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Display items
Japanese WW II
military & Nihon-to
Reference books
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JAPANESE MILITARY AND CIVIL
SWORDS AND DIRKS
By
Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory
This book contains
majority of Japanese
military swords from
Kyu-gunto (Western sword
mounting influenced), Shin-gunto
(army mouting), Kai-gunto
(Navy mounting),
Non-Commissioned Officer
(NCO), and Dirk. It also
contains picture of
different ranked tassels. It
is a very good reference for
military collection of
Japanese WWII swords. This
book has 288 pages. |
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MILITARY SWORDS OF JAPAN:
1868-1945
By
Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory
In additional to different
types of military Japanese
swords. It contains several
example of family crests
(Mons), arsenal acceptance
stamps and few drawing of
Oshigata rubbing tang. It is
a good reference in for
Japanese military
collections. This book has
127 pages.
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SWORDS OF IMPERIAL JAPAN:
1868-1945
By
Jim Dawson
This books contains several
types of Japanese military
weapons type and provided
great pictures of each
weapon types. It also
illustrated an example of
the navy and army type in
the sword handle. This book
has 158 pages.
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Modern Japanese
Swordsmiths: 1868-1945
By
John Slough
I found this book is very
useful and great reference
in collection Gendaito
period. It contains many
Oshigatas that one can look
up to and compare signature
of many different smiths. It
provides the Yen values and
rank indication of smiths.
This book has 272 pages.
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JAPANESE
SWORDSMITHS
Commemorative Centenary
Edition
By
William Hawley
I do find this book useful
and great reference to look
up the smith name, year,
province and different types
of signatures that smith
uses. This comes with
two volumes and it covers
from Koto to Gendaito
period. It is definitely
recommended books for anyone
who started out to
collection and will be
useful in the future of
Nihonto collection.
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The Connoisseur's Book
of Japanese Swords
By Kokan
Nagayama and translated by
Kenji Mishina
This is one the first
book to recommended for
anyone to understand the
history of Nihonto and great
reference information to
Kantei (sword appraisal). It
provided a detail
characteristics of each
period and smith works. It
has a lot of information
that one must read several
times and again to fully
understand the unique shape,
hamon, hada of each period
and of each well-known
smiths. This is one of
books I recommended for
anyone to read first before
purchasing their first
sword.
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The
Japanese Sword: A
Comprehensive Guide
By
Kanzan Sato and translated
by Joe Earle.
This book
contains history and
evolution of shape changing
in Nihonto. It is a great
source of information to
understanding Nihonto. It
has comparison chart of
Koto, Shinto and shinshinto
in term of shape, hamon,
boshi, Yakidashi, hada and
tang. It has 209 pages.
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NIHON TOKO JITEN
By
FUJISHIRO Matsuo.
This book is in Japanese
text and it contains two
volumes: Koto and Shinto
(few Shinshinto smiths).
Many collectors found it
useful in term of starting
out in their collection. It
provides rank for each
smith, province and unique
characteristics of each
smith works. It contains
many authentic signatures of
the smith that one can
compared to.
NIHON TOKO JITEN -
English Translation
By
Harry Afu Watson
This
two volumes (Koto and
Shinto) are a supplement to
the Japanese text version.
It is a must have for non-japanese
readers as well as for me.
It does not contain
Oshigatas but it does
translated most of the text
in Japanese version.
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Here are some of the Nihonto
book sellers:
Harry Watson's site:
http://www.afuresearch.com/
Michael Harris' site:
http://www.satcho.com/
Alan Bale's site:
http://www.alanbale.co.uk/index.php
(United Kingdom)
W.M. Hawley's site:
http://www.wmhawley.com/
Mike M. Yamaguchi's site:
http://komonjo.com/
Craig L. Harris' site:
http://www.bridgeofdreams.com/
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