Is Anybody In Massachusetts Looking For Adventure?

[Peter Bleed]

Last week while passing a wonderful couple of days at the Springfield Armory National Historic lLandmark, I discovered a trove of Japanese polearms that somebody in New England really should document. Like a lot of old museums, the Armory has fallen heir to some Japanese arms. I did not have time to see all of them, but I did see a group of yari (including a couple of jumonji-yari etc. all with saya and hadome) AND a matched pair (!) of nagamaki. I briefly looked at one of these, but I did not get to see the nakago. The blade “looked” pretty good, but it did not reveal much to me. It has an original old polish that deserves a cleaning and a close inspection. The blade had a hamon and was certainly more than daito length. It seemed to be set with 2 mekugi, one of which was filled with a brass fitting. I took that to mean that the weapon I saw could be ubu. The close match of the pair struck me as suspicious. I mean, could they be Meiji-era curtain rods? Bannerman was offering them for that purpose. But, full size ubu nagamaki are not at all common. They deserve inspection. Arranging to see them would take a bit of doing, but I found the Armory staff very positive. I’ll bet a wonderful session could be arranged to look at these blades. They could be very publishable.

Peter

[Vermithrax16]

Peter, 

I am a Massachusetts native, is this in Springfield, MA?

[Peter Bleed]

Well, YES, Jeremiah. I was thinking of you specifically.

Peter

[Vermithrax16]

I will look into it Peter.

[Blazeaglory]

Pics?

[Surfson]

Road trip!

[Stephen]

More good fun. We need more stories like this n less Ebay deceit.

[Vermithrax16]

I have reached out to the site, will see what I hear back.

[JakeNYC]

Anything ever come of this?

[Bugyotsuji]

Agreed. Sounds interesting.

PS Spent some happy years in Mass. A very long time ago.