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ghp
1st December 2000, 19:10
Some people with a strong background in "Nippon-to" have noticed a very strong resemblance in a competitor's blade and the blades used on Nosyuiaido's "steel iaito." This matter was brought to the attention of Rick Polland (Nosyu's Int'l Director) and Keiji Igarashi, the president of Nosyuiaido. Apparently one competitor in particular has the same Chinese name as an employee dismissed from Nosyu's China factory -- and some 200 rejected blades -- tagged for destruction -- are missing.

Mr. Igarashi has asked to have his statement placed on Japanese Sword bulletin boards. If you have further questions, please direct them to Mr. Rick Polland (link at the bottom).
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My name is Keiji Igarashi and I am the president of our family business - Nosyuiaido. We are headquartered in Japan and have additional manufacturing capabilities in mainland China. Nosyuiaido makes and distributes the highest quality iaito, steel iaito and Japanese shinken in the world. We are quite concerned to hear that our competition is trying to pass Nosyuiaido look-alikes off to clients who trust our name for a purchase of a fine sword. We are saddened that our quality name could be damaged by the unscrupulous marketing of these copy-cat blades. Nosyu has a long standing tradition based upon Japanese sword making arts and our research team is dedicated to the continual improvement of our swords. We are proud of our products and care about our client relationships that we have forged throughout the world.

Approximately 200 blades that were prototypes, never intended for the marketplace is being sold by a competitor. Please be aware that these blades were destined to be melted down and NEVER sold to a client under our name or any other name. Please use caution. If the sword you are interested in does not come from Swordstore.com/CET Inc. it may be one of these blades. If the koshirae (sword furniture) is not Japanese, chances are very high that it is one of these blades. Outwardly these blades look very much like our first generation blades with either suguha or gunome hamon. These 200 blades mentioned above were rejected because they did not pass our stringent quality control tests for strength, flexibility and chip resistance. We truly are embarrassed and apologize to our clients and friends for the inconvience and confusion that this may cause. if you have any questions, please contact Mr. Rick Polland at sales@swordstore.com or 410-544-3611. Our web site will be providing additional detail about ways to determine the difference between our quality products and these inferior look-alikes...

Sincerely,

Keiji Igarashi,
President, Nosyuiaido
Japan

Rick Polland
President, Cutting Edge Technologies, Inc.
USA
http://www.swordstore.com
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Regards,
Guy Power