Anyone remember this book?🙂

[Matsunoki]

Trip down memory lane ……this tiny little book was the first book that I managed to discover way back in the dark ages. A local book dealer tracked it down for me. There was no internet back then (1978) and I can still remember feeling that I had discovered the answer to all my prayers. Knowledge from Japan! A couple of years later I found Robinson. The excitement was immense🙂 (I was living in the middle of nowhere back then as well)

Compare that to what we have at our fingertips today

Anyone else got this one in their library? Or interesting recollections of early enlightenment?

 

 

 

[Franco D]

1 hour ago, Matsunoki said:

Anyone else got this one in their library?

 

Yup. A wonderful little book packed with information/photos. An early gift from a fellow study group member, one of the nicest people I have ever met, that has now passed away and who is sorely missed. 

 

The Japanese Sword by Sato, Kanzan was the first book that began this journey. Another study group member, thankfully, dragged me over to a nearby gun show book table and insisted that I buy this book. This book made clear the importance of learning and  understanding a new vocabulary.

 

 

Regards,

[Wayben]

Still got one.

 

 

At the time it was a lot of good info for $2.25.

 

 

[george trotter]

Yes, I still have my 1972 copy...mine cost $1.75 Australian.

Great help back in the day...

[O koumori]

Yes,

I got mine at Border's Books in Bloomington Indiana.

First time I understood the distinction between tachi and katana.

Dan K

[The Blacksmith]

Yep, I've still got a copy on my bookshelf. I think I gave my original copy to a friend though, as this one is a 1998 edition. A great little book. 

 

My first nihonto books were John Yumoto's The Samurai Sword, and Alfred Dobrèe's Japanese Sword Blades, both of which I still have on the bookshelf. These I bought back in the early 1970's.

[jesup]

My first was The Japanese Sword by Inami Hakusui (1948).   I found it by interlibrary loan at the NY State library in Albany; I couldn't keep it of course so I photocopied the entire book (this was ~1983).   Still have the photocopies (and now my own copy of the book; it wasn't easy to find).

 

[ROKUJURO]

Colin,

you described it exactly as it was with me! The same booklet, the same year, the same excitement! Then INAMI HAKUSUI followed, together with many others. Books were indeed the only source of information at that time right after the dinos.....

I bought many books from Mr. Skafte in Denmark, but we had a local bookstore (Harrassowitz) that had specialized in Asian litterature. And they had an employee who could even translate the book titles for me! I spent hours there (mostly alone) down in that silent Japanese book department, and it was like an expedition to a strange, but somewhat familiar world!
 

[Matsunoki]

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

bought many books from Mr. Skafte in Denmark

So did I Jean. Can’t remember how I found out about him!

Anyone new to this subject nowadays will have no idea what it was like back then…..but it was extremely exciting! I once (or twice) just put an advert in our local newspaper for “Japanese swords wanted”.  No fakes around back then so everything was genuine…..must have bought over 50 swords just via that route! 

[The Blacksmith]

I too bought many of my books from Skafte in Denmark. Many of them were later destroyed in a fire unfortunately, and are prohibitively expensive to buy again. I am however, slowly trying to re build my Japanese library again, and probably have about fifty books on the shelf now. I also bought a lot of books on European arms and armour from Skafte too.

My first Japanese language book, also bought from Skafte, and one that I would very much like to get again, was Nihonto nin, Nihonto ken.

My copy of Nihonto by Hakusui Inami I bought from Mike Dean in Museum St. London, back in the late 70's.

[Matsunoki]

43 minutes ago, The Blacksmith said:

i I bought from Mike Dean in Museum

 

Yep, I bought from Mike Dean. Lovely little shop he had. I think he was a “lacquer man” and I believe his collection was sold a few years ago? 

[The Blacksmith]

@Matsunoki Did you know Mike when he had the shop in St. Giles Circus ?  I often used to pop into Nihon Token when it was in Museum St.  We'd chat over the odd glass of sakè. I bought a lot of books from Mike, and a few swords too. Amongst other gems, Mike had an exquisite Muramasa tachi blade which he showed me once. It was absolutely stunning!

[Matsunoki]

12 minutes ago, The Blacksmith said:

Did you know Mike when he had the shop in St. Giles Circus ?

Russ, No, didn’t know that shop. And he never showed me the Muramasa☹️. London was a major outing/adventure for a country boy like me back then. (Still is🙂)

[sbf]

I have a copy I bought back in the day. A lot of information and beautiful photographs packed into that little book.

 

Steve

[Brendan campbell]

I had mine since 1974. You can’t miss it in your book collection. 

[Paz]

It's amazing how you can easily collect nihonto books. Which begin to increase in price as time goes on.