Day Two Of Chicago Sword Show

[b.hennick]

A big thank you to Mark Jones and family who provided a warm welcome, a sold out show and a bag of goodies for table holders. The bagels and coffee this morning were also appreciated. 

A big thank you is extended to the JSSUS (Japanese Sword Society of the United States) and the American Branch of the NBTHK for their presentations at Day two of the Chicago sword show.

 

Grey Doffin on behalf of the JSSUS gave presentation focussed on sword handling, etiquette and care aimed at beginners. It is hoped that his lessons will see better care and handling of swords at shows.

 

Mike Yamazaki of the American Branch of the NBTHK provided an educational experience for all participants. He had five fittings that each table of participants studied and then discussed leading to a consensus on the fitting. Our aim was to determine whether the NBTHK would pass the piece at shinsa and noted the reasons for our judgement. After all groups had studied each piece Mike asked for our pass/fail decisions and reasons. He then gave us the answer and the reasons why a piece would pass or fail. He insured learned for all participants.

 

Bob Benson of the American Branch of the NBTHK introduced a great assortment of papered, polished, signed tanto for hands-on examination. There were Koto, Shinto and Shinshinto examples for study. Bob explained that tanto have all the activities of katana but since they are smaller it is more difficult to do this. He mentioned specific things to look for in several of the blades. 

 

Thank you to those who organized these events, did the work, provided the materials for study and shared their knowledge. 

 

Joining these organizations will help to further their aims - to encourage, to support and to educate people interested in all aspects of nihonto. 

 

Thanks also to the messageboard members who dropped by my table to introduce themselves to me. It is great to put a face to the people behind the avatars.

[John A Stuart]

Thanks for the up-date Barry. John

[Jean]

Thanks for taking time to let us know the show events, Barry

[Derek]

I had a great time!  One of my favorite things is to walk from table to table and see the variety. 

Barry, it was a pleasure to talk to you at length!  Mark, thank you for hosting a great show.

I drooled over a few things out of my budget, bought and sold a few things, but most importantly got the chance to learn!

Danny Massey gave me a great hands-on instruction on jishin saku blades; that Yoshihiro was gorgeous!  Overall, it was just really nice to talk to a bunch of great people with similar interests.

 

[LakeBum]

I was there on sat and it was a really great morning.  There were a ton of great swords to look at and the dealers were more than happy to answer questions (which I had a ton).  I got to see my first Minotogawa blade in person :D.  For me it was more of a learning day, and there were a ton of great people to learn from!  If I could have convinced my wife that the kantie would have been better than shopping I would have been there for that but the sword handleing and preservation session was well done!

 

A big thanks to everyone that helped put it on!

[Peter Bleed]

Indeed, the 2015 Chicago show was a big success. Mark and his family made it run very smoothly and were warm and positive. There was a good turn out and lots of very good stuff to see – tho I have to say that I was unable to find any Sendai Shinto. Well, actually, I heard of one that is about to come on the market - - for $189,000. Without seeing it, tho, I did not commit to buying it.

Peter

[harvg]

Well said Barry, and nice to see a familiar face at my first Shinsa! Thoroughly enjoyed the show, and got some good info. from Grey Doffin's seminar. Thanks to all who had a hand in pulling off a great event!

 

Harvg

[Ron STL]

What a fun week it was in Chicago. The KTK convention preceded the sword show with some touring and partying. A special showing of 56 selected tsuba from the Field Museum's Gunsaulus Collection took place on Thursday. While only a small number of the tsuba would appeal to the serious collector, it was interesting to see what was purchased by Gunsaulus back in the 19th century. Several late Edo kinko were pretty amazing pieces of work. Then the "sword crowd" began to arrive at the hotel and the lobby bar became quite busy. Mark and his family did a fantastic job with the show as Barry wrote about. Their goal was to bring in some fresh buyers into the show which seemed to work, and to make table holders and visitors happy. That they did, indeed! The NBTHK session was excellent, what not to like about the Kiyomaro tanto in the tanto display! Nick Nakamura, KTK president, displayed some super rare iron tsuba to enjoy, all with great provenance! What a treat to see! We need to watch Danny Massey's site nihontocraft for some fresh consignments that will tempt us all!

 

Personally, I didn't want to spend money and was in more of a fund raising mode. So while enjoying seeing some wonderful items I managed to keep my wallet in my pocket. Sold a couple blades to friends which was good for the fund building cause. Always great to socialize with old and new friends. Super thanks to Mark and family once again!

 

Ron

[Fred Geyer]

Agree  with Ron about the  Field Museum's Gunsaulus Collection  did matter if it was a good signature just had to be pretty in hand, bold design as I am sure they were all $2.00 each or less in that time of history.

 

Also changed my photo to one of the tsuba we saw, was great carving!

 

Fred Geyer   

[Ron STL]

Fred, looks just like you!   Only joking, of course...Ron STL