Please help with my Nihonto frustration!!

[Ken-Hawaii]

Aloha, all:

 

My wife & I are taking a short trip to Osaka the end of this month. Round-trip airfare is only $198, & we couldn't pass it up.

 

My frustration is that I have been trying to locate two or three sword shops in Osaka & also in the Bizen-Osafune area, but haven't found a single one. I've tried dozens of search terms in Google with zero success. They've been making swords in Bizen for almost a thousand years, so why is it so bloody hard to find a sword shop there??

 

So far, we're only visiting the Bizen-Osafune Sword Museum. If you have shop names, Web-sites, contact info, etc., please pass them on to me!!

 

Mahalo nui loa! (Thanks a million!)

 

Ken

[george trotter]

Ken san,

I can't help with Osaka (must be lots of token ya), but try ANDO TRADING in Okayama. They are just a few minutes walk from the end of one of the tram lines (10 mins from station -can't remember name of line). they are several floors high and the 2/3 is entirely swords, fittings, bags, dogu etc...can't remember if they speak English but I think a lady there does so...old Ando Hiromichi is dead now but his people carry it on...I was there last year. Look them up on google and show the page to the taxi/station guy etc if you don't speak Japanese.

Regards,

[Ken-Hawaii]

That's a great start, George - thanks! My Japanese is almost nil, so I'll definitely print out the page & bring it along.

 

Ken

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

 

I think there is one here :

 

http://www.alibaba.com/member/naokoiwam ... tinfo.html

[Ken-Hawaii]

I had found that shop, Jacques, but cannot find any other information about it on the Web. Rather than running blindly around Osaka, I want to first communicate with the shop to make sure that it is still running. Iwamoto's phone has been disconnected, so that doesn't bode well....

 

Ken

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

You can also have a look here:

 

http://www.geocities.jp/general_sasaki/ ... o-eng.html

[Ken-Hawaii]

I had heard of that shopping area, but didn't know what it was called. This is a great help!

 

That cutlery shop looks like a good start to look at blades.

 

Ken

[cabowen]

Your best bet is to get a copy of Token Bijutsu (NBTHK journal). In the rear of every issue are ads from sword dealers all over Japan. There should be a few in there from Osaka area. If you are in Hawaii, contact Bob Benson for a copy.

 

Or....

 

Here is a link to a google search of sword shops in Osaka....The first four entries would be a good start....

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=LXy&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&ei=4oOFT-nLKpObtwf3p_j5Bw&ved=0CBoQBSgA&q=%E5%88%80%E5%B1%8B+%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA%E5%B8%82&spell=1&biw=931&bih=464

 

I would strongly suggest bringing a Japanese speaker with you to any shop you may drop in on or you may find you get less than a warm reception. It would be even better to have a Japanese speaker phone ahead to make sure the shop is open and to alert the owner of your visit. That way the owner can be informed that you are a serious student/practioner/collector that will know how to handle himself and the shop's wares....

[Bazza]

G'day Ken,

 

Did you check out Gavin Houghnam's "Where to see Nihonto (Japanese Sword)" website???

 

http://gavinhougham.com/sights.html

 

I'm not familiar with the area and distances, but Gavin lists museums that seem to be in the Bizen-Okayama area (about an hour from Osaka on the Shinkansen?). For example, the Hayashibara Art Museum http://www.hayashibara-museumofart.jp/

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Hayashibara Art Museum, (formerly Okayama Art Museum). 2-7-15 Marunouchi, Okayama-shi, Okayama-ken. Phone: (0862) 23-1733. Travel: Tram for Higashiyama, get off at Kencho-dori. Walk east to the corner of the Prefectural office, then left. Museum is through Edo-period gate. Among many other pieces of art, the museum holds two important Bizen school swords, by Kanehira and Masatsune, respectively. Kamakura era swords are by Yoshifusa, Mitsutada, Nagamitsu and Sukeyoshi. Nambokucho and Muromachi armor from Ikeda family. While you are in Okayama, check out the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art (Phone: 086-272-1149), which has a smaller collection of nihonto, but notable for Heian and Kamakura era swords.

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This link gives lots more links in that area http://www.hayashibara-museumofart.jp/link/index.html

 

Regards,

BaZZa.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Bazza, thanks for those leads. The museum looks interesting.

 

Chris, you're worth your weight in osmiridium! I truly regret that I didn't study Japanese in school instead of Spanish. Thank goodness for technology, though! I'm bringing along my Kindle 3G with keyboard, & can use the free Kindlefish translation app http://kindlefish.t15.org/Kindlefishv3beta/index.html to at least get some idea across of what Linda & I are doing. Not perfect, but better than just winging it.

 

I'm passing that tremendously useful link to my Japanese daughter-in-law, & asking her to make contact with several of those Osaka & Okayama sword shops prior to our arrival. With only 2-1/2 days in Japan, we won't have a lot of time in any one museum or shop, so we want to maximize what we can see & do.

 

Thank you both for your help!

 

Ken

[Lingonberry]

That is a pretty good deal on airfare! I'll admit that I'm more than a little bit jealous...

 

I've never been to any shops in Osaka but I do remember seeing a forum member asking if anyone has ever bought from a shop in Osaka called "Ryujin" or similar. http://www.osaka-ryujindo.jp/

 

By the way, if you have a free day when you're in Osaka there is a tiny little okonomiyaki place near the kandai-mae station (Hankyu line) called "Cabbage House" that I highly recommend. It's a hole-in-the-wall kind of place but its REALLY good (and cheap!).

[tony edmunds]

Hi Ken

You may struggle to find Nihonto shops in Osaka, If found only one shop (in a basement arcade) but they only had 3/4 real swords and a lot of Iaido/ modern stuff.

I'd recommennd a trip to Kyoto, where you will find the Tozando Sword shop ( upstairs fro Nihonto) and the little Nihonto shop next Nijo castle ( cant recall the name),BTW the castle is well worth visiting. The return rail fare is about $20 and the journey only takes 30 mins.

 

Have a great trip.

 

Tony

[Ken-Hawaii]

Adam & Tony, thanks for the leads. Tony, I'd like nothing better than to have an extra day or two to visit Kyoto, as I was trained there about 50 years ago. But we have only two full days on the ground in Japan - that's the downside of the ultra-cheap fares, & adding just one more day would have more than doubled the price. So we'll hit the ground running & not stop until we're back on the plane for Hawaii, happily exhausted.

 

My wife & I each bought our latest, highly-upgraded iaito from Tozando, & it would be great to meet the great people we've worked with, but that's not going to happen on this trip.... Ryujindo seems to have modern tosho & a few Gendaito, but nothing older that I could find. I'm bringing photos of my two Bizen Nihonto that were made in Osafune a few hundred years ago in hopes of finding out more about the smiths at the Bizen-Osafune Sword Museum.

 

Ken