New tachi for yokozuna

[Mukonoso 273]

That is a beautiful blade.

[orandashoho 720]

Beautiful, yes -- but one would think that for self-defense Hakuho would not need to rely on edged steel.

[Naganoyama 5,947]

Would you be allowed to walk the streets in Japan with such a weapon on your person? Or is it something which must be kept indoors?

[Morningstar 118]

Would you be allowed to walk the streets in Japan with such a weapon on your person? Or is it something which must be kept indoors?

Not generally. To carry a sword, it needs to be properly secured in an approved carrying case. The bearer also needs to have the correct documentation and licenses to carry a bladed weapon.

​No tucking the sheath into his belt and walking down to the local convince store for Hakuho like a modern day Bushi.

[WAKATAKE 2,671]

Certainly can't get a concealed carry permit over here :-P

[Suwihuto 133]

On ‎14‎/‎01‎/‎2015 at 00:26, Benevolance said:

Broadsword combat is making a comeback in North America. It rather looks a lot like some of the beer league hockey I've played, except safer.

Here in Edinburgh I know a couple of people who teach broadsword combat and similar, and there's a group who've done it for sport since at least the nineties. I'm only aware of one serious injury!

[Churaumi 745]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 02:17, Suwihuto said:

Here in Edinburgh I know a couple of people who teach broadsword combat and similar, and there's a group who've done it for sport since at least the nineties. I'm only aware of one serious injury!

One of my former coworkers was big into the Society for Creative Anachronism, he and his club would armor up and fight each other. They wouldn't fight each other with swords, but they used what were essentially pipes with hilts, weighted to feel like the real swords they wore for show. He's been knocked out a couple times by blows to the helmet, better than getting split in half by one of these blades.

[Yubinhaad 11,761]

I wish I could go and see this - the Bizen Osafune Sword Museum in Setouchi, Okayama prefecture is currently holding an exhibition of Yokozuna tachi and other ozumo-related items for the first time in 11 years. Tsuna, dohyo-iri kesho-mawashi sets and tegata are also on display, along with a costume and gunbai from 36th Kimura Shonosuke. Osafune, one of the towns which was merged to create Setouchi in 2004, was famous for the production of swords in the distant past.

The exhibition occupies two floors of the museum and runs in two parts. The first part started on January 27th and ends on February 26th. It closes for a display change on February 27th/28th, and then the second part runs from March 1st to 26th.

[Jakusotsu 6,049]

I wonder if there's a method behind the arrangement of the yokozuna pics other than shuffling.

[Akinomaki 40,773]

The tachi for Kisenosato is nearly complete. Made by the 25th Fujiwara Kanefusa from the "cutlery town" Seki-city, Gifu. The connection is through a local who was in Naruto-beya (Tagonura's former name) and since Kisenosato entered the heya there are friendly relations to the sword-smith.

They met before the Nagoya-basho and preparations had begun in secret. Kanefusa tried to give the 75.2cm long blade a straightforward temper pattern, like Kisenosato's sumo.

It will be presented to him at the koenkai party in Osaka on the 2nd.

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sumo/news/CK2017022702000142.html

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Akinomaki

[orandashoho 720]

So whose tachi has Kisenosato been using since his promotion?

[RabidJohn 1,855]

3 hours ago, orandashoho said:

So whose tachi has Kisenosato been using since his promotion?

That's at least the 3rd time that question has been asked and, unusually for this forum, no one has provided an answer, other than it may have been just a scabbard and pommel with no actual blade. But in that case, who's is/was that scabbard/pommel set?

Considering that "preparations had begun in secret" for the sword, maybe Kise already had his own scabbard and pommel at the ready...

Apparently no one's telling!

[RabidJohn 1,855]

4 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

 

I was only joking when I asked in another post if Kise would have to go see someone like Hattori Hanzo off of Kill Bill!

Looking at this pic I can almost hear Sonny Chiba's voice-over: "If God should stand in your path, God will be cut."

[Harry 67]

7 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

The tachi for Kisenosato is nearly complete. Made by the 25th Fujiwara Kanefusa from the "cutlery town" Seki-city, Gifu. The connection is through a local who was in Naruto-beya (Tagonura's former name) and since Kisenosato entered the heya there are friendly relations to the sword-smith.

They met before the Nagoya-basho and preparations had begun in secret. Kanefusa tried to give the 75.2cm long blade a straightforward temper pattern, like Kisenosato's sumo.

It will be presented to him at the koenkai party in Osaka on the 2nd.

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sumo/news/CK2017022702000142.html

 

Wait, what? How could they have met before the Nagoya basho in June of 2016 to begin preparations for a tachi for a man who would not become Yokozuna for another 6 months? What secret??? What? Saying "Gambara na akan" was enough for them to start on the sword for a possible future Yokozuna? Now that... now that sounds suspicious! 

Has this happened before? Is it common for ozeki to get tachi made ahead of time, just in case they get the rope?

Edited February 27, 2017 by Harry

[Kishinoyama 596]

18 minutes ago, Harry said:

Wait, what? How could they have met before the Nagoya basho in June of 2016 to begin preparations for a tachi for a man who would not become Yokozuna for another 6 monthsh?

I was wondering the same thing. I had to read it twice to make sure I had read it right. 

[Harry 67]

Just now, Kishinoyama said:

I was wondering the same thing. I had to read it twice to make sure I had read it right. 

I checked the original Japanese because I just couldn't believe it. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but... wow that sounds like a setup, doesn't it? The plan hatched in the middle of 2016 to get Kisenosato the best record and a yusho so he could become Yokozuna. Someone please tell me I'm crazy for thinking this.

[Kishinoyama 596]

4 minutes ago, Harry said:

I checked the original Japanese because I just couldn't believe it. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but... wow that sounds like a setup, doesn't it? The plan hatched in the middle of 2016 to get Kisenosato the best record and a yusho so he could become Yokozuna. Someone please tell me I'm crazy for thinking this.

Even if true, I just can't believe someone would actually say it. Nobody knew until now. 

[orandashoho 720]

2 minutes ago, Harry said:

4 minutes ago, Kishinoyama said:

I was wondering the same thing. I had to read it twice to make sure I had read it right. 

I checked the original Japanese because I just couldn't believe it. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but... wow that sounds like a setup, doesn't it? The plan hatched in the middle of 2016 to get Kisenosato the best record and a yusho so he could become Yokozuna. Someone please tell me I'm crazy for thinking this.

Becoming Yokozuna is hardly a random process. Kisenosato must have felt he was genki enough for a tsuna run back then, and that it would be only a matter of time. His rivals were increasingly less able to stop him.

Does one need to get a license to start the tachi making process? Is it bad luck to have a tachi before it is time to wield it or have a tachimochi carry it?
I'd say that the preparation ahead of time shows confidence in his ability to make it happen, and maybe he might even have drawn strength from the knowledge that his tachi was waiting for him.

[Rocks 1,809]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Wait, what? How could they have met before the Nagoya basho in June of 2016 to begin preparations for a tachi for a man who would not become Yokozuna for another 6 months? What secret??? What? Saying "Gambara na akan" was enough for them to start on the sword for a possible future Yokozuna? Now that... now that sounds suspicious! 

Has this happened before? Is it common for ozeki to get tachi made ahead of time, just in case they get the rope?

It doesn't take 6 months to make a sword. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a "What if..." thing. The man is in the business of making swords. It would not be crazy for him to indulge a customer in their fantasies on design, etc. if it seems likely they may be a customer in the near future. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Rocks

[RabidJohn 1,855]

Don't forget Kise was on a tsuna run for much of last year. Of course he'd make enquiries.

But of course that's far too mundane when there's a conspiracy to imagine!

[Sakura 1,495]

2 hours ago, RabidJohn said:

Don't forget Kise was on a tsuna run for much of last year. Of course he'd make enquiries.

But of course that's far too mundane when there's a conspiracy to imagine!

Quite. I just can't see how people jump to such conclusions when there are perfectly rational explanations.

 

2 hours ago, Harry said:

I checked the original Japanese because I just couldn't believe it. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but... wow that sounds like a setup, doesn't it? The plan hatched in the middle of 2016 to get Kisenosato the best record and a yusho so he could become Yokozuna. Someone please tell me I'm crazy for thinking this.

Yes, you are crazy. No, it does not sound like a setup. To me it sounds like he was confident in his own abilities and checked it out. Or maybe it was a wishful supporter that initiated the interaction. 

If there was a conspiracy, why would it take them such a long time from asking about the tachi to getting him promoted.

[Akinomaki 40,773]

On 27.2.2017 at 15:09, Akinomaki said:

The tachi for Kisenosato is nearly complete. Made by the 25th Fujiwara Kanefusa from the "cutlery town" Seki-city, Gifu. The connection is through a local who was in Naruto-beya (Tagonura's former name) and since Kisenosato entered the heya there are friendly relations to the sword-smith.

They met before the Nagoya-basho and preparations had begun in secret.

The 25th made it together with his son, the 26th Fujiwara Kanefusa. His late father, the 24th, made a tachi for Asahifuji and the grandfather, the 23rd, made tachi for yokozuna as well.

Kanefusa decided last April to create a masterpiece for Kise, for whom he feels like for a son, and started to work on it already then - even if it would never be used by him. 2 months later, before the Nagoya-basho he got the official order from the heya. As an avid sumo fan he supported the heya at each Nagoya-basho.

In December it was nearly complete. After the Hatsu-basho he finished the inscription and the engraving of the rising dragon: "I put the wish to aid him to grow into a perfectly shin-gi-tai balanced dai-yokozuna into the sword."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/sumo/20170227-OYT1T50153.html

Edited February 28, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Harry 67]

10 hours ago, Sakura said:

Quite. I just can't see how people jump to such conclusions when there are perfectly rational explanations.

 

Yes, you are crazy. No, it does not sound like a setup. To me it sounds like he was confident in his own abilities and checked it out. Or maybe it was a wishful supporter that initiated the interaction. 

If there was a conspiracy, why would it take them such a long time from asking about the tachi to getting him promoted.

Thanks for confirming.

1 hour ago, Akinomaki said:

The 25th made it together with his son, the 26th Fujiwara Kanefusa. His late father, the 24th, made a tachi for Asahifuji and the grandfather, the 23rd, made tachi for yokozuna as well.

Kanefusa decided last April to create a masterpiece for Kise, for whom he feels like for a son, and started to work on it already then - even if it would never be used by him. 2 months later, before the Nagoya-basho he got the official order from the heya. As an avid sumo fan he supported the heya at each Nagoya-basho.

After the Hatsu-basho he finished the inscription and the engraving of the rising dragon: "I put the wish to aid him to grow into a perfectly shin-gi-tai balanced dai-yokozuna into the sword."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/gifu/news/20170227-OYTNT50092.html

And thanks. This second article helps it to make more sense to me.

[Akinomaki 40,773]

On 27.2.2017 at 15:09, Akinomaki said:

The tachi for Kisenosato is nearly complete. Made by the 25th Fujiwara Kanefusa from the "cutlery town" Seki-city, Gifu. The connection is through a local who was in Naruto-beya (Tagonura's former name) and since Kisenosato entered the heya there are friendly relations to the sword-smith.

They met before the Nagoya-basho and preparations had begun in secret. Kanefusa tried to give the 75.2cm long blade a straightforward temper pattern, like Kisenosato's sumo.

It will be presented to him at the koenkai party in Osaka on the 2nd.

On 28.2.2017 at 15:27, Akinomaki said:

The 25th made it together with his son, the 26th Fujiwara Kanefusa. His late father, the 24th, made a tachi for Asahifuji and the grandfather, the 23rd, made tachi for yokozuna as well.

Kanefusa decided last April to create a masterpiece for Kise, for whom he feels like for a son, and started to work on it already then - even if it would never be used by him. 2 months later, before the Nagoya-basho he got the official order from the heya. As an avid sumo fan he supported the heya at each Nagoya-basho.

In December it was nearly complete. After the Hatsu-basho he finished the inscription and the engraving of the rising dragon: "I put the wish to aid him to grow into a perfectly shin-gi-tai balanced dai-yokozuna into the sword."

The sword is ready and was shown to the mayor of Seki, it will have its first use at the Sumiyoshi-taisha dohyo-iri on the 4th.

Some more details to the facts above:

The sword-smith family dates back to the Muromachi-period, the 23rd made tachi for Futabayama and Taiho. The 25th 25 years ago was teaching sumo to local kids and one of them entered Naruto-beya after high school, the connection to the heya started in 2000.

The early start of making of the sword was intended to give Kisenosato an extra push towards getting the promotion. As soon as the promotion was decided, several sword-smiths asked the heya to make a tachi for Kisenosato, but of course this one that had been ordered was chosen. (maybe he'll get some more later)

The blade has 1.8kg, the temper patter is intended to resemble the mountain range of Seki, engraved are the rising dragon and the kanji 心技体 shin-gi-tai.

http://mainichi.jp/articles/20170301/k00/00e/050/254000c

father and son worked nearly a year on this:

 

o o o

 

Edited March 1, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Benihana 1,937]

I'd like to see a close-up of the hamon.