Curran

Petersan or Rich T can correct me on this, since I know myself to be a bit imprecise with terms. Mito does not mean Mito Shoami. There are many many outstanding artisans in the Mito school and many branches that are their own subschool of very distinct work. I have one signed piece that I would stack up next to any Yoshioka, Ishiguro, or even later mainline Goto work in terms of quality of shakudo and workmanship. Mito Shoami term is used a bit more negative zone in the Venn Diagram of Mito, and can often be dismissed as such due to cheap gold/silver gild over copper insert, usually in a very mediocre iron plate. It is like saying Kyoto work vs Kyo Kanegushi (thought I confess I really like some of the Kyo kanegushi stuff). Your tsuba feels more on the Mito side of the pool, though shinsa brains might still chalk it up to Aizu Shoami. Sometimes they can be knee jerk reflex based on design, and these things can't tell us the true answer. __________________________________________________ We can't know for sure. I recently saw a signed an papered Omori f/k that I would never have guessed was Omori work were it not for the signature. I would have sworn it was Goto or Kaga Goto.

Genuine. Mito Shoami work. Squarely 1800s work. Mito Shoami has some decent pieces, but school really debased its reputation with mass production work in later years.

Looks so much more fun than dayjob. Cathartic.

Please show us the tsuba, unmounted, if you have the time.

Awesome undertaking. I looked at some of your smelting process photos recently (FIB or NMB ?) and hope that some day I will follow in the same footsteps.

It was at Tokugawa Art. It sold. Theme is said to be sukashi face of a cheery chubby cheeked girl. Mark, I believe one of the artisans on FollowingtheIronBrush made a nice gendai copy of it. I don't recall who, but I have seen a gendai copy. I liked this tsuba and considered making a trade+cash offer for it, but it sold before I ever did.

Thank you in return. We lost Sachiko Prough recently, and I am still gobsmacked by her sudden passing. To many passing and too few entering.

Lorenzo, Yes, I told him this already via PM. His is either a late Edo copy. Let us say "Kodai Higo", or it is a fake. It has none of the feel of the originals, which a very advanced collector was kind enough to loan me a half dozen of these Kanshiro softmetal ones for a while. I prefer to think it is Kodai Higo, but patina looks jacked up. Correct repair of a kodai Higo would be expensive and perhaps foolish in this case. but it doesn't really go with the koshirae this guy has for it. It looks sort of a frankenstein. Probably a money pit to repair a koshirae that is already not much to look at. If he wants a koshirae for the nice sword it has, he probably should learn the process of having a decent one built.

John, Very well said. I begrudged myself learning Goto for many reasons and came to it late in studies. Even now with many of the Goto books and a few years, I have barely memorized an outline and a few kantei points. On more than one occasion I have asked John to help me understand a particular side school signature. The one area where I have bit the head off the chocolate Easter Bunny is with Kaga Goto. While there is much Kaga kinko, the Kaga goto is usually rather limited and only a few pages even in the Kaga Kinko Taikan. ~~ The quickest takeaway regarding Kaga Goto ____ and this is my opinion more than anything written up in the books ___ is that it is usually meticulous and designed to be viewed from the perspective of a person at least a few feet away than the perspective of a person up close. Ie. It is designed more with proportions and angles to be viewed by an audience vs by an owner that purchases and wears the items. Zoom into the item and you will find no fault with the workmanship. Actual Kaga Goto tsuba of quality seem very rare. Not crazy about the one on Choshuya, as I thought that one more in Kyo Kinko camp. Usually you only get to see the Mitokoromono Kaga sets, and even those seem rare if not broken up.

The Kurgan. ah yes. Where have all the good villains gone?

Point taken on the response to my surgeon comment. Best analogy I could make, as I am not sure I would have bet on the "before" patient. By profession, I don't lose bets very often. Chris Bowen's point about the incandescent lightbulb viewed down length of the blade is a good physics test I like using, given to some variability. While I am fairly certain David has polished at least one Juyo blade, the comment that blades are Juyo.... not polishes.... should be carefully considered. Short version is he didn't muck it up, yet the very very nice sword got Juyo. Not the polish. It says something, but it is not conclusive. As Guido said, "dear Lord, not this thread again" or "Great Buddha, not this thread again", yet here I am contributing to it despite trying to resist. Dave, hope to meet you at the club next weekend. This has been an interesting restoration, though the polisher debate is However, there are a few flecks of gold buried in it.

These tend to be classified as Aizu Shoami. Or at least that is how they tend to paper. With the mimi and other variations, I certainly understand David's call. It does display more of a Mito feel. Attached in a word doc should be an Aizu Shoami Yanone tsubaimage of one I think I sold via Christies London in 2008. AIZU SHOAMI Yanone Tsuba.doc

John and Jean are already helping, so you are in good hands and I'd be distant third chair on this one. That CD from RogerShaw is also worth its weight in gold. (brilliant rec Jean) I only minimal interest in Hizen swords, but his book is too good. No matter how my library space may shrink, it will snow in the Florida Keys before I sell that one. <>

Dave, I am much more of a fittings collector who has owned a few good nihonto over the years. There will be club members there that can give you much better advice than me. Izuka-san (Kunio) will probably be your first stop in the room. Club info: http://www.ny-tokenkai.org/www.ny-token ... tings.html Usually 12 to whenever. January is usually the big meeting where we all go out to a big lunch-dinner. Sadly, John Prough's wife has suddenly passed away Jan 5th. He is General Secretary and long time co-leader of the group. His wife was an internationally respected and much beloved Japanese naginata sensei. One of the world's best and a woman who put the Art in martial artist. We might be a large and gloomy bunch on Jan 22nd. That said, you should come. They may or may not charge you a $5 visitor fee, but you will get a bucketload of information and someone may take a rubbing of your nakago to do further research. That is bittersweet, as it was Sachiko Prough who gave us a lecture on how to do oshigata only 2 months ago. PM me if you need any more info.

Dave, Please remember protocol to add your first name to posts. It may help some of us forgetful types if you also add at least initial of last name to posts. There are many "Dave" in my family, including both first and second husband of my aunt. Stories can get confusing. I too confess surprise at how well the polish turned out. Like being a surgeon, it is a tough call to make. Your patient turned out very well. I did not know you were in New York City. Has no one directed you to the New York Metro Sword Club? The next meeting is Jan 22nd at the Times Square location. I don't like the idea of a naked freshly polished blade wandering around the city... asking for trouble or damage. Yet club members will give you good insight into it. To protect the blade surface for short periods of travel, you can cover it lengthwise in Syran Wrap or Cling Wrap. Be sure to clean afterwards. If you are remotely near FiDi, then PM me and we can consider meeting up Sunday or Monday. We are staying a few blocks north of Wall Street. Most of my books focus on fittings and koto Bizen, but I do have some other texts here. Curran

Pleasant tsuba. later Edo revival piece without a kozuka or kogai ana, but uses several sukashi designs together well. Also, the habaki is beaten up but was once something personal. I cannot comment on the blade, but some of the fittings point towards a personal regard for the sword as more than just a tool.

Piers, Thank you. My tastes have gotten simpler with age, though I sometimes go 180 and love something Tour de Force over the top. The shape and line of this kake appeals to me. A family friend is a professional woodworker and made me 2 exceptional long tsuba kake out of hollywood. Your sword kake might find itself recreated in smaller form and hollywood for a favorite toppei koshirae and its original tanto. Good inspiration.

Definitely submit the Daruma. The iron rendering of yours reminds me of a set of papered iron Daruma menuki I had and were purchased away years ago. Had a great call to a small but desirable school. You might get a more interesting/educational call on the Daruma tsuba than the other. Or you might have lacklustre results and they go "Shoami". It is a more interesting gamble than the other one. The other one we can probably figure out in person, unless you really want papers on it. I also tend to think the NTHK is very conservative on their dating of items at shinsa outside Japan, though the fittings team has impressed me a bit at the last NY/NJ shinsa. Depending on when your shinsa slot is.... ask the opinion of some of the people in the main show room before you must surrender a tsuba at the shinsa front desk.

Grey, Low on printer paper, but I'd love a copy of that list. It would help buckets if I ever dust off my brain and try to learn my Shinto and Shinshinto schools better.

Oh, you probably won't stump him with this- but it will be interesting if he can use it well. The book did visually convey some very effective fluid uses of the weapon that I think would certainly take a fair bit of practice. Stick training: highly respected thanks to one teacher, but I never progressed very far. Some training resonates, and some doesn't.

Here is the little book someone gave me long ago: http://www.amazon.com/Spike-Chain-Japan ... 0804805407 Actually an excellent read. Small but informative. Some very good photo illustrations. I probably sold or gave away my copy since it was almost purely martial, but I can highly recommend this little bugger.

Oh, awesome. Haven't seen those in a while. Used by sentry to subdue and disarm samurai in non deadly fashion. I had an excellent book on the history and use of these, including the head (Tokugawa ?) guardsman that developed many of the techniques. Usually the weights are a little smaller and able to be used sort of as brass knuckles or in a fashion where you can poke, pop, or coerce a drunk samurai that he doesn't want to fight anymore and doesn't need to go through that gate at that time of night...

Lorenzo, I don't think (Italian) olive wood photographs properly. It is a beautiful wood and takes on some depth of personality in time. I have a picture frame we made of olive wood from where I was working in Italy almost 20 years ago. We chose particularly good pieces for the construction. It has aged incredibly well. I also remember an architect's house outside of Siena about 25 minutes or so. He'd used in in a variety of ways in the restoration of his home. It left a strong memory. In contrast, olive wood pieces brought back from southern Spain 10 years ago have not aged nearly as well. _______________________________________________________ Piers, The very first photo you listed with the plain dark wood kake- where did that image come from? Know what sort of wood that is? I'd like to see more photos of it as an aide for a small modern kake design.

Stong belief: Late muromachi or even early Momoyama Mino blade. Nice looking polish. From kissaki to the habaki I am sure the nie look as if they are being blown by a wind over the hills of the hamon into the drifts behind.

Blade only kake: https://plus.google.com/photos/10292032 ... banner=pwa There is one in Ford's photo folders above. Third row in the katanakake section. Guido: I have been told that the different Tokugawa lines had slight variations in their Tokugawa mon. Is this true? Source was a respected individual, but it may be more Nihonto modern urban legend than fact.