2012
April 15th
Musashino sword club made a Kantei game.
The swords for the game.
1) Tachi, a little shortened, signature "Bizen-koku Osafune ...." (Chikakage)
It is a very healthy and bright blade. Steel is full of particles. Hamon is Gunome pattern made of small particles (konie). It is bright. Utsuri is clear. The particles seems a little larger than Kagemitsu blades.
2) Tanto, "Rai Kunitoshi
It is a neat blade of hira-zukuri style. Steel is full of fine particles, and the layer is a flowing wood grain pattern. Hamon is a straight pattern (suguha). Nie-utsuri appears.
3) Katana, much shortened (O-suriage), Aoe school in 14th century (Namboku-cho period)
It is a very fine and bright blade. It was a long tachi blade in its original. Steel is very fine with full of particles and compact layer pattern. Hamon is a straight pattern including some choji and gunome those work steeply. The hamon in kissaki makes a sharp summit pattern. Utsuri is an unique pattern that is combination of suji-utsuri and midare utsuri. Such an utsuri style is sometimes found in Aoe blades.

4) Wakizashi, "Nobukuni"
It is a hira-zukuri style wakizashi. Hamon is a straight pattern with tight hamon line made of small particles (konie). The top of hamon is a summit pattern. Utsuri runs along the hamon, but not very clear.
5) Wakizashi, "Shigekuni"
It is a shinogi-zukuri style. The shinogi line is high. Hamon is a straight pattern with large particles (nie). The hamon in kissaki is a round pattern with much nie. Engravings are put on both sides, a dragon with sword (kurikara) and chopsticks with lotus flower.

The Chikakage and the Aoe were very good blades. Especially the Aoe blade was a masterpiece.

2011
December 25th
I wish all the people in this planet a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

October 24th
I went to the exhibition "MEIBUTSU-Treasured Japanese Swords-". There were many good swords in the window. Especially, I was very impressed with three Ko-bizen blades displayed side by side. Those were two Naritaka and Tomonari.
Ko-Bizen is not a name of one individual school. Its literally meaning is "old Bizen". Before the early 13th century, there were not appearing the particular schools like Ichinonji or Osafune. So we classify such old Bizen blades with the word "Ko-Bizen". Probably there were several small schools in that age. Therefore, Ko-Bizen blades includes various characters.
The three Ko-Bizen blades in the exhibition were all masterpieces, and interesting to study each of them.
1 Naritaka

2 Naritaka

3 Tomonari of Itsukushima shrine

The first Naritaka had a small kissaki and its hamon was ko-midare and ko-choji including many complex appearance.
The next Naritaka was very healthy. Its kissaki was not so small as the first Naritaka. The shape was very powerful. The hamon was suguha outline and many choji-ashi. The hamon particles were dense konie.
The Tomonari was very famous as "Tomonari of Itsukushima shrine". It was also very healthy. The shape was powerful and the hamon was suguha outline with many choji ashi made of dense konie. It looked almost just made out, except for the kissaki shape that seemed a little worn. Its character was very different to other Tomonari like Uguisumaru or Tomonari of baron Yamamoto.
When I studied those three blades in the window, I thought that the characters we have learned as Ko-bizen blades were characters of worn out Ko-Bizen blades. The healthy Ko-Bizen blades were very powerful in its shape and steady in its hamon.
I believe that the Ko-Bizen blades were made as simple weapon, and never have tricky appearances. That is the reason why they are so beautiful.

July
The campaign to support tsunami victims of the club has ended. The Komazawa University Table Tennis Club
Thank you very much for your donations. http://komadai.jpn.org/tabletennis/gyouji.html#gienkin

July 7th
At the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, people have built the system to quench reactors with recycling water. It doesn't work well yet. Small troubles come up next to next. Anyhow, we have to continue to run the system for a while, some months or some years. Meanwhile, people have to find a system for next stage, that is how to fix the broken reactors and how to treat the melt-down fuels safely.

June 12th
I have received the result of sword smithing competition in 2011 by NBTHK. Our smith submitted a tanto blade, and he got the very bottom seat in the competition. It means that our smith is the poorest skilled smith in Japan. It is not a very honour for us, but actual reputation in Japan.




May 8th
Our life in Kodama town has returned to normality now. But the nuclear plant at Fukushima is still in serious situation.
People have to keep putting a lot of water into the reactors to cool down the fuel. Then, a lot of water that include high level radioactivity are flooding to the land and the sea. So far, people can't stop this dilemmatic work. Meanwhile, people just start the work to construct quenching system with recycling water. It seems to need some months or years to build up stable quenching system.

April 20th
We received an advice from a customer who is a website designer. He said our website design is dull and he suggested us to make it up. He kindly made a sample of its design. It is very attractive for us. We understand what he meant. Our website is inconvenient for visitors.

Then, our staff discussed about it and reconfirmed what Usagiya is. We will remain our selves in dull website for a while. We are still in confusion between smart modernism and dull tradition.

April 11th
We still have some earthquakes everyday. The part-time cut off of electric supplying is end. The life in our town became peaceful, but still under the risk of nuclear disaster. Our town is 200km south west from the power plant Fukushima, and 80km from the seashore. The situation of the power plant has not turned better yet. Difficult things come up next to next.

March 30th
The friend we had been searching for has survived the disaster. He and his parents are OK, though they have lost their house and job. They ran a guest house for tourists, but it has gone by the tsunami.

March 16th
A customer gave me an assistance to correct the confusion between hardening and tempering in the term about hamon. I had been doubting the translation between "temper" and "yaki-ire". His assistance brought me a clear answer of it. Then I am going to correct the pages considering the meaning between "harden" and "temper". (=> Actual example of Yaki-ire, confusion)

March 11th

 
Remembrance from the News