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@Barry: I am pretty positive that coupon codes can also be used for privately linked books. So yes, people will anyway receive the PDF right when the project is finished and can then wait until a good deal pops up to get the physical copy.

I got many replies that hard cover is desired with the color version, so let's go the whole hog. I checked with Lulu and this version would arrive at $58, so a slight plus of $8. Hope that these 8 bucks don't turn anyone away of those who were opting for the color edition because with Mikolaj in, we are down to $51 for the translation. This would then be $60 for the b/w and $109 for the color, plus shipping.

Hehe. I am positively surprised by the outcome. I was thinking of the usual 10 or 15, the hard core so to speak. I guess it was, as mentioned earlier, this combination of FB, NMB, and the topic that made it work so fast. And it is as Barry said. So please bear in mind that the translation costs will go down. The prices for the b/w and color copies will stay always around $10 and $50 respectively (I am calculating with 200+ at the moment, i.e. there is chance for a fluctuation of a few bucks). Now we are 53, calculating $52 per person (again, this is just the fee for the translation, print and shipping is extra and at everyone's discretion).

Brian, I am in touch. They have a meeting on the 22nd and the project will discussed/introduced. Now three more in and price per person drops to $57.

Hey, some more excellent news. Just got word from the New York Token Kai that they are going to donate $250 for the project! Thank you so much! So with our latest two participants, Jesper and Val, we are already down to $60 per person.

I know Steve With "real deal", I meant at least something like "Geishu Nobuie" or "San Nobuie", in contrast to gimei of or much later hommages to Nobuie which some dealers try to sell for as high as possible asking prices because the name Nobuie is in the room.

Ok, with now 4 from Barry (I just counted Barry himself previously) and also Brian in, I arrive at 42. That is quite incredible and lowers the translation fee to $72 per person. @Barry: I hope you stressed that a commitment is binding as it calculates everything for everyone and a drop out forces me to go back and check with all others if they are still in if the fee goes back up again Just to recapitulate briefly: I am positive that we might lower the price to somewhere around $65. So even if you go for the color print version, you end up at $125 for the copy to arrive at your place (or just be happy with the eBook that is included with your participation). So with everyone in this field despearately looking for more info in Nobuie, I think this is a pretty good deal. I mean, you are potentially going to spend at least several hundred to get something Nobuie or an amount in the four-figure range for the "real deal." So $65 or $125 doesn't sound to bad as a "decision-making tool."

I will make two versions: A plain b/w and therefore cheap copy, for those who just want to have a print book (and can refer to the color pics in their eBook). This one would be somewhere around $10. And then I will make a color copy for those who want the print to be as the eBook. As color is expensive with Lulu, we arrive somewhere around $50, calculating about 250 pages or so for the book. Shipping depends very much on location but starts around $5~8 (no tracking, just plain). I just got a reply from Eckhard saying that he got three more. So with Gilles and Mauro, we are 35 now, dropping the price to $86 per person.

Excellent! We just arrived at 30. So it is now only $100 per person. Will keep it open until next week. Until then everybody should have made up his mind. Seems we have a very fruitful combination of social media, NMB, and a topic that many are interested in.

Great! Thank you Peter.

Thank you Barry! Feedback is coming in so counting just you in from your group, we arrive at 26 participants at the moment. This would mean $115 for everyone if it stays like that but I am sure we can get some more as also others told me they are reaching out. @Peter Farrar: As you "can't take a copy" but have to participate, should I count you in? If so, we are already at 27 and $111 per person.

Great response so far! 22 are in. As for the books, yes, there will be a real copy made available by me via Lulu. With participating, you will get a private link where the copy can be ordered to your discretion. This said, I want to address a point that I will stress later again when we are good to go: Projects like that are for personal interest only. I mean, everyone participating gets his eBook and can order his paperback copy. These are neither meant to be shared nor to be resold (e.g. to recoup your investment or worse, to make profit). I always see that after sending out those private links when a project like that is completed, some are ordering two, three, or four copies. Of course Lulu doesn't show me where the order is from (apart from the country) but it does show how many copies are purchased in a single order process. Let me know if you are going to order for another participant, no problem, everything is fine. It's just always a little sad (and frustrating) for me to see when 5 or so copies are being ordered because what is this going to be? Of course they are ordered to be sold under the counter... It's not about that I am so greedy. I mean, I make an estimate on the basis of the to be translated pages and get my money from the participation. So I am paid. It's about that it "destroys" such little and medium projects in the long run because everyone will say that well, I am not going to participate because I know that I can always get a copy later from X or Y. So fewer and fewer people participate and here goes the downward spiral... Amen.

Hi all, I have stated this a while ago on my facebook page to let the word spread and feedback is rolling in, so I am at a point where I also want to post it here on the NMB. Thing is, Ito Mitsuru, the author of the three Higo books, wrote about 15 years ago or so an extensive article on Nobuie that was split up into 42 parts. In this article, Ito not only reassesses the grouping/classification done by Nakamura Kakudayu but also addresses all the important points regarding Nobuie, e.g. signature (hanare-mei, futoji-mei, ...), interpretation, shape, etc. The series stretches over 200 pages with tons of pics, consisting on the one hand of reprints of Nakamura's rubbings (used for his reassession), and on the other hand of concrete examples (which I will back up with color pics as the series was printed in b/w). In addition, Ito introduces a very detailed biography of Akiyama Kyusaku (I think no such detailed bio of this scholar has yet been made public). Now I am doing this like the Echizen-Kinai and Choshu no Tsuba project via a closed group of participants, with the costs for the translation shared. By the way, this is so to speak an "official" thing, i.e. Ito san is in the picture and the project came to me via my friend Eckhard Kremers, author of the Sukashi Tsuba book and close friend of Ito. So far I got about 15 commitments. From experience I know that at least 5 of these 15 will drop out but it would be nice if we can get let's say 25, or even 30. If so, that is if we are 30, costs would be around $100 each. For this, everyone will get the PDF-based eBook and for those who want real books, I will also provide a color paperback copy (via direct order link on Lulu, print and shipping born by orderer). Would be nice if we get some more into the boat and the project rolling! I will keep this post and my initial facebook post updated with concrete numbers. As mentioned, I count 10 as definitely in at the moment. Thank you for your attention folks!

That basicaly means he made them at different stages in his career.

There is an alternative way of counting the generations which I think might go back to Fujishiro. Not sure if or how far this counting is gaining more ground and if it is considered to be more close to the "real thing" than the traditional counting, i.e. the one that sees Daishoshi as the 2nd generation, maybe eventually replacing the traditional counting. Well, Tanobe uses it, so the alternative counting must have certain "convincing arguments." Anyway, this alternative way counts two generations Echigo no Kami, the latter of which being followed by Daishoshi as the third of the lineage and the first to actually use the honorary title Izumi no Kami. I can see that the tradition that Daishoshi receiving, as 3rd generation, his honorary title in 1616 being no longer sustainable as there exist several joint works with his successor which are dated much later, e.g. one from Jokyo 1 (1684). So maybe we will see the traditional counting change.

Takamine kizamu (孝峯刻), "carved by Takamine". I think it might be H 09286.0, the Mito Tamagawa artist.

The supplement (shinsui-kumi kore o tsukuru, 神水汲造之) is to be taken literal, i.e. "made by using/drawing sacred water (from the Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine)."

I was talking at the same time and off the board with an owner of an ubu Senju'in tachi (nagasa 83.3 cm, sri 3.2 cm) and underlined, as Darcy indicated, the importance of those pieces. Everything that is earlier than mid-Kamura is extremely rare anyway and those early Yamato blades allow us, with a certain caveat, connect the dots back to the earliest indigeneous swordsmiths groups. As Jean pointed out via the quote from the Nihonto Koza, in Japan, experts like Honma link these early Yamato blades intuitively to the those indigeneous swords from the Shoso'in. So everything that pops up from that time that is like Jeans' tanto even signed is a true treasure.

Re-reading my post, I realized that the uncommon kanji doesn't show up in the first brackets of my point 1. So, its this one: http://glyphwiki.org/wiki/u276bf

Hm, see two scenarios here: 1. The second character () is an uncommon one but which reads ju, homonymous for ju (寿, longevity), which often comes in combination with the first one and forming fukuju (福寿), "long life and happiness." In short, a word play with ju/ju. 2. "Different" way of writing (福聚), which is an abbreviation of fukujukai-muryô (福聚海無量), a Buddhist slogan that means "The fortune of the Kannon is vast and immeasureable like the ocean." Tending to #2 at the moment...

That's the dated tachi btw, an ôdachi with a nagasa of ~ 97.0 cm.

Oops, sorry for the typo. Should read "Possible but not...". Due to the suffix -maru, and if it was really a gift, it was probably going to the young (i.e. pre-coming of age) son of a samurai.

Mei reads "Doshû-jû Masamitsu saku" (土州住正満作). He was a bakumatsu era Tosa smith.

Possible not not necessarily. It is also possible that the blade became a gift later and the then donor had the good wishes inscribed on the tang.

I think so too. See the somewhat thicker "upper" (上) which was then crossed out by four thinner vertical "strokes" (short, long, short, long; from left to right).