Touken Matsumoto (English)

On June 3rd, the annual Noda kai Sword Auction was held at Business Hotel Noda. We were worried about the effects of the heavy rain that had continued since the day before, but we were happy to see 55 sword dealers gathered at the event. Many of them exhibited attractive swords and fittings for the auction. The lively auction continued all day long from the morning, until it ended safely in the evening at 5pm. After the end of the auction, I was exhausted but was also filled with a feeling of satisfaction that reenergized me after receiving positive words of appreciation from the participants. Despite the severe weather and current decrease of items overall, this auction event had almost record high performance. This time, we held a banquet at the hotel the day before and invited a magician for entertainment. Everyone seemed to be fascinated by the magic tricks that we were able to see up close and in person. It was a very nice event and a great way to show my appreciation to the Noda Kai Sword Auction participants.

The 36th Yearly General Meeting of the All Japan Sword Trader’s Association was held at the Tokyo Art Club on May 17th . This year, there was a re-election of the board members for a two-year term, and I was re-elected as a director. This is my fifth term since I was first elected at the 28th General Meeting in 2015. While the members are aging and the number of members are decreasing, as one of the board members, I will strive to envision a bright future for sword dealers, rejuvenate the association, and increase the number of sword enthusiasts to expand and revitalize the market. After the general meeting, an auction was held with many successful trades taking place.

The 2nd Morioka Token Ichi sales event was held for 3 days from Friday, May 12th at the Iwate Prefectural Information Exchange Center in the hope it would be a good opportunity for the people of Iwate Prefecture to become familiar with Japanese swords and attract new and existing sword collectors. In addition to making advanced newspaper advertisements, I was interviewed by local newspapers, Iwate Nippo and Morioka Times, and articles about the event were published in the Saturday morning edition. The awareness of the event was able to spread. The visitors were not only local, but also came from the neighboring prefectures of Akita and Aomori. Also, we had a visit from the contemporary Mukansa Swordsmith, Yamaguchi Kiyofusa, who is 90 years old. We were able to hear about his valuable experiences with his forging skills and Mochi tetsu (local iron).  The performance of the event was lower than usual, but I feel there is potential. I will do my best to make the next event in May 2024 a success.

The Second Sendai Touken Ichi was held at Yume Messe Miyagi Convention Center for three days from Friday the 7th of April. Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku district and famous for the Date Domain that was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. Under the Kokudaka system its income rating at 625,000 Koku was the third-largest domain in Japan. However, despite this history, it does not have a Japanese sword specialty store. Therefore, I made a special effort to make Japanese swords more familiar to those who were interested in coming to the exhibition. Continuing from the last time, we had many local sword enthusiasts, including members of the local Miyagi Prefecture NBTHK. I want to thank everyone for making the event a success. Next time, we will hold the Third Sendai Touken Ichi in October this year, just six months away. I will do my best to make the Touken Ichi established in Sendai and to help increase the Japanese sword appreciation.

In order to increase our name recognition in the local area, we posted illuminated signboards on the nearest subway on the Tozai Line at the Nishikasai and Kasai Station platforms. This is a follow-up to  the sign at the Urayasu Station, which is an express stop. I’m a little concerned about whether it will be effective or not, but I’ll do my best to convey the wonders of Japanese swords to the locals and to help fill our shop with customers!

The 7th Nishikasai Touken Ichi was held at the Nishikasai shop in Tokyo for five days from Wednesday, March the 22nd. We placed two newspaper advertisements about the event in the Yomiuri Shimbun morning edition in the metropolitan area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, four prefectures). Unfortunately, the weather was unfavorable, and it was cold and rainy during the five days. However, our regular customers showed their support and visited us despite the weather. We enjoyed it very much. The next Nishikasai Toukenichi will be in June. I will place ads in the newspaper again to promote the event and to increase our name recognition. We hope to see you then!

The 8th Koriyama Touken Ichi was held at the Big Palette Convention Center Fukushima for 3 days starting from Friday, March 10th.
There has been an increase in consecutive events as well as an increase in visiting customers and a good mood was fueled by Japan National Baseball Team’s four-game winning streak in the WBC and their breakthrough in the first qualifying round.
The performance of the event exceeded our expectations selling 14 swords. Many of the swords sold were forged by Fukushima local swordsmiths, such as Aizu, Nihonmatsu, Shirakawa, and Iwaki.
We will continue our efforts to increase the number of sword collectors and enthusiasts in Fukushima Prefecture!

The 20th Noda Token Ichi was held at a convention hall in a Hotel in Noda for three days from Friday the January 27th. It has been held 20 times, every six months in January and July, and 10 years have passed. Over the years there are many repeating customers that join.  More than 80% of the approximately 70 exhibited swords that are usually displayed have been replaced with new items in the six months since July last time. That means if you hesitate to buy a sword that you liked, the next time you visit, it may not be there. So be sure to buy the sword you like when you see it or you may not have the opportunity to own it in the future. Customers can also take advantage of our trade in option, where you can trade in a sword to put towards another more expensive one. It was a fulfilling three days, gaining credibility by holding events and allowing visitors to gain familiarity with Japanese swords. We would like to see you at the next Noda Token Ichi event in July.

Happy New Year. This year, we welcomed the first sunrise with Mt. Fuji under a cloudless blue sky and prayed for prosperous business. All the staff will do their best so that all our customers will say, “I am happy to do business with Touken Matsumoto.” We look forward to your continued patronage this year.

Bijutsu Token Matsumoto
Owner Yoshiyuki Matsumoto

The 6th Nishikasai Token Ichi was held at the Nishikasai shop in Tokyo for five days from Wednesday, December 8th to Sunday the 12th. As it was done last time, we placed a small advertisement about the Auction in the Yomiuri Shimbun for the Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa region. The effects of the advertisements were felt when the number of new customers who visited the shop increased. Together with our staff, we will strive to operate the shop so that sword enthusiasts can look forward to visiting us. Please stop by to say hello and don’t forget to tell your friends.

The Nada-kai Sword Auction Semi-Annual Event took place on December 3rd at a hotel in Noda. This is a special event to show our gratitude to all the sword dealers who often participate in the Noda-Kai. At this event, fifty sword dealers gathered and bought and sold a lot of swords and fittings, making this semi-annual event exciting. The Noda-Kai Sword Auction first started in 1992 and is now thirty years old. We will strive to continue to boost the spirits of our Noda-Kai Sword Auction into the future.

The Dai Touken Ichi 2022 successfully came to a close for the first time in three years. The last two years there was no event due to COVID-19. This year many enthusiasts visited the event from all over the world, including sword traders and craftsmen. However, we still took precautions against COVID-19 such as wearing masks. The Dai Touken Ichi is a great opportunity to meet and to renew old friendships with all the local and international enthusiasts and get to know each other better as well as selling our items. We all actively exchanged information, and it was a very fulfilling three days. I am looking forward to next year’s event with great anticipation.

Dear website visitor,

Our website was offline yesterday evening and this afternoon. It was due to a system software upgrade at our hosting provider. We worked to resolve the issues and are back online.
I apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Yoshiyuki Matsumoto

Yamagata Token Ichi was held at the Yamagata International Relation Plaza, known as “Yamagata Big Wing”, in Yamagata City for 3 days from Friday July 22nd. The venue was 417 square meters wide, which is three times as large as the usual place, so this time I host the event that four other sword traders; Fujiya (Koriyama City), Kimura Art Sword Store (Takasaki City), Santo Ryu (Yokohama City), Shinbori Art Sword (Yokohama City).  We asked the four parties to participate with us, and we had a wide selection of products, blades, and fittings. We repeatedly advertised in newspapers and hoped that it would reach Yamagata’s sword enthusiasts even at this first event. However, the number of people infected with COVID-19 in Yamagata Prefecture surged from 350 on February 3 to 581 on July 20. I was depressed at this worst timing. However, the Yamagata Shimbun, the most subscribed newspaper in the area, came to interview me and it was posted in an article on Saturday. They also took a video of the exhibit. Then, the number of visitors tripled from the first Friday to Saturday and Sunday. The number of visitors far exceeded the initial expectations. We were able to receive compliments from many visitors for the explanation, so they felt that the Japanese sword was a little closer to them. I could then feel that the event was a success, with all the sword traders selling items during this time.  At the end of the day of the fulfilling joint exhibition and sale, all the participants deepened their friendship with delicious Yamagata food at night.

On July 15th, we will successfully celebrate the first anniversary of the Nishi-kasai store’s opening. Because of the COVID-19, I didn’t advertise much at that time. However, recently the situation has become more stable, so I started to advertise more to raise the shop’s awareness. I placed an advertisement on the platform of the Urayasu train station on the Tozai Subway Line. Urayasu station is 2 stations closer to Chiba from Nishikasai station, which is the closest to the store. There are many passengers getting on and off at the express train stop at this station, so I expect there should be greater awareness. Last month on June 22, we placed an advertisement on the mirror board inside of the Nishi-kasai station. Starting from July 1st, we also placed an advertisement on the Fire Hydrant Pole in front of the Nishi-Kasai Station close to the shop. The third was the advertisement on the platform of the Urayasu train station. I hope for better recognition, so please visit our shop and be sure to tell your friends about us.