DirkO

If they should have gradations as I suspect, then this would be logical - no ? I mean there are less blades of a higher quotation, so the number would be lower.

My guess would be Hojo-clan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_clan A nice site about family-mons : http://www.geocities.com/kazenaga23/crests.htm

Hi, I came across 2 auctions which have NBTHS papers : http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Sword-Echi ... 0284814049 http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Sword-Mura ... 0285161692 Now it's described as Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Shinsakai papers. It's the first time I've seen them, and I can't seem to find a great deal info about them. The 2nd auction is described as having Very Beautifull NBTHS papers, so I'm guessing there's a gradation in them. Does anyone know more about these papers ?

Hmmm that one also has the kiku mon engraved. That's a dead giveaway for "our" Kanemichi. Where did you find that pic ?

Akasaka usually has a distinct layered contruction, can you see that in the steel ? Here's a pic of an Akasaka tsuba I'm selling on Ebay at the moment, does the mimi look similar ? Karigane zuyo is one of their common designs.

Just a wild stab in the dark here : maybe the hole was made to keep the fuchi in place on a saya where it didn't fit 100% ? in a similar way that a mekugi-ana works ? That way the fuchi would still be able to be removed afterwards... Like I said, just a wild guess

Brian, once the craving starts, it never gets filled You should know that ! :D

Hmmm, maybe you could consider buying a "flawed" blade, with ware, kitae kizu, hagire,... For most of us, this is a real drawback, especially when we're talking about fatal flaws, but it just might be what you're looking for. You would still be able to appreciate and study the hamon, hada, ... but at a much lower cost. Just my idea ...

At the top of the page, there's a button called "Suggested Reading" Maybe that's a good place for you to start

Hehehe, don't go over to the dark side, Guido. The only problem is, once you live there, you won't be able to sell anything on Ebay, as no one believes a Chinese nihontodealer :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tango is the name of a province Kami is an official title - meaning "god" or "lord" Naomichi is the real name of the smith Smiths often "acquired" an official title to give their name more stature. I put acquire as that because sometimes officials were paid to give certain titles to people. Tango being the province, however doesn't necessarily mean that the smith worked in that province, he just got the official title for that province that's all. You can read more about this on Rich T's site or in various nihonto books: http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/common_kanji.html

Yes, I'm also on the lookout for a European habaki maker.

It is however used and withheld if you want to export nihonto from Japan to somewhere else. At least that's what I think. This would make sense, seeing the "tagging" of nihonto is done to know which nihonto are in Japan. So if one exports a blade, then that tag is snapped up and the documentation for that bladenumber is updated. I don't know if a new tag is created when you import nihonto into Japan. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes Piers, extensively. The book I have (the newer one) depicts the evolution of the Japanese polearm detailed, with a lot of explanatory drawings.

Hmmm, can you tell me the difference in filemarks ? To me it looks rather the same. The fact that there is an ura-mei is not that important, I still have to decypher it exactly, but it should mean something like "made of pure ore" For me, the signature is a close match, but as you say, only shinsa can decide that If you ever decide to sell it, you can always contact me. If the mei match and it is kanemichi, then it would make a nice daisho set @ Grey : thanks for posting the fujishiro pic !!!

Hmmm, let's see if we have a match... does it ressemble this ? There are also lots of ko-ashi, but I'm not that good at taking pics Still : the page from Fujishiro's would be nice to compare mei's ... Jean ? ... Anyone ? You can look at more pictures of my wak here : http://www.anime-cels.org/PICS/wak/new

:-) I don't have a fujishiro's either, but if it would turn out that you're correct, it would end my quest for info about this smith as well !!! So please, anyone with a fujishiro's : please scan that page so we can verify the mei !

btw : here's a combined review on both books : http://www.yachigusaryu.com/blog/2006/03/book-review-Japanese-spears-and.html

:D ah quoting Cesar in Latin on a Wednesday morning :D

Yep, the negative feedbacks seem to be gone, now only the older (most current one being April 2005) pos feedbacks are there :S And what's worse, the "warning" feedback with the link to this forum is also gone ! Is this some twisted logic from Ebay ? Erase the disputed listings and have done with ? This way the sellers feedback is again at 100% pos .... so we actually did him a favor !!!!

Really ? I always thought the old one was more elaborate ? Or is it just that I expect it to be better because it costs more ?

hmmm beaten by Jean :-) ah well, there are worse things than that

I've got one from Hawleys about polearm terms - which is pretty basic. But I also have another one : Japanese Spears: Polearms and Their Use in Old Japan from Roald and Patricia Knutsen and that one is quite good and elaborate on yari and other polearms (nagamaki, naginata,...) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Spears-Polearms-Their-Japan/dp/1901903567 I know he also had an earlier book - Japanese Polearms - 1963, but I found it too expensive at the time, although I remember it being the better book of the two. Maybe Mike at http://www.satcho.com still has a copy, you can always try, he's good at hunting down books :-)

Although we managed to get this into his feedback : See http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3491 matsuzakaya ( 213) Jul-15-08 01:26 Exceptional JAPANASE SWORD ~DAISHO YOSHITAKE~NO RESERVE (#260262201752) US $20,000.00 View Item Seeing the guy doesn't have 90% pos feedback, a lot of cautious people out there will read his feedback and the previous post about this scam...

I've got a Tango No Kami Naomichi wakizashi at home and although I've found a few mei to compare it with, it was never the same. Yours however, comes really close. Here's a pic of the mei on my blade. Could you maybe take a better pic of the mei ? That would make it easier to compare. Although they seem similar, there might be some things we're missing due to lack of detail.