Details of Samurai Swords and Guns Below !!!

We Sell Japanese Samurai Swords, Katana, Sword Samurai Swords, Japanese Swords, Katana, Tanto, Wakizashi, Tachi in Shirasaya and Full Koshirae and Samurai Sword Mounts

Hi there;

To all of my customers: Please , ask a lot of questions I absolutely don't mind.

I am a Californian, 56 years old. I have been collecting Japanese arms and armor since I was 22 years old and still at UCLA University. I taught myself at the suggestion of others who said many people know about prints and netsuke but no one seems to know anything at all about Samurai Swords. So I studied 5 to 10 hours a days for about 3 years and became an expert. SInce I have already taught myself Kanji for reading and a middle level Japanese language speaking ability, it was easier for me than others but others to whom I tried to teach refused to study the calligraphy or the characters so they have no sense of age of writing, quality (of signatures) and authenticity ...

From 7 years old to 19 years old I was trained by others to have been a mathematician. But at 19 I decided I didn't want my life from there on out to be only mathematics and men so I changed to languages and tried to learn about 10 in 2 years, including Chinese and Korean as well as Japanese and Samoan, but found out I was learning all imperfectly and none perfectly as well as getting a tremendous headache from trying. So I stopped that and went around the world at age 20 on money that I earned on my own. SInce the last stop before returning to California was Japan, I stayed here longer than elsewhere and put more energy into Japanese language and history and art and culture than I had into other countries that I had visited such as Cambodia and Korea. Thus, when I finally did return to California I returned to UCLA and graduated from there when I was 22. This is all 34 years ago now.

How I became a Japanese art dealer: when reading history books often the only illustrations are of art and antiques and I found that I had become very interested in and appreciate of Japanese Edo Woodblock prints. Finding an ad in the Los Angeles Times newspaper one day I went out to look at and buy Kuniyoshi and Kunisada woodblock prints from dealers around LA, for my small apartment walls or to keep as a small collection to go with my Japanese history book collection. But I soon found that only buying meant that I soon ran out of money. But then I asked myself, how did these people get to become Japanese Art dealers? They know nothing of Japanese art and history, can't read a single Kanji character, certainly cannot speak a word of the language, and have no love at all for the country of Japan and are only interested in the money. So, then and there I decided that I could do better and I made myself while still in University, into a Japanese Art dealer although my most expensive woodblock print that I had ever bought was $115 from Kabutoya Gallery in San Francisco.

I advertised in English and Japanese in the LA papers and I also soon placed ads in small magazines, in Japanese, from Japan, This quickly brought me dealers from Japan to contact me by letter and phone calls., since they were seeking entry into the US market but had no bilingual help and didn't know where to start. And I , of course, was seeking entry back into Japan where I had just come from, thinking there surely must be more knowledge there about Japanese Art, and love for Japanese Art (but in this I was mistaken as Japanese do not very much love their own art).

And while buying and selling woodblock prints a dealer mentioned to me that I should study Japanese Samurai Swords as there was not a single dealer then active with any in depth knowledge of Japanese Samurai Swords. I looked around and decided that this was indeed correct so went to Kinokuniya book store in downtown LA (Little Tokyo) and bought every book in the store on Japanese swords both in English and in Japanese. I believe that there was only one in English, a very poor small thin volume but there were many in Japanese and this is when I began to study Fujishiro's two volume set Koto Hen and Shinto Hen, reading them over and over again for 5 and more hours every day.

I have bought and sold over 10,000 Japanese Samurai Swords to date which is why I am pretty much ready to retire. 10,000 Japanese Samurai Swords would fill any room to the ceiling!!!

I like Japanese armor, guns (wall cannons), Tsuba, Scrolls, and Nambokucho ( c 1350) Japanese Buddhist Art as you can see from my many web sites.

I seem to be the only dealer in the world - at least I was told this by others - who has an interest in, and purchases and collects and also sells on occasion, large quantities of the following: Japanese Samurai Swords ($1,000 to $100,00++), Sword Guards both Kinko and Sukashi, Yoroi and Armor and Kabuto Helmets, Maedate, Horse Armor, Rifles and Wall Cannons, Ukiyo-e, Gold Lacquer, Inro, Buddhist Scrolls and Statues, Noh Masks, and more. I will send you some shop photos sometime. I think that you can see my depth and width of knowledge is tremendous since I like to study hold and enjoy Japanese Art, and have worked at honing my skills my whole life. I have over 1,000 volumes on Japanese Art in my home library and over 3,000 more on other subjects. I like in a world of art , antiques, and books.

All of my Yoroi suits are absolutely real and genuine: each is mid-Edo, about 1750, and thus about 250 years old each. ALL my suits (except for the occasional $1500 offering) are real and old so be aware that there are signs of age present in all of my suits, scratches to the lacquer edge damage on the boxes etc. 

All of my Japanese swords are old and real, not domestically made up or tricked up modern reporductions that I se so often; my speciality is Kamakura swords.

Just now I am kind of pushing hard to make lots of sales by year end: although still ill I am trying to open the gallery every day 1:00 to 6:30 or later very day for the next 20 days.

James R Miller, Tokyo Japan

I love Hokusai and his works: "Old Man Mad About Painting" and here is what he said, and it is indeed marvelous:

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing." -- Katsushika Hokusai

As for my early love of mathematics:

"To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."

From: The Character of Physical Law