Jussi Ekholm

I checked Seskos and there is Masayuki with civilian name Hamada Masajirô 浜田政二郎 but as you can see, different kanji for Hama. He is listed at Genji, 1864-1865. I don't know a thing about Shinshinto and I'm not sure if the above Masayuki ever used Hamada as part of his signatures. I just thought it might be logical that it could be a false signature trying to be his? The above mentioned Masayuki was Musashi province smith and Kôfu/Efu (I think it can be read either way?) is in Musashi province. Too difficult and complicated for me but fun puzzle. I would think like Steve, that in overall it seems weird. Would be nice to see pictures of the sword too.

Thanks for the help with translation Markus and Steve. Thank you Morita san for posting the picture of the tachi so everyone can see it. Jason and George guessed what I was looking for. I think this was the oldest sword in my books that had the that feature. Found few other interesting swords too with this feature.

I would recommend Kantei Zenshu (Koto & Shinto/Shinshinto) by Markus, they are very helpful books but I think they are from mid- too complicated and detailed for beginning. For beginners + advanced too I could recommend Koshirae by Markus Sesko, I think it's great book as it's fully focused on koshirae as could be guessed. :D Maybe replace The Craft with the new one by Kapps & Yoshindo Yoshihara - The Art of the Japanese Sword. It has amazing pictures and is a major upgrade for the old one as I have them side by side. Those would be my recommendations for the list, after those I fear my book recommendations would be too specific for narrower field.

Well I got bit crazy idea yesterday and thought I should do a translation of details of one of the swords in one of the Sano museum books. I felt it could be bit relevant for other topic we have been discussing lately. Like always, me translating by myself is always very slow process and I don't understand everything correctly. I guess the most important thing is learning by doing. I think I got most of it correctly but there are some parts I don't understand. Here is the text and my attempted translation you can see the ?'s within the text. 平安時代 愛媛県 大山祇神社蔵 刃長 ７８,２cm 反 １,５cm 元幅 ３,７cm 鎬造、丸棟、身幅広く、 鎬幅が広くほぼ中央に寄り、反り極く浅く、 鰤鋒。 茎は強く反り、先は無造作に栗尻とし 鑢目は 鋤か鑢がけか判然としない 目釘孔二個、鍛えは板目が細かく、流れごころがあり、きれいである。 刃文は単調な匂出来の直刃で大きく焼落し、匂口は沈みごころである。帽子は焼詁。 身幅が広く、反りが少なく、鎬の幅が広く中央に近く、区が深いなど初期日本刀の特色がよく示されている。 Heian period, (11th century) Ehime, Ôyamazumi jinja Nagasa: 78,2 cm, Sori: 1,5 cm, Motohaba: 3,7 cm Shinogi-zukuri, maru mune, mihaba wide, shinogihaba very wide it is almost at center of the blade, sori very shallow, kamasu-kissaki. Nakago has strong sori, nakagosaki is muzôsa? and end kurijiri. Yasurime is not clear and if it’s made by spade or file? (this part I don’t understand). 2 mekugi ana, kitae is itame that is thin. It’s running and beautiful. Hamon is monotonous made in nioi deki suguha, big yakiotoshi. Nioikuchi is ?. Boshi is yakizume. Mihaba is wide, sori is small, shinogi no haba is wide and close to center, machi is deep?. It shows features of early nihonto?.

Well as it was mentioned in another thread I thought I should make a new one. Ôyamazumi shrine has very large collection of items, including many massive odachi and naginata. Unfortunately I've never yet visited Japan but this place is on top of my go to list when I get to travel to Japan. There are of course some good quality pictures of some of items of the shrine around but I thought I would post these 2 interesting books up here if someone wants them. They are available for free at National Diet Library where I got them, and I merged them together. 国幣大社大山祇神社大鑑 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/378qgq7p7bd0nm9/Oyama%20Taikan.pdf?dl=0 大山祇神社案内 : 大日本総鎮守国幣中社: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7sudq04akdabyo/digidepo_912180.pdf?dl=0 Hopefully someone will find these useful. It's my first time using dropbox but I think it should work.

Don't be so hasty Jean I'm sure there will be more guesses coming in before the deadline. After trying to look into it, I think I would go with Bizen - Omiya. As for the smith, too difficult but I think I'd have to say Morikage like Jean said. I would like to have said different smith for the fun of it but Morikage is the only Omiya smith I have good data on in my own library.

Zusetsu Nihonto Yogo Jiten by Kajihara Kotoken has hikae mekugiana as primary term for this feature. However it also has shinobi ana as an alternative name. Here is the explanation part: 生目釘孔の他に開けられた目釘孔のことで、刀身を柄に強く固定する為のもの And I think it just means the second hole is for securing the fit. However you can find many large odachi that have only single ana, like here with tad over 92 cm nagasa. Which is in size that surely saw use. There are even much larger odachi around c.120cm nagasa that have single ana. So like usual it's easy to agree with Guido. And indeed shinobi-ana does have bit kinky clang to it, maybe my imagination is running bit too wild.

Looked like another top notch meeting, I wish I could have attended it. I'll let more senior members who know more give a better answer to Brian but I think we have good bunch of quite young collectors here in Europe.

Here are few small thoughts from a novice. As for creating conversation, that is a tricky topic. Sometimes the good discussion requires high level of knowledge and unfortunately I know I'm not yet at that level. Take for example that extremely informative topic created by Ford about Shibuichi restoration. To take part and actually saying something with real insight on a topic like that takes high level of knowledge, that is why it's bit difficult to get a very active discussion going. For example in that topic I could only give my thanks to Ford about posting it. I don't know much about tosogu or shibuichi but I learned a thing or two from that topic. One thing that is often feared is asking stupid questions or giving incorrect answers. As this is a place with high level knowledge then people are sometimes hesistant to post maybe even some good questions which would create good discussion. I know books are always recommended and books are amazing I can say this as a book collector but there is a but. I have sometimes thought if it would be more beneficial to ask a question here out loud rather than just jump into my books and search the information for myself? I think questions are often needed to spark some discussion. I know as I've been trying to create some public discussion in Finnish language about nihonto, it's very difficult if nobody says anything and you are just writing stuff. What kind of information people will like to know? This is a hobby for very small group of people so it's understandable that this is not a messageboard where a message comes in every minute. I think NMB is quite active message board given how specialized our subject in here is. I think at the moment various sword forums NMB, SBG, MyArmoury, SFI etc. are working well alongside various social media platforms Facebook, Reddit, Twitter etc. There is lots of activity going between one and another. I tend to hang quite a bit at SBG where various production swords are the main subject, as I feel that I can offer more help and knowledge in there if people are interested in Japanese swords. As unfortunate it is I know that at my current level of knowledge I can't create that much high level discussion in here. Hopefully those from various forums who have serious interest will then join our ranks in here. I know several have joined so it's a good thing. Gabriel is helping people out at Reddit, and lots of folks at various forums know about NMB and will recommend this place for Japanese sword study. NMB members are really helpful bunch, and this is in my opinion very friendly forum. I think the quick identifications, translation assistances, price asking etc. are somewhat going on in many forums. I've gotten used to it so I don't really mind it. It takes so much time to gather knowledge about swords & weapons to make a good guess how old your Japanese sword, Arabian dagger or European polearm is. And you can most likely get an answer from people who are specialized in that field if you ask the question in here for example. I can understand it very well, I've asked few translation requests too on another forums as I cannot for example understand Arabic. Of course as Japanese swords are so often signed then it is easy to seek translation assistance, and I think that many think that it must be really valuable as it is a Japanese sword.

Thanks for the correction Steve, it's always very important to use correct kanji when using them. I was lazy and copied from dealers site without checking... Should have done the usual checking. I must say that on my phone these two kanji 末未 look almost identical, however on my computer they look noticeably different as they should because they are different. I'm no tech guy so I find it really weird.

未関 = Sue-Seki So I think that the seller described it to you correctly.

That restored set looks stunning. Thank you very much for posting this up Ford. I had no idea about these features of shibuichi.

Does it have 1 or 2 ashi (hangers). I think the upper portion is nishiki (brocade).

It's Gabriel, he is doing valuable work at Reddit. I've never really understood Reddit but it's great to have someone with knowledge participating there because I think Reddit is quite popular among young folks.

1st 吉井住吉則 - Yoshii ju Yoshinori 2nd 駿河守国正 - Suruga no Kami Kunimasa Others can hopefully provide more info about the swords.

Damn Elvis seems to be everywhere, I could almost swear I saw him few weeks ago in Tampere... On more serious note I was wondering how complicated the group ordering will be? As I was just browsing around the CD Japan that Dirk linked earlier and it can be ordered through there quite easily, and with already very reasonable shipping costs.

I'll get one copy. I really like the books that Gakken has published before. I was sold at this: Including many National Treasure and Juyo-Bunkazai swords all reproduced in the full size. I think the full sized pics in previous books are amazing.

Awesome Jean, I think that Yasumitsu is my favorite of the bunch. Of course lots and lots of viewing would be needed to be certain about that.

I'm just very beginner as Japanese language student so I can't offer much assistance. I'll give you my thoughts before the big guys chime in. I'll show in hiragana what I mean. Zusetsu Nihonto Yogo Jiten is my glossary bible, as it has readings in kanji, hiragana and romanji. Bô hi - 棒樋 - ぼうひ is the only one written with ひ hi in hiragana. Rest of the bo hi types in terminology is written usually with び bi. However when categorizing then ひ is usually used. For example, varieties of hi 樋の各種 - ひのかくしゅ. As you ask for the day 日 hi. Then it's ひ in hiragana in basic form but for example in weekdays it's bi び (yôbi ようび). I didn't know the English name for this reasoning but I found Wikipedia entry on Rendaku: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku

Very nice sword. I tend to like long hira blades, there is just something about them. Of course the fact that it is Muramasa makes it even more amazing. I hope you don't mind the quick photoshop I did. It was done in few mins but it will show how symmetrical both sides are.

Tsuruginoya seems to have 4. http://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/mn3_2_1.html

I think there are things that can be learned by seeing multiple replica swords of various cultures. Sure it might not give more knowledge about the authentic swords but it'll give other type of knowledge that might be usable when for example determing the origin of the sword. As I said earlier I've been lucky enough to briefly own swords from multiple production companies over the years. So far the best Chinese made katana I've owned was made by Kaneie. I got very lucky and got this by trade for an average sword. This would cost much more than I would spend on Chinese made katana. I then traded this to a high end longsword, which I later sold to fund a nihonto purchase. That being said I didn't like the balance of the sword but that is quite subjective thing. Other than that the sword was pretty sweet. I'm just putting up the pics so everyone can see that some of the Chinese made production swords are very good. This is about their mid-tier sword, this sword is mono T10 blade. You can notice the "hada" on the blade even though this is monosteel sword. They can create a hadalike pattern with their own hybrid polishing process they call Kessho hadori. When you see this in person it actually looks quite nice, the best I've seen among the production swords. Sure it's not perfect polish but in my opinion these swords start to be at an overall level where it becomes quite hard for a regular person to say if they are Japanese or Chinese made. Kaneie has to my knowledge had some Japanese swordsmiths and craftsmen visit them and help building up their knowledge. That is one of the reasons how they can produce much higher quality work than rest of the Chinese manufacturers. Here are 2 pics of details on their more traditional swords. I know this is kinda off topic as this is not about the sword in OP. I still think it's important to recognize the different quality that they produce in China. As Jason said in the previous page maybe we should have an Izakaya thread or something on how to differentiate obvious fakes, low-mid quality production swords and high quality/custom swords by non Japanese smiths from nihonto.

James, do you have pictures of your sword?

But searching the few out of the norm blades is so fun. Found one, Shinogi-zukuri wakizashi by Soshu Masahiro, dated Meitoku Sannen (1392), Sano museum, Masamune book n.48.

I did a quick search on some of my books and failed to find any pre-Oei. I found 2 Nobukuni wakizashi, one shinogi-zukuri and one shobu-zukuri dated Oei Yonnen 1397. All the dated Nanbokucho era wakizashi that I found were hira-zukuri. I can search more books later when I have more time. It's quite interesting subject.