New Sword DVD,s in English

[Paul Martin]

Heads up!

 

The All Japan Swordsmiths Association and the Murakumokai have just reproduced their DVD's in English.

 

Not particularly cheap, but straight from the source.

 

http://www.murakumokai.jp/hd.htm

Best

 

P

[Brian]

Paul,

 

A page about a new English release of Nihonto dvd's written entirely in Japanese?

Sounds great though, I have been looking for good dvd's in English. Any chance of summing up the info for us?

I would be very interested in getting a set. If this is one of your projects, then congrats

 

Regards,

Brian

[Paul Martin]

Well, I can say something about the Murakumokai dvd as I have the original

Japanese version. Eight smiths:

 

Ogawa Kanekuni (Jr)

Matsuba Kunimasa

Hayasaka Nobumasa

Mikami Sadanao (mukansa)

Yamamoto Suketada

Kubo Yoshihiro

Sugita Yoshiaki

25th Fujiwara Kanefusa

 

have formed themselves into the happy band called Murakumokai, and they have

a website: http://www.murakumokai.jp/index.htm . Their dvd shows examples

of their swords, they or the narrator talk about their styles of work and

the dvd also has a section on sword appreciation generally. The quality of

the photography is excellent. I have much enjoyed seeing the dvd examples,

especially after having seen four of them in the flesh in Paris two years

ago together with some of their swords in a small exhibition which Pascal

also went to. We wrote up this exhibition for the To-ken Society of Great

Britain and this article is on their website:

http://www.to-ken.com/articles/Murakumokai.htm

together with a few photos. My Japanese being very rudimentary I can grasp

that when the narrator or one of the tosho says someone (dot dot dot)

"mezashteimasu" that means he is aiming for something, but quite what he is

aiming for I currently have to guess, the English translation will be

helpful to me at least (and I may even pick up a bit more Japanese if I know

what they are saying). I happen to like shinsakuto very much and for me

this dvd (in Japanese) is a real visual treat, understanding all of what is

being said will make it that much more interesting.

 

The AJSA dvd I don't know, but I'm guessing it's an introduction to the

Japanese sword, maybe Paul can add some detail here.

Best regards,

Dunckx

[Paul Martin]

Hi All

 

The other DVD is produced by the All Japan Swordsmiths Association and is

called 'Katana--The Spirit and Ancient techniques of the Japanese sword: a

modern challenge (or something like that).

 

Then a bunch of fairly well known young smiths (Kubo san, Takami san, Kiyota san, Fujimoto san etc) work us through all of the stages of making a sword whilst trying to create a sue bizen blade at the Osafune Bizen forge in Okayama. In the introduction they show a couple of blades by living nation treasures Amata sensei and Osumi sensei and a Sue Bizen Sukesada whilst giving a general introduction about swords and Bizen den.

 

They come in NTSC or Pal and are 25,000 JPY each

 

Best

 

P

[Brian]

Just got this info to clarify:

 

Video 1. The All Japan Swordsmiths Association video. Katana--The Spirit and Ancient Techniques of the Japanese Sword: A modern challenge.

 

Features a group of young up and coming smiths taking turns through the different stages of trying to recreat a sue bizen uchi-gatana at the forge in Okayama's Osafune Bizen Museum. Illustrates the sword manufacturing process very well.

(approx 250 usd)

 

Video 2. A collection of the works by the Murakumokai

 

A group of eight smiths from different backgrounds have got together to exchange ideas and promote Japanese swords by joint exhibitions etc.

In the DVD they each introduce two of their works and explain what they were aiming for. There is also a section on appreciating Japanese swords.

 

Through the interviews, you get a real chance to see into the minds of the men who made the blades.

(approx 100 usd)

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Thanks for sharing Paul...