Gasam

Hi all, I have learned everything I know from discussions on this board, books bought from recommendations on this board and so on. I find it very inclusive, at least on the occations I have posted a question or two. Sometimes the question of nihonto collectors/collecting is "elitist" or not comes up. This reminds me of a small anecdote from my recent life. I apologize in advance for the semi-long and perhaps slightly off topic read, but it is quite stunning, at least I thought so: So: Not having a Sword Club in my country even, that I am aware of, I thought in my ignorance that I would enlist as a member in the Norwegian Society of Weapons-History. They collect weapons, banners, uniforms and all kind of militaria. Perhaps, I thought, they will have at least one or two members that have some interest in oriental edged weapons in general or nihonto particularly. Then we could meet and discuss/display on at least some occations these weapons. Certainly, Im up for show and tell of my humble collection. I could teach someone a little, and learn a lot, I thought. Fine, off to their web pages to apply for membership then. not....so...easy.... Turns out you have to have an invitation from someone (who will be your Guardian) to join... once invited, you have to purchase (for an undisclosed amount) a "guest sign" from the Club Maester, and secure two Patrons in addition to the Guardian. Then can begin the trial membership of 12 months, where at least 6 obligatory meetings must have been attended. The purpose of the trial period is to find out if the Society and yourself has any "mutual benefits" of you joining. After 12 months, you can receive a membership application form from the Club Secretary. The application must include your own statement about your general conduct in life, your interests, and your willingness to take on positions in the Society. Your guardians must also attest on your application that you are indeed, in their eyes, Society material. Then comes the 12 month period where your application is beeing considered by a comittee. A comittee whos ruling on your membership application is final, and no reasons for approval or dismissal is to be given. Nice one then! Now these guys know their elitism! Needless to say I will never sink so low as to apply for membership of the Society. Im to elitist for that :-)

Hi, Yes, Paul and Jean are right. Tsuruta-san will send the naginata over to a sayashi for a fitted shirasaya if the buyer so requests. There were two rather similar kanbun naginatas at the same price point recently, of which this one remains, the other one already had a shirasaya. When last Tsuruta-san had a shirasaya made for me it was 35.000 yen, this was for a wakisashi. I have one naginata in shirasaya, and it might be a little more difficult to produce, but I really do not know. I too think this naginata deserves to be sold. I quite like its shape :-)

Hi all, Correct me if I´m wrong, but I believe Tsuruta-san has warned before of ebay auctions using Aoi Arts pictures and products, without any affiliations to them. I seem to recall such a message from him, but could misremember (is that even a word?) have a nice weekend all :-) EDIT: Found aois warning, I believe it is frome some years back: Pay attention At E-Bay sales item, we found Norimitsu but Aoi -Art is not mention the sword on the eBay. Some one showed the sword on eBay without our permission. Please be careful when you want to bid this sword. We don’t responsible about this matter. From Aoi-Art.

Hi, is that a moon at the top of this one? http://www.aoijapan.com/tsuba-cho-shu-hagi-ju-hachido-tomonobu-saku just happened to notice while browsing, I guess maybe you saw it already. Edit: it looks kind of odd and out of place when I look at it more closely. perhaps moon was added later? But im no expert :-)

Hi, What if you removed the habaki and see if it is scratching any part of the piece and take a small scrape from there after cleaning? It is already scratched. Just be sure that no trace of habaki material is left there. Also, dont do this before consulting with someone far more knowledgeable than me, just an idea...

Excellent! Find I am studying tea bowls now :-) Japanese pottery, so much to learn!

Hi again, Yes, I too think naginatas as women weapon must be a peace time Edo period enterprise, if indeed the concept of it beeing women weapon holds water. Some naginatas were so large in earlier times that even the naoshi were katana size i believe. Definately a field weapon. Best regards, Gard S.

Hi, Not an expert, but all photos I have seen of naginatas have always had them stood considerably taller than the person holding them. Also, the purpose of the naginata seems to have been (among other things possibly, again not an expert), to create openings in the battlefield by long arching movements and to level the playing field so to speak if wielded by a person of small size vs bigger person. I have learned since getting my first naginata recently that in Japan, they were/are regarded as first and foremost a weapon for women (the onna-bugeishi), and since they could not own katanas, and were smaller than the men, the naginata became their weapon of choice. (Of course we have all seen photos of samurai holding them (the naginatas, not the women) :-) , and so they would use them too I guess. For indoor use, they would not be practical as far as I can figure anyways. I believe there were special short yari little over a meter for indoor combat situations. Finally, I believe the nakago of a naginata naoshi would indeed be to short for remounting on tip of pole. Naginatas were reinforced around the area where the longer naginata nakago went into the pole, often with metal rings or such. So that gives indication to the forces applied to that area in combat.

Hi all, I love these bowls! Thinking of getting one or two, but is situation same as with nihonto, ie easy to go wrong unless studied a good deal first, fakes are about etc? Best regards, Gard S.

Norway, On antiques of more than 100 yrs old, value is reduced to 20% of the original purchase value before calculating VAT from the remaining amount. VAT is 25%. So in reality that is what, 5 % of original purchase plus any import related fees from FedEx or similar?

We all see things as we want them to be sometimes (or indeed many times), rather than how things really are :-) A problem also science has its share of, still these pottery reproductions must have been very good to fool the scholars, and this illustrates Mr. Lawsons piont very well indeed. The blades out of China are getting "better" too. I wonder what some of them will look like in 10-20 years time if someone really decides to have a serious go at nihonto reproduction...

Indeed my first concern were kids getting at the swords. Maybe not so much own kids, but kids that visit and perhaps decided they wanted to see the "Samurai Swords". Small chance they would do it, I think, but possible dire outcome, so felt need to do something. At any rate: small 5-7 rifles gun safe installed, bolted to floor and swords wiped down and now safe (pun intended)

Hi again folks, And thank you for your replies. There is no humidity to speak of in Norway, and indoors temp should be an even 20-22 C. Will proceed then with minimal or indeed no oil.

Hi all, I am getting a new safe certified for weapons storage by my insurance company. One of the main reasons for getting it is to store the nihonto collection thoroughly out of reach of children. I have 3 kids and they are constantly having friends over so our house is always full of kids and I cannot always be around. I do not believe that any of them would venture to touch the blades, but with something like this I really do not want to take any chances. The risk of a kid being cut might be low, but the result would still be a cut kid, and I cannot have that. The blades are all in shirasaya, waks, katana and expecting first naginata soon. Can these be stored vertically? They are stored horizontally now, top of closet. After reading the "oil seeping through shirasaya" post recently, I too realize I have been over-oiling the blades. That is finished with now however. So oil running down the blades should not be an issue I think. Still, kissaki down seems the "right" storage orientation if stored vertically? Or?

Ah, thank you. I knew I had seen that function before, and now I know how to do it :-)

hi all, I am also trying to learn to decipher kanji. Could it be Hiro Shige? (I have made the text white-ish in case others would try to guess. Its hard to read now.Mark it to see). I am not good at this, but getting better. Best Regards, Gard S.

Hi all, Received wakizashi to Norway from Tokyo via fedex around nov 15 this year. Note that fedex asked on import what the package contained for correct customs clearance. so they might not have realized it was a sword on export, although I find that a bit unlikely. More probably the local fedex people could not read the package-documents correctly.

Hi! I have been unaware of this project, but now I subscribe to it on YouTube. Have some watching and learning to do now :-) Is there still need for/ a way to fund this project?. Well worthy of some $ I think.

Hi, Congratulations, what an excellent display.... words escape me

Hi Bit off topic, but the bit that carved the numbers struggled with the hard steel of the ha :-)

Hi, There is a shinken for sale on the forum, I believe? Widowmaker is selling his Kanehide. I do not know much about shinken, but the general consensus from the comments seems to be great sword at incredible price. Its in the sale/trade section, so check there if the measurements fits you :-)

Hi! I will hazard a guess. There seems to be two types of oxidation on the nakago. Old blackish one and newer reddish one. So, based on the tone of blackness in the older oxidation, I say 1400 and something. Maybe early 15, but more likely 14. Winner gets the red wine bottle?? :-) Ps: if the above should happen to be right-ish its more luck than knowledge, but its still my honest guess.

Hi! I do not have the answer, but perhaps: It was done like this since smiths first started dating swords, and they were indeed not exactly sure what day it was? Abit strange since I would imagine that year, month, week (?) and indeed day was important to be aware of even in old times Japan. But is sure sounds kind of poetic and, i dont know, sort of ephemeral, a reminder that time on earth is limited for all of us.... but this is probably just how it seems in hindsight from our modern life perspective? I kind of lean towards "this is how it has always been done so lets keep doing it this way". But the question remains I guess, why not exact day to start with?

Heyas, i am very interested in seeing an example of a blade (or more than one) shot from the nakago-mune, and a short explanation how to see if blade has seen much polishing or not. This is a great learning opportunity for me :-) even if a bit off topic. Maybe make new thread?

Hi! Tsuruta san has had one or two for sale in the last year or so. But not nearly as nice as this one seems to be. I don´t collect them though :D