Jussi Ekholm

Yes you are correct. I believe the katana saya has catfish skin and the wakizashi saya skin of cranes feet.

This is just personal opinion and like I said I am not very well versed in koshirae. However this touches a bit what Dave van Gompel was explaining about some lacquer techniques not being cost/time-effective in modern world. I do think the matching pair of saya at least has some age. And saya are generally often the identifying part in item description NBTHK uses. And as they are probably done with fish skin & bird leg skin I am not sure if it is even done anymore by modern craftsmen. It is of course possible to build a matching koshirae around matching saya but it will take a lot of time & work. Perhaps I am "gullible" but I see this as an older set. However one important part is seeing when 泰山元行 worked. As his fittings are used the package as such cant really predate this fittings maker. I cant find anything fast by google but I think this could be late Edo set.

I just watched the video, thank you Paul and Robert, I think you made great job as this was the first time doing this. I really enjoyed the Aoe blade in the end and Uda Kunimune tanto was quite interesting too. It was also nice to see wide variety of items. So there was good selection for different types of collectors

I am in Japan so I cannot check my books. I believe description of koshirae is: 鯰革 : 鶴革足蛭巻腰刻鞘大小拵 - Catfish leather : Crane leg leather with spiraling upper portion. Well something in line of that. To me it is a daishō koshirae that matches up quite well in overall. Having catfish & cranes in the theme as saya materials seem to be sourced from them. There might also be an explanation for tengu etc. in this theme in folklore. Of course I am not a koshirae person and dont know about them but for me this sale is mostly about the daishō koshirae and blades are just addons. Typing forum messages with phone is not fun.

Awesome stuff Robert and Paul. Unfortunately I cant watch it live but will definately take a look afterwards. Hopefully there will be even more of these in the future 😊

Thanks for the amazing explanation Steve. The themes in fittings are often so complicated understanding the folklore of old Japan is often needed for full appreciation.

Unfortunately I am not too well versed in Japanese folklore and I was scratching my head with NBTHK theme - 竹生島図鐔 - Chikubushima. I tried to look into history of Chikubu island but couldn't find anything good. However there were other tsuba of same theme on Japanese dealer sites. One of them mentioned old song/play Chikubushima, and there would be a part something freely translated in English that might go like - On the moonlight sea, rabbits run on the waves around the island. I believe the dealer explains that by lore when watching coming and going waves on the shore of Chikubu island in the moonlight, the reflection of the moon makes it look as if rabbits are running on the waves.

Thank you for posting this Marcos, very informative video. I really liked that you have studied an area that is not usually researched.

I think Varshavsky Collection has incorrect English translation of NBTHK theme attribution. 波に獣図鐔 - as stated by NBTHK, I believe would rather be waves and beast. I feel it is usually important to see the Japanese language text as there can often be errors in translations. @rematron Does your tsuba have NBTHK papers. I believe I found the exact same one, notches at nakago-ana match etc. but the image from google goes to shady address, and the google image picture is very tiny. It was from Yahoo Auctions.

I think I have a guess what the list might be. I think I should have pictures of all of the items (at least almost all of them) but unfortunately it takes too much time for me to take the pictures as I will be going to Japan in few days. This would be the list for Koto items I believe, I might have an error in calculations there somewhere. Item - Ownership or shinsa session Kanenaga - NBTHK Kunitomo - TJ11 Yoshimitsu - Unfortunately too many for me to count fast Kuniyuki - NBTHK Kunitoshi - Private Hyogo (last ownership data I have of it) Ryokai - Private Hyogo (last ownership data I have of it) Nobuyoshi - NBTHK Norinaga - Private Tokyo (last ownership data I have of it) Masamune - 3 options Sadamune - 6 options Hiromitsu (I believe this would be wakizashi length) - 6 options Kaneuji - NBTHK Go - TJ16 Masatsune - 8 options (but in case the list is what I believe it to be the one owned by NBTHK would be most likely) Tadashige - TJ12 Fukuoka Ichimonji - Multiple options (but in case the list is what I believe it to be the one owned by NBTHK would be most likely) Mitsutada - 3 options Nagamitsu - 14 options Kanemitsu - Private Tokyo (last ownership data I have of it) Unji - 7 options Morimitsu - 5 options (but in case the list is what I believe it to be the one owned by NBTHK would be most likely) Yasumitsu - 4 options Sukesada - 6 options Sukezane - 2 options Moritsugu - Private Yamagata (last ownership data I have of it) Kiyotsuna - NBTHK Yasutsuna - Too many tachi by Yasutsuna without further info (of course by similar logic to above the 80,1 cm owned by NBTHK would be logical one) Sanemori - 2 options Kunitoki - 4 options

I agree with Piers, if you could get additional pictures of the tachi George? It is difficult to make if it is 2 characters a gap and 3 characters. If there is a long gap in between there then one school comes to mind but first character would not seem to fit in that case.

I agree Michael that "best" was probably not a good term to use but I just wanted to pick some interesting items from the show, so people can see there were many great items at the show. Would be fun to hear what different items people found to be interesting. At the event I saw many people inspecting various items. Here are few that I found interesting. Japanszwaard (Roy Echtermeijer) had very nice shinsakutō by one of the Akamatsu Tarō smiths in front of his table. And in the back shelf he had this one: https://japanszwaard.nl/z12.html Patrice Sabbah had couple very long and interesting spears. Unfortunately cannot provide a link as he doesn't have items up on his website. Japan Sword Art (Egbert Menzinga) had Naoe Shizu tanto that we have discussed here at NMB before. Now seeing and looking it in hand I do think it is very nice package and much better in hand than in pictures: https://www.japanswordart.com/tanto-1-den-naoe-shizu/ Dutch Token Society had very nice display of Nanban tetsu, and on display very nice spear with what we discussed to be potentially original koshirae with extremely interesting "locking" mechanism on the guard. Giuseppe Piva had the Sa Hiroyuki from Jūyō 62. Very impressive long, wide and huge kissaki. It is not listed on his website yet, one of my absolute favorites in the event.

I think this might have been the best item on the show in my personal opinion. https://www.honto-nihonto.com/en/daisho-nr-2002-bizen-no-suke-munetsugu Those that know me might wonder why not the big Sa blade that was featured in kantei session, and I do personally like that one very much. However this comes down to what was discussed recently at daishō thread. You take a look, both blades papered as daishō on same paper, Tanobe-sensei sayagaki for both, daishō-koshirae to make the set complete. Absolutely wonderful and extremely rare set.

Just came back to Finland and I'll have to wait 4 hours for the first morning train to my city, only bad thing for the weekend for me was 2 nights spent at airport vs. 1 night at hotel. I think day 2 was bit more fun to me than first one as I had energy after sleeping in bed for the night. I was very nervous about my presentation but I think it went ok, forgot to speak about few points that I had in mind, and could have explained few things in more clear manner but not a big problem. More socializing on day 2 and meeting old & new faces, had fun conversations with many. The presentations were very good on the second day, and as special treat after his lecture Dave Van Gompel was doing 5 minute makie-demonstrations. It was amazing to see that Dave did very fine looking Mt. Fuji makie-work in 5 minutes WHILE chatting and joking to the audience. 😊 Seeing talented craftspeople working their magic is really fun. I think attendance on day 2 might have been bit smaller than on day 1. I hope that dealers got some contacts and networking done at the event, and hopefully some items found new owners too.

Just got into hotel after day 1. Presentations were great, and meeting people was fun after a long time (unfortunately I am not a socialite so it is bit exhausting for me 😅). Really liked the kantei session and it was very popular, unfortunately I got only 1 out of 5 correct. The nice and wide Sa school blade, that I like very much. Number of dealers has gone down from last event but there seemed to be quite good attendance at the show. Most of the times dealer stalls had a good crowd around them. There was quite nice sortment of items in the show, and I would think many people found interesting items at the show. Unfortunately my own taste is extremely peculiar, so only very few items catched my eye. I should be kicking off tomorrows presentations with Naginata of Kamakura & Nanbokuchō periods. And hopefully the day will be as good as the first one. 😊

Oh I just record every sword of the school I see in references, unfortunately I do not own any. Highest designated Hōju swords are Jūyō Bunkazai, and lowest ones I have on record are NTHK attributed ones or NBTHK Hozon. Of course some do not have "designations" so to say but are in collections of Tokyo National Museum, Kurokawa Research Insitute, Temples, Shrines etc. so they are legitimate.

For Hōju short swords I have so far 9 wakizashi (7 signed, 3 dated), 7 tanto (5 signed, 1 dated) and 4 ken (2 signed, 1 dated), and in overall bit over 100 swords for this school. Liking this school might be bit weird, and lot of it for me personally it is because it being northern rural work, and I don't mind some rougher looking items.

Thanks for further info Piers I think I have had Jaku and Kyo mixed/mashed up. So it is good to know that info. Of course by actual length the scale is in mm in this case but it is important stuff in general.

The sayagaki reads 左衛門三郎 左 Saemonzaburō Sa, pushing attribution towards one of the top swordsmiths in Japan. That Hōju tachi is a wonderful sword, unfortunately couldn't afford it in 2016, and couldn't afford it now... Perhaps it will pop up again in 2030.

Thanks for the correction Steve, I had misunderstood the meaning, so it is very good to know for the future

I am not good with WWII smiths but could it be 兼英 Kanehide?

Here is a reference Yari that has mei Masazane and has been attributed towards Sengo. https://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2009/0910_4008syousai.htm

As I saw your other thread about your sword. I would think the one in length would be half. NBTHK paper would have the length as 2 shaku 1 sun and bit Tanobe would have 2 shaku 9 bu and half in sayagaki if I see things correctly.

I do not have access to ChatGPT but I would strongly advice against using it in do research like this. On all cases where I have seen it to be used regarding nihonto, it is just giving misinformation that it is creating out of thin air, usually misinformation that is fitting exactly to the question that the person asking the question wants to hear, creating a false narrative. As for the reference books provided by ChatGPT, I believe for the Japanese reference names, it is also creating them, making them appear as looking like genuine references. I am not a fittings guy and I have limited resources on them but hopefully someone can verify the authencity of the provided references. 1. 日本刀装具図鑑, I cannot find a book by this name. I believe it is a mashup of real books, like most in the list. 2. 刀剣の美術館, I cannot find a book by this name. I think names of the books by Tokyo National Museum are always more specific. 3. 刀剣装具の世界, I cannot find a book by this name, I think it might be created from 刀装具の世界 (an exhibition of Watanabe Museum of Art): https://watart.jp/exhibition/刀装具の世界～技巧・造形美と鳥取藩の鐔師たち/ 4. 日本刀装具大鑑, I cannot find a book by this name. I think it is creation from Nihontō Taikan 日本刀大鑑 5. 刀剣装飾の美術史, I cannot find a book by this name. 6. 日本刀装具の美, I believe this is false creation of 刀装具の美 Tosogu no Bi 7. 日本刀装飾大鑑, It created the same name as in 4. but with incorrect kanji (刀装飾), someone more proficient in language can add insight on this 8. 刀剣装飾大鑑, I cannot find a book by this name. 9. 刀剣の美術, I believe this is miscreation of NBTHK monthly magazine 刀剣美術 Tōken Bijutsu I think ChatGPT just added NBTHK, Tokyo National Museum etc. as authors to make the information sound real. @GRC Can you find a single Japanese book reference in real life book that ChatGPT gave to you?

Unfortunately I don't have many books focused on koshirae. However Uchigatana Koshirae book, features pretty much most famous uchigatana koshirae in Japan. There are 9 daishō in the book that have their blades mentioned, 0 of them are matching and these were owned by some of the most pretigeous people in Japan. Many of these Daishō however predate Edo-Period and have swords made or attributed to famous smiths. To me personally daishō is about the koshirae. I decided to take a look into the dates of dated Jūyō daishō blades, and here they are. It is easy to see that c. pre-1800's are extremely rare to see. I think I missed one daishō in my earlier Jūyō calculation, added it here. 1626 1671 1795 - 1795 (2 different daishō by same smith) 1802 1803 1808 1817 1828 1836 1837 1838 1840 1843 1844 1845 1848 1849 1852 & 1853 (same daishō but blades dated to different year) 1854 1855 1859 1865