Orlando Sword Show-June 17Th-18Th. Mike Yamasaki: Opinions On Nihonto & Kodogu

[nihonto1001]

This is going to be Epic.  Pass it on...  

Mike Yamasaki, assisted by Joe Forcine: Kantei/Attribution/Evaluation

Saturday, June 18th, 1:00-3:00.

I am happy to announce that we will be attending this year's Orlando show, put on by my old friend, Bob Elder. In the spirit of continuing education around the hobby of collecting Japanese swords and fittings, I would like to offer a session in which guests can bring in one sword, or one fitting, and I will offer my personal opinion about their piece. I would like to limit the blades to pre-Meiji works. This will not be a shinsa, but rather an informal kantei/attribution to help owners learn more about their artifacts. My personal opinion in no way has any connection whatsoever with the NBTHK, or any of its branches. No fees will be charged, however, donations will happily be accepted and forwarded to the Kumamoto Earthquake Relief Fund.

Sincerely,
M. Yamasaki
www.tetsugendo.com

Note: Please sign up ahead for an appointment with Bob Elder.

There will be other great events: http://www.japaneseswordshow.com/orlando/schedule-of-events/

[Pete Klein]

Jon -- I sent a table request through the web page about three weeks ago and have yet to receive a response.  Any suggestions?

 

Pete

[Mark S.]

All I can say is if you are going to the show and you DON'T take advantage of this opportunity... to put it politely... you're crazy!!!

 

Mike is helpful, gracious, and is genuine in his advice. He looked at a blade for me at the Chicago show and was more than helpful. The best part is he explains exactly what he sees and tries his best to make his attribution understandable... even to a newbie like me.

 

If it's good news, he'll smile along with you... if it's bad news he'll be honest, but won't make you feel worse...

 

Mark S.

[nihonto1001]

Hi Pete-

 

Bob asked me to add you to the Table Holder page, so he must have received notification. Please contact him directly, via phone (on website), to confirm.

 

I look forward to seeing you there.

[Pete Klein]

Thanks Jon -- will do.  Driving up that Friday morning.

 

Pete

[Brian]

Don't forget to add any events or special functions to the calendar.

[Taz575]

How do we sign up for kantei service?  I am sending one of my wakizashi's down to Wally Hostetter in Florida to have some work done and he is willing to bring my Wak to have it checked out in person by you guys.  Also, how can I do a donation?  I would love to go down there myself, but work gets in the way

[nihonto1001]

Hi Tim:

 

I am sure you can make arrangements with Bob Elder, or Mike Yamasaki, himself.  Bob's contact info is on the site.  Mike's website link can be found on the Events page here:

 

http://www.japaneseswordshow.com/orlando/schedule-of-events/

 

I will also be at the show, and will be happy to assist.  Jon, 561-201-6500.
 

[nihonto1001]

Here are some of the great events being planned for the Orlando Japanese Sword Show, June 17th-19th: 
http://www.japaneseswordshow.com/orlando/schedule-of-events/
Would you like to attend? Just click on the page for details.

[Grey Doffin]

I will be at the show and can take with me any book from my site you'd like to see (and buy).  I will be buying books at the show; if you have any to sell and will be attending, let me know ahead of time and I'll tell you what I can do.

Cheers,  Grey

[Taz575]

Thanks for the info!

[nihonto1001]

This is Jon Healy, I am helping out with the Orlando Japanese Sword Show website: http://www.japaneseswordshow.com/orlando/. I would like to catalog this year's event with many photos. So, if you are attending, feel free to post your pics on the Orlando Japanese Sword Show Facebook page, or here on NMB (better). I will incorporate the better pics into the website.

[Stephen]

Seen SGJ table pix sure wish i was there.....sigh!

[Taz575]

Where do you see pics?

[Stephen]

Face book

[obiwanknabbe]

Hey.. if any of you are at the show, 1) im very jealous... 2) let me know if you see any katana sized silver semegane. I will wire the money directly to you !

 

Kurt

[Taz575]

FB link?  I checked around and couldn't find any pics yet??  Is SGJ a person or business page on FB?

[SwordGuyJoe]

SGJ is a person. An awesome one!

[Taz575]

Can you share or shoot me a link to your photos?  I am stuck at work by my sword is down there with Wally Hostetter, so I have to live vicariously thru pics!

[Stephen]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1270258076332662&set=p.1270258076332662&type=3&theater

[Taz575]

Link doesn't work? Is it in a closed group?  I did find some pictures from Orlando Battadou fb page...looks like an awesome show!!

[Stephen]

its a FB page, http://www.japaneseswordshow.com/orlando/

[Stephen]

Sad to hear, seems theirs a big buzz at this table,

 

 

Tsunami Tiger and their colored blades

 

 

is this a knife fantasy show as well? 

[Taz575]

I am interested in the Tsunami Tiger product reception as well.  They are marketed as cutting blades, not as nihonto, but the colors/themes and stuff seem a bit odd.  Not much online about them yet?  I think this was to be their first major show, but one of the guys was sick or something the first day?

[SwordGuyJoe]

They are excellent Chinese blades!

[SwordGuyJoe]

At least they aren't pretending to be nihonto.

[Markus]

Got to kill some time at Orlando airport so I copy some FB pics from various channels over here. Guess its ok as they are already on FB but if someone has some objections, just let me know and I take them down again.

Excellent show and our "Orlando mini Shinsa" was a great experience! Thanks Mike for doing it and Joe and Jon and all the others who were helping and also a big thanks to Bob for the organzation! See you next year guys (well, most of you probably in a couple of months in SF)

 

[seattle1]

Hello:

  The Orlando show  show promoted by Bob Elder delivered all that was promised, it was well attended, more than twice as large as his show last year held at a smaller venue, and I saw no vacant tables. Bob went out of his way to make everyone feel welcome and while there might not have been a lot of buying and selling, the displays were excellent and the various events Bob had scheduled were highly educational. Every event I saw provided various useful take always, and not to slight anyone else I particularly enjoyed Joe Forcine's discussion of a half dozen excellent swords, and Mike Yamazaki's sit down discussion of swords brought to him for assessment. Mike's depth of knowledge and ability to draw useful inferences from what he was looking at was highly educational. Contributions made for his verbal comments on the blades brought to him are going to the Kumamoto area of Kyushu which recently suffered a very strong and damaging earthquake. Mike also discussed some of the ins and outs of sword and tosogu assessment and papering in Japan, something that most of us know very little about. That discussion if put into practice could save lots of bucks and disappointments in the paper chase game. Swords weren't the only topic of course and I got the impression that tsuba are still a major focus as they have been for the last ten years or so, but people are becoming more discriminating when buying in the tosogu area as the rising prices for them bring in the unscrupulous just as with gimei and misrepresented swords.

 While there were folks there from beyond Florida I had the impression that most table holders were from that general Florida area.  Some dealers, collectors and other folks were from quite a ways away and to name just a few Grey Doffin and Mark Jones came from the upper Midwest; Markus Sesko now living in North Carolina was there helping out with his terrific ability to usefully clarify Japanese linguistic and historical puzzles; Bill Miller from Tyrone, Georgia had his usual display of something interesting, this time a  matchlock that even from close up looked just like an uchi-gatana. Livio Cillio was there from Maryland with many interesting older Buddhist objects and Korean ceramics, and on and on.

 The usual inventory adjustment equilibrium exchanges were in full swing. That doesn't always generate a big financial number, but it is a highly valuable process that is never mentioned in show promotion. In addition all shows are a vital, really vital, events for  both dealers and collectors as you get to know who is who in that world, meet old friends, get a feeling for quality changes in what is brought to shows,  a feeling for price changes, and of course  you learn more about who has what that you might want down the line.

 I hope Bob Elder continues to expand the Orlando show and that it will become a  'must go to event ' as are the Tampa, Chicago and San Francisco shows, at least for the collectors in the US and Canada.

 Arnold F. 

[nihonto1001]

Too many to upload...

 

https://www.facebook.com/oni.honto/posts/263021414072201

 

Enjoy.  More soon.