When & How did NBTHK & NTHK start?

[Ken-Hawaii]

I had a new member of our sword society ask me when the NBTHK & NTHK started issuing origami, & didn't really have an answer for her.

 

The earliest NBTHK paper I know of is dated late 1948, which was for a blade I no longer own. I know the Honami clan issued origami back in the 1700s, & Fujishiro in the early 1900s, but can't find any info on how all of these appraisers got "rolled into" the NBTHK & NTHK.

 

Has anyone compiled info on this? Thanks!

 

Ken

[cabowen]

NTHK was formed in Meiji I believe. I do not know exactly when they started issuing kantei sho. It didn't really take off until the large return of swords to Japan when the Japanese economy boomed....

[seattle1]

Hello:

The NBTHK was founded in 1948 and the renowned sword scholars, Drs. Homma and Sato were the guiding lights in the early years.

The NTHK (NPO) features what appears to be the initial organization journal on the covers of their journal, and it has a date of Meiji 43, ie, 1910. After the death of the highly revered Yoshikawa Koen sensei some years ago a schism occurred and we are now treated to two NTHKs, each publishing journals in the same serial sequence, with the same title, Token to Rekishi, and both offering shinsa from time to time in the US. I believe Chris Bowen was living in Japan at the time of that unfortunate, as I see it, split, and I am sure he could add a lot more context.

Arnold F.

[cabowen]

As I stated earlier, the NTHK was formed in Meiji-they were a group of sword lovers dedicated to the preservation of the sword and its related arts during a very dark time. They held regular meetings, provided some financial aid to a few smiths working at that time, and published a sword journal. They did not offer kantei sho as far as I know until much later.

 

After Yoshikawa Kentaro sensei took over as president of the group, Japan's economy boomed and sword collecting enjoyed a period of robustness not seen before nor likely again. The issuing of kantei-sho became a rather profitable business.

 

When Yoshikawa senior passed away, many of the officers and shinsa team members wanted the group to incorporate as a non-profit to put an end to the co-mingling of the group's assets and revenues with those of the Yoshikawa family. Many had wanted regular audits with the financials made public for quite some time as apparently this is how the group had been run previously. With the passing of Yoshihawa, it was felt that the time was right to make this change. A few of the members supported the Yoshikawa family and the continuation of the group as essentially the Yoshikawa family business. Many others didn't. As a result, some people quit, a few backed the Yoshikawa family, and many left and formed the NTHK-NPO, which was granted non-profit status by the government and publishes a financial accounting yearly. A lawsuit was settled allowing both groups the use of the NTHK name.

 

That's it, in a nutshell, as I understand it.

[Toryu2020]

Fukunaga Suiken on the origins and early years of the NTHK -

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/NTHK.htm

 

-t

@shinsa in San Francisco...