[Bern]

Choose from his palest, most insipid nissai. This was advice that I eventually follwed after some hesitation and it worked for me and a clubmate.

I was given this advice from a local dealer (Conoisseur Koi) who I had no reason to mistrust but it sounded too much like a sales ploy to me.

However, on my first visit to Izumiya I saw that any fully coloured Tosai and Nissai were available for sale, the pale ones weren't. I observed this state of affairs on subsequent trips and checked the story out with several other people.

Some 3 to 4 years later I bit the bullet and bought one. The wife took one look and thought that I'd gone mad. But within 18months it had more than doubled in volume and was as perfect a Yamabuki as you'd want, fukarin and all.

rgds BERN