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Please find, when following the link below, a 12 point document. This is a code of good practice which I am confident makes sense for any collector or user of Japanese swords. Whilst you may find it unnecessary and rather Politically Correct, I assure you that in today’s health and safety environment, it is essential for us all to acknowledge and act in accordance with these guidelines. They are set out in order that we may continue to collect and study Japanese swords with impunity and to demonstrate that we do this in a responsible and safe manner.

If you download and sign the document, and return it with a £10 subscription, to the address shown below, you will be included on the To-Ken Society’s data base and issued with a membership card. This will be renewable on an annual basis for a further £5 per annum. If you are in procession of a membership card, officers of the society will be able to testify, should it become necessary, that you have agreed to be bound by our guidelines. You will also, of course, be fully entitled to attend meetings and enjoy all other privileges of membership.

Please download and send your copy of the guidelines document, plus your £10 first year’s subscription and registration (cheques should be made out to To-ken Society of Great Britain), to: The Membership Secretary

Link to Home Office site re latest news on the proposed ban on Japanese swords. Added12.12.07

AN EXHIBITION OF JAPANESE LACQUER TO BE HELD AT TWO VENUES IN OKAYAMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN

The exhibition at Hishio will be introduced by the ‘Living National Treasure’ Kitamura Shosai. It will comprise of:

Details of transport and further information may be obtained by telephone or from the Hishio website.

We are grateful for the support of the Hayashibara Foundation, Okayama; Christies, London and AXA Art Insurance Limited, UK

As is fairly usual, we have all come to expect Clive and his wife Jean, single handily to put a great deal of effort into organising and manning an event such as this, in order to convey the aims of the To-ken society of Great Britain, to a different audience. Clive produced an A4 sized information sheet, stating the aims of the Society, past and present, as well as its future direction. All of these were distributed to interested people.

Clive was also responsible for putting on a stunning display / exhibition from his own personal collection. These included some 6 Tokubetsu Hozon blades. I know of few others who could match this from their personal collections. All swords were beautifully set up on white silk or on some fine katana-kake. As well as the blades, some very attractive koshirae were displayed. Clive also attempted to demonstrate drawing an oshigata, but from the poor lighting, the constant kia from the kendo demonstration and the loud drumming from the Taiko, made concentration difficult.

Although I might envy Clive his collection, I did not envy him the job of dismantling the display and taking it all back to his hotel room overnight. Whilst the organisers did provide overnight security, the risk of leaving the swords out, was too great. Of course, this meant that the entire display had to be rebuilt on the Sunday morning.

I went to the event by public transport and had to carry my baggage with two rather painful injured arms. I took a couple of swords and some polishing stones along for display and unfortunately, due to a prior engagement, I had to leave Clive and Jean to the unending questions on Sunday.

This show was a exposition on all things Japanese, including tourism, Japanese food, kendo displays, taiko drums, origami and go. However, the vast majority of space was taken up by Manga and related stalls and all that that entails. This attracted many young people whose dress was, to put it mildly, unusual and “extreme”. Apart from us, there was little of Japanese cultural or artistic interest and we did seem a little out of place in this environment.

Having said this, there were a number of very interested people and I was encouraged by some of the intelligent questions that we were asked. Considering the logistics entailed, I am not sure that we should repeat the experience next year.

Visit by Abe Kazunori Sensei and

Ono Yoshi Mitsu Sensei was a great

success. A BIG THANK YOU to

Paul Martin for organising this event.

Tony Norman.

Link to report by Tony Norman

The 2007 Shinsaku-Meitoten

June 5^th 2007, swordsmiths from all over Japan converged at the NBTHK sword museum in Yoyogi for the Awards ceremony of the 2007 Shinsaku-Meitoten. However, this year’s competition is different to previous years. Due to the ongoing troubles of the NBTHK the Bunka-cho and the Sansho kai, the Bunka-cho withdrew the Takamatsu Award and the Agency for Cultural Affairs Chairman’s Award. In addition to this they have withdrawn funding for the training of swordsmiths at the Tatara in Shimane prefecture, leaving the fate of licensing new smiths in limbo at the moment. One has to wonder if the upcoming National election in Japan has had some influence on these severe decisions. Undoubtedly, the withdrawal of these two special prizes can have a long-term effect of the annual competition. Most of the usual entries were accepted with a few familiar names missing and the usual amount of abstainers. Without the two special prizes the chance of becoming Mukansa is decreased, and is clearly detaining the elevation to such a rank for the time being of the next in-line.

There were 79 accepted entries this year. 18 of which were Mukansa, producing the standard and styles of workmanship that we have come to expect from them. A tachi by Amata sensei, a Yamashiro tachi by Osumi sensei, the choji-midare of the Yoshihara smiths, a Yamatorige utsushimono by Ono Yoshimitsu, an utsushii-mono of the kogarasumaru by Hiroki Hirokuni and a Sukehiro style toranba by one of last years nominated Mukansa Ogawa Kanekuni (father). One blade that stood out to me amongst the Mukansa group was not particularly because of its aesthetic quality, but for its technical skill. It was a Kamakura Ichimonji style tachi with a flamboyant choji-midare hamon that in some places was reached up towards the shinogi whilst displaying a strong utsuri throughout its length. In fact, I have said before that I personally find the current times among gendai smiths very exciting and innovative in a competitive research sense. They are obviously in strong competition with each other and this is displayed in the subtleties and skill of their workmanship illustrated by the fact that a suguha blade took the highest position on this occasion. Another observation was, although was a usual high amount of choji-midare entries, there does seem to be a Soshu den trend creeping in.

With only four special prizes this year there were two winners of the NBTHK chairman’s award. I have to wonder if this was an effort to counter the effect of losing two prizes or if in fact they did attain the same amount of points during judging. Placed in first position in the museum’s display cases was a Kamakura style tachi by Kubo Yoshihiro of Hiroshima. The hamon was a suguha-based gunome that continues into the boshi and ends in ko-maru. It had a well-forged hada achieving its aim of the elegant style suguha blades of Osafune Nagamitsu. However, the special feature on this blade was the subtle choji-midare utsuri running throughout. A very classy piece of workmanship by this former student of the Yoshihara School. It was a good year for Kubo as he also took an Award for Excellence in the short sword category with a bitchu style saka-choji tanto that also displayed a strong saki-choji utsuri. In addition to this, his former student, Myochin Munehiro also took an Award for Effort in the long swords category.

Following on the heels of his ASJA Chairman’s award from last year, the other person to share the NBTHK Chairman’s award is another relatively young smith Takami Kuniichi. This promising smith is a former apprentice of Mukansa smith Kawachi Kunihira. This year he produced a large Kamakura Ichimonji style tachi with a large choji-midare hamon. It was a good result in general for the Kawachi School, with Kiyota Jiro Kunietsu taking an Award for Effort. Ishida Kunihisa just missing out on the Award for Effort being placed at the head of the nyusen awards. Last years Newcomers Award and Award for Effort Komiya Kokuten and Kawachi Kunihira’s son, Ippei were accepted for entry, whilst Kokuten’s uncle of the Komiya School, Komiya Shiro Kunimitsu II, took an Award for Effort.

The winner of the Kunzan prize went to Takehana Ikkansai Shigehisa. It was good to see this former prize-winner and head of the Tokyo chapter of the All Japan Swordsmiths association return to form and to the special prize category. His blade was a recreation of the sue-Bizen workmanship of Katsumitsu or Yosozaemon Sukesada, with a horimono of a kurikara in the lower part of the saki-sori blade and a bohi in the upper part. Shigehisa was also successful in the tanto category taking an Award for Effort.

The Kanzan prize went to a young smith from the Miyairi School who is fast becoming no stranger to first prizes. Kawasaki Akihira from Saitama prefecture produced a lovely Soshu den Nambokucho shaped blade of even curvature with a notare hamon on velvety itame-hada with an abundance of well-controlled nie. I expect we’ll see more of the same from him in the future.

The All Japan Swordsmiths Association Chairman’s award went to Ogawa Kanekuni (son of Mukansa smith Ogawa Kanekuni) Like his father he too produced an Osaka Sukehiro style toranba blade with a deep and controlled nioi. Ogawa from Gifu prefecture like Kubo Yoshihiro is a member of the Murakumokai. Another of their colleagues Matsuba Kunimasa, from Kyushu, took the Award for Excellence in both the long and short sword categories.

There were 6 prizes for excellence and at the head of these was a gorgeous tachi by Matsuda Tsuguyasu. It was aimed at early Rai School work with a quiet choji-midare, profuse ji-nie and displayed nie-utsuri in places. The hada on this blade is outstanding. One cannot but be full of sympathy for this excellent smith. His placement at the head of the Yushusho (Award for Excellence) category was a clear indication that he would have been a recipient of the special prizes had they not been withdrawn. Matsuda probably holds more special awards than most Mukansa smiths. On two previous occasions just when he has attained the required amount of special awards to become Mukansa, the requirements were raised. When he had won six, the requirement became 8, then when he won eight, the requirement was lifted to the current 10. The withdrawal of the top prizes must be a crushing blow to this superb craftsman. Matsuda san has the reputation for producing blades that even the most experienced have trouble deciding if they are a healthy meito or a gendaito. He is known to produce all the qualities of ko-Bizen and Kamakura Bizen blades including activities such as antai.

In addition to the 6 awards for excellence there were 6 awards for effort. This welcomed the return to the arena of another seasoned smith –Furukawa Kiyoyuki another big prize-winner in the past. In addition to the two NBTHK Chairman’s Awards there were also two Newcomers Awards won by Gassan Sadanobu (son of Sadatoshi) and the 26^th Generation (Kato) Kanefusa. Sadly, some up and coming smiths were missing amid the problems of being a smith in the current climate and trying to sell swords. It was a shame not to see the work of Kawashima Masaki a very talented young smith from Okayama prefecture, who is apparently researching juka-choji very seriously at the moment for future entries.

Despite all of the problems surrounding the sword world at the moment the competition was a resounding success. The standard of workmanship on the whole was excellent. The cream on the sword world were there appreciating new swords with the same vigour as appreciating old ones. A lesson we may have to heed in the west if we wish to help sustain the craft through these troubled times into the future.

Paul Martin

Photo: Front L-R Takehana Shigehisa, Kubo Yoshihiro, Takami Kuniichi. Back: Ogawa Kanekuni (son), Kawasaki Akihira.

For a full list of results please go to:

http://www.touken.or.jp/english/sword_forging_competition_2006.html

Another archive picture, this one from To-ken Taikai 1989 at which Mr Iida Kazuo brought a shinsa panel to London (published in Aito Magazine)

On a recent clear out of my loft, I came across the above. It was taken in 1976 when we hosted a meeting with a tour by members of the Japanese sword newspaper, To-ken Shunju Press, run by Mr Iida Kazuo. I am pleased to say that it is still thriving.

Mr Iida is front row, left hand side, Jon Anderson (chairman at that time) is front centre, next to him a young Clive Sinclaire and far right is Colin Nun. Standing behind him is Alan Bale and Chris Allen. 2^nd row, behind me is David Parker and behind him (3^rd row seated) is Graham Curtis. Centre standing towards the back is David Searle (bearded and now deceased)) and behind him right at the back is Chris Randal. Towards the front and against the wall, standing and looking towards the middle is Mole Benn and slightly back from him, by the wall with glasses, is Fred Stride (I think).

It was decided at the 2004 EGM that this web site would become the main focal point for members instead of The Programme and the monthly meetings.

In time this area will only be accessible to Token GB members with the use of a password. The content of other pages on this site will eventually be transferred to this page.

We ask that you include the following announcement in your newsletter, website, or other communiqués. We hope your members/users will be interested in accessing LACMA's extensive Japanese art holdings in the future.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art would like to let you know about our over 4,900 high resolution images of Japanese works of art from our collection which can be viewed free of charge on LACMA's website (http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/). The pieces range from arms and armour to screens, and include such highlights as works by Hokusai and over 800 images of netsuke, in addition to images of archaeological artefacts, lacquer, and furniture, all with descriptions included. Many of these pieces have never been exhibited or published before. The images can be downloaded, printed, e-mailed, or compared and contrasted with one another using the site's unique "Image Viewer." We will continue to add images and information to the database and encourage you to re-visit LACMA's Collections Online website periodically.

Link to essays from the Seminar on Japanese Swords held 7th February 2005 by Tsurugi-Bashi Kendo Kai, University of Cambridge Kendo Society.