Hi guys,
The name is Jean Pierre, but everyone calls me JP.
I've been in love with Japan and all things Japanese for more than two decades now. Yet I'm 49 and have never set foot in Japan. My love for swords came in a weird way. In my late teens, I used to play RPGs and discovered a game about Samurai. I was hooked and my love for them has never dwindled ever since.
Now, I'm a lowly teacher with a very average income so sword collecting is more a dream than a reality. I own a Showato (maybe from a bit earlier than 1937 or one that escaped branding), a Genroku Shinto katana (from a Hizen Meikan-More smith that I suspect was actually from Bungo) and a mumei Muromachi Soshu den (I think!) Katana is on the way.
I've read a lot of books on the subject and consider myself a novice plus when it concerns theory, because my biggest issue is practice. You don't encounter Japanese swords everyday in France, much less in the small forsken village where I live. So, to sum up, my theory is rather solid but my practice is near non existent. I actually love Nobuo Nakahara's unconventional viewpoints and share a lot of his ideas
For the moment, my budget limits me to below average swords but my goal, if I live long enough, is to get at least one signed Koto sword and one signed Shinto kambun sword.
There, I get you have the rundown on who I am and hope to find a home there even if clearly, I don't have that much to contribute since there are so much more knowledgeable people around here.
JP
