New Member Introductions

[David Flynn]

Hello and welcome Gunnar.

[ububob]

I am glad you found this forum Gunnar. Hope you enjoy it. :D

[JPenn]

Hello. I'd like to introduce myself.

 

I've been interested in this subject for quite a long time. History in general and pre-modern Japanese history in particular has fascinated me since my childhood- classic coffee-table books such as Bottomley/Hopson's 'Arms and Armor of the Samurai' and Stephen Turnbull books were my bedside reading interest and Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition games were my Super Mario Brothers. Having an opportunity to see taiga dramas such as Taiheiki and Nobunaga: King of Zipangu on late night 'leased-time' programming as a young one was fascinating also. The men and deeds of these times were the heroes and fantasies of my childhood.

 

Historical Japanese arms are a nearly incredible material legacy, with a quantity and variety of surviving pieces unequaled on Earth. Where else can one regularly find treasures over three, four centuries old? The idea of collecting nihonto is staggering and even humbling in its age and depth of knowledge. Even after ten years of some internet and book study (I know many names on this site well, from places such as Sword Forum and Richard Stein's tremendously informative site I was very glad to find a decade ago) I know I can only begin to comprehend this subject that scholars have been growing for centuries.

 

The Second World War is another subject that I've been fascinated with for life, and as a re-enactor who interacts with the public I also study it with strong interest. And one result of that war, for better or worse, was the massive diaspora of antique Japanese arms around the world and especially to my home country of the United States. I believe it is our opportunity and even our duty to preserve this historically freakish material legacy of authentic Japanese arms, at all levels of merit of art and craftsmanship. And what a craft it is!

 

I can only hope to be a careful steward of this legacy.

 

J. Charles Penn

[John A Stuart]

Glad to have you aboard. John

[David Flynn]

G'day and welcome.

[xxlotus8xx]

The Second World War is another subject that I've been fascinated with for life, and as a re-enactor who interacts with the public I also study it with strong interest. And one result of that war, for better or worse, was the massive diaspora of antique Japanese arms around the world and especially to my home country of the United States. I believe it is our opportunity and even our duty to preserve this historically freakish material legacy of authentic Japanese arms, at all levels of merit of art and craftsmanship. And what a craft it is!

 

I can only hope to be a careful steward of this legacy.

 

J. Charles Penn

 

Well spoken. And welcome to the "rough and ready" NMB board. Imagine it as being the Star Wars Catina of Nihonto experts and Scholars . Lot's to be learned here so enjoy!

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello to all members!

 

My name is Anthony de Vos, I'm living in Sweden. I finally, with help from admin, managed to register here at this great forum. I'm a newbie and want to learn a lot about my rather new hobby. I find it wonderful to find so much knowlege in one place. In hard negotiations with my wife, I've managed to aquire 4 nihonto to study so far.

 

Greatings,

 

Anthony de Vos

[Bugyotsuji]

Hello Anthony and welcome to the site. I visit here every day. It's great!

 

PS Please tell me how you succeed with your wife!

[lawlord]

Dear all,

 

I am very happy to join this forum, where I hope to find new friends, knowledge and inspiration for nihonto studies.

I live in Moscow, Russia and have had different personal, business and sport ties with Oriental countries for a long time. I'm very interested in nihonto and currently hold just two pieces - a gendaito tanto of Akihide and a Yamashiro Hasebe katana of Nanbokucho era. Hope to encrease this collection in the future with your help and advice! ))

 

Regards,

 

Yury

[David Flynn]

Welcome, Anthony and Yuri.

[Muki]

Just wanted to say Hi. I have been living in Japan for a number of years and have just recently interested in collecting swords. Finally bought one recently and am now in the very busy process of learning as much as I can.

 

It was very nice to find a board like this in English as I have a hard time following the Japanese sword discussions on the internet over here. I hope to learn quite a bit from the folks here and I think this will be the case after reading many posts prior to joining.

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Muki, that is just about my situation too. Good luck with your studies.

[masahiro560]

Hi!

I'm Agripino Mendoza

I have been studying about nihonto in books and pictures for about five years now

I'm 15 so I'm still learning my english

I'm from the philippines

 

My Interest in nihonto stemmed from watching anime

It started from shinai to nihonto

But my interest in nihonto gradually seperated from anime

And became a seperate interest outside Japanese Anime

 

I have been interested in World war II for a long time

and have been fascinated with the many stories about World war II

My uncle was a small boy back then, but he watched many executions on the beach

He always told me how the Japanese used their swords to cut down the heads of many

I still visit that beach until today and could only imagine.....

If only an officer could've left a sword at our old house when they raided it for guerilla info....

 

I hope we can share our knowledge about nihonto

I own a Mario DeGuzman made iaito (The person who made the swords for Ran and a few hollywood movies) which I find pleasing

I also own a wakizashi made by the same person

And a world war II 1943 Kanenori

All came from my pockets :D

 

 

Thank you

Agripino Mendoza

[David Flynn]

Welcome Agripino, thank you for sharing your infomation on the Kanenori. Even if the sword is a bit "rough", it's not a bad start.

[ububob]

Charles, Antony, Yury and Agripino, welcome to all of you. Enjoy the forum. :D

[Soshin]

This is a much delayed introduction as I have been a official member Nihonto Message Board since 2009. This is also upon request Mr. Ford Hallam. If this is not the right location for such a introduction thread Brian or one of the other moderators please move my thread the correct forum. I have started to update a website provided by my ISP to talk more about my interests and hobbies. I have included the link it at the end of my message signature. I will be updating as often as I can with more content about myself.

I have a professional background in the Biological Sciences as well as biostatistics, statistical data analysis, and laboratory quality control. I am currently working for a genomic services company in the Washington, DC metro area but with work experience as a federal employee and contractor in the past.

I have been interested in Japanese culture, art, and history since college around 1999 and started collecting Japanese art in 2001. I have traveled to Japan four different times in the last five years on long vacations to help enhance my understanding of Japanese language, history, geography, and culture. In 2008 I gotten ride of my small Nihonto collection in favor of a more serious approach to collecting of fine tosogu. I would generally regard myself as a specialist collector in the realm of tosogu as I have a deep interest in collecting and discussing pieces that contain cultural references such as religion (Buddhism and Shinto) and original Japanese or imported Chinese folktales. The focus of my collection are iron tsuba of the following schools/groups Yagyu, Owari Sukashi, Nobuie and copies, Yamakichibei and copies, Tempo, Satome, Katchushi, and Tosho tsuba. There are also some Shoami, Namban, and Umetada tsuba I like as well. This is in additional to the normal discussions of connoisseurship which include classification (historical period, geographic location, and tradition) and assessments of craftsmanship/artistry. I have been a member of the American Branch of the Nippon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai (NBTHK) since 2007 and a member of the Mid Atlantic Token Kai (MATK) since 2003.

I also enjoy Japanese martial arts in my free time away from work have been active practicing for four years. I am looking forward to many intellectual conversations about tosogu, Japanese history, art, and culture. As well as an analysis of the finer points of tosogu connoisseurship and a free exchange of information allowing members to build better collections. Feel free to contact me any time via private message on this message board and thank you for reading this long-winded introduction. :D

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S.

[Ford Hallam]

That's pretty thorough introduction, David :D what I meant was that you didn't introduce yourself on your own website :lol: Here, we're quite used to knowing very little about most contributors (and in many cases I rather suspect that's for the better ) but on a personal website it just seemed like an oversight hence me mentioning it.

 

I hope you didn't think me rude.

 

regards,

 

Ford

[bluboxer]

Well that was still a very nice introduction.

Nice little website David, I did not see the NMB in the links tho. Thanks for sharing.

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks for the detailed fill-in!

[johnb]

Interesting......it might be nice to know a little more of the members of this message board. What do we all think? We could even start a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours, sort of nihonto Masonic thing!

 

Johnb

[Brian]

Think I slipped up and moved this entire thread into a private area.

Oh well...here it is back now, and posts merged in the correct place.

 

Brian

[Soshin]

Interesting......it might be nice to know a little more of the members of this message board. What do we all think? We could even start a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours, sort of nihonto Masonic thing!

 

Johnb

 

Hi John B.,

 

It sounds like a interesting idea. As long as no back scratching is done with a Nihonto... My attempt at some bad humor. I just wanted to introduce myself to the large NMB community after having gained so much from being a member since 2009. I also enjoy working on my website and wanted some more feedback about it.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S.

[john weeks]

Hi, this is my third entry so I thought I should introduce myself. I've been following NMB for over a year now, trying to learn as much as possible. I have a dozen or more books on Nihonto specifically, and many more on samurai, etc. Been interested in "samurai swords" since at least the 70s and most forms of weapons much longer. I practiced Hakka-ryu ju-jitsu in the 70s and Shorin-ryu (Siebukan) karate in the 80s, hence my interest in Japanese weapons, etc. I was fortunate to be introduced to a Nihonto collector by another friend of mine several years ago. He has a great collection...Muramasa,Masamune,Nagamitsu,...and many others I can't remember!(100-150?) He has polished professionally in the past and has been teaching me to finger polish w/hazyu & jizyu stones. I'm really "just learning", on a few mumei I've picked up the last couple years! Very slow and time consuming!!! I plan to continue learning and hope to contribute to the MB if possible. John Weeks

[John A Stuart]

He has some serious swords. You are lucky to know him. John

[paulb]

John,

welcome to the board and I hope you continue to gain a lot from the board and your study.

One of the subjects much discussed on here is that of people new to the subject wanting to polish blades. A couple of your comments raised alarm bells and need to be commented on.

You are indeed very fortunate to be in contact with someone who appears to hold so many high status blades, from your brief description it would, if authentic, rival some of the greatest collections, such as that of Walter Compton, ever held outside Japan. Normally to see such swords one would expect to have to travel to Japan. To have it on your doorstep is very fortunate.

You mention that he polished proffessionally, was he trained in Japan and did he serve an apprenticeship? As one who holds such high quality swords I would hope he fully understands the importance of having such work polished or restored by a fully trained polisher. I would also hope he would understand the dangers of casual instruction.

I am also concerned that you are practicing on blades that are mumei. The implication in your post that these may be of less importance because they are not signed. This is absolutley not the case. Many, many top rated blades are unsigned and to think it is ok to practice polishing on them just because they lack a signature is misguided and potentially very damaging. Again I would hope your collector friend would be aware of this.

I have no wish to put you off your interest or deminish your enthusiasm for a subject that we all love but please do not consider polishing blades unless you are prepared to take tuition from a properly trained and qualified (In Japan) polisher.

[robsawitski]

Hello all,

 

I'm a newbee to Nihonto Message Board and to Japanese swords. I've been a martial arts/ samurai movie/Japanese history buff since I was a kid (30+ years ago). This is the first time I've actually bought one, which if you've read my post under Military Swords (Is this an old samurai blade or a WWII blade?) you'll know that I got a dud (my goal was to get a real samurai blade and have it restored for a family heirloom).

 

Anyway, I think I've gotten the sword bug bad. I've always been facinated by them and have even study their use a bit in iaido classes. This WWII sword won't be my last.

 

I appreciate the help that you all have given with identifying my sword. It has been a huge help and has saved my $3,000 that I was ready to spend to restore the blade.

 

Could anyone suggest a good book to start learning about Japanese swords. I'd appreciate the advise, I see that I have a lot to learn.

 

Best Wishes,

Rob Sawitski (Detroit-Metro Area, Michigan, USA)

[ububob]

Welcome Rob! I would suggest the first order of business is to build and library and a vocabulary of nihonto. :D

[robsawitski]

Would you suggest a good first book.

[Jamie]

You might consider starting with these:

 

Samurai Sword: A Handbook

~John Yumato

The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide (Japanese Arts Library)

~ Kanzan Sato

The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords

~ Kokan Nagayama

 

There is an FAQ at the top of the page too that is worth reading.

[robsawitski]

Thanks. I've read Yumato's book (after I bought the sword...). I'll pick up the others and give them a read. Thanks again.