DanielLee

I was told by a dealer (he consulted with the Fujishiro family) that the whirlpool like structure is a characteristic of Naotane works (depending on which gokaden i'm guessing). I've a soden example of Naotane where this appears.

Cool to see this published in the most recent Token Bijutsu magazine

https://www.samurai-nippon.net/SHOP/V-1906.html

The tosogu shinsa (Hozon, TH) are in different months from swords. The next shinsa is in May and after that the next one is in Aug. https://www.touken.or.jp/shinsa/schedule.html

Thanks Grey, I'll do a comparison when I get your copy of the books later. Since you have 2 different copies on hand, could you help to check if the red seal stamped on each book slightly different ? i.e. it is hand stamped and not printed.

May I know, is the paper quality of the signed copies you guys have the same as the Nihonto Koza AFU English translations? Slightly glossy and smooth? Thanks.

Do you not know honestly not know the difference ? I'm not talking about the original Japanese volumes, i'm talking about the original English translations by Harry Watson published under AFU. Go look at this link, I believe these are the original 1991 books which Harry published You do show clearly and have no problem with displaying the cover page of the book which credits the original book writers, Harry's name and his publishing company (AFU Research). Your defense is that what he did was illegal, so you claim that what you are doing is fine? Even if there are no legal repercussions, which I suspect is not the case, there is a moral and ethical issue in trying to profit from what he did. How about amending your listing and and stating clearly that the books that you sell, even though it looks like the AFU editions, is actually not the 1991 editions?

Yes , i did not buy them from you, bought from another collector who was not unaware of the original copies. What I'm taking issue with is that the copies are made to look very much like the original hardcovers from Afu , cleverly reproducing the page with the red seal stamp in colour so that it looks like the real deal. I don't see any indication in the website listing that these are not the originals. There is a picture of the books which look exactly like the originals however. Perhaps a revision of the listing is appropriate.

I bought a copy of the Harry Watson Nihon Toko Jiten english transations, but what I actually got was a recent reprint of it which is not the 1991 editions published by Harry. It's bound to look very similar to the old books, but the pages are photocopied and the page stock feels like standard A4 paper from the office supply shop. The collector i got it from said it was acquired from http://japanesesword.de/?site=book&id=2&lang=en . It seems this site has multiple copies for sale and an always available stock. Not going to go into the publishing rights/permission for these books which has been discussed in another thread, but i would assume that if you're paying 400 Euros for a copy of these books, you're looking for one of the original editions. Do take note if you're getting a copy for your bookshelf.

Great deal, my very first sword was a hozon ko-mihara katana at $7000. A good yamato den example

Not sure if this has been posted.. Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156–1868 https://resources.metmuseum.org/resources/metpublications/pdf/Art_of_the_Samurai_Japanese_Arms_and_Armor_1156_1868.pdf

Sanekage has a similar style too.

Some sold examples of blades made in Oct 1974 . shouldn't be too hard to find https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords5/KT331403.htm https://kknews.cc/zh-sg/culture/v9k686l.html you can google for 昭和四十九年十月 日本刀 once in a while to see if one pops up

Maybe 成 ?

The Yoshioka Ichimonji passed this year's Juyo session, I still plan to sell it, but it won't be available until June 2021 when it is released from NBTHK. Will post again on NMB when the time comes. The Inoue Shinkai wakizashi is still up for sale and I can provide a better discount if anyone is keen.