Umabari poems and signature translation?

Dear gentlemen,

Some time ago I bought my second umabari and noticed that the inscriptions in the handle are the same as in my first one (apart from the way they are inscribed, deeper and chisel strokes visible opposed to engraved lightly). Meanwhile I saw another piece on the internet and you guessed it, the same text again! Furthermore I see that the inscriptions on the blade section are also the same over and over (a flower an two kanji), except on my first one which i was told is signed by a Tegarayama Masashige and dated 1802. I 'm going to ask a lot;

1. I hear the two kanji on the blades are "kaminari yoke", meaning "against /escape from thunder". Is that correct?

2. What does the signature of masashige read exactly, in kanji and romanji? And is it possible to validate if this is legit or gimei? there is much less space than on a fullsize nakago so i can imagine signing is difficult.

3. What does the poem/text on the handles read, again in kanji and romanji? I guess it is a famous verse if every umabari i come across has it :D

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Eric.

Eric,

I saw a few of these in Japan.

All I can assume is that they were fairly mass produced, maybe more modern since I have seen them all looking the same. Even if older, one can assume that most umabari and kogatana are gimei, and the poems/mei on them being more patriotic than legit in terms of the signatures.

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks so far, indeed there seems to be a kind of repeating pattern in these things. Nevertheless they do have hada, hamon and a nice colour on the unpolished parts. I'd guess the age lies before 1900, what do you mean by "modern"?

Best regards,

Eric.

Eric,

The ones I saw in Japan (all similar and from different dealers) didn't appear to have hada or hamon, so if yours do, then I would expect they are earlier than the ones I saw. I got the idea these were made post 1900's for collectors. However they are possibly based on ones that were produced much earlier like yours.

I still maintain that the signatures are merely cosmetic though. I wouldn't like to guess a date, but the fact that they are all so similar mean that they must have been some form of mass production usually indicating the Meiji period?

I am sure others here have seen them too. They all bear striking similarities. Perhaps at some stage due to the sword laws, these were easier to produce as they don't fall under tanto and there are no limits to production. Perhaps similiar to the kozuka table knives we see that were made for export?

Hoping someone else can shed some more light on these. Many other bashin/umabari that we see from the earlier Bizen area are fairly unique and individual in their styles, which are the ones I expect were used on swords.

Note that this is all theory though, and I can't back it up with facts, so use it merely as one person's opinion until we know more.

Brian

As Brian says, the mei inscription may be only a decoration. Anyway, the mei reads as follows. However, some readings for some kanji might be wrong.

享和二壬戌手柄山正繁捩 (Kyowa ni Mizunoe-Inu, Tegarayama Masashige hineri,)

八幡公所佩貫級刀製 (Hachiman-ko shohai no Kankyu-to o tsukuru)

- In Kyowa 2nd year (1802), Tegarayama Masashige worked out and made a Kankyu-to which had been borne by Hachiman-ko.

[back ground]

Hachiman-ko (八幡公) seems to refer to Minamoto no Yoshiie (源義家(1039-1106): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoshiie ). When Daimyo Matsudaira Sadanobu (松平定信(1759-1829): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsudaira_Sadanobu ) found that such a Kankyu-to had been used by Hachiman-ko, he had Tegarayama Masashige reproducing the Kankyu-to.

Gentlemen, thank you for your feedback and the elaborate translation

I agree, an attribution to such a high ranking owner can only be ..ehhmm, well,.. optimistic, decorative or as Brian put it patriottic.

To complete your view of the pieces I made some photographs of the hamons, a little bit of the hada can be seen. But I must admit this is difficult to capture on such small pieces without a proper macro lense. I made a collage of some different blade sections and angles, please don't laugh at my Photostudio 2000 skills

Best regards,

Eric.

Forgot to mention; on the first pictures I posted the metal seems to have no colour at all, but that is because of the flash I had to use to capture the inscriptions. In real life the handles are a nice dark brown.