Old japanese pics please

So the likes of shigefusa etc have been making knives forever. But i haven't seen any pics earlier than 2008ish. (forum ages i suppose). Have the knives changed significantly? Do you foresee changes in the future? I see it like the 100m sprint, it surely has to plateau soon as far as performance goes. Is it only in the last couple of decades that western chefs have been using japanese knives? Would love to see some older pics of known makers knives! Cheers

Aframes tokyo had some Yanagibas a while ago that also had the kiya engraving, Takeshi told me he thought they were around 30 years old, but that was just an estimate. Here is a link to one of them
http://yhst-27988581933240.stores.yahoo.net/shigefusa-yanagiba-kitaeji-300mm-blade-knife-kiya-vers300.html

"it surely has to plateau soon as far as performance goes"

Yes that's why we have fads come in and out here on the forums. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, and it's important part of what keeps people interested.

I don't think there have been many (if any) performance increases in Japanese made knives in recent history, they have been making great knives for a long time, which we are just discovering. Western makers are always doing something wacky or using a new steel or heat treatment, so we do see some important innovations come from them. I don't think any groundbreaking knives will come out in the future, since we're dealing with physics and no way around many of the challenges that makers face. Blade materials can only take us so far.