Markus

Hi Marcello, the mei reads "Yabushita Yoshimitsu". This is the smith in question as listed in my swordsmith index: Yoshimitsu (義光), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – „Yoshimitsu“ (義光), civilian name „Yabushita Fujio“ (藪下不二夫)

實 is the old unsimplified version of 実, and 真 was written as 眞 before. So far, so good, but as both characters have basically about the same meaning, there were interchangably noted in earlier times. That means even if a tsuba artist was signing with 實幸, it is quite possible that he was noted later with 真幸 instead of 実幸. So I would not read too much into the notation with different characters and think that the Haynes entry H 08003.0 refers to this artist.

The correct reading is "Saneyuki". Haynes says "no additional information".

Gilles, your reading is correct. But I couldn´t find a Sukenori for that time and that gô, only the Keiô-era Yukisada (幸貞) who used "Ryûshinshi" (龍心子).

I am sorry for your trouble with Lulu. I too got a Shinto volume in English I did not order. @Veli: I have an idea. Maybe we can change our wrong volumes because I am just at sending it back to Lulu. Please tell me if this sounds anything good and I offer to refund you the shipping fee. @Gilles: Did you contact Lulu?

From a translators viewpoint, the term "fukushiki-gunome" is mostly used to describe the complex gunome interpretations of Sue-Bizen (Sukesada and the like).

No problem Brian. I post a PDF of the relevant pages. Maybe it encourages some to get the entire book/ebook. handachi.pdf

Thank you Paul! There are still discounts until Jan 2nd.

The "problem" is, I have to reformat all the files into the epub format for this. I don´t want to sound lazy but I didn´t have the time to do that and the PDF to be sold at the Lulu marketplace where I can just adapt 1:1 the print file seems to be the most convenient solution at the moment. My question is, if you have bought a Kindle or Apple ebook, do you get an updated version of the publication for free? Or this a kind of service for the fraction of the asked price? Because I guess no one is willing to spend the same amount for an updated ebook.

I thank you all for your interest in my publications. Sorry for those who missed some deals at Lulu but unfortunately they didn´t tell me what was coming up and so when I saw the 30 % off, I thought I just had to post that.

Thank you Chris for this idea. I already did a German errata but didn´t have the time so far to check the English volumes. It would be of great help if readers point errors out in a sticky thread! Also an option would be to add certain smiths which didn´t make it into my books. @Hoanh: I hope the Lulu support is now back at their desks after the holidays. It also took them a couple of days to answer questions of mine. PS: I attach the German errata via this reply. Korrekturen.pdf

Today there is the 30% off deal at Lulu. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2013!

Oh, and don´t forget the upcoming Lulu coupons: http://www.lulu.com/holiday-coupons

Helly overyone, I just want to revive this thread (viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14361) by a new one (@mods: I hope this is ok) and inform you that the two volumes on Koto-kantei and Shinto-shinshinto-kantei are out now. Also eBooks of both volumes are available. I almost kept the announced price but the project turned out to have more pages than thought (484 + 440 pages for the German and 464 + 416 pages for the English volumes) so the final price is 75,93 Euro. Thank you for your understanding. All versions, i.e. the English, German and eBook versions can be found here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/nihontobooks Please be careful to get the right language and thank you for your interest

I am pretty sure that the mei reads "Tanshû Minamoto Masashige". This makes him a meikan-more, a smith who didn´t make it into the meikan lists. There is clearly the ninben (亻) to the left and the (旦) radical to the right.

Thank you guys! There will be an eBook version and I have to check the printing cost when the final translations are finished but I think the price will be around 70 Euro per volume (i.e. 140 per set). @Chris: At the moment at has levelled off at 12h working, 6h sleeping and 6h family per day :D But I would love to spend all these 12h on sword and tosogu related things...

Dear members, I would like to annouce a new book of mine which will be out around mid or late December this year. This project is a compilation of ALL kantei blades (i.e. the "real" kantei at the beginning and the five swords described in the middle part) plus their descriptions of the Token-Bijutsu magazines from 2006 to 2012. The publication will be divided up into a "Koto-kantei" and a "Shinto-Shinshinto-kantei" volume and provides altogether more than 350! blades, namely as mentioned PLUS the oshigata of the magazines. So this will be an independent reference work, basing on revised translations from the Japanese original (i.e. not the English translation provided by the NBTHK on their homepage). As the focus is as mentioned on kantei, this is a rich source of information about the reasons for an attribution to the smith or school in question and about why other attributions can be ruled out. For the time being I add the provisional cover and table of contents. Thank you for your attention. koto-contents.pdf shinto-shinshinto-contents.pdf

Some small corrections: 十郎左衛門男・仲谷鎌太郎佩刀 Jurôzaemon-nan - Nakatani Kamatarô haitô "worn by Nakatani (also read as Nakaya) Kamatarô, son of Jurôzaemon"

Maybe the Chinese forger had a funny day at his workshop and knew what he was doing but was sure that nobody ever will be able to read what he writes. The "signature" (迌條毫又用佞信正圖) can be interpreted as: "This [條] is by no means [毫] a tù/tou [迌, whatever that means, maybe "sword" in some dialect]. Moreover [又] it was made to [用] deceive [佞] and to defraud [圖] exactly [正] those who believe [信]."

The entry from my Swordsmith Index: Kiyokane (清兼), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Aichi – „Mikawa no Kuni Okazaki-jū Tachibana Kiyokane“ (三河国岡崎住橘清兼), „Suirosai Tachibana Kiyokane“ (椎魯斎橘清兼), „Ryūjōshi Kiyokane“ (龍城子清兼), civilian name „Tsutsui Seiichi“ (筒井清一), gō „Suirosai“ (椎魯斎) and „Ryūjōshi“ (龍城子), born March 25th 1907, his family was since the 1st gen. Tsutsui Ichirōbei Kiyokane (筒井市郎兵衛清兼) successively working for the Okazaki fief (岡崎藩) of Mikawa proince, he studied under Kurihawa Akihide (栗原昭秀) and worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō, he lived in Aichi´s Nagakute (長久手)

for your order Klaus! And thank you for the tip with the picture. I will add the cover pic on the first side of my next eBooks and on the preview/description.

Maybe this gets a little off topic but does anybody has a transcription of the "Kaihô-kenjaku" mentioned by George? I ask because I translated an article about the setsudan-mei of the Yamano family recently and therein the bakufu tameshigiri accounts (御様一件) were mentioned. It is stated that all cutting tests ordered by the bakufu were just of the so-called "ichinodô" cut, the "first body cut", which was a rather "easy" cut going horizontally across the belly just below of the lowermost ribs, cutting through no major bones except the spine. I am now curious what exact cutting tests Yamada Asaemon performed to come up with the wazamono ranking. So if we know what standards Yamada had for his list, we might be able to make a better comparison to the RJT testings. Just my 2c.

Hi everybody, I would like to announce that the English version of my recently published book on Koshirae - Japanese Sword Mountings is out now. I quote from the blurb: With this publication I try to systematically and comprehensively process the subject „Japanese sword mountings“. It was not my goal to depict as many extant interpretations of sword mountings as possible but to deal with the different forms of them. With this publication the reader should be informed in which way Japanese swords were mounted over the time, where were the origins of the various forms, what changes did they undergo and it should also serve as reference material to classify extant specimen. In this sense the descriptions were embedded in an explanation of the historical context rather then listing them just by their interpretation or in an alphabetical order. As the main focus lies on „koshirae“, an explanation of the sword fittings – the tosogu – was omitted, because descriptions of them can be easily found elsewhere. Also the military mountings – the gunto-koshirae – were left out because there are excellent publications available which deal with them in great detail. Paperback, 202 b/w pages, 6.63" x 10.25", Price 49.15 $ http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/k ... 66513.html And the eBook (PDF for Adobe Digital Editions) is available here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/e ... 66537.html Thank you for your attention.

Hi Klaus, I got a mail today where they say the code is "JEKYLL" for 20%. It ends October 26th. I hope this works.

I think Thomas is correct. It is a little odd that the character for "Saka" (坂・酒) in "Sakao" (坂尾・酒尾) is missing. The inscription on the other side is the name of the yari I guess. I have no clue about the beginning but it ends with "no kame no yari" (の亀之鈛).