Markus

Wanna add my two cents in this matter as I see myself somewhere in the middle of this task. First of all, thanks Paul for praising my Kantei volumes but it took several bends and corners and a turning of two blind eyes to the matter to give me the permission to use the oshigata and the descriptions for my books. Acting as secretary of the Euro branch of the NBTHK, I tried a few times to get permission to translate and make public information that seemed to me of interest. It always ended up as Darcy said, I was turned down as they were worried about copyright issues. I don't blame them being worried about violating copyright laws as Chris said and as having books published myself, I also want to have a certain protection from my work being exploited. But where there's a will there's a way. So IF you want to make information accessible, you WILL find a way to settle this with the initial authors and contributors. And I am talking about articles in magazines, articles that already have been published once. About getting permission to translate and publish entire books, I can tell you a thing or two about that too. I sent letters to publishers to get the copyright (of course by paying $) of certain books quite many times by now (of course with all the Japanese business letter and politeness bells and whistles, written by Japanese friends of mine for me). Response tended towards zero, and now after having sent the one or other letter asking about the status quo of my request, I start to feel happy for even getting back a negative reply. At least better than nothing... Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback I got from the Me no Me magazine, allowing us to have certain of their articles translated and re-published with all photos and stuff. But they are basically an "antique dealers association" and see this thus probably as an investment in the future, attracting more interest abroad. So I am with Darcy on this matter. There has to be some kind of "generation shift" or whatever you want to call it. This refers to what I have written above, i.e. IF you want to make information accessible, you WILL find a way to do so and not to say no by default of fear of just the slightest tiny approach of potential hassle on the horizon. All the requests from abroad that had came after any English information had discontinued by the NBTHK "begging" for a restart of English texts have just lead to half-hearted translations of parts of the magazine made available online. That's it. No articles, no beginner's guides, no pics. This can be much better and as this is the 21st century and the time of eBooks, not even a great deal of money has to be paid to do so. Just translation, webpage, and maintenance costs. But at the moment, I don't see this happen, and I consider myself rather a pretty optimistic guy In the meanwhile, I will continue making available information with what I have at my disposal and will still put as much as possible effort and labor in my blog and books, even if it is mostly not profitable (you don't make big bucks with sword books, maybe I should rather write vampire or BDSM novels ).

Thank you all. Got the info I needed in the meanwhile.

Maybe someone has some info on this Masamune tantô? Thanks in advance! https://markussesko.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/asking-for-masamune-tanto-feedback/

I can only agree with the last paragraph of Ron's post. There is, at least for me, also a big social side in all these meetings. Tampa was my very fist US show. I was not going to buy much (well, you never know) but I am very happy about having now met a lot of those posting here and elsewhere in person and about making new friends (some I did already know from Japan, but that's another story ). So this was definitely not my last show, although I haven't decided yet if I ever start collecting again, and I am perfectly fine (as long as book sales are doing fine ) with spending some bucks on that aforementioned "social factor."

Will be there too and leave like you David Friday early morning. Looking forward to talk to y'all.

This is so sad to hear. My condolences to his family and friends. May you rest in peace Veli!

In a nutshell and supplementing Darcy´s post, Tanobe says that the blade is dated Ryakuo three, is hardened in a calm suguha, has a good deki, and is a very precious reference piece.

Not at all. Please feel all free to quote from my index when necessary. It also helps to find errors (my own ones and others that were just reproduced without knowing the source was wrong) and typos (which go solely back to myself :D ).

Thanks for the update Michael.

Great work! Look at these names: Rai Kunimitsu, Soshu Yukimitsu, Sadamune, Sa Kunihiro, Muramasa, No-Sada... Would also love to see that massive Daido.

UPDATE: Just also uploaded als my Honami book (English and German) and the two books with the genealogies (swordsmiths and tsuba/kinko artists). Thanks.

Just wanna say: Thank you all! Got quite a bunch of orders over the last couple of days and this approval keeps me going.

Oops, forgot the activate the checkbox for this one. Should be online now. http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/t ... 51159.html

If you were goint to get one of my eBooks, please check this out: http://markussesko.wordpress.com/2014/1 ... uper-sale/

Hey, I am right moving into your "neighborhood" soon. My wife and I will live in Wilmington NC from January on so maybe we can work something out in 2015. I need some time until all paperwork is done and I have finally settled there but I would really welcome a meeting some time later in the year.

Apart from re-ordering and shipping the three copies of 100 that got lost in mail, there is now an eBook version of the catalog available for those who did not grab a copy and for those who don´t buy and more real books. http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/i ... 30542.html PS: Again, I dissociate myself from the translation of the Chapter descriptions and the glossary. Does anybody know who did these parts (I only did the foreword and the description of the pieces). Katakana says Gyabin Furee (ギャビン・フレー), so Gavin something. Would be nice if I can get in touch with him to take to him in for any upcoming project with the NBTHK.

Just want to inform you all that the last catalogues have been shipped and are on their way.

Finally, the last parcel left Austrian customs (in Vienna) today and I am expecting it here in Salzburg either tomorrow or Monday (no mail here on Saturday). Then I am going to send out the last catalogues without any further delay. Will post here again when all are shipped.

First of all, thank you Guido for your great article from the other thread that perfectly summarizes the facts. My two cents on the name topic, mostly from the point of view of translator, I think it is indeed a "di" and not a "dei". And when I see the lenghtening of the syllable "ri" in the supposed first name, I am of the opinion we are facing the first name "Corey." And for the surname, even if there are no dots separating the first from the surname, the "di" stands out for me and I am with Tom and assume a kind of name with Italian roots, e.g. Corey Di Vimo/D´Bimo or something like that... Anyway and as pointed out, we have no clue how "motivated" the officer was that day to find a proper katakana transcription for the name he heard but I would strongly suggest to forget about the name "Coldy Bimore"...

Thank you all for your help! Much appreciated! I have the article series now complete and will work through it to compare Iida´s research with my own studies on Myoju´s early active period. @Stan: PDFs saved, you can remove them.

The first part is on the way to me from Japan. Hell, NMB worked faster than ever. But the subsequent part(s) would still be of interest for me.

Thanks Gabriel for the input. I was asking this question a lawyer friend of mine a while ago when I was working for the first on a translation for private use but whose costs were shared by four parties. Well, copyright law is not her speciality (it is corporate law) but she too told me that this is an edge case where the emphasis is on the number of participating parties. If considerably more than let´s say 15 parties are involved, we are quickly leaving safe water as this might be interpreted as no longer for private use and something that the original author or copyright holder should be aware of, irrespective of if it is shared or not in the end. Well, she told me that privately and it was not meand as a binding legal advice. But in her opinion it should be ok if there are no ongoing profits, no re-sales, no distribution, and if the number of participating parties is kept clear and "manageable." Open for further input though!

Does anybody have older Token Bijutsu at hand? I am looking for an article series on the Umetada school of which part two (which I alreadys have) was published in issue #264, January 1979. I am now looking for the first and all subsequent parts. The Japanese title is: 続・埋忠明寿と前銘「城州埋忠作」をめぐる一考察 Zoku: Umetada Myoju to zenmei "Joshu Umetada saku" o meguru ikkosatsu I don´t know if the first was published in #263 but think so. Scans would be perfect and thanks you for your time!

Sorry for the long waiting time! I had to ship the remaining copies to my place here in Austria and to do so, I wanted to be 110% sure to be here when this happens as I had problems before that especially parcels were returned to sender even if I had a holiday mail holding service. I did the ones to the US, Canada and Australia whilst in the states and Peter was so kind to forward to GB and Ireland. And my friend from Germany did so for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and as he is busy as well, I was not going to saddle him with the remaining European copies. I am sorry that my friends from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia have to wait longest! Thank you for your understanding.

Thanks Robert for your interest in my books. There is a new code out there. Use FINDACURE until October 9th to save 15% on all print books.