Clik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #20 – Rai (来) School 6
Now I want to talk about some of the Rai smiths who worked under master Kunitoshi and then deal in separate chapters with the Nakajima-Rai lineage, Ryôkai, and the Nobukuni School that goes back to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Easter eBook Super Sale II
Dear Readers, I just started, like last year, an Easter eBook Super Sale where ALL of my eBooks are reduced by 50%! This offer will be valid for a week so you have enough time to decide what you want....
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #21 – Rai (来) School 7
We continue with some of the “below of the radar” Rai smiths. I have mentioned another son of Kunitoshi in the previous chapter, the homonymous Kunitoshi (国歳), but hardly anything is known on this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fujiwara ligature
Working on the German translation of parts of the current Tôken Bijutsu magazine I saw that Satô Kazunori (佐藤一典) points out a “habit” in the 24th part of his article series on Sendai swordsmiths that I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book review: Analysis of the Iai Katana
Today I want to review a recently published book, written by PhD Jon Andresen from American Art Swords. Title of the book is Analysis of the Iai Katana, published by Jon’s Androzo Publishing, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #22 – Rai (来) School 8
Today, I am talking about Mitsukane (光包) before we deal next with the Nakama-Rai branch. I did not want to “pack” Mitsukane into the previous chapter because he was a pretty outstanding master and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Uncommon kanji for sword terms
Looking something up the other day in the Kokon Mei Zukushi (古今銘尽), I also browsed through its fifth volume again, the one which introduces workmanships of different smiths. Doing so I remembered how...
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #23 – Rai (来) School 9
In this chapter I will introduce the last relevant Rai smiths, starting with Kunisue (国末) who was allegedly the third son of grand master Rai Kunitoshi, so at least according to the oldest extant sword...
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #24 – Ryôkai (了戒) School 1
According to tradition, Ryôkai (了戒) was a very early son of grand master Rai Kunitoshi (来国俊), born when Kunitoshi was only 17 years old. He entered priesthood at an early age of 16, taking the very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #25 – Ryôkai (了戒) School 2
Ryôkai was succeeded by his son Hisanobu (久信) who is – due to the fact that he often signed just with the prefix “Ryô” – mostly referred to as Ryô Hisanobu (了久信). The Kotô Meizukushi Taizen says that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An interesting gassaku
In the last Tôken Bijutsu, the May issue of 2016, Imoto Yûki (井本悠紀) introduces a gassaku, a joint work between Mishina Kaneyuki (三品金行) and the 11th generation Aizu-Kanesada (会津兼定), which is insofar...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brief Update
Dear Readers, I want to give you a brief update what is going on at the moment and what is partially propagated via Facebook and the Nihonto Message Board. First of all, we have a green light with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
KANTEI 4 – YAMASHIRO #26 – Nobukuni (信国) School 1
The Ryôkai offshoot of Nobukuni was one of the schools that firmly established the Sôshû tradition within Kyôto, i.e. Yamashiro, but there is this decade-long discussion about its ancestor. Basic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The pitfalls of removing signatures
At the Orlando Sword Show last weekend we were briefly talking about the issue of mei removing on swords. Nowadays this issue is fortunately more and more approached very cautiously but it hasn’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Samurai Stubbornness
A few weeks ago, I was translating material for my friend Jan Petterson whom I met at our armor symposium in Florence. To provide you with some context, Jan is going to write a book about the matchlock...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ishiguro Exhibition Catalog
Let me introduce the hot-off-the-press catalog to the currently running Ishiguro exhibition that I had the honor of translating for the NBTHK. The exhibition started two weeks ago but will be up until...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tobari Tomihisa (戸張富久)
A while ago, the late Edo period kinkô artist Tobari Tomihisa landed on my desk, that is in the form of a research request. So I was once again going through all the relevant sources and I captured the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Honma Junji’s “Kun” in “Kunzan”
This is just a very brief post but I thought that it might be of interest. As most of you know, Dr. Honma Junji (本間順治, 1904-1991) used the gô Kunzan (薫山), which means literally “fragrant mountain.”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sword News
I just want to inform those who haven’t heard yet, the NBTHK has a new president. At the end of July, Sakai Tadatsugu (酒井忠次, 1946- ) took over the post from Ôno who had been in charge since 2012. To...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Banzuke (番付)
I know, the two articles a week have become quite rare lately on my site as I still try to catch up on things big time. So in order to avoid posts slackening completely, I want to briefly introduce an...
View Article