nihonto mounds

[French nihonto]

hello gentlemen
 

I'm looking for info / articles / pictures on old nihonto found in mounds of earth during excavations, some have been restored I think? there isn't a lot of info on the net regarding these blades and it's digs.

 

[vajo]

Did you know the book Reborn?

 

 

 

Some interesting swords in found condition and restored.

[French nihonto]

ah no I don't know, it is easily found? in any case from what I see it looks very interesting, even if there is always the barrier of the language of Japanese ... the more I study, the more I want to learn, the more I get says that learning Japanese becomes "compulsory" because not knowing this language becomes a handicap.
  To come back to the subject, do you think that all that needs to be discovered has been discovered, or there may still be great discoveries in this area?
Maybe I'm wrong and I'm counting on you to correct me, but I have the impression that the Japanese have a very specific archelogical culture. To give an example, in Europe historical sites have been excavated enormously, each restoration of a site almost necessarily involves an excavation. So that in Japan, once again I have the impression that the golden age of archeology and in front of them.

[Toryu2020]

Sir -

I think you are correct, the Japanese tend not to excavate the many Kofun 古墳 scattered about the country as they see these as the graves of ancient emperors. Some say its because they are afraid to discover their ancestors are all Korean or worse aliens! in any case most have not been excavated.

 

If I were to embark on such a study as you suggest, just using the internet I would start with the Shosoin, museums in Nara and Asuka and then look for museums associated with Kofun that might have excavated swords and armor in their collections.

 

An interesting idea...

-t

[French nihonto]

strongly that Japan passes above certain beliefs, because they have an incredible archaeological and historical reservoir, which will eventually disappear.
For us, student of nihonto, it is the possibility of increasing the subjects of study for certain distant period, whose works are rarer.

thanks for the info, I'll try to do a study on it. What are the sites already searched, what was found on these sites. what are the promising sites which remain and what is the potential of discovery in these sites. I may be sent emails to museums and universities in Japan for that.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I do not have great interest into the very early swords of Japan. Have you read the amazing write up by Carlo Tacchini - On the Origins of Nihonto? I believe it can be found from NMB.

I do have the above mentioned Reborn book and also some Shōsō-in (and other early) items featured in my books. Also as I have plenty of Tōken Bijutsu magazines there are several of them that feature very detailed articles on early swords but unfortunately my Japanese is not good enough to fully read them. I can try to look for some of them as I remember some featuring maps in pics etc. similar information.