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John Lindsey
9th February 2001, 16:28
The following message was taken from Chris Bowen's Token kenkyu kai email list:

------------------------------

I have recently been contacted by several people who have been having
trouble with the infamous Haruka Hoshino. It seems he is not returning
swords, or returning them with horrendously amatuer polishes. When
confronted, he stops communication and doesn't return e-mail, etc.

This person has a huge file of complaints registered against him at the
San Francisco Bettter Business Bureau. He has been investigated by
E-Bay. He portrays himself as an expert in Japanese swords, and as a
sword polisher. He has made claims that he studied with national
treasure craftsman, etc. All complete bull. I have personnally seen
several blades either he or one of his "national treasure" polishers
have worked on. They were once nice swords before he got ahold of
them. Now they are worthless.

I am writing this for two reasons: one, to warn those not familar with
him to avoid him at all costs, and two, to let people know that if they
have had a bad experience with him, they can now post the particulars on
Hoshino's OWN SWORD FORUM! Yes, it seems Hoshino's capability to edit
messages he doesn't like has been taken away, so anyone with a grevience
is free to fire away. If you post there, PLEASE keep the posts polite
and to the point. Hopefully this will alert others to the dangers of
dealing with this fellow. Here is the URL:

http://pub4.ezboard.com/bsfjapaneseswordsociety


--

Sincerely,

Chris Bowen
swords@ejapaneseswords.com

Suite 122, SVAXTT Bldg., 1 FL.
Toranomon 3-11-15
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001
Japan

Joss
9th February 2001, 17:59
Chris later added: "it turns out it wasn't Hoshino that was investigated [by e-Bay] (directly), but someone selling for
him....

FWIW...

JD

koeikannidan
11th August 2005, 01:41
I do have to agree with this one. I went up to meet with Mr Hoshino personally back in March. I brought my sword to be left with him. He was to polish it, make a new saya and tsuka. I paid some up front in good faith as well.
After almost four months of him not returning phone calls or emails, I started to worry! He promised the work to be done in three weeks. I finnally had to fly back up to San Francisco to retrieve my sword. The work that was done was not very good either.
It has now been almost five months and he still has not sent my new Saya like he promised and was paid for. He will not return phone calls or emails either.

watch out for this one..................................

tsurashi shondo
11th August 2005, 15:21
I had heard somewhere that he was in fact Chinese and not Japanese. Anyone know of this?

kenkyusha
11th August 2005, 15:57
There are pages upon pages of material on Mr. (fuma ninja master... bwahahaha) Hoshino here... IIRC, his father was Chinese, his mother Japanese.

koeikannidan
Welcome to E-budo. Please note that all posts must include your full name.

Be well,
Jigme

koeikannidan
11th August 2005, 19:12
Thanks for the information. I almost learned the hard way with that one.
I will be sure to leave my signature from now on too.

Troy M. Spees

Charles Mahan
11th August 2005, 20:00
The easiest way to be sure your real name ends up on the posts is to click the "User CP" at the top of any page. Then click "Edit Signature" and add your name to the "Signature" field. That will automatically add your name to the bottom of all your posts.