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Thank you to Stan for allowing me this opportunity to say a little about my training group based in Dundrum, the Bujinkan Shugyō Dōjō.

We are a branch of the Bujinkan, a martial arts organization which was founded in the 1970's. Masaaki Hatsumi, who leads the Bujinkan, is the head or ‘Sōke’ of an array of Japanese martial arts schools, most notably those he inherited from his teacher Toshitsugu Takamatsu, which include:

Togakure Ryū Ninpō
Kotō Ryū Koppōjutsu
Gyokko Ryū Kosshijutsu
Kukishin Ryū Bujutsu
Takagi Yoshin Ryū Jūtaijutsu
Shinden Fudō Ryū Dakentaijutsu
Gyokushin Ryū Ninpō
Gikan Ryū Koppōjutsu
Kumogakure Ryū Ninpō

The martial art taught in Bujinkan is Budō Taijutsu (also know as Bujinkan Dōjō Kobudō or Bujinkan Dōjō Happōbiken), but the material taught in Budō Taijutsu is drawn from these aforementioned schools or 'ryūha'. In general Bujinkan students are licensed in Budō Taijutsu, although very occasionally traditional licenses are issued in the schools themselves, or more recently, specific areas of study. The most widely disseminated and studied information is that of the unarmed techniques of Togakure Ryū Ninpō, Kotō Ryū Koppōjutsu, Gyokko Ryū Kosshijutsu, Kukishinden Ryū Dakentaijutsu, Takagi Yoshin Ryū Jūtaijutsu and Shinden Fudō Ryū Dakentaijutsu. In addition the various weapons of Kukishinden Ryū Happō Biken and sword system of Togakure Ryū Ninpō are also commonly practiced.

I have published New Member's Guide to Nihonto Club. It's a brief introduction to Nihonto Club resources. Your feedback is welcome!

Dear Members and Friends,

Nihonto Club has reached a major milestone today. All records in Swordsmith Index have been verified against at least one swordsmith directory. All related databases and services have a solid foundation now, upon which Nihonto Club will grow. From now onwards you’ll never see the message ‘Warning! This record hasn't been verified yet’ again. It took more than 5 years to:

• validate 12306 smith records (new and existing) and transform to Nihonto Club format
• clean up, add missing characters to 2418 existing signatures
• add 4769 new signatures in Kanji and Romaji

What's next? With all the holes in the existing data addressed, I'll be able to spend more time expanding swordsmith records with more in-depth information and continue working on the Sword Database, starting with Juyō class swords. Eventually I'm also planning to add more data on somewhat under-represented modern smiths, subject to time and resource constraints.

Many thanks to all the contributors who supplied Swordsmith Index with additional information. Your participation is always valued and appreciated.

Regards,
Stan Nazarenko

Please check out a new Nihonto related site: Grey Doffin's Japanese Sword Books and Tsuba.

I wish Grey Doffin all the best in his new enterprise.

Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds is hosting a seminar on Japanese arms & armour in September 2011.

Seminar Details

Time: 10.30am-4.00pm
Price: 30GBP per delegate
Sutable for: Adults 18+
Venue: Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds
Website: Japanese Arms and Armour Seminar

For further information or to book please email educate.leeds@armouries.org.uk or call +44-113-220-1888.

Hi Stan and all,
sorry I have not been more active lately, but today, I have had to make sure that those of you that may be around Sydney, Australia during September 8th to 12th are aware and maybe can get along to the shinsa, ( you can find more information in the link below ), but I just have to say, the last one held was approx 2 years ago was a very well run show with many top experts in attendance and giving away there knowledge and advice freely to all that attended as well as the shinsa itself, great bargins in swords and fittings etc to be had, as well as the handout information,

A massive earthquake, the seventh largest recorded in history, struck the east coast of Japan on Friday 11 March.

The earthquake, measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, triggered a tsunami which hit the east coast of Japan with 7-metre-high waves, leaving a trail of destruction.

Reports say that more than 1,000 people have died in the disaster, with many more missing and many injured. The earthquake triggered fires and caused severe damage to buildings, leaving more than five million homes without electricity and a million without water.

The Japanese Red Cross has been working on the ground since the disaster began, mobilising 86 teams, made up of around 600 doctors, nurses and support staff, to provide first aid and healthcare and assess the damage and needs of the communities affected.

Nihonto Club has made a humble donation to British Red Cross. Please consider donating to Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Appeal.

Kind regards,
Nihonto Club

Publication of Japanese sword related materials in a systematic and coherent way is the main mission of Nihonto Club. Uploading images and other media and attaching them to the main content is one of its most important components. Over last 4 years a number of solutions for handling images were used in different parts of the website (boards, galleries, collections etc) trying to find one which is best fit for the purpose. Personally I had serious reservations about all of them and was simply waiting for 'the right one' before committing to posting any image-heavy content.

Also I needed to know how you use it. Images seemed to be mostly used in Discussion Boards to ask questions about particular blades and fittings, as well as providing answers. In addition, Image Gallery and Private Collections areas were actively used to share images of the items you own.

Ability to expose images in Sword Database was another important area to be addressed.

The time has now come to roll out the new image handling system based on a very promising Node Gallery module for Nihonto Club software.

The new solution is treating pages of certain types (forum topic, collection item, sword record) as galleries with the possibility of attaching a number of images. Once added, they are available at the bottom of the page. If you click any image, it brings you to the gallery view where you can browse through images, view their enlarged versions (if available) and leave your comments.

It also allows maintaining information about ownership, copyright and licensing restrictions. It will help us to be fair to people who share their work, as well as open possibilities of using publically available image repositories such as Wikimedia Commons and Flickr without breaching their Terms & Conditions. This may not be a concern for a classic style message board, but Nihonto Club is (or hoping to be) more like a research tool and we need to think long term.

Being currently exposed in the most basic form, it provides brilliant prospects for future development. I'm hoping that you'll find it more consistent, intuitive and convenient than the older solutions.

I’m pleased to announce the rollout of a new feature which hopefully will become one of the most important components of this website. Sword Database (accessible from the Club Resources menu on the left hand side) is a collection of sword records, from the most prominent to the most humble ones. It starts from the list of Kokuho – Japanese National Treasures and it’s going to expand in the coming years. Information on more than 2000 swords is ready to be published in the future.

The first version of the Sword Database contains only basic metrics of the blade, attribution and references to public sources, e.g. sword books, magazines and articles. It will be eventually enhanced with photos, thorough description and other information. It’s totally integrated with Swordsmith Index and allows searching both smiths and individual swords by signature. Swordsmith records display a list of extant works (if registered in the database). See Sukemitsu or Tōshirō Yoshimitsu as examples.

Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds is hosting a seminar on Japanese swords in February 2011. See the description below.

Seminar Details

Time: 10am-4.30pm
Price: 30GBP per person
Venue: Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds

For further information or to book please email educate.leeds@armouries.org.uk or alternatively call Jon Copley on +44-113-220-1888.

If you wish to attend, hurry up as the number of seats is limited! I'm hoping to meet some of you there.