Bazza

I've read all of this, have lots to say, but I'm exhausted already just by taking it all in. It might take me days to put it all together and respond, as it has taken Ford years of experience to be able to write his piece. A Tokubetsu Juyo reflection on the art of Tsuba, to be sure. Instead of spending a luxurious rest of the day cogitating on tsuba and creating a response to Ford's challenge, I now have to go outside and continue beating back the bush (i.e., mowing) that is part of our 2 acres of Heaven here in the mountains outside of Melbourne... I'll be back!! Bestests to all for 2010. BaZZa. Melbourne, Australia.

Arrrr, geeee, I'll just have a stab at it without going to the books - C3, the rhs mei. Barry Thomas.

I'm sure I'm going to state the obvious to many of you, and I apologise for that, but for the others - everyone reading this PLEASE NOTE. Not only does Lee Walker have a good camera, he has also chosen his images with great care (there must have been a dud or two!!), but more importantly he has CROPPED HIS IMAGES to exclude extraneous, non-essential background. Would that all our enquirers were so thoughtful. I'm reminded of the old adage "One picture is worth a thousand words", but only if that picture is carefully composed and prepared. Happy New Year, Barry Thomas.

I LIKE FORD'S SANTA - I'VE PUT OUT MY STOCKING. Hey, how did that get past Admin??????? I hope you got my PM, Santa Stephen... The Bestests of the New Year to all and huge thanks to the NMB Team. Fantastic Forum with many willing hands to give answers and the Moderators holding us on a reasonably even keel... Barry Thomas.

Ford, Thanks very much for your opinion. I'm encouraged to photograph the other two fuchi and the hakogaki for interest. It will take me a few days and I'll put them up on a new thread. Look out for "TWO YASUCHIKA FUCHI & HAKOGAKI" Regards, Barry Thomas.

Dave, Lovely story. Do remove the handle and the "washers" and "collar" in front of the guard and take good high res images of, firstly, the complete tang from tip to just past the notches that define the blade proper, then, secondly, take some similarly good shots of the characters incised into the tang below the chrysanthemum. In this process please do NOT do anything to clean up the tang or the markings. This is VERY important. To me the blade looks like a longish wakizashi of the Shinto era. It may be signed NOBUYOSHI depending on the form of the chrysanthemum. Take care. Regards, Barry Thomas.

Gentle Folk, FWIW here is fuchi I have with a single kakihan for a mei. The other two that came with it in the same box (no kashira) have YASUCHIKA as a mei. Dr Torigoye's hakogaki on the box gives the opinion that these three fuchi are by YASUCHIKA I. This opinion has yet to be tested at a modern Shinsa. The 'qun' at the end of the filename means 'question mark'. This is the only kakihan mei I can recall seeing in my collecting career. Regards, Barry Thomas.

Well, Hiroki san, if you don't know the answer what in the hell are you doing monkeying with the sword in the first place????? When I saw my first sword professionally polished I instantly knew there was no point at all "playing" with myself... Barry Thomas.

Mr alaen305, do please use your real name if you are going to call on the expertise of other people to do your work for you... Also, for a new subject please start a new thread... The first picture is a date SHOWA JU ROKU NEN JU NI GATSU = December 1941 The last picture purports to be the swordsmith's name YOSHICHIKA. This signature is obviously non-genuine = a fake. Not a real Japanese sword, a Chinese nothing copy, with no real value. Regards, Barry Thomas.

There is indeed much information on the internet. Putting 'TENSHOZAN' into google gives 221 hits... Regards, Barry Thomas.

HAHAHAHAHA - SO AM I. That's how I get into trouble!!! The only comment I can make is that this looks like a Higo-style kashira that has seen better days... Regards, BaZZa.

How about a closeup of your Nagahiro tang and a closer-closerup image of the Nagahiro mei, please??? At first blush I have to say that the photo of your kissaki is very reminiscent of a gendaito... Regards, Barry Thomas.

Brian - OOOPS - the Forum approaches encyclopedic in its scope, as do you. I, however, am Light Years behind. I'll try to be better illuminated and ejumicated in future... On the upside, my post has brought forth your post that has shone a light into what may be a dark corner for many other Forumites. Regards, BaZZa.

I have stumbled upon an online, electronically searchable copy of Joly's book. It is here: http://www.archive.org/stream/legendinj ... t_djvu.txt At the top on the left-hand side of the screen is a tag "See other formats" and there is a downloadable pdf there of the original scan (~50 megabytes). The book scanned is published by John Lane Company and printed by the "Tokio Printing Company, Reading". A handwritten notation suggests it is a 1908 printing. I have read that Joly's book "has many errors" (along with many books!) but have never seen any listed. Has anyone else??? Regards, Barry Thomas.

Images in the first email appear to show the hamon running off the edge of the blade. If so, a "dead" sword. The ha also appears to curve in from the hamachi indicating either a tired old blade or one that has sustained severe enough damage (chipping) that the mihaba has been reduced. The tsuba and koiguchi are en suite and look interesting, but I'll leave the tosogu boys to comment on that. Barry Thomas.

A friend of mine here in Victoria, Australia, is a custom knife maker. He has some very nice small knives with brilliant nioi suguba hamon. He once showed me a fuchigashira. I examined them for a while and asked him "Did you take these off a sword?". A big grin spread across his face - he had made them!! He had never made fuchigashira before and these are his one-off work and I present them for your interest. Oh, he also made the hitodome. Best regards, Barry Thomas.

Lovely, lovely work Ford. Speaking of textures I've been beguiled by the Nara (?) technique of wind 'shadowing' across smooth water and would like to know more about this - if there is anything more to be known. Could we also see a pic of the mei you carved in a full-on picture, please?? I'm reminded of a fuchigashira a knife-making friend created as an "exercise" and I'll put them up in Tosogu. Best regards, Barry Thomas.

HUH???!!! Stephen, Oyabun san, the first person to welcome me to this board (if my increasingly Swiss cheese brain remembers correctly) please halt, desist and stop any action you might be contemplating. Have a rest if you wish, but do stay. I echo Curran's words. I'm an editor of an antique arms magazine and had a blazing row in Committee one night with the president, threw my hat on the table, said "I don't need this", gave them my resignation and stormed out. Guess who is still editor... When I had cooled down (it took a few weeks, actually) I thought of all the fantastic people I know in antique arms collecting and decided that they shouldn't suffer for one man's unfortunate choice of words on one occasion. Now of course I have no idea what this is all about, but if you are thinking of leaving I add my voice to the clamour for you to stay - I for one would miss you too much. Bestests, BaZZa.

I feel this statement needs to be qualified somewhat ...if it looks like a repair then it may merely have been done by an inept artisan...if it was done by a suitably skilled artisan, on the other hand, you wouldn't necessarily notice a repair...it may actually be invisible to you as such. I've seen enough top class urushi restoration to know this to be true. Much of it by Mr Tomizo Saratani, Gunter Heckmann's own teacher. regards, ford Ford, Yes indeed, I meant to say AMATEUR repair. Thanks for the correction. Regards Barry Thomas.

A long time ago I sent a tanto saya to Japan for lacquer repair. It was a "centipede" style with"waves" about two inches (~5cm) long. There was a patch of damaged lacquer about the size of one's little fingernail. The lacquer was brown with some slightly raised pattern. When it came back from Japan the repair was to me a disaster. Not only was the damaged section not to be seen, but an area some 3 inches overall (~7.5cm) was smeared all-over with some "bog" that bore no resemblance in style or colour with the original lacquer. It was the most insensitive, philistinic repair I could have imagined. I was gobsmacked and truly felt I could have done a more sympathetic job myself. On reflection, it would have been better left alone. The first point I want to make is that mentioned in a post above - a repair always looks like - A REPAIR... I have never repeated this mistake. The second point I want to make (also made above) is that repairing lacquer is the most difficult thing you can imagine. It is not "paint" like oil paint, nor like repairing auto lacquer. For good quality Japanese lacquer (urushi) the process is EXTREMELY COMPLICATED, TIME CONSUMING and TEDIOUS if it is to be successful. This is NOT something to be done by a first time amateur. Indeed, a poor repair can reduce the value of an antique scabbard originally made with high quality lacquer as it sticks out like a sore thumb. I think even the cashew lacquer work that Guido and Ford talk about would take a considerable time to develop the skill required for the results Guido posted (lovely work, agreed). I believe that in Japan to become a lacquer artisan takes even longer than apprenticeships in sword forging or polishing. This should give a better idea of the magnitude of the undertaking. Jock, if you are determined to have your lacquer repaired could I suggest you have an experienced person to look at it first and see if it is at all worth repairing in the first place. Much lacquer on sword scabbards is shoddy and poor quality and one may be better completely re-doing the saya. I hasten to say take caution here and tread lightly, for lacquer is a "high art" - you wouldn't take an Old Master painting to a house painter to restore. That is an analogy true to the specialist nature of lacquer. A person to approach for this in the USA is Dr Thomas L. Buck - his website in general is an excellent read - http://www.tsukamaki.net/ I have loved lacquer for 40 years and have always wanted to "do" it. Now retired, I'm approaching this with caution. For anyone wanting to "bone up" on lacquer the urushi section of Ford Hallam's 'followtheironbrush' forum is a good start - http://www.followingtheironbrush.org/vi ... 8f639639a5. The next would be to buy the book "Urushi" from Gunther Heckmann of NIHON ART PUBLISHERS - http://www.nihonart.de/en/index.php for the website and http://www.nihonart.de/en/produkte_seturushi.php for the book itself. It is very, very comprehensive and a tribute to Gunther Heckmann's years of study under a Master in Japan and his own skills at lacquer conservation. I have only just begun to read my copy. Finally, in this long-winded treatise, just trawl google with keywords 'urushi' ; 'Japanese lacquer' and as many urushi related keywords you can think of. Best regards, Barry Thomas.

I heartily endorse Ian's advice. I have seen a magnificent Shinshinto katana in original koshirae. It is signed MINAMOTO HIDE (also read TERU)TSUGU SESSHU OMIYA HACHIMAN SANROKU-ni OITE KORE-o TSUKURU. It can be seen on the Board here, the first image and description: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4666&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=sydney+display&start=45. The koshirae is original to the blade. I've also seen a Shinshinto katana made in Sendai with extensive inscription in Sosho and dated 1862 with an unusual handachi koshirae with gold lacquered same. Elsewhere in Australia is a Korekazu VII katana with original koshirae, although this one would run to much more than 10,000 pounds... So yes, there is much fertile ground in Shinshinto. Do please let us know what you eventually buy. Best regards, Barry Thomas. (Melbourne, Australia)

Barry, Looking forward to it. Is the JSSUS going to stock the catalogs??????? Regards, Barry Thomas.

100% agree with you! I never buy signed blades except with showato, with showato you can be pretty sure they are never gimei! :D Dear Bruno, I resist buying into this at length, but I do want to say in short that with this view you are missing out on the greatest challenge of all - finding a quality blade that is genuine and a great work, be it signed or not. My 45 years in collecting have been marked with some lovely finds and also some real dogs in both signed and unsigned blades. The exercise is really to find quality by winnowing the wheat from the chaff in the stream of swords (aka tarts...) that pass by. It is here that an essay of finds could start... Best regards, Barry Thomas.

George et al, Here is another source that might help the discussion: http://www.nihontocraft.com/Izumi_no_Ka ... a_mei.html Best regards, Barry Thomas.

Jimmy, Do check out Danny Massey's excellent website for Mishina: http://www.nihontocraft.com/Mishina.html and for Mihara: http://www.nihontocraft.com/Mihara_Nihonto.html Best regards, Barry Thomas (Melbourne, Australia)