Jussi Ekholm

I have not seen that before. Funny enough none of my terminology bibles seem to have that term, or I am looking from the wrong places as I don't know the correct term. Could this be called mune bori?

Udenuki ana, there would be a cord through the holes that would allow you to put you hand through and around your wrist. I think udenuki was used mostly pre-Edo period in battles. I'm not a tsuba guy so I can't even begin to guess the age of that tsuba.

Congrats guys.

I can't help with dating help but if you can get Uchigatana-goshirae book by Tokyo National Museum it's a gold mine of information for old koshirae. I can probably dig a few general tips from that book tomorrow.

I think your column 3 reads: 板目柾流れ交じり - which I believe would mean mix up of itame and masame-nagare. So you should be able to see both itame forging pattern and "running masame" on the blade.

Dang I'm a noob as I can't make a spoiler tag... Column 4 正真 Shoshin (genuine) 長さNagasa (length) Column 3 your blanks are the smith 近江守継平 Omi no Kami Tsuguhira. Sandai means 3rd generation. You can find him from Seskos Swordsmith index for example. I'm at my parents so I can't give you the detailed information of the smith. It's great that you have tried translating the origami by yourself, it's always a good learning experience. Now you know how this side of the paper usually reads out and where to look for the attribution.

In the brackets it reads (Kuni Fumei Jidai Muromachi Makki) Province unknown period end of the Muromachi. I think you did well with this purchase as it was well priced and papered. I think that is a good affordable addition to your collection, it was priced so nicely I almost went for it few times. :D

I must confess I am horrible in understanding the art in tsuba, and I often don't understand the designs. Here are few tsuba that I think have moon in them. This moon & sun is actually pretty nice: http://yushindou.com/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%88%E5%9B%B3%E3%80%80%E9%89%84%E5%9C%B0%E3%80%80%E6%92%AB%E8%A7%92%E5%BD%A2/ I think this has large moon (not my taste in design): http://www.e-sword.jp/tsuba/1510-6002.htm I think this one has small moon: http://yushindou.com/%E5%8D%81%E6%89%8B%E5%9B%B3%E3%80%80%E9%89%84%E5%9C%B0%E3%80%80%E6%9C%A8%E7%93%9C%E5%BD%A2/

Very nice one James. I have to confess I used much more than 2 hours on this kantei guess. These online kantei quizzes are always very fun to try out. Maybe we could have an ongoing thread for Aoi Arts kantei quizzes? I've been trying to guess them when I have free time but doing them in group would be more fun than doing them alone.

Welcome Henry, I think you'll enjoy this forum too.

I'm going to go with Period: Late Kamakura - Early Nanbokucho School: Yamato - Tegai Smith: Kane X (not skilled enough to differentiate smiths)

Here is my reading of the paper, if it helps. Mumei, Kyo sukashi (Edo jidai) Marugata, tetsuji, ji sukashi, marumimi

I'll let Hans answer himself to all the questions pointed at him. However I'm not sure if you guys know that he won a nyusen award in 66th craftsman competition in tsukamaki series. Look for コが ハンス in nyusen category of tsukamaki. http://www.touken.or.jp/pdf/66kenma_nyusyou.pdf I'm pretty sure I saw a picture of that award paper of his somewhere online. If this information I posted is incorrect I'm sure Hans or someone else that knows better will correct me. I've never met him personally but I've seen his work at NBTHK meetings and to my eye it's very good.

I'd guess 彦根 Hikone would be logical. More advanced tsuba guys will surely correct if that reading is wrong.

I just saw that koshirae yesterday while I was browsing and I thought that is a great and classy koshirae... until I saw the tsuba. I just don't like that tsuba at all, too loud for my taste. Hopefully more experienced folks will chime in and correct if I'm wrong, as I'm so slow it'll take me too long to get whole translation figured out... Here is what I see on the first line. Fuchi, kashira, seme, kojiri - shakudoji 素紋 (I am thinking these 2 would mean plain design without mon) mumei.

Jason finding a club would be a very good thing. I'll keep my thumbs up so you'll find one near you. Maybe Usagiyas information section will be of assistance as they have pics of blades instead of drawings: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/poetical%20terms.html

You can also find 2 examples (1 of them is the Fujishiro one) on Koto-meikan by Sesko. 1 mei also in Mino-to by Cox.

I guess you could call the ones with shorter shaft a nagamaki. Generally nagamaki will have quite long blade in relation to the shorter shaft. You'll find many debates about nagamaki vs. naginata definitions if you search. Here you can see Owarikan-ryu Sojutsu demonstration. Look at c. 2:00 mark for odachi, nagamaki and naginata

My guess is 福岡住守次 行宗作之 Fukuoka ju Moritsugu Yukimune saku kore

That was pretty excellent post Darcy. On behalf of Strebel I can say by personal experience that I was very impressed how they treated me when I visited them. I was 17, had bit ragged look, just appeared to their store with quite limited German skills. I was not the potential buyer for their high end stock. However we had very nice discussion about nihonto in general and I checked few of their lower end swords. I'll remember how nice experience that was. It will be quite easy for us Europeans to go and see that particular Juyo Shikkake in person if potentially thinking about buying a sword of that level.

Katana by Gassan Toshiyoshi 1400's, nagasa: 75,3 cm, sori: 3,8 cm, motohaba: 3,3 cm As you said you prefer extreme you might want to check this wakizashi too: http://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/14310.html

To my eye the papers say: Kanenaga, Mino, early Muromachi.

Hopefully these will help. Koto-kantei book states that it's called Kenbô-midare. It's described having roundish yakigashira and narrowing bases. So it would have rounded peaks of hamon. I can PM you few additional pics.

Finland: VAT: 24% Antique VAT: 10%

Regular people want to see the martial arts and swords are usually just a sideshow attraction. That is what I have noticed during the public events we have held in Finland. Of course as there is an event that focuses on Japanese history and martial arts people will usually take the time to listen an informative lecture about Japanese swords. However Japanese sword arts and other martial arts are the thing people want to see. You need martial arts to draw in the people, and of course it's optimal if the event is free. We had surprisingly large (at least to me) attendance in the last Martial arts event we were part of in Helsinki. Of course swords were just minor attraction as the 9 different koryu styles were the thing that drew people in. Unfortunately many went just straight for the main hall were the demonstrations took place but some took time to view our sword displays with more time and even ask questions. Most people arrived during the nihonto & martial arts lectures and timed their arrival to the actual demonstrations. Most memorable viewer to me was a c.12-year old boy who already knew many sword parts and asked the parts he didn't know from me. It just reminded me of myself at his age, and I was happy to see that there are young ones interested in swords. The unfortunate thing that I've noticed over the years being a member of various sword forums online is that many have short term interest on swords. I've seen many new collectors come and go as their interest has faded away. I've often thought what could have been done to keep them in the sword hobby, as over time people might "evolve" from replica swords onto genuine swords. I think Rich hit the nail with his comment. I think the younger generation generally has very short attention span, it's very hard to keep them interested. It's very hard to make nihonto collecting to fit that state of mind. I think the key might lie somewhere within manga & anime, as I feel they potentially lead young people into martial arts and even possibly sword collecting -> which might with time evolve into nihonto collecting. I guess a new and realistic anime focused on perhaps Sengoku period might be good for activating younger folk. I've been trying to watch the samurai-themed anime that have come out but I've found them generally quite bad apart from few good ones.