Kantei assistance please

[jamesicus]

I haven't participated in any real-life kantei sessions -- I have learned what little I know following postings on this Message Board which, I might add, I have found to be very informative and enlightening. I would appreciate all comments, suggestions and corrections to my kantei attempt at ..........

 

http://jp29.org/nihnagamaki.htm

 

.......... please forgive me sending you to an off-site web page, but there is simply too much information and too many images to post it all here. I will be glad to post any information excerpts or images here should this post generate some discussion.

 

I might add that Paul B. assisted me with some of the information a while ago, but I became quite ill at that time and had to abandon the project. I am very grateful to Paul for his assistance at that time.

 

James

[Brian]

James,

Your general conclusions seem fair from what I can see.

 

Brian

[Ken-Hawaii]

Yes, pretty good job, James.

 

Ken

[jamesicus]

James,

Your general conclusions seem fair from what I can see.

 

Brian

Thank you for your input, Brian.

 

James

[jamesicus]

Yes, pretty good job, James.

 

Ken

Thank you, Ken.

 

James

[jamesicus]

Again, I want to thank Brian Robinson and Ken-Hawaii for responding to my initial request. I would also like to thank Paul Bowman for his prior help and now Darcy Brockbank for the great information he has provided me.

 

And now I am requesting additional input from Board members -- please excuse my urgency, but I feel the sands of time are beginning to run out on me and I am anxious to complete this project to the best of my ability.

 

The latest iteration of my web page is at:

 

http://jp29.org/nihnagamaki.htm

 

An afterthought - just a little background information:

 

In the early 1960s (mostly in 1961) I frequently visited the National Museum in Tokyo (and some Tokyo sword shops) in an effort to learn as much as I could about Nihontô. That was an enormous struggle. The only Nihontô book written in English that was avaialable to me at that time was "The Samurai Sword - A Handbook" by John M. Yumoto. Of course there was no Internet available for research and no public sword shows to visit. I eventually made enough of a pest of myself at the National Museum (bombarding guards who spoke no English with questions that they couldn't understand - or answer) that I was invited into that long room with high wooden desks where the sensei worked. I was received there with polite friendliness. I soon found that those old gentlemen (Ô-ji-san) were very willing to help me learn about Nihontô -- the trouble was that none of them spoke much English and my Japanese was very limited at that time. It was frustrating -- they were trying to explain blade terminology and the nuances of hataraki, etc. in rapid fire Japanese and I was trying to take it all in while understanding very little. Of course, over the years I have managed to catch up somewhat with Nihontô afficianados by reading authoritative books, researching via the Internet and participating in this Forum. I am, however, still no expert -- nowhere near in the class with many of the luminaries here.

 

James