Chicago NTHK SHINSA paper examples and Diary 2004

The show was a great experince for me this year as the NTHK shinsa team was there to paper (or bounce) swords and fittings. I had several blades to paper and a couple of tsuba and fittings. The shinsa and the show were really 2 seperate events just held at the same venue.

First, the shinsa.

I had arrived the night before the show started and had settled in, had met several dealers that i met the previous year and had been invited to their rooms for a drink and to swap some stories - and of course look at swords.

It was about 11pm when i was walking back to my room with 2 blades in my hand when a door opened and several people walked out, a very nice Japanese man was saying goodbye to them, I had briefly met him in the lobby earlier that day. He saw that i had blades and wanted to know what i had so invited me into his room where another very nice Japanese man sat with arms extended and glasses tipped ready to examine my meager blades. Turns out that both of them were on the shinsa team.

After a flurry of words back and forth between the two, the translator would tell me what they thought the blades were - but no before asking me what my thoughts were. I ended up going back and forth to my room about 5 times to get an armful of swords to bring to them. It was the best sword experince i ever had. I ended up sitting with them for about an hour. Right place at the right time i guess.

So, the next day the real shinsa started. Each blade to be submitted is prepaid (75 USD) and when you pick up your blade after it examined you pay an additional $75.00. all blades are brought to one doorway and stripped of fittings and laid on a table, you give them the registration form, they tag the nakago with a numbered tag - they tear off a piece of the tag with the same number and you use that to claim the sword - just like a coat check. I brought all my bare blades down rolled up in a soft sheet so i didnt have to try to carry about 400 pieces of swords parts out of the room.

The process takes about 1.5 - 2 hrs. It looked like 4 guys examined the each blade, then, if one got a pink piece of paper it went right to the pick up table ( means it failed because of gimei or fatal flaw etc), if it got a white paper(worksheet with all info and points rating) then it went to the tang rubbing guy and someone else for documentation. Then the blade went to the pickup table where all the vultures like me were waiting - kinda like waiting outside the delivery room waiting to see if a boy or girl. We then pay the rest of the fees and collect our blades.

NTHK SHINSA POINT SYSTEM

0-59 Points No paper due to being gimei, poor quality blade ie. flaws and defects - too many polishes etc.

60-69 Points "Shinteisho" (investigation paper), low quality blades not warranting a "Kanteisho" paper.

70-84 Points "Kanteisho" (Appraisal Paper), A blade of fine quality, the standard NTHK paper.

85-94 Points "Yushu-saku" (superior excellence rank paper), a blade of importance. Kanteisho papers with a Yushu-saku stamp

95-100 Points "Sai-Yushu-saku" (Highest superior excellence rank paper), A blade of great importance.

Kaneyoshi - Sword Description


Kane Yoshi Passed
[Click Image for close-up]

Gimei worksheet for Fuchi, same as sword - pink!