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Just got home with the book, picked it up at local junkudo book store. Only had a quick glance its beautiful and Paul has done a nice job on the translation, its so nice to see a book like this with english compared to the many only in Japanese. Thanks Paul, its appreciated.

Thanks Tobias whilst i was editing you posted, i will have a look at your site now.

Hi im looking at the kanji and im reading top to bottom : 河内 守 藤原 國 肋 - but that reads kawachi no kami fujiwara kuni roku. The last kanji is made up of 月 つき and 力 ちから together they read either ロク roku or あばら which means rib. I go to school to learn kanji, can you tell me your reading for the last kanji and if its different from mine, how are you getting your reading. Regards Ps I just did a little studying and writing similar kanji to 月 and 目 or slightly similar to め with 力 gets you 助 すげ. Own question answered. Thanks

If you read my post i have nothing but praise and thanks for the people on here and the help I've received. And the stuff about help desks being paid is semantics, my point was merely if we give advice and someone sells something is it such a huge thing, is it life changing or threatening ? Theres so much crap going on around the world and in our lives, is some sword info so important ? I recently met gassan sadatoshi at his forge and spent half an hour with him, his son and his deshi i asked questions and they answered and it was free, they also said come back. A few months ago i met kunihira kawachi and his wife and deshi and it was the same. If i offended it was never my intention, its just my opinion and im allowed that. I just think sometimes we need to lighten up.

Above, the British museum is one of the finest in the world and its totally FREE. As is the dentist and doctor well almost. It has nothing to do with paying, you missed the point as i expected someone to. The point was that information and help should be free, let me try somewhere else, ok when you go to a tourist information desk they help FREE! This is a forum we should be Happy people come and ask, it would be pretty shiit if no one but you experts came. There wouldn't be half the posts there are, thats for sure. Then again its people with your attitude and belief that make new people feel the way they do. Let me just ask you (above), Have you ever asked for help and if yes did you get charged every time. Sorry one more thing, get over yourself.

i understand fully, trying to encourage new people to learn or further their own knowledge but the fact is this, not everyone wants to do that. Some people just want to go to a place and ask a few questions from people in the know and hopefully get a good answer and this is a place with many people in the know. Not everyone is a serious nihonto collecter, sometime things just fall into our laps ( like me through work ) and i came here and asked some questions and got great helpful answers, sometimes it wasnt what i wanted or thought but i went away and rechecked the info and became satisfied. A wiser man than me (Paul Martin) also once said that at times there can be some snobbery in collecting swords, particularly older koto nihonto. Im repeating myself but not everyone is a serious collector, Jeans collection is magnificent a lot of money and time but not everyone can do that. I have 3 tsuba 2 i found and 1 I bought and a few books but id still come here and ask a question and hope it would be answered. Whats wrong with just wanting to ask a question you dont know the answer too? If you ask yourselves that question, i bet that whenever you/ we all ask questions sometimes if we got told go and read a book or study a little, we would all get annoyed at some point. if we have toothache we go to a dentist we dont learn dentistry, when the car breaks down most people go to a mechanic,sick a doctor, if we want a meal we go out for dinner we dont go to cooking school,if we go to a museum we can ask questions and the staff answer,they dont say go and study. i think sometimes we should take ourselves less seriously and just help. After all knowledge is nothing if not shared. All that said i think this board is excellent and the people on are almost always courteous, keep up the good work and share the knowledge and the love.

John i think rogin could be an dim or not polished silver. Ford would be the right person to ask, for me.

top to bottom right to left, i get :- 銘　直光　花押　　めい　なおみつ　はなおし 朧銀　磨地丸　形　毛彫　　ろうぎん　とぐちまる　かたち　けぼり im at work and on the phone sorry i cant spend too much time but im sure some of the more learned guys will help out soon enough.

Paul, Thanks for replying.

Forgive me if I missed something but is it a full translation or just partial ? I just checked Amazon.jp and it said there is some easy English translation but not all. I also checked the second link and it said some English and then it said sorry but all our books are only available in nihongo. Id just like to know in advance what to expect,will it be kanji and kana with a little English or English with a little kanji and kana ? That said, I agree with Paul though at that price you can't go wrong.

Troy I just typed into google iga no kami fujiwara kinmichi and got numerous sites with varying info on wakizashi and other tyoes of short swords, have a read. Theres a few that look exactly like yours.

Thanks for fixing that second last kanji Steve, i never noticed till now.

top to bottom looks like, iga no kami fujiwara kin or kane michi 伊賀守 藤原 金道 the other side looks like nihon kaji ? sou shyou or syu sou 日本鍛冶惣匠

first 2 kanji look like noushu ju, for me the rest is a little difficult could be old kuni hiro/horo but the more experienced boys will tell you for sure. 濃州 noushu 住 ju 国廣 kunihiro

Sometimes you can't track between destinations it depends on company,it will tell you picked up or sorted then nothing till it arrives. I'm in Japan but I've used various companies from America and Europe and had good and bad tracking. I had a book from Australia to me in Japan with 2 stops in china for some reason. I'm sure you'll be fine.