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eBook Super Sale 2018
The DAI TOKEN ICHI is around the corner and it is time for another eBook Super Sale that gives you 50% off. As usual, it works directly via me (i.e. I’m not going to manually change all the prices on...
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Gotō soroi-kanagu (後藤揃金具)
After roughly a century of peace (with the exception of the Shimabara Rebellion) and stability after the Tokugawa had taken over in 1600, the affluent Genroku era (元禄, 1688-1704) is considered as the...
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The correct reading of certain names
This is just going to be a very brief post but upon suggestion, and also upon working on the Gotō chapter of Volume 3 of the Tosogu Classroom project a while ago, I want to urge collectors, scholars,...
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The Yamatorige/Sanchōmō (山鳥毛)
Many of you who follow the “sword news” have surely heard that the city of Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, is currently attempting to purchase the famous national treasure sword...
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The Ashikaga Takauji Armor
As my recent Facebook post on the Ashikaga Takauji armor gained some traction, I thought I better recap the provenance/details of that ō-yoroi in a post here. Before we start, I would like to mention...
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Honda Shigetsugu’s letter
When Honda Shigetsugu (本多重次, 1529-1596) was in camp at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, he wrote a brief letter to his wife, using the classical 5-7-5 syllable Haiku form for the middle part, the...
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NY Token Kai Meeting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
So yesterday, March 31, 2019, I had the honor of moderating a study meeting of the local sword club NY Token Kai here at the Met. With 43 participants (if I counted correctly, plus five staff), it was...
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Tameshigiri with a ko-wakizashi
At our NY Token Kai meeting at the Met last month, I was were briefly talking about cutting tests (tameshigiri) with some of the attendees as one of the blades on display, a wakizashi by the third Edo...
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Recently added kinzōgan-mei
A while ago, one of my readers asked me about the most recently added kinzōgan-mei that I am aware of. Well, I remember coming across a few by Hon’ami Kōson (本阿弥光遜, 1879-1955), whom I have introduced...
View ArticleSignature supplements of Satsuma Masayoshi
Whilst correcting a certain information relevant to the career of Satsuma Masayoshi (薩摩正幸) here – I had erroneously stated that he signed with the supplement Satsuma-kankō (薩摩官工, about “official smith...
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A Kyōto Collaboration
In view of the upcoming Met’s exhibition Kyōto: Capital of Artistic Imagination, organized by Diane and Arthur Abbey Assistant Curator of Japanese Decorative Arts, Monika Bincsik, I would like to...
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Attempt of Retracing a Career
Compiling my Swordsmiths of Japan, I tried, as best as I could, to avoid double listings. That is, in case a smith had changed his name at some point in his career, I list him with both names, but with...
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Destructive Sword Testing
In my book on Tameshigiri, I am describing a destructive sword testing session, ara-tameshi (荒試し, lit. “rough testing”) in Japanese. I would like to quote from this passage in my book and introduce two...
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Breakdown of price for sword blade
My first book Legends and Stories around the Japanese Sword contains a chapter on period sword prices which can be found, in article form, here and here. In this article, you will not only find the...
View ArticleImportant Notice
This is an important notice regarding my monthly translations of selected parts of the Tōken Bijutsu magazine for members of the American and European branches of the NBTHK. At present, I have neither...
View ArticleeBook Black Friday/Christmas Sale
Black Friday is lurking and Christmas is on the horizon, and so it is time for another eBook Super Sale that gives you 50% off. As usual, it works directly via me (i.e. I’m not going to manually change...
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Kajihei (鍛冶平)
The following is based on a lecture given at the NY Token Kai on October 27, 2019. Today I would like to talk about a swordsmith you have probably heard of, and that is the famous forger Kajihei. That...
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Who “wore” it better?
This time, I would like to introduce two tsuba from the collection of the Met, which share the same motif and which are interpreted in a very similar manner, both made by artisans from Mito, former...
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Ningen-Mukotsu (人間無骨)
This time I would like to talk about a peculiar nickname for a sword, Ningen-Mukotsu (人間無骨), which translates as “humans have no bones.” I have come across this topic recently twice, the first time...
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Humble tsuba, big context
Another “mystery piece” in the collection of the Department of Arms and Armor at The Met. Made by Gotō Ichijō (後藤一乗, 1791-1876) in Kōka three (弘化, 1846) per special order, it is decorated with a...
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