Markus

Sorry, meant Sukenao as stated in the index. Thanks for the reference. So this blade is dated Shotoku 2 (1712) and the mei looks much more "artistically matured" than the one signed Sesshu-ju.

XXL please

Thanks for the update Steve. Have to add this mei to my Swordsmith Index that I am revising at the moment anyway. So seems you have an early blade from this Sukemasa when he was in his "exciting" earlier years in Osaka receiving his honorary title and learning from Sukehiro. What is the workmanship saying? Suguha or toranba in the style of his master?

I compiled upon request a little compendium. Its for free and Brian, you can add the PDF to the NMB links if you want. Check out my blog for details: https://markussesko.wordpress.com/ Thanks.

I am sorry that I was not clear enough in my initial post. No update is yet available as I just started with the correction, revision, and reformatting process. The steps in this Swordsmith Index revision process are as follows: 1. I really need feedback from those who worked with the Index or eIndex over the last three years and found errors (I will detect the typos myself so I am not in that much need of learning about wrong commas and the like.). 2. The so far available editions (German and English) provided by BoD will be discontinued. There will no longer be any German version or updates to the German version as this set hardly sells anyway (and with hardly I mean something like two sets in a quarter). 3. The completely revised set will be made available as hardcover volumes and as eBook on Lulu.com. There will be a paperback edition too that is later available on amazon. (Lulu does not make letter format hardcovers available via amazon, that's about the only reason for the paperback, i.e. that people will find something on amazon at all.). 4. I will send out manually and for free the new eBook to those who can't download it any more from Luku. (Also those who got the German eBook will receive the revised English eBook directly from me and for free.) So please stay tuned and I will announce all updates here in this thread. And again, any info as mentioned in point No 1 would really be appreciated!

I see. But we will solve that unbureauctratically. That means when it is done, I will send out eBooks individually and for free to those who purchased their copy before that deadline.

The eBook will be published as revised and not as a new edition. That means once you purchased a "copy", you can download every new version and don't have to pay again.

Hi all, Some of you might remember our lengthy discussion on a revised hardcover edition of my 2012 published two volume INDEX OF Japanese SWORDSMITHS. Well, it never worked out and the initial hardcover version never worked to be easy buyable from everywhere in the world. Also an errata and a correction of all the typos seemed to be overdue and so I decided to give it another try as a two volume hardcover copy on Lulu. With this, we don't have to care about a minimum number of buyers to get the thing started as it is print on demand. Also the price of the set will be noticeable lower as Lulu has way better royalties than BoD. Now doing so, I will slightly change the layout o ensure a better legibility, coming along with a larger font as I got feedback that the initial font was way too small. I attach a preview who a page of the revised edition might look like. And with this, you all come into play as I need some feedback to enlarge my own errata done over the three years. I have created an email address of its own for this, "swordsmith.errata@gmail.com". This is a "fire-and-forget" email address, that means I will not reply from there and just collect your suggestions and corrections. If you really have to discuss a thing or to, please get in touch with me via my regular address "markus.sesko@gmail.com". I will post the very same announcement on my blog. Thank you all for your cooperation! PS: The eBook version will be updated too of course. RevisionPreview.pdf

James, please drop me an Email at "markus.sesko@gmail.com" and we can work out some upgrade.

Sorry for that Brian (and members here). I thought that you all directly check my blog for the update on this. Offer will be up for a week so there is enough time to decide if you grab one or not.

Reacting to the fact that Lulu never offers eBook sales, I am preparing a little Easter eBook sale at the moment so please stay tuned.

Thanks Brian! I will try to get in touch with him via FB.

Hi all. For my book on Gendaito, I would like to get in touch with Dr. Jinsoo Kim. Has anyone a current email address as the one on his site "info@jp-sword.com" seems to be out of service. Thank you!

@Jason: The quality of the eBook should be the same as at the print versions as both use the same PDF as basis. I have never tried to print from my own PDFs but just did so and I can't see any quality difference than priting it with/from Word for example.

@Peter: Will do so in the future.

Seems to be base on this site: http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~osaru/midokoro.htm

I hope with this, the nightmare around this book is finally over... Why did it have to be this project to be so cursed and not one of my "Identifying Japanese ... Script" books which sold like in homeopathic dosages? https://markussesko.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/important-masamune-book-update/

Thanks very much Darcy for your input. I actually did upload the revision under a new file name and deleted the initial one but I guess it is as you say, it might still hang around on some servers. So as Darcy and the later purchased copies work, I think it is safe to assume that this only concerns those who bought the initial version and I am very sorry for that this one was - for whatever reason - not searchable. If anyone who did buy this version who is constantly "redirected" to the old file wants the latest one, please get in touch with me and I will forward it to you via a filesharer.

Now this is the weirdest thing ever. I don't know how and contacted Lulu about that but it seems as if when you were one of those who downloaded the earliest, initial PDF (the one that misses Guido in the references), they still redirect you to this very file when updating, even if there is a the new one (the one that is for searchable and that has the updated references) assigned to the project. I will see what Lulu says about that but as mentioned, it seems as this only concerns those who downloaded the initial version. Another question that remains is why the heck did they mess up with the initial PDF (i.e. make it non-searchable) first place as I didn't do anything different than with my numerous other PDF eBooks... Sorry for all that mess!

Thats weird. Didn't do anything different than with my other eBooks... Will re-upload the PDF just in case Lulu messed something up (most likely that this was the case, maybe they are using another converter or anything?). Mariusz, drop me a mail at markus.sesko@gmail.com and I will send you a search and copyable PDF via a filesharing programm. Sorry for the trouble!

Sorry for being late and rehashing this thread but a reader of mine brought it to my attention as being quoted So my opinion on this matter is as follows: The vast majority of Edo-period wakizashi that is going round is of course going back to former wearers of them from the bushi class (-> daishô as part of the official “samurai uniform” if you want to put it that way). As James C. pointed out and just on a quantitative basis, there is IMHO no much arguing about that, i.e. who was allowed and expected to wear swords in general and wakizashi in particular. But I think the whole “merchant wakizashi clientele” issue can be narrowed down to blades that come close to 2 shaku, the border that separatet ruling class from civilians, and to blades by renowned master smiths. No merchant was walking around town with his long wakizashi thrusted through the belt pretending to be a samurai. It was IMHO all about power. I wrote an article a few years ago about the sword prices of newly ordered sword, the then shinsakutô, and most of the upper league shintô blades that we collect today (e.g. Inoue Shinkai, Hizen Tadayoshi) were just out of range for any middle class samurai. When I mention power, imagine the following: A fief was going to plan budgeting for the coming year, and as many of the smaller fiefs were about to face first financial problems soon (we are talking about the latter half of the 17th century), they were sending their man for this matter to Ôsaka or Sakai to discuss loans and interests. So this samurai is starting to discuss things for his fief and the (for him) exorbitant rich broker steers the conversation round to swords (smalltalk and so on before doing business), asking the poor guy what swords he is wearing. Now he says he has a mumei Sue-Seki katana and a newly made wakizashi from Doi Shinryo. And now the broker tells him how nice his swords are but also that he just got five brand new wakizashi delivered from Shinryo’s master, Inoue Shinkai, pulling one of them out of the drawer that is an exceptional masterwork and that is by no means ever affordable by the “conversation partner.” So in my opinion, this was as mentioned a power thing, showing the bushi class how far some of the merchants and rice brokers came, i.e. to “I don’t care, I can order katana and tachi from that smith whatever, just “your” regulations don’t allow me.” Of course there were also some connoisseurs who were really into swords and collected them as pieces of art. In short and repeating myself, this merchant wakizashi approach concerns IMHO first and foremost close-to-katana-size wakizashi of the greatest master smiths of their time and not the majority of wakizashi made throughout the Edo period.

Argh Guido, I apologize! There was no intention to not mention your article in the references. I wrote the references a couple of months ago and did not double-check them (what should not be an excuse of course). I just created a revision of all three versions of the book and added you as a reference. Sorry again and I hope you accept my apology!

My announced Masamune book is finally out now... I would like to redirect you to my blog where you can find more info, prices, and order links. https://markussesko.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/masamune-his-work-his-fame-and-his-legacy/ Thank you all for your attention!

It is indeed the color the Hayashi tsuba are referred to as the term used is yôkan-iro (羊羹色). And you are right, the Japanese term used is iki. Well, like most of the other Japanese aesthetic terms, the term or rather concept of iki is pretty complex. Sometimes iki is just translated with "elegance" or "style" but that is IMHO too ambiguous or too "meaningless." I had exactly this discussion a while ago when translating texts on Akasaka-tsuba and came to the conclusion to translate, for the time being, iki as "Dandyism" as this is the term I think that transports most of the original aesthetic concept of iki. Of course, several things in Dandyism don't go in line with iki but pretty many do. So purely on the basis of quantitatively weighing up the matches and mismatches of Dandyism and iki and with the aim to find an as single-termed translation as possible, I think Dandyism is still best choice.

Agree Chris. Had some of these deep air sucking moments myself...