My name is James R Miller and I live in Tokyo Japan. I own a Samurai Sword and Samurai Armor gallery called "Gallery Samurai" here in central Tokyo; very easy to get to by taxi or subway from anywhere in the central city.
I have been collecting and buying and selling Japanese Samurai Swords for 38+ years, since I had first visited Japan in 1970 during my self-financed round the world tour--- I was just 20 years old when I started. I was studying a number of foreign languages and comparative linguistics (and Japanese Art) at UCLA at the time, and the last stop on my one year tour was Japan, where I began to collect Japanese Antiques and Art from small antique shops in Kyoto (my favorite city in Japan). I began by collecting woodblock prints, Ukiyo-e, but my friend said to me "Why don't you study Japanese Swords? No one knows anything about them, you could do well and establish yourself as an expert". He was right. And so I did.
I bought Fujishiro's books Koto-hen and Shinto-hen, and Shinto-shu and began to read them cover to cover, over and over again every day until the covers fell off. I read John Yumoto's book. I visited old Mr. Hawley's house in Los Angeles and bought his books. I bought my first Japanese Samurai Sword, 33 inches long, signed and dated Shin Shinto with an over cleaned Tang, for $1,500. I bought my first suit of Samurai Armor from a Los Angeles Japanese gift shop, also for $1,500, paying with fifteen $100 bills, which I had never handled much before. I bought many Ukiyo-e in Kyoto and in Los Angeles from different dealers. And when my money was all gone (from my many part time jobs while finishing school), then I ran ads in Los Angeles and also over in Japan to sell Japanese Antiques --- and had a lot of responses, fortunately
So, after starting at age 20 and progressing up to the age of about 24, I became one of the world's busiest and largest Japanese Samurai Sword dealers, traveling by myself and together with Japanese Dealers from Tokyo and Osaka Japan, to destinations such as New York, London, Germany, San Francisco, Chicago (I was there at a sword show when the DC-10 crashed in 1979 --- I bought 120 swords at that show during 5 days). During my first 10 years of being a Japanese Samurai Sword dealer and collector, I was buying and selling about 300 to 500 Samurai Swords per year.
My Santa Monica CA shop called "Japanese Art and Arms" couldn't handle the volume of samurai swords and armor (see photos) that I was buying, so I came back to Tokyo to sell to all the famous dealers in Tokyo and Sendai and Kyoto and Osaka and Kobe and in Fukuoka. I established, in 1980, with the famous legal firm Braun Moriya, my first incorporated company in Japan with the name of Mukashiya K.K. (the name "mukashi/mukashi" = long time ago), (this is an old Japanese story book expression), and then "ya" = shop, and of course K.K. means incorporated company. The initial deposit needed was 3 million yen later revised to 10 million yen or about $100,000 cash. I was 29 years old.
We sent out monthly catalogs from 1980 to 2005, and have been on the Internet for 12 years, since 1998. This enabled me to sell by retail to Japanese famous and wealthy individual sword collectors here, and I have met thousands. I began producing catalogs, first in Black and White, later in color, and then I began doing sword exhibitions inside Tokyo. My first sword exhibition was in a hotel ballroom, had very few attendants but my second in central Shibuya was featured on the NHK morning news, generating so many telephone calls that the Shibuya Telephone Exchange crashed, and the police showed up to ask why there were giant lines outside the hall, and why the telephones in Shibuya no longer worked. A famous magazine called "Focus" also did a two page article on me (I was so young, I am embarrassed to show you the pages).
Since I began, I have bought and sold 10,585+ Japanese Samurai Swords. This quantity of swords would fill your living room to the ceiling, three times over. To buy such a quantity of swords, I had to travel around the world dozens of times in distance, millions of miles, in fact I have given my whole adult life to the study and appreciation of Japanese Swords. There is no one like me anywhere else in the world.
Now I am nearly retired. I wish to sell the final, best items from my collection via my Gallery in Tokyo called Gallery Samurai. I have many items on display there, but I only now sell and show by appointment.
For those of you living in Tokyo, or visiting at a major hotel, I might be able to find the strength and time to visit you there, if you contact me in advance to make the arrangements.
I am an expert in the following fields: Samurai Swords, Samurai Armor, Samurai Sword Mounts such as Tsuba (sword guards), Kozuka, Fuchi Kashira, Menuki, Japanese Matchlock Guns, Buddhist Paintings, Statues, Art, Nichiren, Ukiyo Woodblock Prints, Shin Hanga, Shunga Paintings and Drawings and Prints, Japanese Oil Paintings, Japanese Scroll Paintings, Western OIl Paintings (which are being sold here frequently), Zen Paintings, Shibayama, Gold Inro, Gold Lacquer Boxes and Suzuribako .. and much much more.
Each sword rack around the outside of the room holds 5 or 6 swords and there were 25 of them. The glass cases hold Tachi and many Heian and Kamakura or important swords and there were 8 of them, but only three can be seen in these photos.
To the left, out of the photos, are 3 jewelry cases holding about 600 Tsuba and Kozuka and Fuchi Kashira - an amazing number.
To the right, out of the photo, was a large table holding Matchlock Guns, about 30 or so (see separate photos). Also spread out on tables are about 80 to 120 more Samurai Swords, just the bare blades, some lightly rusted, very popular since the customers can freely pick up each for study and examination (NOT done anywhere else in Tokyo since customers are not allowed to touch more than two blades before buying!!!) See below for more historical photos of my 45+ samurai sword Ginza exhibitions.
As you can see, there are easily 1,000 tsuba and menuki and kozuka and fuchi kashira seen here ..............