Obituary

[Clive Sinclaire]

Gentlemen

We have just placed an Obituary on http://www.To-ken.com for the recently deceased founder members of our society, Mike Dean and John Harding. These two gentlemen may be known to older collectors of Japanese sword, active especially in the 1970's

Clive Sinclaire

[John A Stuart]

It is sad to hear that two stalwarts have left a hole in the British Nihonto world. John

[kusunokimasahige]

My condoleances for your loss.

[drbvac]

Sorry Clive - may their legacy carry on and God bless them both.

[george trotter]

Hi Clive,

Yes my condolences also. I was an overseas member of that Token Society of GB in the 70s-80s and remember the part they (and people like you and Graham Curtis) played. We in the west owe a big thank you for the quality work they did for the western world in establishing the standards for the true study of Nihonto outside Japan.

They will not be forgotten by us geezers...I must dig out all the old journals and have a re-read.

Regards,

[Davis]

Visiting Mike Dean's shop in St Giles High Street was like stepping back in time to another era. He had at least two racks of very fine swords. When he later moved shop to Museum Street he didn't seem to carry as many in his stock and on the last occasion I visited there he only had one sword. His interest then seemed to be concentrated on Lacquer work.

 

I also remember John Harding, never really spoke to him, just listened and tried to learn. Sidney Divers (also in the photograph) had I believe a very fine collection at "Hunters Moon". On one occasion the ToKen organised an auction at one of the regular meetings at the Princess Louise, a pub in Holborn. Members had been asked to bring surplus items from their collections that they no longer wanted. As about 40 members turned up, many bringing swords, etc it was a very good evening. Sidney Divers seemed to buy up virtually everything. I didn't enter the bidding as there were to many very knowledgeable people present. However, after the "sale" I timidly approached Sidney and asked him if he would sell me one of the swords he had just bought, if I gave him a small profit. He knew that I was new to collecting and he agreed. So I walked from that meeting with a reasonable shinshinto katana for £35. Those were the days.

Mick

[Bazza]

Clive, thank you for notifying the membership of Mike and John’s passing and my sincere condolences to their families. I remember well these luminaries of those days and am saddened to hear of their passing.

 

Like George and many others I'm also a geezer from 70s and remember well the high educational value for a wide-eyed newbie of the “Programme”, the newsletter of the To-ken Society of Great Britain. I still have most of the issues and have been “gunner” turn them into PDFs for many years now and I earnestly hope that isn't an ideal thwarted by falling off my perch any time soon!! I think that the internet these days has long since overtaken the knowledge contained in the pages of the “Programme”, but I'm equally sure there are still pearls of wisdom therein. Bon Dale was another very active To-ken member and I think it was he who was the primary organiser of The Ashmolean Museum exhibition. Some of you may have the catalogue, within which a most memorable piece was the three-foot long tanto... Bon and I had some correspondence in those far-off times.

 

With sadness,

Barry Thomas.