Bugyotsuji

George and Mark, about the edges I will have to withdraw the comment. My coins are stapled into little cardboard frames; I was planning to open them up and take shots to illustrate the edge differences. "See the edges", I had been told when they were given to me, and a quick glance showed rough file marks. From what I can see now on closer inspection, however, the edges seem all different, not at all what was in my memory cells. The two 'fake' Ni-shu Gin are quite different from each other in design and execution. Nothing to go on there either. The only things I can say about the 'fake' rectangular coins is that they are impossible to bend in the fingers, and the Ichi-bu Gin is much yellower than genuine silver Ichibus. Also, on any Ichibu, one of the sakura flowers will normally be upside down, telling you by its position the mint and date. This feature seems to be missing on the fake. Loved the coin-hiding koshirae, Carlos. The Tempo-looking 'Chinese' Nozarashi coin you posted Mark, says Namu-Amida-Butsu in a mixture of hiragana and Kanji... nice design, but I wonder what its real purpose was? http://www.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&cl ... 24&bih=579

Eric, I didn't measure it, but somewhere between three and four meters I should imagine. Eleven or twelve feet...(?) The present owner mentioned he was thinking of cutting it down, while preserving the essential functions. I begged him not to as I have the perfect corridor for displaying it as is. He says he will let me have it when I come back in the early spring. Hoping it's still uncut.

Hmmm... nice find, Carlo. Perhaps there are so few of them available to photograph, and that one is relatively clear, so people used the same pic... without too much worry about copyright?

LOL useful in Afghanistan? :lol:

Forgive the poor quality of these. They were taken very much as an afterthought just as I was leaving...

Thank you Malcolm, I enjoyed reading that and seeing one in action. Here is a photo of a page in a Japanese armour encyclopedia. The spear looks very like this one, with brass pins to lock the tube shut, which become part of the spread tsuba when it is open and in use.

Mark, I'll put up a couple of shots later. The blade looked like nothing special so I didn't take any close shots of it. Watch this space...

Spent the morning playing with a very clean example of a 管槍　早槍　Kudayari. Nice long shaft. Ended up probably buying it. (Blade rusty though. Tempted to have it polished...)

Mariusz, what a wonderful Yoshitoshi you have there. It triggers off all sorts of thoughts and associations. Fascinating

At risk of taking this thread even further off-subject, I expect that yours are probably genuine Ron. When I was given the above Bu coins, I was assured that they were rare. The bloke might even have had them run up in China. I carried them around for a while. One day at an antiques fair one of the dealers pointed out a coin 'expert' in the crowd. I handed him the above coins and he looked astonished as he examined them. "Has it really come to this?" he asked. So I do not think we need to worry unduly. Just check the edges.

I like your frame and the display Ron. Apologies. Cannot find the 'old' Chinese/Japanese brass circular coins which might have been interesting in this thread. Instead I offer these, all fakes, including the Ichi-Bu Gin, the two Isshu-Gin, the Bu-Kin and Ni-Shu-Kin.

Incidentally I have a collection of fake coins that I have picked up over the years. When I can get the camera and some time organized I'll post them up, in the name of education of course! :lol:

Nobody, I like the way you operate, with that ace up your sleeve.

Do you mean the Mei (of mine) reads... ?

信光作　Nobumitsu saku. PS Look at this:　関 Seki 佐光　Sako Nobumitsu http://www.bidders.co.jp/item/137309973

Kanto air raid practice commemorative medal! Very interesting. Personally I like WWII stuff from all sides in the conflict.

Carlo, this thing was so long that if a less-than-giant person pushed it through his obi, it would have surely dragged along the ground. :?

Only just read this thread and it reminded me of a fairly long bokuto/bokken at a friend's house. Instead of a Tsuba, it has an iron kagi to catch the opponent's weapon and presumably protect the right hand. No doubt that it is old. I was tempted to ask for it as I suspect he would have given it to me, but there are limits to cheekiness, so I limited the request to taking pics of it.

Agreed about Lorenzo, or as he is now officially called. Here is the thread, but it's quite old and maybe out of date/Date? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2524&hilit=Daimyo+katana+kaji+Date+Munetada

Ask Lorenzo about his box first... :lol: (Actually, yes, I have posted some of the contents on this site in the past and even ran a thread on it, a Shinshinto tanto made personally by the seventh Lord Date Munetada of the illegitimate Date Daimyo line in Uwajima, Iyo.)

There is praise that I value. Thank you. Congratulations on the Kinko name, by the way! Very nice avatar!

Here is a box that I refurbished for insertion of a Tanto, Shirasaya and Koshirae, side by side. The paperwork, history etc., goes inside underneath the bundle. Nothing great to look at, but this box has some decent age, is made with wooden pins and has small copper ring handles on the sides. The top was covered in brush writing, but with a little elbow grease and a magic wand, that has now disappeared.

Eric, you can whittle down the ends of toothpicks, or kushi-katsu (shishkebab?) sticks, made from bamboo. You can buy various sizes here in the Hyaku-en Y100 shops. If the old pin has dropped out, knock in a slightly fatter one, or change the shape from round to square cross-section or vice versa. Dip it in wood glue before tapping home. File off and rub around to allow the wood colour to blend. Often the pins have popped because the wood has dried and warped, so simple replacement may not be enough. Find the spacing of the pins and add extras in between in a way that doesn't stand out. The gun carriage is at a friend's place. Not quite sure how he got it, but I'll ask him.... Gotta rush now! Some years ago I visited that hillock with the gun emplacement and the view across the choke point in the estuary.

Well, let me the first to say that I know little about either swords or photography, but those shots are stunning.

Carlo, very good! It is a gun carriage from the hill overlooking the estuary to our city. As the Western powers were messing around with China the Japanese ordered the provinces to rearm and prepare against attack. If you remember Britain had just formally signed an end to the Opium Wars with China at the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The name on the box was I believe.