NBTHK Searched by Police

[cabowen]

In the news yesterday....NBTHK searched by police who found about 400 swords on the premises without torokusho....Uh oh......

[W K Clifford]

possibly one of them is yours? haha.

 

mine was returned last month, phew...

[Brian]

Moved to community news section.

Just to clarify, the police started the investigation now. The find was actually waaay back in Feb of LAST year.

I am sure this will all be sorted out. The version I was sent (quoted below) just leaves me sad that swords can be neglected like this.

I don't want this to be a NBTHK vs NTHK vs NBSK topic, so how about we just wait and see what happens? The media loves controversy. Let's not feed them.

 

Brian

 

  Quote

Although the topic has been informally public for a little over a year

now, the police has officially initiated a criminal investigation on

the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords — or Nihon

Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai — headquarters in Yoyogi, Tokyo today, for

"possession of unregistered arms", more specifically 402 Japanese

swords found without records. According to the Japanese papers, a

member of personnel discovered them wrapped in 1970's newspapers

inside cardboard boxes during renovations in the organization's own

storage facility on the third floor of the main building in February

of last year. It is the same individual who would have willingly

announced the discovery to the police a month later.

 

Although it is obvious the medias jumped on the sensationalism of a

criminal investigation, this is only a normal procedure since any

weapon found unregistered in Japan automatically becomes the

responsibility of the police, at least for them to record a

declaration of object found in simplest cases, or for worse in some

others. As of now nobody is under any sort of threat at the NBTHK as

all parties involved as simply trying to sort things out. Journalists

and bloggers question, however, how it came that the items were stored

without any record for decades. The 1968 building houses not only the

storage rooms, accessible only to curators, but also the NBTHK's sword

museum and its offices. The main point that the police will be trying

to clarify is the origin of these weapons — mostly swords and some

spears. The consequence for the NBTHK shall depend on the answer to

that riddle.

 

Commentators and bloggers also found plenty of meat to chew as it

appears another 229 swords had also been found in the organization's

secondary basement storage facilities in March of last year, but their

advanced state of deterioration having rendered them useless as

swords, the police decided not to consider them part of the

investigation. The organization has been ridiculed for not being able

to properly do what its very name mentions: the preservation of

Japanese swords.......

 

Sources:

NBTHK Osaka branch active members

Nikkei Shinbun - http://www.nikkei.com/news/category/art ... 2009000000

Jiji Press - http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=soc_30&k=2010092900358

Sankei Shinbun - http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/crime/ ... 009-n1.htm

Asahi.com - http://www.asahi.com/national/update/09 ... 90212.html

Blog - http://yuzuru.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/liv ... 728556/l50

[cabowen]

Yes, I should have made it clear that this was the "official" visit and inspection by police as they formally start their investigation....

 

The most appalling this about all this is the fact that they had swords which they neglected to preserve....unreal.....

[leo]

As of Japanese police rules, swords without torokusho have to be immediately exported and are to be sold cheaply to interested collectors abroad!!

 

No, seriously, this is s sad story and I hope it turns out well for them!

 

All the Best,

Martin

[Bruno]

Sorry to ask, but what torokusho is?

[cabowen]

  Bruno said:

Sorry to ask, but what torokusho is?

 

It is the sword registration/license required by law to be with every sword....

[Ted Tenold]

  cabowen said:

The most appalling this about all this is the fact that they had swords which they neglected to preserve....unreal.....

 

One should not be so quick to assign blame for their condition as found to the location or organization in which they were discovered. They may well have already been in a condition (or lack of quality) that precluded restoration and conservancy, and thus were artifacts and not art.

[cabowen]

  Ted Tenold said:

 

One should not be so quick to assign blame for their condition as found to the location or organization in which they were discovered. They may well have already been in a condition (or lack of quality) that precluded restoration and conservancy, and thus were artifacts and not art.

 

yes, that is true....one needs to know the whole story...my bad....

[Clive Sinclaire]

Gentlemen

If my memory serves me right (and it doesn't always these days) these swords had been cleared out of a warehouse in Sugamo some 2 years or so ago, and they had been stored there by the occupation forces after WW2, who had confiscated them from the population. They had been kept there (without torokusho) for some 60 years. They were then recovered by the NBTHK who were trying to trace original owners etc.

Clive

[outlier48]

Clive,

 

I hope you are correct. It would explain much. If so, I wonder what their success rate has been on returning swords to families of previous owners. In any event, let's be patient and watch how this finally unfolds and concludes. I suspect the final result will be quite different from the original story and its implications.

 

Charlie Brashear

[k morita]

It is a very regrettable.

 

These swords are the remainder of the sword that was called Akabane-to(Akabane swords).

These swords have rusted almost.

It is difficult to look for original owner.

[Henry Wilson]

Here is the story in the Japan Times.

 

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 930a5.html

 

It seems a bit silly. The NBTHK are hardly gun-runners are they?

[christianmalterre]

Well,

 

to be honest-i do not see an big problem in that story at all.

Storing is an very common practice and also a must for any organisation involved in artifacts-otherwise we couldn´t work.

Look for example-as here i do know from own experience-in the stock of the Waffensammlung Dresden.

In the current exhibition of the Zwinger-there may be around 200-250 objects(blanc and/or protective) visible(changing equally)

But in sum there may be around 3000 Objects stored.(accessible to perhaps 30 persons in sum)

The history with police-investigation is Japanese Law-they(Headquarter)will manage if not yet already done.

 

Christian

[Brian]

Yep..seems to me to be something that will easily be sorted out with the authorities. I'm tempted to lock this now until there is new news, but will leave it tentatively in the hope that people won't take this down another road...

 

Brian

[Bugyotsuji]

It does say that 'owners' are required to register them. If the museum where they have temporarily resided cannot find the original owners, then at some point I suppose they would have to declare them. I suspect that the time period has never been properly clarified under law, and the general position of museums in this regard is also not clear.

 

The system has probably worked pretty well until now, even better than any new legislation might succeed in introducing. As the element of flexibility gets inked out they may fall into the same trap as other countries where increased legislation has rendered systems unmanageable and arbitrary.

 

This may be a chance for common sense to prevail. Good luck to all concerned, for the sake of humanity's common heritage.