What a great opportunity it was for SSJS students to have John Spicer (Japanese Sword Society of Australia)) give a well received talk on the variety of antique Japanese swords still available for collection in Australia; at a price!
John, with over 30 years experience in Japanese bladed weapons, brought along two dozen of the finest examples of Japanese sword-smithing (tachi, katana, shiisa-katana, wakizashi, tanto, himogatana,yagen-doshi, kozuka, tsuba etc.) one of them dating back as far as 1176.
Bizen Gendai Katana 1998 by Heijanjo Minamoto Nobushige Kore.
Here is a sample of a well made Bizen Gendai Katana signed by Heijanjo Minamoto Nobushige Kore, dated Heisei-kyo (1998). It's style is somewhat akin to the thicker and broader Masakuni Dotanuki and at a blade length of 74.2 cm (2.45) with a sori of 2.2 cm and weighting in at 1120 gm (blade and tsuka), is a well balanced and handsome blade.
This blade comes in shirasaya and matching antique dragon-fly motive fittings (fuchi kashira & kojiri).
The antique tsuba is of high quality, but un-signed. The saya comes in a redish-brown on black lacquer finish.
A similar, but shorter blade (2.35) and in shirasaya only was in 2006 sold for US$ 18,500 by the Japan Culture Society US.
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