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Sounds good, I will be watching. 30 cal would be enough to get my attention.

Good information! I always like those..how did they do that?... questions and answers

Ron..you should know better than to tell us NOT to do something!!!! I saw the pistol you mentioned, so you still own it? What does it fire exactly? I to have purchased items and the site I made the purchase from would still list the item as sold many months later.

Well at least it appears that the seller owns the items being sold, unlike this fraud who sell items that do not belong to them ( they are listing an item which I own and will not remove it from their listing) http://myworld.ebay.com/Japan-premium-s ... assistant/

Ian, it is metal of some kind, I thought the drawings on it were more abstract than most I have seen. I like the plain white one a lot to, it has that...home made look, just a piece of metal sewn inside some cloth, it does not get any more basic than that.

Here are a few pictures of hachi gane including the red one that Todd was selling. Some more pictures >>> http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... ?start=all

Doug & Eric, thanks. Eric, in the summer of 2008 there was a gathering in Tanegashima of fullarmor/armour matchlock companies from all over Japan. Something that had not really happened there before. This was a great success, so last fall/autumn another was organized in Ashikita in Kyushu. 160 (?) gunners formed a line and fired towards the Ariaki Sea. Suddenly it seemed like they were on a roll with this sort of thing, and it was announced that Hikone was going to do one in March 2010, with 250 members from 23 castle matchlock corps. Unfortunately the funding is a problem and we may not have one again for some time, according to the rumors/rumours. I'll add some more pics in a while, then. Piers, very interesting, do you know if the guns used are antique or reproductions or a combination of both.

The damascus type pattern running into the edge were the temper line should be is the first clue of a Chinese or at least sword, every time you see this from now on you will know, and if its any consolation to you I have one of those at home to. I keep it as a learning tool for other people as it taught me a valuable lesson.

Brian, I see what you mean..I see that translation used a lot on this site, I haven't seen it used on yahoo Japan translations, sorry I cant help you, I can see how it would be frustrating...does the site accept email in English..maybe they can explain.

Piers..great pictures...can you tell me how this festival is different than the Soma gathering?

Can you post a link for an example?

Doug, so your the bidder that kept winning all the books I wanted! They were very popular.

Steve, if your feeling adventurous and do not mind some detective work..maybe you can check out http://www.gallerysamurai.com/ and give us a report back as to if they actually have as large of a collection of samurai object as they claim.

Eric, your lucky..at least yours has a mei to help identify it, I purchased this one on ebay a while back and have no idea when it might have been made or who might of made it. I also read that they were for high ranking samurai.

Ron, I agree.....as I am interested in anything related to the people who actually wore and used the swords and other weapons we all admire, a greater understanding of these people benefits everyone and should not make people feel threatened if done in conjunction to the study of nihonto.......at least I hope not.

Ron..any time you feel like getting "carried away" on this subject I will be glad to read what you have to say!!!

Sold for 62,000 yen.

Who ever ends up with it some day will probably have no idea how rare an item it is, what a shame..and no pictures...thats why I try to take a lot of photos of every item I have.

I agree that the owner has an expensive wall decoration, I have not seen another one with like it or hand hold with the same arrangement.

Reminds a Jaipur Dhal, but :? :? Similar, but different at the same time.

Tim, you can see a little piece of leather on the first set of pictures, it looks like were a hand strap would have been.

Tim, here is some more info and 2 more pictures, "superb battle shield made of multi layer with center spike and jingasa design , forged rivet and hammered iron ,the inside leather holder is gone .58cmin diameter"

This shield according to the owner was found in 1995 in the province of Wakayama and since the Japanese made very little use of shields it could have come from a surrounding country or from a trading partner, any ideas?

John, the bottom does have a European sort of look, as for authenticity....hard to tell, here is the sellers evaluation 36 people (44 cases) of "good very good" and praised it. 0 people (0 items) the "neither" has earned a reputation as. Five (5 cases), "Bad Bad" has a reputation. not many sales and 5 bad reports out of 36, if it were real it would be a nice find but the fact that no one has bid on it so far is not good.

Ian, thanks..it had that Korean sort of look on top but I could not figure out the rest here is a link to more pics. http://www.japanauctioncenter.com/view2 ... d102584872