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jezah81
22nd July 2006, 05:31
This is a question that i have been thinking about for sometime. Do swordsmiths get awarded second and third prizes with the NBTHK mainly for political reasons, or is there anything "special" about the swords that get awarded these prizes, so to speak??

Kind Regards,

Jeremy Hagop

Brian Owens
22nd July 2006, 06:57
Let me give my answer by way of a hypothetical example.

Let's say that 100 smiths present blades to be judged. One blade gets the top honors.

Does that mean that the other 99 were junk? Of course not.

It is likely that most smiths whose work was presented will have shown blades of good to superior quality, but only a handful will be of absolutely top tier beauty and craftsmanship. Out of 100 blades shown, several would likely be "special" enough to deserve some level of recognition.

HTH.

jezah81
27th July 2006, 04:12
Thanks for your reply Brian. But what i meant was are the Yushu-prize and Doryoku-prizes more like "honorary" prizes more than anything else?

Kind Regards,