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This is a list of places where you can go and see beautiful examples of Japanese craftsmanship developed over, oh, the past thousand years or so in arms and armour. Other sites on the web list not-to-be missed web resources, but this page is intended to give an inclusive list of places where you can actually see artifacts in the flesh. My sources are personal travel, recommendations from others, and bits and pieces culled from the specialist literature and travel guides. I've listed sites separately for Japan and the U.S. Some places are commercial and others are museums large and small where a small entrance fee may be charged. At the larger museums there will generally be English speaking guides or English guidebooks available.
Be advised that for some sites visits may be by appointment only and English speaking personnel not always available. Also, just like everywhere else, be prepared for a "cool" reception at commercial establishments until and unless you develop some kind of relationship with them. The reasons should be obvious but I'll mention at least a couple. Swords and armour are first of all weapons of war, and the history behind the artifacts sometimes belies less than simple and forthright admiration for the craftsmanship or beauty of the tool. Be sensitive and show respect for the objects and the history. Second, (and I thank Chris Bowen for this insight) in Japan collecting swords is not so much a middle-class interest as much as it is an occupation of a smaller number of wealthy elite. Most middle-class Japanese I know don't like ANY kind of antiques, let alone ones that have potentially "bad karma" from who knows what kind of battle or mayhem (exactly opposite from thinking of all the honor and pride that went into making these objects). Prices for these art objects in Japan are unbelievably high and beyond most middle-class pocketbooks. As a rule, apart from a few shops that specialize in commerce with non-Japanese, the dealers who traffic in nihonto are used to dealing with collectors who can lay down serious money. That said, I've been in shops with very kind and informative associates, even though the most I spent was an hour of their time cultivating a relationship. This site is very much a work in progress so by all means send me your suggestions of what to see, and corrections to the list. (If I ever get the time I'll add photos, but don't count on it anytime soon.) Names or initials [in brackets] cite much apprreciated source help. Note: Place names in Japan sometimes list the ward (ku), town (machi), city (shi), and prefecture (ken) suffixes as part of the word, sometimes as a hyphenated suffix, and sometimes it is omitted as unecessary. Neighborhood names are used in addresses but these are not identified with a suffix as above, but with a number preceding them. Many sites are linked either directly to that organization or to a local chamber of commerce or tourist information site. Travelers are advised to contact the Japanese National Tourist Organization (JNTO) for current travel information. Here is an abbreviated and highly idiosyncratic list of museums all throughout Japan, but nice for how it groups museums by prefecture. I take NO responsibility for the accuracy or timeliness of this information, nor for the views of organizations listed, which are provided merely as a service to lovers of art and antiquities.
LINKS: Rich Stein and Jim Gilbert have excellent, authoritative websites with many links to further information on nihonto (Stein) and tsuba (Gilbert). Highly recommended.
Mail to: ghougham@yahoo.com
| Kunozan Toshogu Museum, (Kunozan Toshogu Hakubutsukan). 390 Nekoya, Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka-ken. Phone: (0542) 37-2437. Open 9 - 4pm. Travel: 35 minutes by bus from Shizuoka Station. The museum is on the grounds (situated in a small 15 acre Protected Forest) of the (Important Cultural Property) Kunozan Toshogu Shrine, built pursuant to the wishes of Tokugawa Ieyasu, on ground previously occupied by the 6th C. Emperor Suiko's castle. The museum has on display 2 suits of armor worn by Ieyasu, 2 Bizen Swords used by his son Hidetada and his grandson Iemitsu, a suit of armor worn by Iemitsu, and many other swords, spears, arrows, quivers, war fans, guns, armor and other artifacts belonging at one time to the household of Ieyasu Tokugawa, himself buried here for a short while before his remains were transferred to Nikko. |
![Antique (Pre-WWII) Postcard Issued by Kunozan Shamusho (shrine office), picturing two suits of armor at the Kunozan Toshogu. [Postcard collection of G Hougham]](toshogu_postcard_00000745_01_00.jpg)
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Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, 20 Sagamore Hill Road Oyster Bay, New York 11771-1807. Phone:(516) 922-4447 offers 24-hour recorded information, (516) 922-4788 for park offices. Hours: 9 AM to 4:30 PM. Email: sahi_interpretation@nps.gov. This was the home of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, now maintained by the National Park Service. An avid outdoorsman, "Teddy" had several nihonto in his collection. John Prough recently discussed Sagamore Hill on the Token Kenkyu Kai mailing list. I quote his extensive comments: "One of our club's prior projects was to rescue the Nihonto in Sagamore Hill from the benign disinterest of the Parks Dept. This started in about 1989 when one of our members was touring the Sagamore Hill House and his sharp eyed young son pointed out that there were some swords hanging on the wall. At the entrance to the main living room there was a display case on the wall on either side. There was a tachi in one case and a tachi and tanto in the other. You can only get about 15 feet from the cases since the room is off limits. You basically look in from the doorway. And they were not lit at all so it was easy to overlook them. I contacted the curator to see what they knew about the swords. The short of it was they knew nothing. Their inventory had entries like "1 Japanese short sword". As far as she could tell from the records, the cases had not been opened since 1940! I made a proposal to her as to having our club come out and do a survey of what they have, provide a real description of each item, and clean them. She seemed pleased to have us do so, but after the proposal was mailed--silence. As it turned out, the curator had been killed in a freak shopping center fire, and there was not anyone else who could pick it up since her boss was being replaced. Some years later I tried again, and after some drama managed to get a team out there to inspect what they had. The single tachi in a case was according to the case's tag a gift from the people of Sendai in northern Japan. It was very nice efu-tachi fittings, but the blade was a wakizashi signed Kanenori. The other case was a gift from the Meiji Tenno. The tachi has very nice fittings with a Bizen Osafune Sanemitsu blade in it. This is probably the 2nd generation smith who worked around 1425. The tanto, in fancy Meiji koshirae, is o-tanto with a Hasebe Kuninobu in it. Probably was the best of the 3. They also had 3 other blades in the basement that they didn't have a clue about. Appeared to be a tachi mounted shinshinto, a suo-koto mumei katana, and a shinto mumei wakizashi. They have no record as to where they came from, though they suspect one of the sons picked them up on a trip to Japan. Before our shinsa in 1997, we were able to get Yoshikawa Sensei over to Sagamore Hill where he had a good look at them. He had also checked the records of the Imperial collection but couldn't fine any definite entry for them, but there was some mention of a suit of armor and a sword. There was some speculation that one of them was from Admiral Togo. Sensei also gave a nice lecture in their little lecture room. It was published in our newsletter in 1998. Hope this helps." [John Prough 5/30/02] Another alert brought to our attention a television feature on Sagamore shown on HGTV. Some nihonto are apparently on display in Roosevelt's private study. [Thomas Kennedy 5/30/02]
| The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201. Phone: (410) 547-9000. Open 10 - 5pm, T-Su. Located in the historic Mt. Vernon/Washington Monument area, the entrance is 1/2 block West of Charles Street, on Centre Street, just about 10 blocks due north of the Convention Center and other downtown Baltimore landmarks. The Walters is a real gem for Nihonto lovers for many reasons. First, they have on display some very nice fittings, katana, tanto, and armor (Hidemune, Akihiro, Sadayoshi, Kazunari, Miboku IV, Yoshinasa, Myochin Munechika, Sukesada). Second, the displays of nihonto (as well as the rest of their Asian art--tons of Chinese export porcelain, but also Japanese ukiyo-e, lacquer, ivory, small bronzes, Buddhist statuary and so forth) are installed in the original Walters mansion sections of the museum, so you get a feel for how a rich, social-climbing 19th century industrialist (and later, his son) might have lived with his collections. Third, the curatorial staff have mounted a few items (e.g., a Yoshinasa daisho) with very helpful sets of explanatory drawings and labels to help orient the viewer, and the items are generally only inches away (behind glass), so you can actually see them. The other labels tend to be accurate and very descriptive, but a few blades went without any mention of smith (or even a mumei designation). The armor pictured in the postcard here has very nicely worked images of Fudo Myo-o on the breastplate and helmet. Finally, nothing against ya' Baltimore, but finding the charming Walters in the midst of a generally economically depressed city made my visit memorable. Thanks, Walters! |
![Suit of Armor. Iron, lacquer, textile, wood. Japan, 18th-19th century, assembled ca. 1900. Photo credit: The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (51.602). [Postcard collection of G Hougham]](suitofarmorwalters_a.jpg)
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Mail to: ghougham@yahoo.com