Aloof Pegasus

Mabrouk

Hi 技平上衣 ? Waza....something?

It's a cup commemerating a retirement from the armed forces. Once I served the Emperor but today all I see are the flowers of my hometown

Nagasawa Shojiro Yokosuka-shi Taura-cho 441 Yokosuka is in Kanagawa, big US Naval base.

Is the name of the village Atsumamura in Hokkaido? Family name is Mori.

Hatsumi Shihan, top Ninjutsu teacher. Includes some sword technique.

John Not to contradict what Clive just said because he may have more recent experience than me, but last year on 2 diff occasions I hand-carried swords into J. At Kansai I hit a snag with the airport police officer and had to leave it for the duration of my stay. A few weeks later the airport police brought the sword to me at the EgyptAir counter, had me sign for it's return, then I packed it into my suitcase. No harm done. No scratches, dings, hagire or any other damage. Same sword some weeks later at Narita, as before zero paperwork of any kind other than a receipt from Ed Marshall/Yakiba detailing age etc I went through with nothing untoward other than the following amusing incident. Despite having completed the customs declaration and ticking the box with the 'Do you have any firearms swords or explosives etc, still the customs officer barely glanced at the bag with the swords and insisted on inspected my other bag altho' I told him several times (in English) 'mate there's nothing in that one, the swords are in the big one... pointing at the customs form. But he waved me through anyway and you know for a moment I actually thought about it, then common sense took over (for once). I opened up to show him the wak and a tanto and a few weak smiles later I was in a back room waiting for the Narita airport police and this one made me no problems. I had a six month visa and he made a note on my departure date, told me the sword had to leave when I did, end of story. As I say that was a year ago so now things maybe different.

My first Japanese teacher didn't know if もうーっ was one word or two.

The interesting thing about practising with the left hand upper is that the left side will often turn out to be the 'truer' side (if you are right handed) maybe because it has no bad habits to unlearn.

Surely the point here is that it is unlikely any future war will see swords. Art or not they were also weapons. Swords are not like painting, tea bowls or carpets. They have a dual nature. The last time these swords went to war was in gunto and we might consider that places an obligation on us to keep them in their 'found state'. I think we have a further obligation to consider that in a couple of hundred years the 1940's will seem as distant as Edo to us. In Edo they chopped and changed things around because they still carried swords, so updating koshirae was a fashion statement, or they were tired of looking at the same old boar menuki, or whatever. But we don't need to make out swords fashionable or new looking. And also we should consider that the standard gunto mounts will 'speak' to future collectors. Instead of a swordcut on the mune of a koto blade being thought desirable because it was part of a real sword fight or battle, the same damage to a sword of whatever age in gunto will create the same sort of magic for some future collector. Most of the forum probably has heard the story about a group of historians arguing about something or other and one of them mentioned 1815 in support of his point. The retort was; '1815! That's current affairs!' It all depends on your point of view.

Hello Mark & Matt Very Nice!!!

Fascinating read! Thanks Morita san.

Don't you just hate that. :D btw anyone who needs the previous mounting particularly a very nice piece of samegawa pm me for a price.

Last one.

Dear All Here are some before and after shots of a 33 cms kanmuri otoshi shinto wakizashi in old polish which I picked up early last year. It's papered to Inshu Kanesaki 2nd gen, of Inaba province. Nothing was done to the sword, pix are included for interest.

Thank you very much for that information Morita san, I always learn something new from your posts.

Slightly clearer one.

Thanks guys for those kind words. I was told only the older Japanese itomaki artists can get it just so, apparently younger guys tend to make the itomaki slightly looser. (Next one is jabara maki on a 33 cms nagasa wakizashi which came with aikiuchi mounts. This one will also be mounted with another of Craig's beautiful tsuba.) Happy to oblige with more pics Morita san. Thank you for the possible attribution.

I suppose you've considered Tosho? Is that a Chrysanthemum mon? Is it missing a shakudo insert in the kozuka ana to protect the back of the handle? If so then someone liked it. Forgot to add I like the tsuba and the matsukawabishi mon is that nice elongated one. Looking forward to more informed opinion.

Dear All Here are some pictures of some restoration work I had done here recently. The uragawara had been gouged out of the saya and the kozuka sleeve had a nasty 3 cms split. Chipping and flaking along either edge of the kozuka seat was another probem. Kojira needed replacing. Someone on the board whose name I forget kindly recommended using Micheal Cummins an Australian who has been living here 30 yrs+. Quite soon after that post I met up with him at this year's DTI and arranged to have him fix the saya, re-wrap the tsuka and generally make & mend. The work took about a month and I think he did a good job. The green flakes are no longer available so he mixed paint to the right colour before putting a couple of new coats of urushi on. For interest I've included a pic of the sword, a Seki Jumyu wakizashi bought from Ed Marshall several years ago- someone else I would heartily recommend to any newcomer looking for a first sword as I was then. He treated me extremely fairly, gave a good price and I am enjoying the sword to this day.

Hello Peter Is the fukurin a later addition?

Hello Joseph I like the boshi and the hamon. It seems a very straight blade. What age are you giving it?

Long as it `flies` away.

Hello Clive I'll duck into the museum next day or so and see what swords are listed in the exhibits. Have a feeling there's a flyer about it but could be wrong. Always glad of the excuse to put down another Y150's worth of incense.

Morita san Thank you so much for that great, great translation! What a nice thing to have written on the scroll. I'm going to try to print a copy of your work and paste it inside the scroll's box. Happy 'Golden Week'