ironchef.

Hey Curran, yep, it's Ricky. Yes, the club still meets in Time Square at AKF Engineering. Actually spoke to Chuck yesterday and he's getting ready to head out to San Fran for the big show. I have Kunio's contact info if anyone needs it.

There is also a Japanese gentleman located in NYC that has excellent knowledge and reference materials. He deals more with these "finds" and I personally think he is better equipped to assess a sword of this condition. He is in lower Manhattan.

Hey Mike, I was at the last NYC Metro Sword Club meeting and it was mentioned that the NTHK papers from the September 06 Shinsa should arrive sometime around late February or early March 07. Ricky

According to my sensei, he has two theories on the Korean origin of KuniYuki / Kuniyoshi. Both ideas concur that the Rai group are of Korean ancestry. The first is that ancestors or possibly Kuniyoshi himself came to Japan and founded the Rai school. They only started using the "Rai" designation after the decline of the Awataguchi school because the Rai group managed to produce swords cheaper and faster. In theory, the Awataguchi group produced swords with nearly little or no shingane, hence the high quality and also high cost. The Rai School made blades with thin kawagane wrapped around shingane. This was cheaper and faster to make, hence their proliferation. The second guess is that these Korean ancestors came over to Japan a century or more before the Heian period. They settled in Yamato and later sent a representative at the beginning of the Kamakura period to Yamashiro. Once that smiths became established in the mid-Kamakura, the Rai school solidified itself. I've read that Kuniyuki was good friends, possibly a literal next door neighbor of Ayanokoji Suketoshi, hence the similarities in their workmenship. My sensei has gone further in saying there was a possibility they made have traded works when one was busier than the other and vice versa and signed their own mei's to the other's work accordingly. Please take with a healthy grain of salt. These were just ideas postulated in discussion between myself and my sensei. This is an excellent thread though that started some good discussion. Ricky

Moses is a good guy to deal with. Not only does he run his own kendo dojo, but he polishes swords and he is also the vice president of the NYC Metro Sword Club. I agree with Eric, Jean picked up a great looking Tsunahiro blade from Moses. I saw that blade in person before he sold it. Wish I had the money at the time, hehehe. Ricky

Mike, being that you are located in NYC, I have some contacts you can get in touch with to get an evaluation or opinion on your blade. Drop me an email if you like. Ricky chef_iron@hotmail.com

Excellent sellers mostly in gendaito and Showa era swords. A friend bought a Yasukuni blade from them and was very happy with the transaction.

Fujishiro's books are titled Nihon Toko Jiten. One volume for Koto and one for Shinto. Average prices are from $250 and up for the set.

The Zuikan books material rivals that of the Fujishiro's. I've seen both Fujishiro's and Zuikan's used during shinsas. The only problem with the Zuikan is there isn't an English translation. Both are great references. The Zuikan's are more expensive as well Ricky

David, The books that Milt are referring to are called the Nihonto Zuikan. They come is two HUGE volumes, one Koto, one Shinto. Excellent source of verified oshigata. The draw backs are they are out of print and they are in Japanese only. Koshoyama Books in Japan has a set for like $1260 not including the shipping. If I had the loot, I would spring for them without hesitation. Contact them here: yamamoto@koshoyama.com or http://www.koshoyama.com Ricky

Eric, We should get together sometime. I'd like to see what you have in your collection. :D Ricky

Thanks for the link!

Does anyone have a collection of digital images of dragon with ken horimono? Please email me with pics or oshigata if you have any to share. Much appreciated. Ricky chef_iron@hotmail.com

I recall looking at this blade during Shinsa. I think what had caught my eye as well was the attribution. Never heard of the Sukeharu name. Nice looking wakazashi! Congrats on the results! Ricky

I believe the Japanese courts ruled Yoshikawa's group to be the legitimate NTHK during the whole dispute.

My blade is out of polish with a small bit of the kissaki chipped off and I got 75 points

Eric, The shinsa pass/fail ratio info might be available come our next club meeting at the end of this month. I'll try to contact John Prough tonight and see if that information is available yet. As far as how many 70 pointers or 73 pointers there were, I'm not sure if that specific data is kept track of. Ricky

I personally find it very difficult to take pics of blades and get it to a quality like you see on some online dealer sites or auction catalogues like Christies and Sotheby's. I do agree that a light box would probably be necessary for the at home collector who want to take their own pics. I think the difficulties play into why the NTHK does oshigata's for their Shinsa. It's quick and less equipment to lug around.

D, I think the arsenal stamped blades submitted were an oversight. The intake staff was swamped with reservations and they wanted to be accomodating to walk-in's and if I recall, those showa blades were walk-in submission. Regardless, if intake had spotted it immediately, they would have told the collector not to waste his time nor money in submitting them. I think if someone had made reservations and brought a stamped blade in for submission, arrangements could have possibly been made for a refund of the reservation fee. Again, I'm not sure of all the details, just the info after the fact. Q, The background for kodogu and koshirae are grey to blue grey in color. When the camera is set on auto mode, the fittings judges believed that an 18% grey background would suit kodogu and koshirae photography best. For separate kodogu pieces, we have 4 incandescent spot lights on a rig with an armature for raising/lowering the heigt of the camera. Additionally, we placed the kodogu on a piece of raise plate glass. We find this has advantages and disadvantages. It minimizes the shadows and optimizes the clarity of the piece. However, at certain angles, you can get glare off the glass from the light and reflections as well. The first day we played around with the lighting for a couple of hours before we thought everything looked acceptable.

Hey Dave, It was a pleasure meeting you and your buddy all the way from Oz! Sorry we didn't get to chat long. I know you both were looking for John Prough to square things away. Glad you both had a good time.

Quang, Yes I do recall seeing you as well. The weather Friday night into Saturday evening was just disgusting. Wish I had to the chance to intro myself. Perhaps I will catch you at the next sword show. Ricky

There seemed to be a large number of gendai blades among a lot of the pink sheets that I saw. I was photographing kodogu most of the time, so I didn't really get a chance to take in all of what the blade judges were doing. When I did make my observations, some blades I noticed they reached for a pink sheet right away. Other blades (like mine) they seemed to take a longer period of time with and conversed amongst each other. Guess its a hit or miss much like the Shinsa itself when it comes to how they approach evaluating a sword. Mark, drop me a note next time your in town (NYC). Would enjoy chatting with you about blades and we can have some damn good Chinese food that won't even remotely cost you $100 like those steaks, haha.

Saw a couple of Bungo blades. Didn't notice any Kaga ones. Several Kiyomitsu attributions. A few Tsunahiro's along with mine. 2 very nice Motoshige blades (if I remember, 80 points each!). Some nice Hizen blades.

To insure up to $25,000 US, you would need to send it Registered Mail. The draw back is that it is painfully slow. The positive is that each stop it makes, it has to be signed for. So the carrier who has it signs for it, brings it to a depot and places it under lock and key at the depot. The next carrier to take it has to sign for it and anywhere it goes. Less of a chance for it to get lost and I guess to some degree, they can verify the info should any problems arise. Keep in mind the customs issues as well.

Milt, The email I sent you bounced. Might be your AOL spam filters. Ricky