Japan Art Expo 2023, 3-4 June

[Jussi Ekholm]

As there is not yet a thread on the subject, I thought I would make one. Japan Art Expo returns to Utrecht, Netherlands, after few year break.

 

https://www.japanartexpo.com/

 

Great event to visit, and hang out with likeminded folks, view some swords and related items.

 

I will be there on both days, and will be very nice to meet NMB members like last time. I'm there to socialize so feel free to stop for a chat with me.

[Luc T]

Japan Art Expo is approaching fast now.

I give a lecture on saturday from 12.00h till 12.45h, about the evolution of armor and it's regional context during the 16th and 17th century.

I also hold a kabuto kantei from 15.30h till 16.00h.

I hope to meet you there!

June 3, Utrecht, Netherlands.

[Keiji]

It will be nice and certainly interesting to participate in this new edition and thus be able to meet friends.
We will be about ten enthusiasts coming up from Italy, see you soon!

 

This is the article about the latest edition: http://www.intk-token.it/samurai-art-expo-2018/

[Bugyotsuji]

This looks good.

How many are planning to attend?

[Gakusee]

From the organisers, I have heard that probably pre-sales and ticket allocations are trending towards 200. Hopefully, there will be some visitors on the day, who have not pre-booked.  

The reality is that in Europe, we do not have that many options to attend hobby events like the US. The recent Berlin study day was a great success at the Samurai Museum, and around 40-50 people turned up at that NBTHK led event. 

I hope collectors and students of the samurai arts will turn up. This Utrecht event is more multidisciplinary than just swords. 
 

The Utrecht event website has a lot of detail about the armour / sword dealers who will attend as well as the educational programme. 

 

 

[Nickupero]

Michael is right, a lot is going into this show.... the educational portion of the event alone is worth the trip over. Both Katchu and nihonto related, and where else can one handle so many nice items under one roof.

I was supposed to attend, with my booth next to Giuseppe but unfortunately due to logistics issues I am unable to get all of my inventory there on time. The previous show I had a Juyo armor that was stuck in Dutch customs for over 2 weeks, so if there were any similar delays I would have been there with only a smile to offer . Just seeing you all would have been worth it but it doesn't pay the bills for a transatlantic trip. So for the guys attending please take a lot of pics so I can somewhat feel as if I was with you. And Enjoy!

[uwe]

I can’t make it…

[Bugyotsuji]

Any reports from Utopia Utrecht?

[Jussi Ekholm]

Just got into hotel after day 1. Presentations were great, and meeting people was fun after a long time (unfortunately I am not a socialite so it is bit exhausting for me 😅).

 

Really liked the kantei session and it was very popular, unfortunately I got only 1 out of 5 correct. The nice and wide Sa school blade, that I like very much.

 

Number of dealers has gone down from last event but there seemed to be quite good attendance at the show. Most of the times dealer stalls had a good crowd around them.

 

There was quite nice sortment of items in the show, and I would think many people found interesting items at the show. Unfortunately my own taste is extremely peculiar, so only very few items catched my eye.

 

I should be kicking off tomorrows presentations with Naginata of Kamakura & Nanbokuchō periods. And hopefully the day will be as good as the first one. 😊

[Gakusee]

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[Bugyotsuji]

Thank you for posting these, Michael. Much appreciated.

[Brian]

Wonderful events! Congrats to the organizers, and bravo.

[Matsunoki]

3 hours ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Thank you for posting these, Michael. Much appreciated.

Ditto.

[Luc T]

Many thanks to the organisation!   It was a great event, well organised and good lectures.

There was also interesting stuff for sale.   Thanks Eddy and Henk!

[Gakusee]

2 hours ago, Luc T said:

Many thanks to the organisation!   It was a great event, well organised and good lectures.

There was also interesting stuff for sale.   Thanks Eddy and Henk!

Luc, thanks for helping out with the educational side of the event too. We appreciated it and the small but avid audience of Katchu followers all seemed to  enjoy the kabuto kantei. That was a novel approach to education and in general such sessions are valuable to discuss more intricate details of items and examine them in hand - whether it is swords or kodogu or kabuto or amour. 

 

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Just came back to Finland and I'll have to wait 4 hours for the first morning train to my city, only bad thing for the weekend for me was 2 nights spent at airport vs. 1 night at hotel.

 

I think day 2 was bit more fun to me than first one as I had energy after sleeping in bed for the night. I was very nervous about my presentation but I think it went ok, forgot to speak about few points that I had in mind, and could have explained few things in more clear manner but not a big problem.

 

More socializing on day 2 and meeting old & new faces, had fun conversations with many.

 

The presentations were very good on the second day, and as special treat after his lecture Dave Van Gompel was doing 5 minute makie-demonstrations. It was amazing to see that Dave did very fine looking Mt. Fuji makie-work in 5 minutes WHILE chatting and joking to the audience. 😊 Seeing talented craftspeople working their magic is really fun.

 

I think attendance on day 2 might have been bit smaller than on day 1. I hope that dealers got some contacts and networking done at the event, and hopefully some items found new owners too.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I think this might have been the best item on the show in my personal opinion.

 

https://www.honto-nihonto.com/en/daisho-nr-2002-bizen-no-suke-munetsugu

 

Those that know me might wonder why not the big Sa blade that was featured in kantei session, and I do personally like that one very much.

 

However this comes down to what was discussed recently at daishō thread. You take a look, both blades papered as daishō on same paper, Tanobe-sensei sayagaki for both, daishō-koshirae to make the set complete. Absolutely wonderful and extremely rare set.

[SteveM]

Hi Jussi - was there a price for the set, or was it just for display? 

[Gakusee]

7 hours ago, SteveM said:

Hi Jussi - was there a price for the set, or was it just for display? 

 

As far as I know, the Munetsugu daisho is part of Udo's personal collection and was for display only. He has had it for over 20 years and it has some emotional connotations but you could get in touch with him via his website (Honto Nihonto).

 

'Best' is always subjective. To some,  it means the rarest. Others look for it among the top-rated blades (Juyo) and others assume it should be the most expensive.  We had another thread on 'best' in here. Best from what perspective? Best as a weapon could have been the two massive Nanbokucho blades..... Best aesthetically - we all have different tastes.  Probably on the daisho we should say - the rarest. True daisho, same smith/dating/ same paper/koshirae. 

 

I quite liked the Hikobeijo Sukesada and also the tiny Sengo tanto with lovely TH koshirae (Seiyudo).

 

 

 

[stephan_hiller]

I too would like to thank the organizers and lecturers for the good exhibition and the interesting lectures.

 

Jussi's lecture on Kamakura and Nanbokucho Naginatas was very informative and the pictures really impressive. Michael Spasov's introduction to Kantei and the "hands-on" that followed were instructive and unfortunately also embarrassing for me - I was wrong almost everywhere. It just shows me that I still have a lot to learn.

 

Although I'm new to armor, Luc Taelman's introduction to the various armor schools gave me a good insight into the different characteristics of Saotome, Haruta, and Bamen. The dealers have also kindly provided examples of these schools for local inspection during and after the lecture.

 

Another highlight was the lecture by Dave van Gompel about Urushu lacquer and the various techniques - including the practical demonstrations after the lecture. Ironically, Dave has developed a resistance to urushi, but the flowers that were on the podium next to the speakers seemed to give him an allergic reaction (coughing).

 

Such events are of course worth the travel due to the personal contacts. I now can put a face to the names from people on the NMB.

 

The Japan Art Expo was also a worthwhile event for the swords and tsuba on display by the dealers as well (although most of them were over my limit). In addition, the city of Utrecht was also at its best with glorious summer weather.

 

I will be going to Utrecht again next year, but then I will add 1-2 days because the city is also really worth a trip.

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I agree Michael that "best" was probably not a good term to use but I just wanted to pick some interesting items from the show, so people can see there were many great items at the show. Would be fun to hear what different items people found to be interesting. At the event I saw many people inspecting various items.

 

Here are few that I found interesting.

 

Japanszwaard (Roy Echtermeijer) had very nice shinsakutō by one of the Akamatsu Tarō smiths in front of his table. And in the back shelf he had this one: https://japanszwaard.nl/z12.html

 

Patrice Sabbah had couple very long and interesting spears. Unfortunately cannot provide a link as he doesn't have items up on his website.

 

Japan Sword Art (Egbert Menzinga) had Naoe Shizu tanto that we have discussed here at NMB before. Now seeing and looking it in hand I do think it is very nice package and much better in hand than in pictures: https://www.japanswordart.com/tanto-1-den-naoe-shizu/

 

Dutch Token Society had very nice display of Nanban tetsu, and on display very nice spear with what we discussed to be potentially original koshirae with extremely interesting "locking" mechanism on the guard.

 

Giuseppe Piva had the Sa Hiroyuki from Jūyō 62. Very impressive long, wide and huge kissaki. It is not listed on his website yet, one of my absolute favorites in the event.

[MJS]

18 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I was very nervous about my presentation but I think it went ok, forgot to speak about few points that I had in mind, and could have explained few things in more clear manner but not a big problem.

 

More socializing on day 2 and meeting old & new faces, had fun conversations with many.

 

It was a wonderful event, and I very much enjoyed your presentation Jussi. Interesting subject, and you brought a lot of information together in a very enjoyable way!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Keiji]

Always nice to see friends with common passions and share experiences. It was also a pleasure to finally meet 'pen pals'. Thank you very much to everyone and especially to the organisers 😊

[dimitri]

Patrice Sabbah's Yari are wonderful, I had the chance to see them 1 month and a half ago, I almost fell in love, he was preparing his coming to the show and showed me what he was taking, there was very beautiful pieces, I had beautiful chills.

[Andi B.]

It was a great event!

But I had the impression that there were mostly armour and swords, some tsuba, only few kodogu and nearly none other Japanese art items.

Due to the name change from Samurai to Japan Art Expo, I expected not only 'our' stuff...