Takahashi

Hi Raymond, I wrote you an email. Cheers, Robert T.

Dear members, although this is not a nihonto I stumbled upon an interesting iron Buddha statue with Kanji on the back (see picture). As my knowledge of Kanji is rather restricted to a few Kanji, I would be glad for any help on this translation. Cheers, Robert T.

Well, I would think Takahashi Sadatsugus blades might have a good chance to get awarded with a Juyo paper first. You rarely see one for sale nowadays. Just my five cents. Cheers,

I also get the idea that someone just wants to receive some inside information on how nihonto collectors dieffer between a real nihonto and a fake. Therefore I would suggest not to give the vendor more information on why people on the board think his blade is a fake. There is already enough said on this topic. Cheers,

Interestingly the Yusho papered blade attributed to Nidai Muramasa was not sold. Does anybody know why? Usually his blades are sought after and I have seen some unpapered ones which went for about that price. As I could not check the blade myself I am not sure of its condition but the pictures seemed to be okay and it was papered though I never heard of the Eastern Japan Art Sword Society. Cheers,

Well, and especially never trust a papered ubu, mumei blade attributed to Den-Gimei Cheers,

This reminds me of a saying : In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king. :lol: Cheers,

I can only agree to the comments above and want to thank all the contributors on this board. It definetly is a great forum for nihonto collectors and enthusiasts from all over the world. Although I sometimes cannot get rid of the feeling, that some critics go a little overboard. A few of the people here seem to be happy with a piece of history and do not mind some flaws (even hagire). I appreciate this attitude as this means even a worn out blade gets a nice retirement home. Please think about this before harshly criticizing a polished down blade with flaws and the member who proudly posted pictures of such a blade. Cheers,

Dear members, I just received my copy last weekend and it is a most valuable source of information on swordsmiths. In my opinion even better than Hawleys. Given the price for Hawleys books (I just saw an offer of 650 € for both books) this ebook offer is a real bargain. Well done Markus Cheers,

Thank you for the info Zanshin! I just went to the museum today as I was visiting someone in Rotterdam. :D Even the regular exhibition ist worth a stop. It is not focusing on nihonto or Japanese art alone but I got the strong feeling of being in a budhist temple. The atmosphere put chills down my spine. I highly recommend a visit, especially when the samurai exhibit starts. By the way, the museum does not charge visitors for the permanent exhibtion or an English audio guide. Cheers,

Dear Markus, I read the first volume and enjoyed it very much. Cannot wait to get the second volume. Cheers,

Well folks, look at the website it clearly states that ordering is postponed until further notice. I do not think it would be very wise to take a site down regarding SEO and the loss of page rank. Cheers,

Hi Cabowen, thanks for the fast answer. I realized myself that the mei is different to his post-war mei (e.g. the one on http://www.samuraisword.com/nihontodisp ... /index.htm) but I was wondering whether this could have been an earlier work. Every swordsmith would have to start and find his style of forging and signing blades. I am not interested in buying the blade just curious. By the way, does anyone know of examples of Sadatsugus pre-war workmanship? Cheers,

Dear fellow board members, I just stumbled upon a blade signed "Sadatsugu" on ebay. http://www.ebay.de/itm/Japanese-Samurai ... 1e70b1eda0 The seller himself seems to doubt that it is made by Takahashi Sadatsugu. I was wondering whether it could be an early blade of the swordsmith. What do you think? Cheers,

Dear board members, regarding the low exchange rate of the Euro these upcoming German auctions on "Asian Arts" might be interesting for international bidders: 22.09.2012 Stahl in Hamburg (http://www.auktionshaus-stahl.de) 13.10.2012 Klefisch in Cologhne (http://www.klefisch.com) 1./2.11.2012 Nagel in Stuttgart (http://www.auction.de) 7./8.12.2012 Lempertz in Cologne (http://www.lempertz.com) In the past these auctions included Nihonto and Tosogu of varying quality. Cheers,

Additional pics of the mune and nakago would be helpful in an evaluation. My first thought was also showato and not a chinese fake. The black leather cover might have been added later on. Cheers,

Dear Markus, sounds like a really valuable source of information. I am looking forward to get a copy. Cheers,

Hi Tim, the question should have been how much would you pay for such a sword? Since it is an active ebay auction the price is likely to raise a lot more. @ Jacques: May you explain your comment? The seller stated, he did not know anything about the swordsmith. Cheers,

Hello Drago, I can also recommend the book "Legends and Stories around the Japanese Sword" by Markus Sesko. It contains many stories around famous swords and explanations regarding their nicknames. Cheers,

I made the same positive experience with Aoi Art and Tsuruta-San. I can also highly recommend his online shop. Cheers,

Hi folks, I was just wondering whether the Muramasa on the Aoi Kantei is the same as the one discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11399&p=97391&hilit=muramasa#p97391 Funnily the Tanto on http://www.e-sword.jp was just sold a few days ago. Might have been Tsaruta-san who bought it. Cheers,

I think it would be interesting to know, how the sword got to Finland? It was certainly not a collector of asian art as the blade itself is in a bad condition. Cheers,

So it was just my imagination, although I think it really resembles an angel. Cheers,

Dear NMB members, I just stumbled upon a shinto tanto with an unusual horimono. It looks like an angel was carved onto the blade. Maybe it is just my imagination since Christmas is coming, but have a look for yourself: http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2011/1110_3034syousai.htm Does anybody know if this kind of horimono was common during the 17th century I am sorry, if the description already says anything about the horimono but my Japanese is still on a very low level. Cheers,

Dear George, thanks for your queries on my response. Although Adrian already made a good point, I will try to answer your queries as well. I was just saying that although an analysis of the steel might show an unexpected result, the swordsmith might have used nanbantetsu or just tried to experiment. Even nowadays some of the modern swordsmiths vary in the composition of steel used to achieve better results. In my opinion a sword with such an unexpected result would be somehow similar to sword with an unexpected signature or school. Well, I believe there are a lot more aspects besides the steel that would be worth collecting, e.g. historical significance, shape of blade, artful horimono, hamon, etc. It is similar to collecting blades with a proven gimei signature or mumei blades. I just cannot understand why people are paying that much money for a machine made standard blade (Gunto). I accept that they have a historical background (as all militaria have), but I doubt they are true art and worth the money they are sold (just my humble opinion). Gendaito on the other hand can definitely be beautiful and I would certainly buy a skillfully made gendaito. Although it is often cheaper to go for older swords. Therefore I can say that such an analysis (even on a valid database) would not render a skillful attribution based on other facts useless. And I am not even speaking of the pleasure to take part in kantei. I hope I could describe my thoughts well enough. Cheers,