@jcexplorer tweeted yesterday about Japanese Castle Explorer's Interactive Map. I must say, very well done!

After 8 months of sitting long evenings over books and typing Kanji, I have more than 6000 individual smith records manually verified and in good shape and more than 3100 new signatures in the database. Phew!

Each record in Swordsmith record has now Province and Era filled in. This is very important as smiths can be identified by a trio "art name-province-era" and if any part is missing, you can never be sure without going back to the books.

Next target is (see you in one year :-) ) verification of all remaining records (around 4700 of them).

Also you may already have noticed that record format had changed slightly.

• Province and Era are now displayed in Kanji on the right hand side to the smith's name.
• Generation is displayed in Kanji (if defined) under the smith's name
• Sword period symbol is displayed in the top right corner of the name area, similar to Nihonto Meikan. Circle corresponds to Koto, triangle - Shinto, square - Shin-Shinto, star - Gendaito. This gives the reader simple idea what smith he/she is looing at.
• The idea of start/end year is elaborated. Ambiguous 'started in' and 'retired in' references are now replaced by 'Active Period' field which shows the range of years the smith was known to be active on. If specific years weren't entered, it shows the year range based on era field. With the current use of this field being limited, it may become more important in the future, reflecting extant works of the smith with known production year or historical evidence.

P.S. Something good is coming in 2-3 weeks. Don't miss it!

I would like to share an interesting observation (not Nihonto related). On an average day Nihonto Club gets around 30-40 spamming attempts. But October 6th had an absolute record: 611!

Thanks to our briliant anti-spam filters, no one was hurt.

If you are a regular visitor of sword sites, you may have already seen few references to a brand new Nihonto related wibsite http://www.nihontoauction.com which advertises itself as "new nihonto marketplace, buy and sell your swords and sword fittings and related items".

It has a familiar eBay-like interface, very easy to navigate, clear and simple. There haven't been any finished auctions yet and listings come only from one source (site owner, I presume), but it looks very promising. I'm jealous.

There were many attempts over years trying to create an attractive alternative to eBay, especially after recent sword unfriendly policies and general pollution with fakes. I wish Nihonto Auction every success as it seems to be done properly (from technical perspective) which in my opinion is a major driver to user acceptance.

hello.
i have katana signed MINAMOTO MORITSUGU :

http://www.areku.nazwa.pl/katalog/zbiory%2062.htm

please , tell me about this sword

areku

Yesterday I was looking for a Japanese scroll for my house on eBay. Half an hour and a few links later I ended up being submerged into the complicated world of Japanese demons. Tsukumogami, a type of yōkai 妖怪 (monsters and evil creatures), in particular.

You may find much more about these demons in the links below, but the main idea is that according to Japanese beliefs some man-made objects (e.g. tools or items which are used continuously and able to create an emotional bond with their owners/users) "take on a life of its own through long life and personal attachment". Also, when having been thanklessly thrown away after their long period of service, they may take their vengeance upon human beings (see also Susuharai ceremony).

I was looking at Nobunao NOB685 record in Hawley's and I noticed that he lists a signature:

大道 can also be read Daidō. To verify which romaji is more correct, I checked in Fujishiro [1] (p.215). Afu translates it as Nyūdō! But the kanji in the signature is 大, not 入. It must be a mistake.

I still wonder whether it's Daimichi or Daidō, as there are few other smiths with Daimichi mei: NAO6, NOB685, YAS446.

References

Found a good collection of Nihontō related YouTube videos: http://www.movie3mai.net/dbYqyMkHo1iI.html

My new PC has arrived and I'm starting to recover data lost after burglary. Only now I'll be able to figure out what's left in my electronic Nihonto library and what was lost. So far it seems that miraculously all my email archive survived, as well as some of the most valuable documents which would be very hard to recover. Not everything though, my research on Kaga Aoe, and some reference charts too... ah well.

I got an email from Tokugawa Art few days ago saying that my copy of Nihonto Meikan is ready to be shipped. Can't wait to see it!