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Ausgezeichnet Peter! Arnold F.

Hello: Three hundred dollars is a gift. Arnold F.

Hello: I try to avoid comment on blades for sale, but viewing it as a request from a newer NMB member I would like to underscore the excellent suggestion from the ever helpful Ray Singer posted above. It does look like a very nice sword, Yasutoku/Yasunori being one of the two original smiths at the Shrine. Koshirae as seen are not to be preferred to flawless original shin-gunto as it would originally have had, but the quality of the mounts seem fine. Don't be put off by the copper habaki as it is the original one for the blade and worth preservation its self. Arnold F.

Hello: There are no judges' stamps on the origami. Arnold F.

Hello: It is an interesting question introduced by Valric as it invites us to infer from the literature what is hot and what is not so to speak, and by mentioning Yamanaka and Nakahara, separated by many years, it is almost as if one is invited to think of a progression of lesser to greater truth. Most collectors today have probably never seen a copy of the Newsletters and he has been deceased since the early 1970s. Albert Yamanaka was a student of Hon'ami Koson, in his day he was, along with others, such as members of the unknown today Chuo Token Kai,a very influential sword scholar, particularly in the pre-war era. After the war circumstances changed dramatically with the fortuitous connection of Dr. Homma with Col. Cadwell and the eventual creation of the NBTHK. Yamanaka was distinctly not a friend of the NBTHK as can be seen in his writings. He was not an iconoclast, just a man in the Hon'ami tradition and if one can infer anything it is that his writings reflect their point of view. I could be wrong but I believe that Nagayama Kokan's Connoisseur's book is in that same tradition. When it comes to Nakahara his terrific book reflects him alone and it has been criticized by many because it lifts the curtain on all the many little tricks that were once more or less known to those who knew but were not into telling. That won't get you invited to join the country club. I think evaluation criteria are highly subjective and they will evolve not in any scientific or experimental way, but by who is the master of ceremonies at the moment, and clearly that is the NBTHK. It follows that those above who have tried to devine their preferences demonstrated from shinsa awards are on the track that matters for now. Arnold F.

Hello: A real pity Grey. What is written on one cover as referred to in your ad? Arnold F.

Hello: I agree with the above two posts as to worthwhileness and I do believe it is probably ivory of some sort, possibly marine. Were the koshirae bone one would expect to see some blood vessels running with the axis of the mounting which I do not see, and the carving is nicely deep which would tend to reveal blood vessels. Arnold F.

Hello: The unsharpened length you describe is next to unknown in my experience, the only somewhat similar example I know of is a Koretsugu donated to a temple or shrine in Fukuoka in the 1660s and entirely unsharpened and with the entire togi not entirely finished. Perhaps yours had a donation in the back of someone's mind or it might have been left that way to anticipate compliance with some government's regulations. Not a good thing from a collector's point of view I would think. Arnold F.

Hello: I can't put my finger on it at the moment but the late Han Bing Siong did a wonderful write up on such and published same in the JSS/US NL or a special separate publication of samesome years ago. Arnold F.

Hello: To my eye it appears to be a mid Muromachi ko-tosho unless the mimi is reduced. The design, while similar to the suhama mon is more likely a cluster of stars and all the devices together being an unusual representation of the san-ko (three sources of light) design. The kodzuka-hitsu is confirmatory to a pre-Edo piece. Arnold F.

Hello: With regard to Paul's post and trying to compare approximate apples to apples and avoiding the semantic tunnel of Masayuki/Kiyomaro, we must never forget the impact of rising prices in an inflationary period. The 1993 pair, not carrying the same date, but signed Masayuki. was in the April 1 sale, lots 7 and 8, and from the collection of Field Marshall Sir Francis Festing. The house estimate for the former was 100,000-150,000 Pounds, and the latter 20,000 - 30,000 Pounds, and the hammer price including premia for the daito 265,000 and for the ko-wakizashi 89,500, the USD values respectively being $398,250 and $134,250. To take the daito alone the $398,250, using the US CPI would have to be $696,938 to be "purchasing power equivalent", however that is essentially a term without meaning when the inter-temporal gap is so long and the relative price of Japanese swords in general has declined, though for particular smiths, such as Masayuki/Kiyomaro I would venture they have increased. Are the different directions of effects off setting? That is an empirical question for with I have no data. Arnold F.

Hello: Excellent stuff Peter. Arnold F.

Hello Franco: The group doing the Tampa shinsa, and it is confirmed to happen by Gordon Robson to me, is the original NTHK group which dates to Meiji times, long before the NBTHK, more recently headed by the now deceased Yoshikawa Koen and now by his son, both Keepers of the Imperial Collection. Arnold F.

Hello: That is the one I had in mind; the creatures aren't the same but the thematic association is sort of strong. Arnold F.

Hello: It doesn't appear new or cast to me, but it does look like something, perhaps contemporarily, inspired by a fine Ko Shoami that sold at auction 10 or so years ago. I don't have time to chase it down but that sale might have been from the Lundgren or Alan Harvie sale. Arnold F.

Hello Jean: I've been to the DTI 7 or 8 times and of course the newer Hozon set predominates. That is the only game in town there. My objection to the view that some try to pound out as universal belief regarding the Kicho type papers is to the contrary, namely that those still in circulation are not all are wrong and culprits will not be winnowed out for quite a while. In the meantime too much emphasis is blindly focused on papers and to say that owners of blades with old papers should jump to sending them to Japan seems mildly hysterical. If they wish to do it fine, but is there anything wrong with more study and self-development? It is not that easy to send a blade to Japan, the cost and other associated risks are hardly zero, and for someone to possibly conclude that to own such a blade is such a hot potato that it has to be "moved on" could be the first step in a large financial mistake. For folks living in the US there are regular shinsa by both NTHK groups and who is to say their considerations, all other things aside, are less valid that those of the NBTHK? Liquidity enhancing might not be the same, but who is to say their shinsa judges are anything other than highly qualified? Not me. It wouldn't happen of course but what fun it would be to see the outcome of a kantei contest between the top two NTHK judges and two amateur gunslingers so full of their own expertise? Arnold F.

Hello: In another thread elsewhere here I called attention to an NBTHK shinsa paper for a Shinkai offered on the site of Andy Quirt, nihonto.us that bears the Latin alphabetical prefix B. S. g.h. to its serial number. There is a similar paper on the site of Danny Massey, nihontocraft.com for a Kunimichi. Both smiths are considerable and both papers are dated Showa 55 (1980). That led to a number of comments, one a particularly weird one demonstrating some command with 8th grade arithmetic and an equally foul mouthed command of 8th grade speech. It doesn't need to be dignified with a reply as such but the spooky issue of the validity of NBTHK Kicho, Tokubetsu Kicho and Maru Tokubetsu Kicho papers do need some fleshing out. An impression is left by some that such papers are all to be treated as poison and that has clearly led to a appreciation and financial down grade of the associated blades, at least on the part of newer collectors learning the ropes. I have never (!) said that all such papers are good, but when blades with them are encountered a certain amount of common sense is called for. I do agree that with the passage of time the bad blades and papers will be identified and hopefully not passed on, though no mechanism can assure the latter. My background is in economics, having been a tenured professor of same for decades and now retired, and in economics risk is a major issue is various ways and like crossing the street, driving to work, or taking a new Rx, it is always there. Risk is a first cousin of probability and what bothers me in the discussion of such papers is that likelihood regarding a Kicho paper is swept away. There is no way to know exactly how many swords there are in Japan, it may be possible to know how many genuine papers of the Kicho types have been legitimately issued in Japan and the US, but it is doubtless very unlikely that the number of bad blades and papers were concocted is known. I fully understand the importance of knowing in individual cases. Following Joseph Alsop's notion: a. collectors determine their own category of collection, b. by determining the categories the relative rarities are determined, and c. every collector wants to be sure that his or her object of collection is "right" for its designated category. Therefore "c." is the source of the anxiety. There may be better information elsewhere but I would refer everyone to the Newsletter of the Nanka Token Kai, Vol. 5, No. 1 (January, 1986), wherein the issue of the bad papers is discussed at some length. It seems that most of the bad stuff are imitations of shinto and shinshinto and the handiwork of a forger working in Fukuoka using gendaito, seemingly blades made by post war smiths, though that restriction isn't entirely clear, which were unsigned by them and then worked up by the forger, essentially signing and ageing. The subsequent gangster activity, distribution and police involvement is also discussed. Quite a number of nakago, 56 by my count are shown. There are three koto, all Muramasa (what else?), and about an equal split between shinto and shinshinto. Eight are highly cursive, advantage forger no doubt. I saw such names as Tadayoshi, Kanesada, Tadatsune, Sukenao, Kotetsu, Kiyomaro, Motohira, Naotane, Yukihide, Munestugu, and so forth. Most to my amateur eye look very good and the sort of thing one would have to study at some length. So there are bad blades out there and the NBTHK HQ responded quickly and appropriately. When a big name smith with a Tokubetsu Kicho paper is encountered, of course one should be cautious and wonder why it was not resubmitted under the new Hozon program, but its existence does not make it wrong. There is one type of Tokubetsu Kicho paper that is not wrong and it is those carrying the Latin letter prefix that got this rolling and I was most curious if they were US shinsa codes, or what. I contacted a correspondent at the NBTHK and posed the question. Here is the answer: "During late 1970's and early 1980's (Showa 50's), forged Tokubetsu Kicho papers were often made. [how many is "often"?] To prevent forgery we changed the serial number rule and wrote some Latin letters on the paper. So the Latin letters were not the indicator of shinsa in the USA." He goes on to comment on the Hozen system starting in 1982. So what to conclude: except for the above mentioned, which have an official OK, for the rest study and confirmation and not the death penalty is called for. This also brings me to the silly notion that any unpapered blade coming from Japan has to be bad, but that is for another day, Arnold F.

Hello: Bob Coleman was an important and very successful collector of swords in the upper Midwest in and around Chicago. I believe that one of his most important contributions was in the organizing of the Chicago Sword Show in the old days, though I am sure there were other local collectors there also contributing. I believe he was central in initially bringing the highly respected Yoshikawa Koen of the NTHK to Chicago where he could see some of the fine swords that were there in high density, and that would subsequently lead to the very respected shinsa that Koen conducted in the US in Chicago and elsewhere. His son, also Keeper of the Imperial Collection, has continued those NTHK shinsa unto this day. Bob was also a very lucky collector as rumor has it that he recently found one of the Juyo Bijustu-hin that Dr. Homma had circulated information on many decades ago. Sincere condolences to his family. Arnold F.

Hello: Well the "sensei" honorific can get out of control. At any large sword show if one says "sensei" loud enough, enough heads will turn so fast that a team of chiropractors will be needed. Arnold F.

Hello: Thanks, typo indeed. Arnold F.

Hello Paul: Yes those were fantastic, at least the ones I got to. R.B. Caldwell was helpful in pulling it all together as was John Yumoto and I believe that was the first time any major shinsa was held in the US. Wakayama sensei was doing the tosogu; I remember him clearly as after some indecision he bounced one of my tsuba. "Working" in the shinsa rooms gave first hand observation. There were of course a lot of other highly qualified people from Japan but I have no notes and that was quite a while ago.John Yumoto also organized one in San Francisco in 1976 in recognition of the Bi-centennial, it being conducted by Murakami sensei of the Toen-sha, quite a worthy group which did not survive his passing. I believe Dr. Fukunaga came over two times, not sure as I wasn't there, but I believe one was in Birmingham, Alabama and the other in Azizona (?), again with John Yumoto playing an intermediary role?. Yoshikawa Koen was to do a number in the older NTHK days, and I think he first visited Chicago in the late 60s, but my impression is that it was more localized initially than the NBTHK shinsa which had large draws. At least one of the Texas shinsa was quite colorful with Dr. Compton flying back and forth to Elkhardt, Indiana in the corporate Alka Seltzer jet with John Harding of London Galleries in tow and advising him on this and that, and it was there that the Book of the Sword was presented by its authors. When one counts up the number of shinsa that have been held in the US - I believe another is upcoming for Tampa in 2019 - it is more or less amazing that they fill up as they seem to continuously do. Arnold F.

Hello: The NBTHK, Dr. Sato in charge, did two shinsa in Dallas and one in Coronado, California. I attended both the California shinsa and those were the days we got roped into doing oshigata so it was lots of fun for sure. I can recall in one of them at there were cops all over the place and I thought wow what great security, however the VP was visiting the hotel at the same time. Arnold F.

Hello: If you have just a speck of rust that stands proud of the blade surface, and the surrounding area is in polish, it is very unlikely that use of the right penny will scratch anything. Of course practice on something out of sight, perhaps under a habaki, to prove it to yourself first. The US penny 1797-1959 is 100 % copper, but likely to cost far too much. The British penny, 1961-1970 is 97 % copper and if not of collector condition can be had for four bits or so from a coin dealer. Current US pennies 1983 to now are from 2.5% to zero copper except for a light plating and of no use for the above. Arnold F.

Hello: I have been watching for circling boo-birds since the posting of a Shinkai wakizashi yesterday for $34,000.00 on nihonto.us, the site of Andy Quirt, a very senior American dealer, as the blade sports only a Tokubetsu Kichio. I believe that was a US based NBTHK shinsa, not sure, but prior to the era of Hozon and Tokubetsu Hozon. I recognize that bad papers were issued prior to the "new era" but the statistical likelihood of encountering one has to be quite small IMHO. Arnold F.

Hello: You may well be right Jean but if the NBTHK's strictures are for convenience it is a pity as in their blade form, and doubtless their use applications which differ from nagamaki, the shape of naginata tend to have a fair amount of sori whereas blades used as nagamaki tend to be more like swords in shape and without a great deal of curvature. These are just general inferences. One of the interesting cultural features of Japan is a different name for every difference in an object's for. Arnold F.