Mark S.

Ooooohhhhhh….

Suriage and then damaged (hagire) afterward? Not quite sure what you are asking? Ray answered at same time

It would have to be signed: “Bizen ju Kiyomitsu” Without digging through my books and looking through all Kiyomitsu, I am not sure if any Kiyomitsu signed this way. Usually there is a Kuni or Koku and Osafune included in one form or another, but I don’t remember ever seeing just “Bizen ju”. If I squint and stare real hard, I ‘think’ I can see the following strokes (in red) of “mitsu”. Unless I could find a mei example that was just “Bizen ju Kiyomitsu” I would assume gimei.

According to Sesko, there were a few:

Usually NBTHK will only give what they are comfortable with. If they only thought Mishina, they would have stated only that. In this case, they are probably stating “one of the Kanemichi smiths” but no hint as to which one. If they wanted to be more specific, they would have stated the generation or given a time period. With mumei blades, this is usually pretty good. What can be a little more frustrating is when there is a mei but they don’t help with the date or generation.

I use these plastic stands I get inexpensively from a site called ‘WISH’. Items are direct from China in most cases. They come in different sizes, but I find the 5cm tall ones work best for almost all tsuba. No problem with scratching on iron tsuba, but if there is a concern I suppose the edges could be sanded down a bit or a small piece of cloth/silk could be used to cushion tsuba. They only cost about 50 cents a piece depending on quantity purchased. Other nice features are: they are stackable (don’t take up much room), because they are clear they don’t take away from or block viewing the tsuba, and if they get broken or lost it’s not a huge financial loss.

Oh I have some ideas… but as discretion is the better part of valor, I will keep them to myself as this is your home and I respect the fact you have a hard enough time herding us cats…

I’m sorry Brian… delete if you wish. HYPOTHETICALLY, if a newer member of the nihonto world were to purchase that naginata and was happy with it, wanted to join this NMB community and share that blade and their ‘newbie’ excitement, but just so happened to read this thread first, my guess is they would be reluctant to share that purchase, learn more, and really want to take part in all this. They could clearly see the reception waiting for them WITHOUT knowing the players involved. Long time members know what they are dealing with. I’ll be honest… it is a reason I don’t post too many of my blades just for fun anymore. I truly hope no one else is made to feel this way… it’s just me. I have shared blades by PM if I think it will help a person asking a question on the general forums… but opening it up to the albatross’s of the world… hell no. Done that a couple times and not really interested anymore. Lots of nice people here, but something that should be enjoyable has turned into an ordeal akin to flopping your privates out on a table and letting everyone whack at it with a stick for a while. Fun… no? Why does this all bother me? I was that same newbie at my first Sword Show MANY years ago (I won’t say which one or the parties involved by name out of respect). Little knowledge, little money, lots of enthusiasm, knew no one, VERY nervous I was at my first ‘real’ show. Brought in a family owned short mumei katana in WW2 gunto mounts that was owned by a work friend of mine hoping I could learn a little and pass that info on to him. Did I think it was a treasure… no, I knew just enough to know that. First person I met was an albatross. He saw me carrying it and came over to me. Asked what I had and asked if he could see it. He drew the blade and asked me if it was signed. When I said no, he frowned, put it back in scabbard and mumbled something to the effect of “it’s worthless”. Without another word, turned and walked away from me. My welcome to the nihonto world. Not sure if the next person I met saw this or was just coincidence. At the next table was a dealer who smiled and asked me what I had. Took it all apart, answered all my questions, gave me his thoughts INCLUDING the evaluation it wasn’t a national treasure, but he also shared (contrary to popular belief) some things I could learn from it. Took the time to show me a couple of his blades and explained the differences and things to look for. He also pointed to a couple other people (names you would know) and said I should go talk to them. Maybe he knew they would take pity on me. I purchased a blade from this gentleman years later. The first albatross?… to this day I will never so much as look at an item on his table and avoid him like the plague. I’m sure if he knew it, he would still be quite proud of himself. Albatross’s are like that. Now my place in the nihonto world is small and unremarkable, so maybe I’m wrong and should consider beer can collecting. But I’m still here for whatever it is worth (to me). The albatross almost killed that. He was more interested in his albatross status than he was in a potential new person. How many do we lose? What do we want here?

He feeds and lives on it.

His is the only way… Just another albatross post. Fly in… $h!t all over everything… fly off.

In honor of the upcoming cicada invasion (labeled “cicadageddon” because both the 17 and 13 year broods are hatching at same time) in the Midwest, the fact that I am a certified arborist, and also the City Forester for a municipality in the Chicagoland area, I purchased the attached tsuba at the recent Chicago Sword Show and menuki off EBay. Collections are created for all different reasons…

I would really like a book that has a bunch of examples translations of kanteisho papers from the different organizations. Not so much translations of the smiths, but examples of less common kanji used, especially on the NTHK/NTHK-NPO papers (back of papers) that detail the different aspects of the blade. Always seems the handwriting doesn’t match the standard kanji, and there are always a few kanji that totally throw me. And then, of course, there are those easy ones that I should know, but no matter how much I search, or study, or try my hardest, I just miss and feel the fool when I ask the experts for help.

Kaga/Kashu Darani Katsukuni school is also a possibility for additional study although nakago-jiri may exclude it.

Must… resist… temptation…

I’ll follow up with what Michael just asked… What does your Sensei recommend?

Amazing collection. Just don’t see too many of these. Nice to compare side by side.

All names mentioned in the past: John Tirado Brian Tschernega Mike Virgadamo

It is at this point that someone usually will recommend “It is time to study more BEFORE you make any more purchases”, so I guess that will be me. I hope you will accept my post as ‘educational’ versus someone just beating you up. Many of us have made some mistakes while collecting and usually it is very early on when our eagerness is high, but our education and experience is low. I think you are pretty lucky the dealer is willing to work with you on getting a different blade. I know you feel you overpaid (now that the guys at NMB have helped you understand the value a bit) but really, you didn’t. The dealer advertised a blade and gave you a price, it seems his advertisement was fairly accurate and he did not misrepresent the blade although maybe he was not overly descriptive either, you agreed to pay that price, and it wasn’t until AFTER the purchase you did some research and found out you were not sure you did the right thing. I think he is pretty understanding to let you change your mind after the fact. Can you imagine if we were talking about buying a car? You go to the car dealership and negotiate a price. You sign the paperwork and buy it and drive it off the lot. At this point you decide to take it to a bunch of other dealerships and they tell you that you paid too much. I’m not so sure the original dealership is going to worry too much about what other dealerships are going to say after the fact. This is my long-winded way of saying that you should probably spend some time studying for a while so you get an idea of what you are purchasing, what the relative value of certain blades are, and know really what you are looking at, what you are looking for, and why you want it. The learning curve on nihonto is pretty wide, not easy, can include some expensive mistakes, and takes time and dedication. Even your request to let everyone here look at the spreadsheet and pick a blade for you is problematic. I’ll bet if there are 10 decent blades on the list, you would get 10 different answers because everyone would be picking what THEY like for you versus you choosing a blade you like and one that fits into your collection. On top of that, everyone would be giving you advice on the purchase of blades sight unseen which is a VERY big minefield. To get back to the car analogy… imagine walking onto the dealer lot of 300 cars with a group of 50 people and saying “You pick out a car for me”, or worse, sending the 50 people an on-line listing of the 300 cars and saying “Please pick one”. Really hope you stay with us for the long haul. Study a lot. Maybe try to find someone in your area to help with blades in hand. Search the various dealer websites here at NMB and others on-line. Travel and go to a few sword shows so you can get an idea of the relative value of what you are looking at, and for. Most important, ask FIRST before making a purchase. The next dealer may not be so understanding or accept the NMB opinion of the worth of the blade he is selling.

As far as I know, the paper is issued by and affiliated with a sword shop in Japan. Far be it from me to question the attribution, the paper, or Mr Tsujimoto, but just want you to know this paper isn’t from one of the more commonly encountered sword organizations (NBTHK, NTHK, NTHK-NPO).

All, Just a few pictures of the show (pics were taken on Sunday so a few people had to pack up for long travel - almost all weekend, all tables were FULL of ‘goodies’). Another great event hosted by Mark. Lots to look at and a couple of very good presentations on blades and fittings. Can’t tell you how lucky I consider myself to be given the chance to handle and study blades that I would not have access to in any other setting. It was great to see some long-time acquaintances and meet a few new people as well. All in all a great show.

Was great getting the chance to shake your hand and say “hi” in person. And just remember… your wife WANTS you to be happy and buy nihonto. Well, that’s what I tell myself anyway! We will cover for you.

Looking forward to a great show!

Did not see Ray’s response in translation section before I answered.

I believe it translates to: Soshu Saburo Masamune

“Oh… that one? I’ve had that for YEARS!”