Jussi Ekholm

Apparently there are some difficulties with the tickets. I just got refund by Paypal as the account I paid to never registered through Paypal. I was wondering as there is now new page reservation for tickets, will there be limited number of tickets, or can you just buy ticket from the door?

Pavel Bolf has impressed me for many years: https://www.katana-kaji.cz/en/and he might not be as well known internationally as I think he should be. Likewise Stefan Roth might not be too known internationally: http://www.seelenschmie.de/wordpress/

Amazing display Chris!

Great thanks to Peter Janssen for hosting this wonderful event for us, and to all others involved in organizing this. It was wonderful to meet old friends and new people, especially to get to meet some NMB members for the first time after knowing them by online for a long time. The lineup of swords was simply stunning. Rai Kunimitsu and Nobukuni tachi were pretty much perfect swords. However I am not a total "art sword" guy as definately my heart chose a different sword. Brain kept telling me that one of the 3 Tokubetsu Jūyō swords (there was also the Kageyasu in display case) in amazing state of preservation should be the pick. For me it was the signed and dated (1338) tachi by Osafune Nagashige that won my heart in a close race with the Nobukuni. Also there is an array of splendid armours all over the museum. Some of the armours were breathtaking and truely masterpieces. Even though I do not know anything about armours I can say they are top notch. To be noted for lovers of sword fittings the museum houses extremely impressive tsuba collection as well as other fittings too. I believe the tsuba are arranged by school/tradition basis. Even though I am not a tsuba guy I still could identify some traditions and guess some others. The good part in having a meeting with a bunch like this is you can just ask and someone can most likely answer to your question. So for example if some tsuba was giving you a headache then tsuba dudes could help with it and Martyna Lesniewska also offered her help and explained about the items. The funny thing is with so many items in display room I think I did not even notice nearly every item that was for display even though spending the day at looking at the items. There were so many items positioned in display cases, and now by looking at the few pictures I snapped on my phone I can see the many items I didn't notice.

Nice one Steve, I figured it might be shodai but I couldn't fit it for sure. 1st generation Kanenori would point it towards Ōei period and founder of San'ami school. I think references mention only signed tachi and tanto by this smith. I'd think some later Muromachi period Kanenori would be better fit. As it was so short katana I might guess somewhere late 1400's to early 1500's.

In general I'd say Taira-Takada attribution hints to pre-1600's. From 1600 onwards is usually refered to Fujiwara-Takada. At least that is my own view of this.

I guess this side is 慶応元年八月日 - 1st year of Keiō (1865) a day in 8th month 八木性依頼造之 - Yagi (a place) (shō/sei?) Irai tsukuru kore - I don't really understand this my guess is made in Yagi at commission?

I keep mine upright in my bookshelf. Can't say if it is correct way but it seems logical to me as text is oriented correctly and the books are "ready" as you can just take one out without the need to remove multiple books in order to get to one.

I tried and unfortunately I can't get two of the characters right, and it bugs me a lot. 関?六住?代兼則之作 is my guess with the 2 missing blanks. The addition is most likely made by some previous owner. He/she has scratched wakizashi over and changed it to katana. Sword length in current state seems to be 1 shaku 9 sun 8 bu 8 rin which is really close to modern "accepted" katana length requirement.

So many awesome deals in there... too bad I can't get any books this year. Someone will score great book deals.

12th generation is listed at working c. from late 1860's up onwards on Meiji period. I was going to ask same as John above, if the indication for 12th is on NBTHK paper or in Aoi description? Just to note about the confusions, I read from Seskos that the family split to Echizen & Edo branchs, other has 12 generations listed and other 9. That may explain some of the confusion.

I agree with Geraint, I'd also guess the magazine to be a sales catalog. Some Japanese sword sellers have catalogs like these and but unfortunately I cannot tell what the catalog is as it's format is bit different from the few various ones I have. At quick glance I did not see asking price listed anywhere on that page but the page is in so small font.

In this particular case at least, the tanto just has tsuba & seppa. It seems you can see all the parts featured in the dagger here: http://islandblacksmith.ca/process/making-the-tsukimi-tanto/ If the koiguchi is flush with the fuchi then you can call it aikuchi which is a "seamless" connection. If you have a small tsuba that may be just slightly larger than fuchi or koiguchi you can call it hamidashi tsuba.

I do not follow Shinshintō swords so I cannot really comment on their pricing. However it is quite easy to find signed swords by Saneo (I just found out he used a big bunch of different names). Multiple Japanese shops have had signed swords by Saneo for sale. So spending 2,7M yen on mumei Saneo seems bit too much for me. Needless too say if I'd ever had money like that to invest on a sword I'd be looking at lot earlier swords. Here is a signed one at Asahi Tōken for 3,6M yen: http://asahitoken.jp/contents/01_token/details/token-B/B035_K.html

There seems to be Sukenao 助直 working at the turn of 1800's in Edo. As he probably is lesser smith not much info on him. By google searches I could only find info about the famous one. So unfortunately I can't get you any mei example from this lesser known smith as I don't have mei example of his in any books either.

My copy came today and it is excellent like Vol.1.

I am not a tsuba guy and the following periods are presented by Fukushi Shigeo and taken from Tosogu Classroom vol.1 Ko-Tōshō - until end of Muromachi Ko-Katchūshi - until end of Muromachi Ko-Kinkō - from late Nanbokuchō / early Muromachi to until early Edo? Ko-Shōami - until end of Momoyama? Ko-Hagi - from end of Muromachi until early Edo Ko-Akasaka - Refers to first three generations, and sometimes early Akasaka tsuba in general - According to dates from Akasaka Tsuba Yuisho from Kan'ei until Hōei c. 1624 - 1711 Shigeo did not use ko prefix for old tsuba like Heianjō-sukashi or Kanayama For example about Kanayama he states that earliest ones are most likely from Ōei and youngest ones around Tenshō. For Heianjō-sukashi he gives time frame of around 170 years about Eikyō to Bunroku I also have the Iron tsuba book by Japanese Sword Museum, it has these descriptions Ko-Tōshō - made before Keicho period Ko-Katchūshi - made before Keicho period Ko-Shōami - until early Edo? (I didn't totally understand the English description)

Just booked everything, no way I'll miss this. I'll just have to do some workarounds in June as I've been waiting for this event for a long time. I'll be the hairless guy with strong Finnish accent. I'll hope to meet all the NMB members participating, and no need to be shy around me, I am really easy to talk to. I guess I'll spend most of the Saturday listening to educational program as so much great stuff on program. Unfortunately I'll have to leave early on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately I am almost sure I cannot attend to this one. But I hope it will become a yearly tradition in Europe to have a big show like that. Here are few questions: Has the place changed from Amsterdam to Utrecht recently? I could swear the last time I checked (earlier this year or in december) the venue was Schipol Airport hotel and there was option to rent a room at discount price for the stay as I calculated my total trip prices to there and that in mind. Also is the early bird 3-day ticket now 90€ as I am quite certain it used to be 120 or 150€ earlier on the site? What is the special 3-day ticket that is is the flyer that Nick posted for 50€, is it only for lectures? I know it's still 100+ days until the event but I am slightly confused about the details, I was really surprised now that I saw that the city had changed.

Did the previous owner give you the magazine in which this sword is featured? I think it might be on the bottom of those pics that ends in の優品 13. The page dedicated to this sword will have more information about it but it is so small in the pics. I think it was very good buy in overall for the price but I agree with Ray that I might be overly biased as I like old stuff.

Attribution is to 青江 Aoe, that school worked in Bitchu province 備中. Time period is said to be Nanbokuchō 南北朝 (1332-1392)

小林伊勢守国輝 - Kobayashi Ise no Kami Kuniteru Edit* And I think the date is 延宝三年八月日 - Enpō 3 Here you can see a katana that is papered, signed and dated to Enpō 3: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-kobayashi-ise-kami-kuniteru

As this is fantasy thread I might throw in a question which one would you go for? The tanto linked in the OP has provenance to family while this one that Darcy has signature and it's (と銘がある) which makes it even more interesting one to me.

I'm in fever so this might not be the most logical post but I'd say it is just error (or in less feasible scenario marketing but I don't believe in that as Aoi has listed several tachi as katana while the opposite makes more sense if you think business). It doesn't have paper yet and I'd assume after shinsa it would just have a paper that says Katana - mei: Muneyoshi and not any further remarks on it. There are of course real exceptions to the rules, I think Aoe probably being the most common one, as Aoe smiths signed on both sides but they pretty much made tachi due to the time period. Similarily here is an exception by Hōju: http://toyuukai.com/2015/10/%e5%a4%aa%e5%88%80%e5%ae%9d%e5%af%bf/ As far as papered mumei tachi by NBTHK, this following is just my own gut feeling and not based on anything factual information from NBTHK but I assume that if a mumei sword gets attributed as tachi it is ubu or near ubu and made as tachi around c. early-mid Muromachi at latest. Of course there will most likely be exceptions to that too. If the sword has been altered and has no signature then it will paper as katana (granted it meets the length requirements). I will illustrate my thinking with these two Ayanokōji swords both about 76 cm in length. Mumei tachi: http://world.seiyudo.com/product/ka-030617/ Mumei katana: http://taiseido.biz/cn11/cn22/pg584.html Of course koshirae brings whole new ball game as Ken mentioned. But that is the whole sword + koshirae while the papers are just for the blade. As I spent most of yesterday indoors in fever just surfing sword shops worldwide I encountered bunch of stuff from various sites that I'd consider misleading the customer, but as I haven't seen Aoi do that I don't go into that. Sometimes additional information in their description gives nice extra information while sometimes it is just the usual marketing mumbo-jumbo. Of course the sheer volume of their listings lets some errors pass too. Haven't done business with them yet but I always give Aoi thumbs up.

This is a great chance for everyone who can visit. Our Scandinavian group has great members and you'll surely have a great saturday afternoon.