Newbie

[Joey H.]

Hello,

 

My name is Joey, and I have always been intrested in swords, but just recently found out about Nihonto. I have a few swords although all are just wall hangers. I would like to someday own a Nihonto. Over the last few days I have been searching the web for information on Nihonto and have found a lot but yet at the same time not a lot of info. I am starting to pick a few things up here and there, but I am not for sure what sites I should and shouldn't be visting or where to really start. Any and all info that anyone could give me would be very helpful.

 

The thing that actually got me in to Nihonto was the Secrets of the Samurai special and seeing the work of Gassan Sadayoshi.

 

Thanks,

Joey H.

[Logan_86]

Hi Logan.

 

Welcome! I'm pretty much in the same position as you, but I can say that this is one of the best places around for absorbing knowledge. Most of the little I know regarding Nihonto I learned from reading the posts of other members of this board.

 

A good place to start is buying a few books, a list of books can be found at the top of this page under "Suggested Reading". I personally highly recommend "The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords" by Kokan Nagayama, it can be found on Amazon for around $40US if I remember correctly.

 

Being a newbie myself the only advice I can really offer is don't get too far ahead of yourself like I did.. Make sure you can at least tell a complete fake from the real thing before you buy, especially if you're looking on eBay. Anything from China is highly suspect, but there are fakes from pretty much everywhere these days.

 

Best of luck!

 

Regards,

 

Logan H

 

 

Edit- I meant "Hi Joey"... Can you tell I'm a bit sleep deprived?

[Brian]

Hi Joey,

 

Welcome to the world of Nihonto.

If you look at the links page above the forum, you will find most of the informational pages there, and browsing through them should provide you with many months worth of reading.

One of the best pages to start out with is Rich Stein's Japanese Sword Index, and pay special notes to the books page, with excellent recommendations.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have, but be aware that many of them will be answered in the pages above.

 

Regards,

Brian

[mizushima]

Joey,

 

There are 2 articles one Darcy Brockbank's site that I think are great beginning articles for a basic framework of understanding the "big picture" of nihonto classifications and ratings.

 

They are

http://www.nihonto.ca/classification.html

http://www.nihonto.ca/ratings.html

[Gabriel L]

Greetings Joey! You are already in the right place, and you've received some spot-on advice. I will plug my own brief collection of reviews on some English-language nihonto books, not because they're not already listed and recommended elsewhere but because I think it might help you decide on what to spend your money on first: The Paper Armoury: Japanese Swords. The only thing of value () that I will add to this discussion however is to get out and see the real thing, either at a museum, sword study group, or token kai. Nothing compares to personal experience!

 

Over on myArmoury we had a discussion on this PBS special. I had a couple of minor criticisms of it, but hearing from you that it sparked your interest in nihonto sweeps all of those away as far as I am concerned. Gassan Sadatoshi is one of the best smiths alive today, and the brief glimpses of his work in that special were the highlights. If you ever travel to New York, there is a gorgeous blade by him on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Cheers,

-Gabriel L.

[Joey H.]

Thank you everyone,

 

I will be sure to check out all those sites and books. I really appreiate all the info and hopefully this will help me learning more about Nihonto. If I find anything that I might not understand I will be sure to ask about it here.

 

Gabriel,

Yeah, seeing Gassan working on that blade was just amazing. I have always had an interest katana's as well as samurai. I always felt that they were still making nihonto in the tradional ways, but never knew anything about it. Seeing this though showed me some of the ways they were made as well as a name that I could search. Doing a search for Gassan SadaYoshi lead me to nihonto. To be totaly honest seeing the katana at the end of the show REALLY got to me. Just seeing the little bit of it that we do I just knew that was a beautiful blade.

 

Okay, just to clarify that I am reading this right there are basicly two diffrent types of blades that are common Tachi(really curved or straight) and BUKE-ZUKURI (slight-curve) being the one that is the most common?

[Gabriel L]

Hi Joey,

 

It's actually Gassan Sadatoshi. Gassan Sadayoshi is the famous founder of the 19th century version of the old Gassan school; Sadatoshi is part of this lineage of excellent smiths. For more information, see here or buy the book Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present.

 

Regarding blade development, there are several kinds of swords that change over time and many kinds of mountings to go with them. Books will give you a much more thorough overview of this progression, but for long swords, the tachi was used for much of the Koto ("old sword," roughly 11th-16th centuries) period, while the katana become more popular at the end of the Koto period and continued until the 20th century. After WWII, the craft was reborn as a traditional art, strictly not for combat, and so smiths make whatever kind of sword they like.

 

Very early straight swords, originally imported from China/Korea and then eventually made in Japan, are called Chokuto. These were made from about the 5th century to the 11th century. They come in a variety of forms and workmanship and mounts, each of which has a name "tachi" but spelled with different Chinese characters; "chokuto" is the collective name for these early varieties. Some are folded, some have hamon (hard white edge steel from differential hardening heat treatment), some are flat, some have a ridgeline near the edge, etc. They were the precursor to the true Japanese tachi listed below.

 

Tachi tend to be longer and more slender, with smaller points, and the focus of curvature back near the handle. They can have slightly stronger curvature. They are worn edge-down and have distinctive tachi koshirae (mounts) with various rings and chapes. They are signed on the side of the nakago (tang) that faces outwards when worn.

 

Katana tend to be shorter, more even and shallow in curvature, and taper less. They are also signed on the side that faces outwards when worn, but since they are worn edge-up through the obi (sash), that means they are signed on the opposite side compared to tachi. Their koshirae (mounts) are sometimes called buke-zukuri mounts; this refers to the style of mounting, not the blade. I don't hear many people using this term in everyday speech though.

 

Lots of these basic questions can be best answered by reading one of the introductory books. While we're happy to help "newbies" out with their questions, you'll probably find it easier and faster to read first and then ask questions on the more confusing points.

 

Cheers,

-GLL

[Joey H.]

hanks Gabriel, I will just read all the info first, and then if any questions that come up aren't cleared up I will post a question. Well I might not be on for a while since I have a lot of reading to do. Jezz and I thought I was done with homework! Good thing history was one of my favorite subjects.

 

Peace,

Joey H.

[Gabriel L]

Thanks Gabriel, I will just read all the info first, and then if any questions that come up aren't cleared up I will post a question.

You'll be reading forever then. Seriously though, just one of the introductory books should get you pretty far along in the basics. Hope to see hanging around though!

Cheers,

GLL

[Jacques]

hi,

 

I personally think that one of the best book for a beginner is the book written by Kanzan Sato Sensei - The Japanese Sword "a compréhensive guide".

[Joey H.]

lol yeah apparently there is a lot of info. I think I am gonna start with Samurai Sword: A Handbook by John M. Yumoto, and The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide by Kanzan Sato. From everything that I can tell these are what everyone seems to recommend/recongise and the best for beginers.