sword. Let me know what you think, really happy to know if that would be a thing! Cheers Paul

Here you go

Hello David, Going through the thread I couldn't yet distinguish your budget but I guess it is something between 50k and 150k Dollars? Also which DEN would you be looking for? As you are looking for Nanbokucho blades I assume you rather tend to Soshu, correct? Well, if you are seriously interested in looking further I could contact some collectors here to see what is up for sale. In that case please contact me directly. contact@tsuba.info Cheers Paul

It reminds me auf a 'Baumkuchen', must have been an early interpretation of that :D Pretty nice

TLDR: Imported 3 blades, 1 tanto 2 katana From Germany FRA to Japan HND with ANA direct flight Preregistration: none Documents needed in advance: none Price for additional luggage: 0 Import tax: 0

*if there exists a thread regarding this topic, please let me know and I will share there* Dear Friends and Collectors, I have finally arrived back in Japan and am spending some quiet days in my quarantine hotel. It was the first time for me carry three Japanese swords to Japan and I would like to share my experience for those of you who are interested. I used ANA to fly from FRA to HND which has its advantages not only because they offer direct flights, but also because their Japanese staff in Frankfurt did call the Japanese customs and informed them of someone bringing swords. I have my reasonable doubts that this phone call made any difference, and you may judge for yourself after you read the rest. Well, I am happy if anyone could share their experience with other airlines or even with 1- or more-stop flights. At the check-in I told the staff I would carry three Japanese swords. They would then ask me if I had registered that transport in advance, which I denied. Furthermore, they would make some calls as to which category they would have to put the swords into, weapon or antique. I do assume they used the former. This time at least they did not call the police which last time ended in me pulling out a katana in front of a queue of 100 Turkish airline tourists. However, this time the ANA staff said he needed to take the magnet test. So, after I stripped the Nakago naked, he took his iPad case and held its magnetic clip against it. What I really appreciate is, that no additional costs occurred, which might be due to my star alliance status though. Any experience on that is very welcome. Arriving in Japan I filled out the Arrival card and customs declaration as shown below. I have to admit it is a slightly odd feeling to answer a question with ‘yes’ that starts with ‘Do you presently have in your possession narcotics, marijuana opium, stimulants, or other controlled substance…’. Even though double checked at the immigration control, the officers did not mind that and didn’t even care to ask me what kind of substances I had in possession. Due to the special Covid entry procedures - the details of which I will spare you here as they fill another book – my luggage and swords were already waiting for me next to the conveyor belt. After I got the tail wag approval from the detection dog I headed for the customs declaration. Showing the officer the sword case and my declaration, he guided me to the special room where the registration would happen. There were around six customs officers on duty at the time and after I told the first one, I had three Japanese swords to declare, every single one of them was up on their feet. Some starting to take out books to look for answers, some asking me the usual why, what, how questions. There was a short moment of confusion when one of them proclaimed to everyone that I need to show them the certificates. Even though I was quite sure that no certificate is needed to import a sword into Japan, my sweat started to run when I mumbled something about the copies of the NBTHK papers which I held for two of the blades. Luckily the smarty pants himself had no real clue and before he could cause a bigger scene, some of his colleagues somehow found the right answer in a book and called the police. A police officer arrived to whom I explained that I am carrying three swords for polishing. Luckily I had translated everything into Japanese and printed it out on a piece of paper, so I did not have to completely rely on my Japanese skills at 4 am in the morning (departure time zone). After a friendly talk with the officer, he called in the experts and some minutes later a lady my age and an older guy arrived, and I finally knew that we were on the right track. Meanwhile the story of a foreigner in sweatpants carrying three Japanese swords must have made its round through Haneda airport as the number of officers in the room had trippled already. While the experts were taking pictures of the swords, I had the chance of practicing my Japanese by telling the same story repeatedly to several of the bystanders. I think I even earned some quiet respect when they saw me freeing the Nakago from the hilt by hitting my wrist with my fist. After quite a lengthy process which involved not only copying my passport and residence card but also taking a picture of my face – at least I didn’t have to hold up a number – they gave me a ‘hikiwatashisho’, the final document I need to carry the swords until they are officially registered and receive a ‘torokusho’. After the two experts had left, the customs officers asked me to take copies of all my documents as well after which they finally let me go. The whole process took a bit more than one hour, and I had missed the bus to the quarantine hotel, so they brought me back in to the customs area where I should wait. After everything it didn’t surprise me much that one of the customs officers asked me to open the sword case again, as he would have to count the swords. I assume he missed the chance to take a glimpse earlier as he might have stood behind his superiors earlier too shy to come forth, so I let him have his way. Oh, and before I forget, no magnet test was taken this time, I assume they simply missed it due to all the noise. Finally, I had successfully imported the swords to Japan, no prior registration needed, no import taxes, no bigger issues. As a small bonus I could enjoy a private bus ride to the prince hotel in Shinagawa where I spent my six days of quarantine with a view of a third of mount Fuji. Paul www.Tsuba.info

Can someone post the link to the buyee discussion? Would like to know why they would be expensive, as far as I understand from the page it only costs 300 Yen per purchase, or did I get that wrong?

Hello Treasure hunters, On 12th December I will go to the Flea market at the international forum close to Tokyo station which is well-known for hosting several antique dealers. Let's see what's there to find this time! https://t.me/+1JKJ01sQGZcyMWI1 For all of you who had trouble joining telegram, I have created a Facebook group and will try to post there as well. Might be a bit delayed vs. Telegram though. Best technical solution still to be found I guess. https://www.facebook.com/groups/434768394971014/ I hope to see many of you there. Happy hunting! Paul

If you want to keep updated on the next event, I can register you on our newsletter so you will get an info before I go next time. Simply sen me your email to contact@tsuba.info

Hi Jean, happy that you would like to join. I am thinking of other channels, but currently these two seem to be the best ones to use from my phone when on the market. Telegram is also available for desktop if the smartphone app is an issue for you.

Hi treasure hunters, Thanks again to everybody who joined, I have uploaded several pictures on facebook as here it would overrun the file size limit. https://fb.me/e/2ex17pWCK Overall I was positively surprised how open all the dealers were regarding me taking pictures of the items. I also made one new friend it seems, the guy who had the blades, as he was very kind explaining what he knew. Also shared his lunch with me even though I tried to insist not to. Looking forward to our next hunt together! Cheers Paul 20211205_002953744_iOS.heic

Hi Robert, I will go there from around 9 am JST on Sunday. That would be Saturday around 7 pm New York and 4 pm San Francisco. Depending on the offer there I will stay for some hours and maybe move on to the market in Setagaya in the afternoon. I will try to get the dealers contact addresses, so if you cannot be online during that time, you could send me requests for any items later as well. I will post the pictures live through telegram here: https://t.me/+1JKJ01sQGZcyMWI1

Thank you George! Of course it is a lot of work, especially getting pictures of high quality items. But comments like yours motivate me to continue! Thanks a lot. If you have any improvement feedback let me know.

Oh nice, Kawagoe is on 8th again. I will try to go there as well. Ok sure, don't forget to put your phone to silent mode

Hi Kyle, Thanks for the tipp! I haven't been to Tomioka myself yet, let's see what's there. Would love to hunt together sometime, Kyushu is admittedly quite far. Do you wanna join the telegram?

Hi Thomas, yes I will use the Telegram group to post the pictures live on the day. Will be there between 9 am and 5 pm JST. So around 1 am to 9 am german time if you like to stay up late or get up early Actually I considered a live stream, but this only makes sense if enough people are interested. For everyone who cannot join via telegram, I will also drop some pictures here afterwards!

Hi everyone, I felt kind of lonely the last two years in Japan. No Daitokenichi, no friends being able to come... Now it seems Japan closes its borders again! That's why I would like to invite you to go on a treasure hunt with me, let's see what the Japanese flea markets offer. I will go on Sunday 5th to Tomioka Hachimangu and try to take pictures of any Kodogu related items they offer. If anyone is interested to join virtually, here is a link to the telegram channel. Everyone in Japan who wants to join me is very welcome as well! https://t.me/+1JKJ01sQGZcyMWI1 If you like to buy any item, I will take a 10 % service charge plus shipping. Please let me know if you found the link on the NMB so that I can make a 20 % donation of the profit. See you on the market!