Bazza

Rotsa ruck!!! BaZZa.

With the Board and everyone's good will this has turned out to be an amazing adventure for George - and us all. Without the Board who knows... RANT MODE ON It is EXTREMELY sobering to reflect that if an old soldier had handed that sword into a police station here in my State of Victoria in Australia, as a grotty looking thing and a SWORD it would most likely have been destroyed as it is classed as a prohibited weapon. A senior policeman is on record as saying prohibited weapons handed to police or confiscated will be destroyed. Many here will remember the battle we had back in 2006 trying to turn back the proposed change to the law, without effect. The many letters from overseas (NBTHK, Royal Armouries, To-ken Society of Great Britain, JSSUS and dozens more) had no effect whatsoever. The mindset of the politicians and high-level bureaucrats of the time was immovable and a widely held view is that the Police Minister of the day was an incompetent - obviously. To this day the number plate on my trailer bears the motto under the registration number "Victoria - the State we're in!!" I still grieve over this decision by our legislators. There is more background to the story though - a Parliamentarian's son was badly cut by a sword in an assault and one person was killed by a sword in a notorious nightclub assault. Allegedly killed by a sword - reports I read suggested it could have been a machete and these are still "legal" and used in countless crimes to this day. Our big, daily newspaper got on the case and hammered the Police Minister and everybody caved in. No voice of reason (I was told "they" had received 600 objections) could turn this legislation back. It was a fait accompli. RANT MODE OFF I'm deliriously happy for George and I'm quite "high" on a happy ending. I have a similar, though not so exalted, path ahead of me with a Shodai "Soboro" Sukehiro katana I found in a distressed state, though eminently restorable. I shudder when I think of the fate that it could have had... BaZZa.

Peter, A very nice group of most interesting and unusual Namban tsuba. Even though the last group of three are in less than pristine condition they would be worth a place in my collection. Likewise Tom Sinclair's tsuba. BaZZa.

As a proud Australian I have to point out that you haven't tried NUTHIN' until you've tried full-blown Vegemite. Aussie kids cut their teeth on it!!! When I was a growing kid my Dear Mother used to say "Don't put so much Vegemite on your bread/toast!". I would always reply "Mother, its a food not a flavouring agent..." BaZZa.

As in agaru?? BaZZa.

In the thread http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/28342-gorgeous-aikuchi-at-christies/ discussing the Christie's aikuchi auction, BIG (Peter Reusch, Post #5) gave a link to a print of Hokusai's GREAT WAVE bringing USD $471,000. Reading the auction comments and responses to Peter's link it seemed to me almost as if the bidders had been watching a TV program on Hokusai, wherein the Great Wave print is discussed and dissected. This was aired here in Australia a few days ago - watch it now while it is still up: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/hokusai-old-man-crazy-to-paint/video/ZW1723A001S00 There was a Hokusai exhibition here last July 2017 and the exhibition Curator, Wayne Crothers, appeared on a radio converstaion hour about Hokusai and the exhibition. For those who like to listen to audio go here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/theconversationhour/the-conversation-hour/8739862 I found this by googling abc hokusai download – ABC is the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Australia’s public funded radio network. BaZZa.

Another possibility - the kanji on the nakago looks dodgy enough to me to indicate possibly "sum wun" has put a mei on a blade that was mumei when the sayagaki was written??? BaZZa.

The same is celluloid, I believe, and not uncommon on later War period Guntou. BaZZa.

Shinto IMVHO BaZZa.

The "club" is possibly a tetsubou, lit. "iron stick", a formidable weapon in the right hands. Maybe the little guys are Oni (tho' there is usually only one) and the armoured bloke is Shouki, but I don't think so as he doesn't have a ken. OTOH, the (maybe) tetsubo has an eye for hauling, like an anchor, which gels with the water. Which brings us back to the bloke in armour with piercing eyes. I have a figure like that on a tsuba where the figure is assigned to Nitta Yoshisada, so the water is either the sea or (maybe?) the Minatogawa river. A seemingly confusing jumble that someone will crack I'm sure... BaZZa.

Funny, I couldn't open them all last night, but today I can open them all... BaZZa.

G'day Bruce and all, Yesterday I looked over an old family edged weapon collection out of the woodwork, a real sleeper. Two Japanese swords, a Burmese Dha dagger, six kris of various sorts, and a very smalI Indian Katar, the latter most unusual. One of the Japanese swords was a Shinguntô with a Mantetsu blade, so I post here FYI. Blade is 66.6 cm long, tang 21.3 cm. Blade is signed KÔA ISSHIN MANTETSU KORE SAKU and dated SHÔWA KANOTO MI HARU (Spring, 1941).with a nakago mune stamp. BaZZa.

On a point of pedantry, but I feel worthwhile pointing out to avoid slipshod usage, it is not the SHÔWA 昭和 stamp, it is the SHÔ 昭 stamp. BaZZa.

HAHAHA Steven, with my luck I'd be digging at Lightning Ridge for a loooooong time!!! My sword fossicking is mostly confined to the 'burbs of the great cosmopolitan city of Melbourne that I live in. As with us all, sometimes the nugget comes to us - I've just had an email from an old workmate on behalf of friends who have inherited a collection of Japanese swords, kris and other things from their forbears. I'm having a look tomorrow. One never holds one's breath in anticipation!! On the other hand, sometimes a nugget jumps out of the woodwork straight into one's shocked arms. Such a latter one for me was a Shodai Sukehiro katana, black with surface rust and no scabbard or fittings save an NCO tsuka and tsuba. Apart from that it is ubu with no mutilation and will polish admirably well. How it got into that state is breathtaking to think about... BaZZa.

I've just stumbled on a link making available downloads for the publication of John Nandris. I did a Forum search on his name in case this has been covered before, but I found nothing, so here goes. https://www.academia.edu/7522495/The_Sword_Smiths_of_Japan_a_Historical_Backbone I've attached a screen shot of the web page and what I found interesting was the sidebar with links to other interesting article/publications. Seems to be a lot of good stuff there. Note that this was published in the To-ken Society of Great Britain's website. Best regards, BaZZa aka Barry Thomas.

To protect the unwitting auctioneer I won't give the location, but here is where a fleeting knowledge of things Japanese can end up: A emoji period ivory inro with drum netsuke. BaZZa.

If I might comment, the yasurime look very "strange", almost higaki but not quit well-defined around the mei, yet the tagane of the mei indicates the yasurime are original. Further toward the habaki the yasurime tend to sujikai. A good, high resolution photo of both sides of the nakago would be interesting to see. Long ago I had a wakizashi signed NAGASONE OKIMASA. I sent it to Japan where it was pronounced gimei. It was in a nice lacquered scabbard, like Ron's, but I certainly hope Ron's sword has better prospects. BaZZa. EDIT: The thread from Mike C with a good photo of the mei shows more clearly that the higaki (crosshatch) filemarks do not go over the characters, suggesting that they have been done by another (later?) hand for who-knows-what-reason (cleaning off rust?). If so, it is unusual to see on a tang.

Ron, Do you have a pic of the habaki??? Or get one, both sides?? It looks to be a gem... BaZZa.

Omar, Yes, lots of VCR tapes. I actually have an intact 8-inch floppy disk drive (I nearly wrote FDD but I feared it would need translating!!) and a box of the floppies!! I used to love those old valve radios with beautifully engineered ganged tuning capacitors. I still have a couple of old ca1920s vacuum tubes with horizontal elements. etc etc etc Bestests, BaZZa. PS: Oh, and as for "Is that how it starts?" it started very early on in my life. I was always a collector of something, just couldn't help myself. Birds eggs, old radios, more etc etc etc. Here, in answer to Brian I may as well show you the rest, the images below scanning from right to left around the room. I took these photos because my wife gave me an ultimatum "The condition of buying your last two swords was that you clean up your s#*thole of a study - that was two years ago now and I don't see any progress". I'll put up more photos when the progress is complete. Sighhh... Who knows what else I'll discover.

A good cleanup often brings forgotten gems to the surface. As a collector/hoarder for 50+ years I've got more than my share of buried "treasure". The article herewith periodically resurfaced in past cleanups and as quickly disappeared again. THIS TIME I'm determined to preserve it for posterity. As a "sweetener" (??) I've also attached a photo of where I found it... Enjoy. BaZZa.

Vajo, A very, very interesting thread. Now please can we see both sides of (your?) tsuba? BaZZa.

And FWIW it seems to be too long for a yoroidoshi, those few I have seen tend to be shorter. BaZZa.

IMHO, if not Jimmy Hayashi then this blade needs to go to Japan. IMHO. It is possibly an utsushi to Koto Bizen - suguba with ko-ashi and a hi that goes into the ko-shinogi. Most definitely needs a high level polish. IMHO. BaZZa.

G'day Trev, You're far from an idiot mate. Good representative sword at a good price point. You can buy them cheaper (with problems), and you can buy them for a few thousand more (but otherwise not looking a whole lot different than yours). Your son should be mightily pleased. If you're new to Nihonto Message Board please read the FAQ http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/faq.html and especially the first topic on care and maintenance. Do not be tempted to "clean up" your new sword in any way at all. Feel free to PM me if I can be of any help. I live in Melbourne. Best regards, Barry Thomas aka BaZZa.

On the "tanker" question, here is a photo captioned as "Japanese bomber pilots". Their swords look full-size shingunto??? I have no idea, but did these pilots actually take the swords with them on missions, or are they merely props for the group photo?? BaZZa.