Part 2 of the Banner of Golden Brocade, the Naval Ensigns is now up

[Nick Komiya]

Go to the thread pinned at the top of the page to enjoy part 2 of the rising sun story now complete. Enjoy!

Here it is The Banner of Golden Brocade

[BOB COLEMAN]

On behalf of the staff and membership of the Forum, many thanks for your amazing contributions.

[Nick Komiya]

Just added a new section to the Banner of Golden Brocade

[Staldion]

Like always with your topics I feel that saying "Thank you" is not enough as you truly provide an unvaluable work, for us western collectors.

Again some amazing informations, well illustrated, with sometimes a touch of humor wich is really welcome. In a word, priceless.

Once again, pedagogy brings History back to life. It may be useless but I need to say thank you very much Nick senseï.

[Alan M]

Like always with your topics I feel that saying "Thank you" is not enough as you truly provide an unvaluable work, for us western collectors.

Again some amazing informations, well illustrated, with sometimes a touch of humor wich is really welcome. In a word, priceless.

Once again, pedagogy brings History back to life. It may be useless but I need to say thank you very much Nick senseï.

I agree and thank you again Nick .

[ghp95134]

Nick, seriously! You need to get all your translations packaged together in book form. I'd buy it!

--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

Thank you for the kind comments. I'm glad many enjoyed reading the latest story about the flags. The research for the story was full of surprises for me, too and I liked it that I could show them as average humans with doubts, torn between two opposing choices like the sun's offset and whether or not to repair, etc. Yet they were quite professional and methodical in how they drew conclusions through benchmarking studies, etc, which allows modern businessmen like us to see that they were exactly like us in how they dealt with challenges, which is both comforting and scary at the same time.
The next one coming up is titled "The Emperor's new clothes", but unlike the original, there will be no nudity in my story to keep it PG.

[BOB COLEMAN]

Nick, seriously! You need to get all your translations packaged together in book form. I'd buy it!

--Guy

I agree. Unfortunately too many new collectors are too cheap to self educate and invest in a library. They prefer to have information spoon fed to them. I also would invest in such a book but I am becoming a fossil in the hobby.

[Nick Komiya]

Regrettably too many books are also not worth buying these days. The hobby book market is like a no-man's-land between cheap collectors and cheap authors trying to exploit each other. Any collector can write a book these days, as long as they have a collection to show, so they make picture books that are horrendously expensive with zero intellectual content, just copyrighting their collection photos or someone else's. These authors join forums to peddle their books and when someone asks a question he'll be told that it's in the book. I try to write what I would pay for, quality of content I would expect of a book worth buying. By providing it free to all, hopefully many wannabe authors would think twice before embarrassing themselves in print for posterity.

But worst of all, in this no-man's-land of ignorance, thrives prejudice like cockroaches. Behind every knife that becomes a Harakiri knife and every towel that becomes a Kamikaze headband, is a person that has learned nothing from all the sacrifices made by all sides more than 70 years ago. If I can just help open the eyes of some to the riches that lie beyond this barrier of ignorance, that is worth a lot more than petty royalties from a book.

[Staldion]

Don't worry, young collectors just have to learn from their mistakes like the old ones probably did back in the day. Serious books on japanese militaria were scarce à few years ago, and still are if you compare with what is available about Third Reich militaria. Many things need are published in japanese deserve an english translation / publishing. It's even worse in french as the handful of books are full of mistakes.

Too bad, as Nick remind us there are a lot of connections between France and Japan from centuries, the bushido often make me think of our own medieval code of chivalry, and the heitai soldier of the 30'/40' in many points looks alike our "poilus" of WW1... Charging heavy machine guns with bayo and outdated equipment is something some of my ancestors did too.

I enjoy japanese militaria, because I can feel the french source in many items, but often mixed with german influences, and Nick's articles make it crystal clear.

Edit: I can't agree more, what you described happend in France with a book on japanese military sword. Sampling photos of author's collection and pieces from dealer site. I've heard from a collector that the author have now sold his collection. Kind of legitimate / making a story for his own item, artificially increase the value, then sold it all. And in the journey make the collecting wolrd worse than it already is. I buyed the book because I was curious to see the only one avaible in French, wonder a lot of time if it was better than nothing, but don't think so now.