Markus

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).

I think OCTBOOKS12 should work.

The German eBooks are now available here: Part 1: http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/e ... 58945.html Part 2: http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/e ... 58954.html

This is IMHO a very good excersice provided by Chris to calibrate our conclusion drawn on the basis of some pictures provided on the net, regardless of the showato, star stamp, traditional nihonto discussion going on. I think that 90% of all the blade and fittings discussions going round here on the NMB start with - let´s say - unprofitable pictures. But that is the only chance we have here anyway, so let´s face it. At a real sword meeting and if you are in that hobby for a certain amount of time, a rotation of some degrees under a good light and having the sword in hand are enough to see if a sword is traditionally made or not. So let us use this thread to see what conclusions we draw from seeing only "the tip of the iceberg". From that point of view I say all are showato and maybe 8 gendaito. I´m looking forward to the solution. :D

Thank you Klaus! I will upload the German eBook towards the end of the week because I am busy with other projects at the moment.

I think I have pretty the same info on Yoshiyuki (吉幸) in my Index (see preview PDF) BTW. What book is the scan from? It says the old entry mentions Keichô but gives also the information "maybe Genroku". I listed this Bungo Yoshishige according to the entry in the "Arami-mei-zukushi" which says Keicho and which is referred to your scan too. Yoshishige (吉重), Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615), Bungo – „Bungo no Kuni Takada-jū Fujiwara Yoshishige“ (豊後国高田住藤原吉重) Yoshiyuki.pdf

Hi Jean, I´ve uploaded an eBook version of the first part: http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/e ... 48983.html

And here we go for the eBook. http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/e ... 44420.html

@Jean: work in progress :D @Drago: Yes, the German version is already out was announced a while ago: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13591&p=118162&hilit=geschichten+rund+ums#p118162 @Gilles:

Dear Members, I want to inform you that part 2 of my "Legends and Stories around the Japanese Sword" is out now. Once more I try to bring the reader closer to the Japanese sword and dig deeper into the matter by the means of legends, stories and anecdotes about famous swords and their swordsmiths. Like in the first volume, I introduce several famous meito or meibutsu, for example the Kogarasu-maru, Yoshimoto-Samonji, Takemata- Kanemitsu, Kuronbogiri-Kagehide, Tsurumaru-Kuninaga and many more. And the stories deal among other things with the greatest swordsmiths in Japanese history like Masamune, Muramasa, Samonji, Kiyomaro and Kotetsu, to name only a few. It can be ordered via Lulu.com but will appear in some weeks on amazon too: http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/l ... 43723.html Paperback, 192 pages, s/w, 6.14 x 9.21", Price: 27,90 $ Thank you four your attention.

saba-yônin (側用人) was an Edo-period office at the bakufu. It was an official close to the shôgun who forwarded orders to the rank of elders for example. A saba-yônin received a standardized rank- and office-based salary of 10.000 koku. PS: There were also "smaller-scale" saba-yônin fulfilling this function locally at various fiefs, i.e. forwarding orders of the lord of the fief.

I fully agree! That is why it is sometimes hard to understand for beginners why they can´t learn from the cheapest blades available.

The face on the water, its lines, the hair and the hinted kimono are very impressive (as is of course the entire piece).