Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini

This right and obligation of wearing a daisho is *exactly* an Edo invention (as Gohatto), to give someting to be proud of to all those useless "warrirors". Again, a political strumentalization of the weapon never needed before as the restrictions of the use of guns. Dixit. And now let's go to bar

This would rule out Wakizashi and Tanto, which possession was allowed to non-warriors and still remains NihonTo. Would we guess that this permission has merely been extended to Daito as well in modern times ? And how much an Edo Samurai can still be considered a warrior ? A couple hundred years of no-wars history tells us that Samurai were mere "duelers" at best. "If your only skill is to kill but is left noone to kill, is really to kill a useful skill" ?

Ach, I was under the impression that copying ancient masterpieces was something already seen in other periods when "real NihonTo" ruled... Good point, but what about quality ? Not all Shinsakuto are the same nor older Nihonto are. An Ono Yoshimitsu (or others) overwelm *a lot* of ancient blades. I concur that at the same price the factor "age" is a plus, but only after quality considerations. After 1650 very, very few swords achieved any historical value and Samurai were well into their "sunset boulevard". Even before I can't see how a Kazuuchimono used by a Jisamurai can beat with its history a well done Shinsakuto. Better to say that you can get a better old sword for the same amount of money a Shinsakuto would cost you. This can effectively happen, but IMHO all boils down to quality here too. But they're surely healty and possibly safer then old ones which you can't say how much abused they were. Quality standards today are quite strict and IMHO matches the ones used for good blades in the past (just the smith doesn't lose his head in case of catastrophic failure. ) Not sure about the real difference in practicality and usability. Of course westerner are taller then Japanese but the average pre-Meiji Samurai (which the "real NihonTo" were made for) was much smaller than a present day sarariman. Try to put on an early Edo Katchu to make a comparison. This changes the ratio sword weight and lenght versus man's tall you're considering making them closer to present-day situation. BTW any modern tosho worth his salt will make a sword in any length/shape/weight you'll ask for. If, in the age of Desert eagle and Glock, somebody needs a sword to play "Resident Evil", better to contact "O-mimi" Clark for an L6 superkatana rather than bother a good Tosho. Had the IJA spent the amount of money it spent in studing and producing swords in research and production of automatic rifles and machine guns instead, it would have been much better for the average WWII soldier (even if absolutely of no consequence for the final outcome of the war). My comments too are for the sake of the topic and not meant to be provocative.

The greater increase of value would be in the case of a blade made by an american (chinese?) smith refurbished to resemble a Nihonto. Then the case of a surplus unsigned blade from a production of two, having the customer choosed the other one and left "the second choice" as an off-the-shelf item (but I wonder if the increase in value from a Shinsakuto to an unsigned Shinshinto would deserve the risk). Last the frightening case of a stolen blade. As you can't change blade's details let's try to change the smith and Jidai. All hypotesys made to show hypotetical cases that might occur in similar conditions and that definitively aren't meant to put down the blade or as accusation to anybody's action in the case of the blade of this topic.

Hi Stephen. I know both you and Louis weren't suggesting anything bad about the smiths, but being a couple of them my friends it would be good to point out that if any tricky business has been made with this blade likely it has been made without participation nor knowledge by the smith possible maker of the blade. And yes, it looks like Ted suggest. Original modern Mei removed and poor patination. I hope to be wrong for everybody's sake.

Definitively can't answer without books... Just for the sake of participation I dare to differ from Guido, Eric, Ted and Moriyama San, so my bet is only A is Shoshin.

Piers, I bet you already have read it. Otherwise I'm very poor at advertising myself. :lol:

mmmm...Not my feeling, quite the contrary. Same width and depth everywhere but the head of the Naga, inckuding the ends and beginnings of the "writing". Right (even if we've not seen a whole blade pic yet to determine how exact is its position) however... I'm away from both my books and PC so no checking of material allowed, but this could be another point in favour of its spurious nature. Guido pointed out it is resembling a nagabonji, noone so far is able to find the deity it's intended to be displaied, execution seems sloppy. It can be rised the exception somebody used a (pseudo?) nagabonji to hide more then one blister, linking them with a deisgn that can't be linked to any Deity. Just playing devil's advocate and with all respect to the rest of the blade (that I can't judge) and to the owner which I've nothing against. Pure speculations by an armchair student worth the cyberpaper they're written on.

China is the homeland of differential hardening, later introduced in Japan. This might be of some interest to you : http://www.webalice.it/tsubame1/ (right click and download if it doesn't open directly).

The head of the snake probably was the Kizu needed to be covered. Depth of the rest is a consequence (IMHO).

I believe observation of Ume flowering is a very ancient practice and possibly pre-dates Sakura Hanami : http://www.growingwithplants.com/2008/0 ... tival.html This year mines offered an exceptional view with their long lasting blossom under late light snow we experienced here in Northern Italy.

What about your friend Mr. G ? (last lines) http://www.una.edu/faculty/takeuchi/DrT ... Letter.htm Topic on SFI already addressed. You are right.

Should be around 164 bucks. Just a reminder if he's lurking...

Damn Paul, this surprised me too. Is there any chance that in your trip to Japan you can have a signature by the author to be added to yours on a copy ? I would pay an extra for such a signed copy. I tried to send you this in a private way thru your website "contact" service but I get an error message. I'm currently in Venice and have not your e-mail on this laptop. Meet you soon.

Morita-San, the link on Kodansha page re-direct me to Amazon for a pre-order only. Where have you purchased your copy, if I may respectfully ask ?

Ford, guess somebody has to ask this as it can be a concern for more than a few : would this blog mean you'll have a diminished presence on NMB Tosogu sub-forum ?

t.ndeed. Hence the emoticons : added at the end of the post. However somebody once had a long discussion with me on SFI about this very matter...

I second this. James, even the experts that devoted a lot of time and studies on the effectiveness subject, like Fukunaga Suiken, couldn't give a short answer. The action of Nie as "pillars" helping dividing the target during the cutting motion, how the Utsuri or other activities help the blade to slip into the target or how the distance of the inner core from the cutting edge can affect the performance/resistance. IMHO, you've to watch at the sword as a "system", several technical achievements that acts together accordingly with the "recipe" you use mixing them. Different Jidai, different targets, different recipes. Ha is just one ingredient of the recipe for a good sword. Only thing you can be sure about is : the better the chef the better the cake.

Toby, these are cheap and interesting (IMHO) : http://www.amazon.com/Little-Need-Divin ... 718&sr=8-1 (provides an interesting point of view about the reasons the two mongol invasions went so wrong) http://www.amazon.com/First-Samurai-Leg ... 992&sr=8-1 (easy to read yet historically accurate description of the Taira Masakado' saga and how it has been and still IS perceived in Japan). I'm not aware of any english translation of Fosco Maraini's "L' Agape Celeste" but if you can read italian or put your hands on an english version it is likely the best not-Nihongo book (or even THE best tout-curt) about Emperor's Ceremonial Entronement, something Japanese are quite jelous about, but definitively fashinating and needed to understand their culture. If you want to go even more indeep in Japanese History discussions you should register here : http://forums.samurai-archives.com/ Best.

Deserves to become a sticky. (IMHO)

Piers, I still have a debt with you. Remember to give me a call whn you're in Italy.

The Stibbert is managed by the Florence's City Administration that have to take care of monuments and art pieces beyond any calculation. So funds for this insitution are extremely limited apart the income realized thru visits. A massive flow of tourists could help a lot, but definitively the problem is to force the administration to have a better consideration of such a resource. A very hard task considering what is left to oblivion almost everywhere in Italy. At least, the Stibbert is trying to increase the readiness and knowledge of its curators, to discern what is really worth of preservation and which level of deterioration it's approaching. Steps in this direction regarding Katchu will hopefully be taken soon thanks to Joo Anseew after a talk we had with Mr. Civita. Everybody in the community can give his small contribution.

Indeed, that's why I make shameless advertising every time I can, until somebody will stop me.

For Tsuba and fittings is much better the Chissone in Genoa. South Afria's wines welcomed as well. :lol:

Of course. With some bottles of your fine wine presented to Civita I bet it'll be for free... But we need to synchronize th event with John.