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Post by naoko1960 on Mar 10, 2011 10:18:46 GMT -5
What is a Shonen Knife ? Why did Naoko Name the Band Shonen Knife ? This question has been asked so many times ? First a Shonen (Boys) Knife is a small multi purpose Pocket knife. In Japan many people use a Knife to Sharpen pencils instead of a pencil sharpener. Back in 1981 when Naoko was forming the band she was looking for a name to pay tribute to the Ramones and the Beatles but nothing really fit. One day Naoko was taking an exam to become A medical office receptionist if I remeber correctly and she needed to sharpen her pencil. The Woman in front of her had a pencil box so Naoko asked for a sharpener and the woman handed her a Shonen Knife. At that point it clicked in Naoko's head that Its the name of our band. She has used the Japanese to English translation as (Cute & Dangerous) also to describe Shonen Knife. A Cartoon of the creation of Shonen Knife can be found in the book (Shonen Knife Land) By Naoko Yamano. Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 11, 2011 2:04:39 GMT -5
You know, I always thought that the Shonen Knife would be much more elaborate! haha (Like a pearl handle, chromed blade...etc)
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Post by naoko1960 on Mar 11, 2011 13:04:43 GMT -5
There was a Video On NHK Tokyo for a long time which had an interview with Naoko and Etsuko...Naoko brought a Shonen Knife with her...Its basically A Brass shell holding a small steel blade held together by a pressed rivet ...It not that big either.
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Post by Nuclear Seagull on Mar 13, 2011 9:04:08 GMT -5
Shonen Knife Land? Sounds like a theme park to me!
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 14, 2011 3:04:32 GMT -5
Shonen Knife Land? Sounds like a theme park to me! oooh sounds like a fan fic project to me... design the Shonen Knife Land !!! ;D
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Post by naoko1960 on Mar 14, 2011 8:25:16 GMT -5
Shonen Knife Land the Book Came out in 1999...Seen it on Amazon and Ebay...The Prices are all over the place...The value of the book is up to the fan ! Its a great book for the Shonen Knife fan but its pointless for everybody else..There is no beginning or end its just a book of Shonen Stuff !
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 14, 2011 22:34:47 GMT -5
Shonen Knife Land the Book Came out in 1999...Seen it on Amazon and Ebay...The Prices are all over the place...The value of the book is up to the fan ! Its a great book for the Shonen Knife fan but its pointless for everybody else..There is no beginning or end its just a book of Shonen Stuff !
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Post by lazybone on Mar 18, 2011 0:03:04 GMT -5
Agree - a great book for SK fans. I especially like the listing of their live performances up to the Happy Hour Tour in '98. I was lucky enough to buy mine after SK's show at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC in '98. (Michie's last US tour:() I remember Marky Ramone joining SK on stage at that one. Ah, good times!
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 7, 2014 15:46:13 GMT -5
This is still in print. I've been on the fence about buying, but I'll topple next time I need to fill out an order at Amazon or CD Japan.
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Post by thegl0r on Nov 18, 2014 4:03:44 GMT -5
This is still in print. I've been on the fence about buying, but I'll topple next time I need to fill out an order at Amazon or CD Japan. It is well worth getting a copy. I think that it must be a reprint that is now available. In the past, Naoko has said that Shonen Knife Land was out of print and that all of the copies had been sold. For ages the only copies that came up for sale were second-hand ones. So unless someone has found a load of copies that had been lost in the back of a warehouse...
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 18, 2014 4:17:24 GMT -5
This is still in print. I've been on the fence about buying, but I'll topple next time I need to fill out an order at Amazon or CD Japan. It is well worth getting a copy. I think that it must be a reprint that is now available. In the past, Naoko has said that Shonen Knife Land was out of print and that all of the copies had been sold. For ages the only copies that came up for sale were second-hand ones. So unless someone has found a load of copies that had been lost in the back of a warehouse... Oh, I kind of was wondering about that. Would you say the previous printings were unusually good? Because a re-issue probably would more be banged out for the extraction value. And then I might rather have someone else's old dog-eared copy that the spouse threw into the box for the thrift shop.
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Post by thegl0r on Nov 18, 2014 5:59:38 GMT -5
It is well worth getting a copy. I think that it must be a reprint that is now available. In the past, Naoko has said that Shonen Knife Land was out of print and that all of the copies had been sold. For ages the only copies that came up for sale were second-hand ones. So unless someone has found a load of copies that had been lost in the back of a warehouse... Oh, I kind of was wondering about that. Would you say the previous printings were unusually good? Because a re-issue probably would more be banged out for the extraction value. And then I might rather have someone else's old dog-eared copy that the spouse threw into the box for the thrift shop. I have no idea if one print run is better than the other, but its nice to think that when you are spending money on buying new SK stuff, that a percentage of the money eventually finds its way to the band. So you might be buying a new book for yourself, but you may also be buying really nice cake for Naoko to eat. I'd just assumed that if it was a reprint, it was because Naoko has been asked so many times about the book that she realised there must be a demand for it now. Does anybody know? I have heard Naoko being asked about Shonen Knife Land and if an updated edition will ever be printed. She said that it wouldn't get updated and that the SK blogs are now fulfilling that role.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 14, 2014 17:40:31 GMT -5
Higonokami and the origins of your favorite girl-band
Back to the topic, with a vengeance. Here are reductions of the best photos of vintage, branded Shonen Knives I’ve ever seen: The pics belong to the web catalog of a real, cutlery-type Japanese knife collector.** Text-search 少年 or scroll almost to the bottom of the linked page. There they are in all their frill-free glory, with their stamped brass handles. They would have been hand-assembled one at a time and finished the ugly way (one tubular rivet and a striking tool). Since the Shonen Knife was for school-kids, its duty-rating was about the lowest of its kind. The Boy’s Knife category isn’t confined to Japan. A hundred years ago, boys all over the world needed pocket knives, so makers offered youth models. Times have changed. Thin folding knives with a friction-clasp of folded sheet metal were made in Japan before 1900, they say. These are generically known as higonokami, though this is a registered trade name. English-speaking collectors classify them with the bare-bones utility blades called “penny knives.” With familiar Japanese elegance and economy, higonokami reduce a folding knife to the least number of parts, the lightest weight, the simplest possible construction. Most are made to sell for one or two thousand yen, though there are amazingly luxurious versions. For a decade or two beginning in the 1950s, you might have found one in any student’s pencil box. It was how your wooden pencil got its point. In the Japan of today, a pencil is a graphite rod in a steel nib, and rotary sharpeners for traditional pencils have been standard classroom equipment since the 1960s. I read that Japanese schools are hardly more pleased to see students with knives than their American counterparts. Japanese society in general looks on people carrying dangerous things for no good reason as troublesome. __________ ** The private “Higonokami Pavillion” hosted by Teshima Medical Clinic, where the radiology department seems to have spare time on its hands. A little more at English WikipediaMuch, much, much more at JP Wikipedia (Japanese)Engineer Noriyuki Saito’s lovely personal web museum (Japanese)
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Post by tangerinesun on Sept 3, 2015 18:40:36 GMT -5
Randomly encountered on the Internet. It was in a big content-aggregated search page, pulled from somewhere on Instagram. What am I going to do, ignore it? Or latch on? What style — worth another ¥1000, easy.It's labeled SHONEN POCKET KNIFE, but this is not Naoko's pencil sharpener. Note the super-luxury capped rivet with its spring-clip for your pocket (bound to break if you use it). I don't see the thumb-rest on the spine that would help you keep it from closing up right on your knuckles. The box art shows one... maybe it's the angle of view. The piercing blade looks American to me. Jim Bowie would have recognized the flaring whaleback profile with the scoop on the tip. Maybe the design was influenced by the ideas of American soldiers about what a proper knife looks like. If the maker's name is there anywhere, I can't read it. What I can make out is some ad copy about high quality, and what might be a trademark of Mt. Fuji under the name TŌ KYŌ in roman characters. The big 久 character stands for "a long time," while the 呂 peeking out from under the knife looks like some remark about the handle or the base of the blade. No TSA approval!
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Sept 4, 2015 23:28:09 GMT -5
Randomly encountered on the Internet. It was in a big content-aggregated search page, pulled from somewhere on Instagram. What am I going to do, ignore it? Or latch on? What style — worth another ¥1000, easy.It's labeled SHONEN POCKET KNIFE, but this is not Naoko's pencil sharpener. Note the super-luxury capped rivet with its spring-clip for your pocket (bound to break if you use it). I don't see the thumb-rest on the spine that would help you keep it from closing up right on your knuckles. The box art shows one... maybe it's the angle of view. The piercing blade looks American to me. Jim Bowie would have recognized the flaring whaleback profile with the scoop on the tip. Maybe the design was influenced by the ideas of American soldiers about what a proper knife looks like. If the maker's name is there anywhere, I can't read it. What I can make out is some ad copy about high quality, and what might be a trademark of Mt. Fuji under the name TŌ KYŌ in roman characters. The big 久 character stands for "a long time," while the 呂 peeking out from under the knife looks like some remark about the handle or the base of the blade. No TSA approval! Possibly, this was a higher priced' better quality pencil knife, from the same company. Even today, tool companies often have more than one version of a product, in graded levels of quality and price. Likely, it didn't sell as well as the cheaper version, as small boys can't always afford "best quality", thus, is much rarer, today.
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