DirkO

Hi, Last but not least. Tokubetsu Kicho - NBTHK - Akasaka Tsuba. I welcome all comments on this, my favourite tsuba. I'm sad to see it go, but I can't collect kodogu and nihonto. My wallet won't stretch that far. mumei Theme : Japanese ginger ? Edo Period Size : 7.3x7cm Weight: 90g

Hi, I'm looking to sell this tsuba and I just want to verify what I think is the correct info about them. So please, any remark at all would be greatly appreciated. I'm selling it to enhance my collection with a nice naginata. Tsuba 2: unsigned Heijanjo (in my humble opinion) Edo Period ? Size : 7.9x7.8cm Weight: 133g

Hi, I'm looking to sell this tsuba and I just want to verify what I think is the correct info about them. So please, any remark at all would be greatly appreciated. This was my first tsuba and I like it a lot, because of it's simple nature. But I like a good naginata better so I have to make some sacrifices :-) Tsuba 1: mei : Kuni Hiro Edo Period Dark patina Kakugata form and kaku mimi. Kozuka itsu ana and kogai itsu ana are open. Size: 78mm×72mm Nakago ana 28mm×9mm I don't know about these scratches on the 1st pic, could they be described as battlescars ? Is it something worth mentioning ?

I think they were made from simple steel and not tamahagane. Basically because it was more utilitarian than real nihonto.

Aaaaaaah :-) OK, I saw new unread posts so I thought it was a recent thread

Brian, Maybe it's a good idea to reopen the poll and let it run for a longer period in time. Especially given the holidays and so on. That way you would get more representative figures. Personally I'm running 1280x1024, like most 19" TFT's.

Well I dabble on Yahoo Japan. But the high end gear will always end up with a decent price. Don't go there expecting to find any hidden treasures. The stuff sold off on auction sites is mainly the stuff they can't shift on the internal market. Personally I use http://www.japanauctioncenter.com for this. They're nice to deal with, when you ask them something, they'll reply within 24 hours and recently they did some updates on the site which improved the experience considerably. But again, if you're looking to buy high end stuff, be prepared to pay high-end prices. Also never forget your shipping costs and possible customs fees. I always go by the motto "If you're serious about buying something, you should go through a serious dealer"

Very nice naginata indeed, especially the fact that the pole and mountings seem to be in good order is striking. I'm expecting this one will fetch a pretty penny. Too bad I've just bought myself another naginata, because this one would go high up my list

Hi, I'm looking to offload some of my books and I want to be sure I get the description right when I put them up for sale. Can someone please tell me if I've got it right ? I'm mainly just looking for the right Japanese titles of the books and their translation. book 1 : Japanese Sword Lecture book on kodogu Volume 1 - 1937. Size: 310 page length 25cm, width 18.3cm, thickness 3.3cm Still in dustcover. There is some wear through the ages ******************************************************************************** book 2 : Limited edition (1000 copies) - Tsubas - 1981 Dustcovers still present. Absolute pristine condition. Lots of B/W pics of important cultural properties, 106 pages in total. oversized 37,2cm x 26,7cm

Aaargh I even looked at that table in my WB Robinson's Arts Of the Japanese Sword, but I didn't get further then tatsu. Too bad I missed "Yang Fire Dragon" but, ok, another lesson learned !!!! Thanks for your patience in explaining what might be simple to you and what is oh so difficult to some of us

First of all, let me thank you for the extremely quick and thorough reply !!!! Yes that's the wak I bought. Still has to get a permit from the ministry of culture for export and then it's of to my home, where it will be my 3rd wak (i'm only a beginning collector i'm afraid ) A question though : What does this mean in english ? 丙辰 (Hei-Shin or Hinoe-Tatsu) And my hawleys confirms the new name of the smith : NAG246 : Nagakiyo changed name to Izumi Daijo Kuniteru All in all, I'm quite chuffed with my first attempt :D I didn't get the reference mei bit, but aside from that, with no knowledge of the language and only some books to work with, I did an OK job. Hours of work and looking up radicals till I went cross-eyed paid of !

Hi, I have tried to translate this sayagaki (wak I recently bought) myself (the red text was already there, I didn't go as far as try and read the grass script) and I would like to see how far wrong I am. Can someone help me ? Not only with the reading, but also the translation :-) Once I know where I went wrong, my next translations will be better, I hope. Trial and error ... I thought it would be a massive thing to try and translate something like this, but with the correct books, it's like decyphering a secret code :lol: Only problem is, even after decyphering it, I still barely know what it means. But ok, here goes : The total pic : Part 1: "Made at Yoshu Province .... purely made " No idea why there are 2 references to Yoshu AND Iyo Part 2: "3rd on a lucky day in january, 1976" Date the sword was appraised and the sayagaki was made. Part 3: "Starting price ? ...girl ... reference book" No idea about this one, totally confusing. Part 4: "Izumi large rise ...original country ..." I suppose this could mean that the smith originally came from Izumi before starting to work in Iyo ? Part 5: "Blade length 1 shaku, 7 sun strong" I'm not sure about the last "strong" bit. Maybe this describes it as being a healthy thick blade ? Part 6: "Kanzan Kao" Kanzan Sato's Kao ?

aaah ok, thanks for clearing that up :-)

I know, and I too have bid on those auctions, he really has great items (i'm particularly looking for naginata and good-sized yari at the moment). I'm not questioning his sincerety, nor the quality of the items he is offering. I just thought it was weird that sometimes his items seem to vanish from ebay. (and it's quite difficult to try and buy something that's no longer there )

Hey, How come your auctions sometimes vanish before they get to an end ? And I don't mean one or two, but sometimes when you have 5 auctions, they all vanish at the same time ....

I edited the original post + added some vastly superior photos compared to the first time :-) Hope someone will be able to help me out here ! @ Admin : maybe this topic should be moved to the translation section ?

Hey guys, I know what you guys must feel at the moment, and I really do hope that not too many real nihonto will get affected by this law. I think the real trouble will be the badly informed people that just want to do right by the law and don't know what they're sending to the smelter... This will probably be a lengthy fight, but you have to try and fight this every inch !!! I wish you all the very best of luck with that !!!

He has some minor problems with his ISP/hosting, it's already discussed in another thread ... (looking up the thread) Found it : http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2846

Thanks for the explanation, Darcy ! As always, I'm in awe of your knowledge Alas for me, it was snatched before my eyes, coz even if it was a Rai copy, I really liked it. I wanted to buy it, but the site was down, and by the time it was back up, it was too late. Ah well, hunting is a big part of the fun

Hi, I came across this sayagaki from a mumei tanto from the kamakura era and I was wondering what it says, especially seeing there seems to be a badge of a clan-mon (Tokugawa?) attached. This is the first time that I see something like that on a shirasaya. Does it have a meaning, except maybe to designate one of the previous owners as a member of the clan ??? Any help is greatly appreciated... more pics http://www.genpuku.com/PICS/tanto/2.jpg

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Maybe it's the Westvleteren Trappist beer I gave him last time

Hmm i sent him a mail a few weeks ago and he still replies :-) I'm supposed to see him at the end of the month about a yari, so I'll get the full story then. But as Jean says, it's probably a problem with his ISP (maybe he forgot to pay his hosting :D )

I used to collect anime cels (original drawings of the anime) and by the looks of it, these aren't done by the original artists, although there is a great resemblance. Japanese often use anime characters to praise things, but actually use cartoonfigures to learn things is new to me. On the other hand, karuta is often used to learn things in a playfull way in Japan, so it's not that weird. There are a lot of different anime series in there, and some of them don't even use nihonto.(although a lot of them do). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuta

will do !

I do my shopping through http://www.japanauctioncenter.com coz they're somewhat cheaper than rinkya if i remember correctly. First time I buy an actual blade there though (usually tsuba) but they've always been exemplary in their service. On a related matter: were the pics helpfull ? And would you mind posting pics of your blade so I can compare it with mine, once (if) it arrives?