Month: April 2018

I had a gathering with my friend from the Czech Republic and his ten students. He started visiting our shop more than twenty years ago. Every time he and his students are close, they would stop by and say hello. English is both of our second language, so we did our best to communicate and enjoyed our time together. They asked me “When will I visit Prague?” and I answered “Next Year.” However, they said that last year and two years ago I had said the same thing but did not go. I would like to try to make a trip sometime in the near future.

We held the 5th Chiba Token Ichi at the Keiyo Bank Cultural Plaza in Chiba City from March 23rd to 25th. We were blessed with many visitors mostly becouse of the great efforts with the advertisement publicity, the wounderful weather for the blooming of the cherry blossoms.
There were customers that could say “I will buy a Japanese sword for the first time” and this made me very happy since they became an enthusiast.
Unfortunately, the Keiyo Bank Cultural Plaza was closed in March. The 6th Chiba Token Ichi will be held in October and is scheduled to be located in “Chiba Seminar Room” that is 3 minutes on foot from the Chiba Station North Exit.

This month’s Japanese sword class, we invited the swordsmith, Mr. Ozawa Shigenori, who is a diciple of Takano Yukimitsu, who was diciple of Ohno Yoshimitsu.
Mr. Ozawa gave a lecture on how to forge Japanese sword. His unique tempering is referred to as “Hadaka-yaki” which mean he doesn’t place Tsuchioki on the edge of the blade. Using this process, he has been awarded many prizes recently. Because this was Mr. Ozawa’s 4th year with us, the question and answer session with the students was very active. His experience and lectures that are based on actural practice were very valuable stories that we would not be able to get by just reading books.

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the All Japan Sword Traders’ Assosiation, auction was held at the Tokyo Art Club, on March 17. On the same day, there was a party to celebrate the tremendous success that was 4 times higher than usual. We took a great photo of the event.
After the Auction, we had a social gathering at Shinkyotei restaurant in Shimbashi, and deepened our friendship.
For me, it was a busy day after being appointed the afternoon auctioneer at the auction and then I was nominated to be the MC at the Party.

On March 7th, I visited Sapporo city and participated in the BJK Auction. I was appointed by the Owner and Chirman, Mr. Uchida, as the Auctioneer. Mr. Uchida is the person standing next to me in the picture.
I was able to become familiar with many of the participants from Hokkaido and was able to speak with them in ease.
I feel that gradually the number of participants has been increasing and hope that the Japanese sword deals in Hokkaido will increase more and more.