SAMURAI SWORD EXHIBITION IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

Dear Blokes 'n' Sheilas,

Recently my collecting friends and I exhibited some of our swords at the Benalla
Art Gallery in country Victoria for two months. When that ended we installed a
larger exhibition at the Hamilton Art Gallery also in country Victoria. To look
at pictures of the Hamilton exhibition please go to:

http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/personal/hamilton/hamilton_2006.html

The swords on exhibition range from ca1260 to ca1860, all found in Victoria and
professionally restored in Japan by a top artisan. Each sword has been examined
by eminent scholars of the Nihonto at the NBTHK sword museum in Tokyo and
awarded a "paper" certifying its authenticity and art-level (there are 4 ranks
of "paper"). This is the largest ever exhibition of properly restored and
authenticated Japanese art swords ever held in the Southern Hemisphere. There
is also a link to the Hamilton Art Gallery itself, and a link to a downloadable
pdf catalogue - the Gallery are currently charging $5 for the catalogues they
have...

I would like to publicly thank and acknowledge the expertise of our mate in
collecting, Richard Turner in Perth, for his fantastic help in setting these
images up for sharing with others.

Best regards,

Barry Thomas.

Barry, please feel free to bring your wares up to Sydney for an
exhibition. I'd love to see them. :-)

-AngusH
.

<http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714&grpId=2247946&grpspId=1600043713&m
sgId=9029&stime=1155121565&nc1=3848578&nc2=3848483&nc3=3848659>


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear all.



The Japan history reading group, Nihonshi, has just completed reading the
Tale of Genji. Now this month, we are reading Mary Elizabeth Berry's bio of
Hideyoshi. I've finished reading Berry's book, and it is excellent. I've
posted a summary of Hideyoshi's life at the group website. If any of you
notice any inaccuracies or have any suggested amendments to my description
of Hideyoshi's life on the Nihonshi website, please email me.



The group's website is here.

http://www.nihonshi.org/index.html



Also, anyone who wishes can certainly subscribe to the Nihonshi group and
join us in our reading of Japan's history. We take our history seriously,
but we do it in a casual and sometimes irreverent way. Politically incorrect
and outlandish comparisons and debate about Japan are most welcome.



Cheers.



Mike

tokyodog@...





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mike,

How much coverage does the book give to the Imjin War (the Japanese
invasion of Korea)?

Bob Burke


In a message dated 8/10/06 4:07:35 PM, tokyodog@... writes:

>
> Dear all.
>
> The Japan history reading group, Nihonshi, has just completed reading the
> Tale of Genji. Now this month, we are reading Mary Elizabeth Berry's bio of
> Hideyoshi. I've finished reading Berry's book, and it is excellent. I've
> posted a summary of Hideyoshi's life at the group website. If any of you
> notice any inaccuracies or have any suggested amendments to my description
> of Hideyoshi's life on the Nihonshi website, please email me.
>
> The group's website is here.
>
> http://www.nihonshihttp://www.http
>
> Also, anyone who wishes can certainly subscribe to the Nihonshi group and
> join us in our reading of Japan's history. We take our history seriously,
> but we do it in a casual and sometimes irreverent way. Politically incorrect
> and outlandish comparisons and debate about Japan are most welcome.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Mike
>
> tokyodog@...
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Bob.

Thanks for the email question on the Hideyoshi biography. Berry's book does discuss somewhat the Korean invasions, but the author does not go into intricate detail of the Korean invasions. She does not focus on blow by blow of the battles in Korea. She focuses far more on the battles within Japan to consolidate Hideyoshi's power over Japan itself, and his forming alliances within Japan. She also focuses more on when Hideyoshi was willing to show clemency even with defeated foes, like Chosokabe Motochika in Shikoku and Sassa Narimasa in Hokuriku. (Of course, the clemency toward Sassa didn’t last long, as he was forced to commit suicide some time later.) She also of course describes the more brutal, ruthless side of Hideyoshi, where he defeats and destroys Shibata Katsuie, and others. She also spends time discussing the social transformation of the disarming of the peasants and monks, as well as the stripping the samurai of their land. She describes how all of these moves were designed to stabilize the country by making rebellion by peasants and monks less likely. Also, by stripping samurai of land, the samurai themselves became more dependent on their lords and daimyo, also making samurai less likely to make trouble independent of their daimyo. So the daimyo gave up some independence to Hideyoshi as the supreme central power, but the daimyo also acquired a certain new power vis-à-vis those peasants and samurai below them on the social hierarchy.

Do you have a particular interest in Korea, or in those particular Japanese invasions of Korea?

Regards,
Mike

www.nihonshi.org/

On 8/11/2006, "BURKER1@..." <BURKER1@...> wrote:

>Mike,
>
> How much coverage does the book give to the Imjin War (the Japanese
>invasion of Korea)?
>
>Bob Burke
>
>
>In a message dated 8/10/06 4:07:35 PM, tokyodog@... writes:
>
>
>>
>> Dear all.
>>
>> The Japan history reading group, Nihonshi, has just completed reading the
>> Tale of Genji. Now this month, we are reading Mary Elizabeth Berry's bio of
>> Hideyoshi. I've finished reading Berry's book, and it is excellent. I've
>> posted a summary of Hideyoshi's life at the group website. If any of you
>> notice any inaccuracies or have any suggested amendments to my description
>> of Hideyoshi's life on the Nihonshi website, please email me.
>>
>> The group's website is here.
>>
>> http://www.nihonshihttp://www.http <http://www.nihonshihttp:/www.http>
>>
>> Also, anyone who wishes can certainly subscribe to the Nihonshi group and
>> join us in our reading of Japan's history. We take our history seriously,
>> but we do it in a casual and sometimes irreverent way. Politically incorrect
>> and outlandish comparisons and debate about Japan are most welcome.
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> tokyodog@...
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mike,

Thanks for the description of the book. I've been interested in the
Japanese Invasion of Korea for a while now. In fact, I've posted a very
detailed bibliography about the Imjin War to the group's files.

The Korean TV miniseries about Admiral Yi is being released on DVD next
week. It's a two box set. Originally, it was only going to be released on
Region 3 format (Southeast Asia) which meant we wouldn't be able to watch it
on US DVD players.

I don't know if my inquiry had anything to do with it, but after I
inquired about the series I was told that it was going to be released on an All
Region format, so we will be able to watch it here in the US.

Here's the website if you want to read about it <
http://www.dvdfromkorea.com/>. Just do a search for "Admiral Yi".

Bob Burke


In a message dated 8/11/06 4:39:14 AM, tokyodog@... writes:

>
> Dear Bob.
>
> Thanks for the email question on the Hideyoshi biography. Berry's book does
> discuss somewhat the Korean invasions, but the author does not go into
> intricate detail of the Korean invasions. She does not focus on blow by blow of the
> battles in Korea. She focuses far more on the battles within Japan to
> consolidate Hideyoshi's power over Japan itself, and his forming alliances within
> Japan. She also focuses more on when Hideyoshi was willing to show clemency
> even with defeated foes, like Chosokabe Motochika in Shikoku and Sassa Narimasa
> in Hokuriku. (Of course, the clemency toward Sassa didn’t last long, as he
> was forced to commit suicide some time later.) She also of course describes
> the more brutal, ruthless side of Hideyoshi, where he defeats and destroys
> Shibata Katsuie, and others. She also spends time discussing the social
> transformation of the disarming of the peasants and monks, as well as the stripping
> the samurai of their land. She describes how all of these moves were designed
> to stabilize the country by making rebellion by peasants and monks less
> likely. Also, by stripping samurai of land, the samurai themselves became more dep
> endent on their lords and daimyo, also making samurai less likely to make
> trouble independent of their daimyo. So the daimyo gave up some independence to
> Hideyoshi as the supreme central power, but the daimyo also acquired a certain
> new power vis-à-vis those peasants and samurai below them on the social
> hierarchy.
>
> Do you have a particular interest in Korea, or in those particular Japanese
> invasions of Korea?
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
> www.nihonshi. www
>
> On 8/11/2006, "BURKER1@..." <BURKER1@...> wrote:
>
> >Mike,
> >
> > How much coverage does the book give to the Imjin War (the Japanese
> >invasion of Korea)?
> >
> >Bob Burke
> >
> >
> >In a message dated 8/10/06 4:07:35 PM, tokyodog@... writes:
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Dear all.
> >>
> >> The Japan history reading group, Nihonshi, has just completed reading the
> >> Tale of Genji. Now this month, we are reading Mary Elizabeth Berry's bio
> of
> >> Hideyoshi. I've finished reading Berry's book, and it is excellent. I've
> >> posted a summary of Hideyoshi's life at the group website. If any of you
> >> notice any inaccuracies or have any suggested amendments to my
> description
> >> of Hideyoshi's life on the Nihonshi website, please email me.
> >>
> >> The group's website is here.
> >>
> >> http://www.nihonshihttp://www.http <http://www.nihonshihttp://wwwhttp>
> >>
> >> Also, anyone who wishes can certainly subscribe to the Nihonshi group and
> >> join us in our reading of Japan's history. We take our history seriously,
> >> but we do it in a casual and sometimes irreverent way. Politically
> incorrect
> >> and outlandish comparisons and debate about Japan are most welcome.
> >>
> >> Cheers.
> >>
> >> Mike
> >>
> >> tokyodog@...
> >>
> >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]