Home
About NCJSC
Meetings
Membership
Gallery
Visual Glossary
SF Token-Kai
Sword Links
Publications
Newsletter

History of the NCJSC   Board Members   Web site   NCJSC Contacts

NCJSC Mission Statement, as stated in the articles of incorporation:

"The specific and primary purposes are to institute programs for the study and appreciation of and promote and undertake activities to encourage the preservation of ancient and modern Japanese samurai blades, sword fixtures, armours and related objects for their cultural, artistic and historical values and aesthetic and expert craftsmanship."

Our Logo:

 

 

HOKU Northern
KA California (Abbreviation for)
TO Sword
(劔劍) KEN


The NCJSC logo is in the form of a Japanese sword guard, or tsuba. The kanji on the face of the tsuba are read (top down, left to right) "
Hoku-Ka To-Ken Club". The translation is "Northern California Sword Club". The design is by Mr. Kojima, and has been used since at least 1973.

It is interesting to note that "Hoku-Ka To-Ken Club" does not seem to be the name of our club, but is the name of the 1920's era sword club in San Francisco. In English it might seem more appropriate to add five more kanji  (in blue below) to our logo, that if read in English is the actual name of our club. This might look something like:

In Kanji: 北加日本刀剣同好会

In Romanji: Hokuka Nihon Tōken Dōkōkai

In English: Northern California Japanese Sword Club

There is a problem with this, however. When reading the kanji or Romanji, a Japanese reader would find the association of  北加 (Northern California) followed by 日本 (Japan) to be confusing or inappropriate, it being far better to infer the word "Japan"/ "Japanese" simply by the use of the word  刀剣 (Tōken). For this reason, the 日本 characters do not appear in the logo, instead being left inferred.

同好会 (Dōkōkai) may be added to our logo under the word "CLUB", in the future.