Bushido Magazines in High Quality Scans for Download (Permission Granted)

[Rayhan]

Dear All

 

The NMB (via great efforts from @Brian) have been given permission to share the Bushido Magazines. 

Since we have the opportunity I will place the WeTransfer links here and anyone can download them, I will keep the links infinite without expiry till Brian can place them in the downloads section for everyone to enjoy and learn from. 

 

Bushido Magazines link: https://we.tl/t-YfdWhQTQA1

 

Aprox 500MB

 

Thanks to Brian and Bob Benson, I hope the community appreciates this

[Brian]

I confirm that Mr Benson has given us permission to share these with the NMB. In his words.. ".... I am always interested in seeing all Japanese Sword information disseminated...."
I think that is an amazing gesture from someone considered one of the pillars of the Nihonto community in the West, and my thanks go out to him and also to Rayhan for facilitating this. Bushido magazine contains some amazing info, and everyone should grab this opportunity. I'll upload them in a day or 2 in individual editions for those who battle with the above transfer.
We are awaiting response from other organizations to see if they will allow sharing of vintage (not recent or current) newsletters, many of which come from before the internet. Enjoy all.

[Brian]

Just scanning through the Bushido articles , I'm amazed at some of the valuable info therein.
But one passage stood out for me. Bear in mind, this was way back in 1980, and in an interview with John Yumoto, John had this to say:
 

Quote

..You wrote your first book back in about 1958. Have you considered writing a more advanced book?
YUMOTO: Yes, I considered it however I'm convinced now that a book is no longer the way to transmit knowledge. Say I want to write a more complete book with good illustrations and so forth.
And I want say 1,500 to 2,000 sets. How many sets can I sell? I believe its commercially prohibitive. So I am thinking of putting it in a computer. Feed in all the information and be able to tap into it by phone. Mark my word, 10 years from now you're going to be able to get all types of information through a central computer system. I don't care what type of business you're in. Its not too far away.

How prophetic was that...
I still believe physical books have a strong place in this field of study, and know many prefer them. Nothing like having a book open in front of you while you study a sword. We need to actively support sellers like Grey and others, and many references are still only in hard copy format. But he was right about the world changing, and how info would be disseminated.

[Rayhan]

I do love books and appreciate the physical presence and historical nature of books. However, items like magazines and soft covers that are easily damaged or discarded need some method of preservation given how easily they disappear these days. I also feel that book sellers can do both, if you have no problem selling a book/magazine to a single person then why not get the permission and go the extra mile to create a subscription service to the digital items? Works for comic book collectors, why not Nihonto :)?

[Rivkin]

Superb, thanks to Rayhan, Brian and Bob Benson!