When Necessary

Hi Nicholas, This is the JSSUS pdf of all the writing but it lacks illustrations, I'm afraid. If you can't locate a translation of the page you're seeking in the PDF, come back to me because I have an English edition of the book knocking around somewhere. https://jssus.org/yasakunito.pdf

Noble sentiments, Bruce - but please remember Rodney King's beating by police officers triggered the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. If you can persuade the originator of all this bad feeling to stop prodding people with his night stick I'm sure that it will swiftly all calm down.

That certainly makes sense! My cats used to make wonderful paper weights before they passed (whether I needed one at the time or not😁). I suppose those who wish to make their desk more ostentatious could use a heaped box of Tokuju origami as a workable paperweight.

Maybe the 'old dogs' of the forum could put together a new ranking system and issue papers to we lesser mortals? 'Turd' > 'Tokubetsu Turd' > 'Paperweight' > 'Tokubetsu Paperweight'. That would really clarify our place in the pecking order.

I forgot the generation gap. Okay, in your case let's say Bob Hope.

But if it's mumei, it can't paper as 'Paperweight' - only as 'Tokubetsu-turd'. 😬

Actually Piers, you are absolutely right. Looking back through my records, I wasn't given it by the NBTHK itself but by a swordsmith whom I got to know some years ago. It's funny how memory can play tricks on you. Despite my awful photography and the cellophane wrapping, you can indeed see flashes of iridescent colour in this example.

Great comeback there Rayban! It only took you, what .... five days? You certainly have the razor sharp wit of Jimmy Kimmel - if he was involved in a car accident which rendered him a complete vegetable. Keep polishing your Juyo cabinet old son and then come back when you've thought up your next devastating 'quip' at my expense.

😂😂😂

It really is like shooting fish in a barrel with you, old son. 😂

As I recall Bruce, the top says something like 'Tatara Tamahagane' and the lower line is 'Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai'.

You should be in standup Rayban - you crack me up, you really do! 😂

I thought that folks here might like to see the lovely paperweight which I was gifted many years ago by Iida sensei of the NBTHK. It contains a beautiful piece of tamahagane and I treasure it so much I haven't even taken the cellophane off!

Considering the emphasis that is now being put by @Jacques on a single chisel stroke, it might be pertinent to refer to @Markus's highly interesting article on comments and observations made by one of the fathers of modern sword study, Dr. Honma Junji. https://markussesko.com/2021/06/08/honmas-questions-1/ Most specifically, this quote.

So let's analyse exactly what you've really just said in that comment. You are stating, quite clearly, that the NBTHK (the most respected organisation in sword appraisal) - when giving the status of Tokubetsu Hozon (extraordinarily worthy of preservation) to a sword, which through being suriage will be unable to proceed to the next level of Juyo - are vis-à-vis declaring that item to be a "paperweight" and thus not worthy of collecting at all. Ergo, anything lesser than Juyo are inherently inferior - whatever the NBTHK judges them to be or whatever their owner feels them to be. You really are a self-fullfilling prophecy, aren't you Rayban old son? Sneering and belittling and undoing whatever good you hoped to achieve by starting this thread. You just can't help yourself. It's rather sad really.

Ah, and there's the rub. I honestly do not care if none of my swords will ever attain Juyo. I do not aspire to Juyo. If I get a dog, it's because I love the dog, whether mongrel or pedigree - not because I want it to win Crufts. As the late Darcy was so fond of pointing out, Hozon and Tokuho are merely confirmations (to continue my canine analogy, let's say they are like a vet's standard and deluxe medical checkup of your mutt) but Juyo and Tokuju are competitions. I don't do competitions.

Who even wants dumb old Juyo papers? They don't have a cool photograph stuck on them.

Hoorah! I managed to tick all the bad boxes with this one! Yahoo Auction ✔️ Cheap - $1,500 ✔️ Suriage✔️ Kanbun Shinto ✔️ Very shallow sori ✔️ Dodgy old green paper ✔️ And yet it just passed Tokubetsu Hozon. 🤔

And sold for ¥205,000. Good luck putting that through shinsa.

Not at all. It's entered a last minute bidding war - presumably amongst people who want to offer this to the foreign market sans papers.

Nice blade though.

Extremely well put, Michael. This forum needs more like you. You can own the best but don't look down upon those who, of necessity, collect more humble examples.

Very nice find, Brian! 😬👍

Perhaps 'Curious Chamber' should sell chamber pots - he's certainly full of what goes in them.

Not John, but that is logical given the way that Gunto were worn on the officer's belt. This is Ohmura-san's main example: