MIKE NOEL

in his own words

When I was 16 years old I was apprenticed as a weapons fitter and also started practising Kendo, which gave me an interest in Japanese swords and culture. At 18 I bought my first sword, not shinken but an Iaito, which is not included in this sale.

Sometime in my 20’s I retrained as a commercial diver and started working in the oil industry. This change gave me that most wonderful of things - enough money to indulge a passion - and so with the aid of the internet I started to collect. The majority of pieces in the collection were imported by me from Japan, the balance being sourced from dealers and friends in the UK.

There are many positives about collecting. Meeting like-minded people learning new skills and, through research of items in the collection, learning about a different culture and the changes and upheavals that shaped Japanese society over many centuries. The activity in the blades and details in the fittings of Nihonto are to me truly amazing and a credit to the craftsmen and artisans that took weapons of war to a whole new level of lethal elegance.

In 2024, I was diagnosed with cancer which made me realise that maybe it was time to pass on my collection for others to enjoy. I think with antiques in general, we do not really own them, rather we look after them for the next generation and hope that we will find other like-minded individuals prepared to take on the onerous responsibility of stewardship. To that end, if you buy a part of the collection, I hope it will bring you as much pleasure as it brought me and, if you are merely browsing through the catalogue, maybe you will start to wonder how such things were made 500 and more years ago.

September 2025