Jussi Ekholm

Congratulations Francesco! I wish all the best for Italian branch, it is good to have more study of Japanese swords in Europe. I think only good things will come in the future.

I think it is a good thing that you voice your opinion Derek. As we talked about numbers I think the c.1% that Mark suggested earlier might be close to my estimate of EB & AB memberships compared to the whole NBTHK. I am not sure about the actual membership numbers in Japan currently. Of course I am rooting for dramatic increase in EB & AB memberships but in realistical view I think it is a slow process. It will take a long time to increase the membership numbers in slow steps, as like I said earlier interested folks are quite hard to come by. This is quite small hobby. Yes the membership fee is high for this year but there are nice things planned by European branch in 2018 & 2019, and a higher fee will help with those. The membership fee is fluctuating depending on the situation on hand. Joining and being a member should be an activity that you enjoy doing. Nothing good comes out from forced things. Personally I am not sure if "recruiting" is right way to approach folks in a hobby like sword collecting. I've tried my share on trying to spark interest about swords to Finnish martial arts crowd over the years but it is futile if people don't have the passion for the hobby. I feel that those who want will eventually join in sword groups. Creating interest is great but you cannot force people to join in (or well you can but it is not a long term solution usually...). I am liking that database idea you have, and I can give my very small contribution to it too if you start building it up.

Awesome job Bojan! I think the exhibition looks very well organized & displayed and I wish many slovenians will get the spark to visit and enjoy Japanese warrior culture.

I like your ideas Derek and I think they would be helpful to many if they would be implimented but... I have to second the above post by Paul. I think it is far too common that people think NBTHK and NTHK and others just as organizations issuing attribution papers. However they are great organizations that are in my opinion well worth joining as they indeed are doing as their mission statement says. In my opinion NBTHK European Branch is doing amazing meetings and I greatly enjoy reading the meeting reports wishing that I could travel to each and every single one of those. In every TB you can see reports about various meetings held in Japan. You can read here at NMB the meeting report Piers wrote about local NBTHK meeting with amazing lineup of swords to study. The overseas number of NBTHK members is unfortunately very small. I was actually bit shocked when I found that out. So it is very important that we keep the numbers and increase them. European and American branches are doing great stuff in organizing various events and I keep scratching my head why the membership numbers are not going up. Well swords are not that hot among the common folks and it will always be a very niche hobby. So it will be very difficult to attract new interested folks to this hobby. In overall I think that English language is still very minor to NBTHK. Like Paul said above it is not cost effective for them to provide much in English language. However here again NBTHK oversea branches have made very nice thing as Markus is doing spectacular job with partial TB translations. I think the announcement about fake papers might have made people bit too nervous. Of course I do not have the slightest idea about the severeness of the issue but I thought it wasn't / isn't a too big deal (of course I can be totally wrong). Also while it is no official shinsa panel the opinion of experienced members of my local NBTHK branch means very much to me. It is always amazing to hear their thoughts on various items at meetings.

What Jean said about top quality is really important. When you see excellent swords it will make you rethink many things you thought differently before seeing them. They are just so far beyond my personal ability to grasp as they are such a rare treat for me to see. Some of the famous swords are in incredible condition and it is mind blowing to think how old they are. One of the most interesting swords I have seen has to be the Naki-gitsune. http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100503/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=&title=&c_e=&region=&era=&century=&cptype=&owner=&pos=665&num=8 One of the earliest surviving examples of uchigatana from the late 1200's. Now after seeing it I understand the appeal of Awataguchi. The historical meaning of this sword (age, provenance), the amazing condition it has after all these years. Truly remarkable piece of history... There are lots of amazing books & catalogs of top quality swords in print. Usually the exhibition catalogs are in Japanese with English index page. However weight is rarely listed in these as a measurement. My collecting is now mostly focused on getting lots of these books & catalogs and drooling on stuff for many years to come. As an online resource E-Museum is nice, here is the list of swords: http://www.emuseum.jp/result?d_lang=en&mode=detail&s_lang=en&itemCount=8&class=6 As for the sword in opening post I think 0,93 kasane is reasonable for it so I don't think it is a typo. To me it looks like thick and heavy sword. I am not personally too big fan of these late Shinshintō swords so my opinion on them is bit skewed as it is old stuff for my heart.

Nice close ups Grev. Unfortunately my sight is not the best in the world but I am not big fan of loupe or magnifying glass. I would often need those to really enjoy the fine details but I've found out that I mostly enjoy what I can see just with my own eyes. It is the same for me with swords I might not see every tiny detail but in overall for me it is much more fun to just see with basic sight and not use "enhancing" tools. Of course pics like yours are great to see because I would never see the details so clearly with just my eyes alone.

The Tosogu classroom series by Fukushi Shigeo will be my go to book on tosogu from here on. Just the 1st volume is published yet but it is amazing and can't wait to get the whole series. It has kantei points for many schools & makers and thanks to NBTHK branches, JSSUS and Markus Sesko it is in English.

Where did you buy this sword? *EDIT* Just saw in your other thread that you got this from Pawn shop. *EDIT* Did the seller say he purchased this from Japan? As Nosyudo Kanesada could just be seen as misreading 濃州兼定 - Nōshū Kanesada My guess is it was made by Kaneie (the Chinese forge [not Japanese smith named Kaneie] which is gone off the map again due to again having business issues). They have produced some of the best Chinese made Japanese swords but they seem to have lots of business issues. Over the years they have supplied many companies around the world sharp Shinken for iai practice. They have imported the swords at least to UK, Germany, Netherlands and I think to USA too on several occasions. As you mention the description in other thread as Nosyudo Kanesada Forged Steel Shinken Katana, forged steel shinken is something that could be used to describe the Chinese made production swords, and forged opposed to folded means that the steel is unfolded. Your sword looks to have hada but as crazy as it sounds I have owned a forged shinken that was made by Kaneie (Sold by Nine Circles as Tameshigiri Shinken) and the final treatment they gave made the sword have hada like pattern even though the sword was non-folded monosteel. I will attach few pics of the Kaneie I used to have to show similarity in mei & bit of the surface treatment. I sold this many years ago and pics are bad. Nosyudo was doing business with Swordstore in the US until the early-mid 2000's if I remember correctly. Then some legal issues arose and their business deal stopped. I don't remember the details well as it's so long ago and back then young me was saving and drooling in the cheap sword market. Swordstore still sells their sharp steel iaito 6006 and 7007. I don't think these steel shinkens were ever supplied by Nosyudo, I think Nosyudo supplied them high quality Japanese made zinc-alloy iaito, and the possibility to order a real Japanese sword from Japan. I am not sure who made/makes the steel iaito lineup. That is a tricky thing as many companies offer steel shinken and they are silent about the origin of them (most likely due to business reasons). My own belief is that Kaneie supplied swords for many and Huanuo might have supplied some too as there are not too many high quality forges in China. Hard to know as the expensive steel shinken have never been popular in Finland so really hard to judge as you can't see them in hand.

This is taken from Aoi Art website for those wanting to visit them. I skipped Aoi as I was not intending to buy anything and didn't want to bother them bringing out swords for me as I was not a potential buyer. ⬛︎BEFORE VISITING⬛︎ Please email us the date and the order number of the item you want to see, we can show you up to 3 items on our website. The shop is too small to accommodate many customers and deal with sudden visit.

I'm liking it. The member collection part is neat add on.

Well I am not sure about the English level of the staff at Aoi in general as I didn't visit them but in overall the regular staff at sword shops I visited spoke very little English. And of course as my Japanese is only at very basic level the communication was often quite difficult. And I didn't want to bother them too much as I was way out of my league. Just enjoying drooling some top tier stuff that I can never afford. I am not sure who does the English descriptions/translations to some of the sword shops and if he/she might not in some cases even be a sword person so some errors could easily happen during the translation. When you check various sites they might sometimes have some minor mistakes (wrong era, wrong details etc.). I often don't bother too much about these as I am not buying anything. But if buying then it is important to research well. Also the session numbers are good indicator. I think the last Tokuju session was 24 in 2016.

I am not sure about the politics part as I just think the overall quality of display items will be super high in the exhibition. And as the display space will be limited in size they probably are going for the best & most interesting line up.

Thank you for the report Piers. What an amazing opportunity.

With Aoi it is best to check the Japanese page if in doubt: https://www.aoijapan.jp/%e5%88%80%ef%bc%9a%e7%84%a1%e9%8a%98-%e9%9b%b2%e9%87%8d I didn't visit Aoi (so I can't say anything about them) but I visited many good sword shops in Tokyo. And I understand now it is always best to check the Japanese page when in doubt about description.

For me the answer is easy, not to buy. In the last few days I have realized I will now change the way how I collect and it will be many many years before I will think about buying again. Instead the focus will be fully on just seeing stuff. For the last 5-10 years, I've had a top list of items which I follow that I have sorted by desirability & pricing. List has been constantly evolving as stuff gets sold, new items pop up etc. Unfortunately I've seen that my list is getting heavier and heavier and items become unobtainable to me. I've realized I will learn much more with my new decision than by trying to buy swords for myself. With my current small income level I won't be able to collect at the level I want to collect. So I will fully focus on increasing my knowledge and having fun.

I think it will be important to see lots and lots of swords. That way you will easily start to see some common things on healthy blades vs. worn down swords. However I must say that health is not everything, I would personally go for worn down sword with more historical background than a pristine one with less historical importance. It's a fine line to balance on. I have been seeing some amazing items on the last few days, and now I'll repeat the old thing that has been said to me many times. Try to look the best items you can. Here is one example that has been for sale for many years. I think it was bought for a while but then reappeared with lower price. Being a signed Bizen tachi makes it intetesting but condition is... Here you can see the difference in kasane very well http://www.e-sword.jp/katana/1610-1080.htm Also you can compare the swords to other existing examples. On some cases it is easy as plenty of similar swords are around, on some nearly impossible as only few are remaining. Darcy has written excellent posts of this subject and now I finally am starting to understand it better.

If you are buying a sword for training I would recommend holding off the purchase and buying a sword that you hold your hands first. The feel of the sword is very important for martial arts purposes. And of course I would recommend modern swords for training.

Amazing work Richard. That Sagami Yasuaki vid is just .

I am thinking it is 伊賀守藤原包光作 - Iga no Kami Fujiwara Kanemitsu saku. I don't see a Kanemitsu with this title in my reference books, and like you I would think it is more recent smith.

Reading your post I am assuming ideally you are looking for sword in good condition, in koshirae and made by highly ranked smith and possibly papered. Unfortunately ticking all the boxes will usually come with quite a large price tag. For sub 5k you can get very decent packages but you will have to do some choosing unless you get really lucky. I don't think your research on modern non-Japanese made swords is futile at all. You most likely have gotten many pointers on things you like and things you don't like. I think you will be much happier with genuine Japanese made sword either modern or antique than going with Bugei Peace (even though it is a nice sword in its own right).

I believe it is 土肥真了- Doi Shinryō

Great idea Joe! I wish you will get a good group running in the Midwest.

Yep that is really nice sword and nice deal. The unfortunate thing is my lack of funds...

Hello Stefan and welcome to the forum. Nice to hear you are living in Stockholm as NBTHK Scandinavia has many members in Stockholm and it is the place for our meetings. I will send you better private message when I get home from work. You will get excellent hands on help in Stockholm.

I don't have too many books on historical koshirae but I've got few historical examples. In Uchigatana koshirae book, both are katate-uchi with shinobi-ana. 48. Sukesada blade 1524 with shinobi-ana, koshirae is dated to been made in 1598. 63. Kiyomitsu blade 1514 with shinobi-ana, koshirae is dated to been made around 1660 - 1700 In Koshirae Taikan there is one Bakumatsu era Niten-koshirae that has 2 mekugi. Personally I am not sure about the need & functionality of this shinobi-ana. As many very large ōdachi from Nanbokuchō period survived perfectly well with only 1 mekugi that would indicate it is not necessary even for swords with massive blades and use during war times. However several ōdachi also have the shinobi-ana which is again reasonable given how large some of the swords are. I just checked the Futarasan-jinja ōdachi book that I have and shortest one with shinobi-ana had nagasa of 117,8 cm and longest one without shinobi-ana, nagasa is 133,8 cm (but the 1 ana is in lower portion of nakago) and 126,0 cm for more regular ana placement.