Shobu Zukuri Kongobei Katana

[pcfarrar]

Anyone have any thoughts on if this is Kongobei? Seems to be right, hoso-suguha, hakikake boshi, sotoba-gata nakago etc.

 

69cm nagasa.

 

I think its from about 1400 - 1450?

 

Sorry for the bad pictures, but someone has polished it up and its hard to get anything decent.

 

 

[roninjje]

is that a crack, scar or what on the shinoji near the kissaki?

[pcfarrar]

is that a crack, scar or what on the shinoji near the kissaki?

 

It's a sword cut.

[roninjje]

cool

[Henry Wilson]

Also someone could have knocked it against iron railings in the garden

[Ken-Hawaii]

Nah. Can't you see the blood stains, Henry?

[mike yeon]

not a bad lead. I know a bit about the mainline chikuzen school, not much on the kongobei line. I believe it was one of the schools that held off the soshu influence that was adopted by everyone at the time. I'd google "chikuzen moritaka"

 

What's the hada look like? Should be mokume/masame mix. Look for the raised shinogi. The sotoba-gata looks good. Though other schools have used this as well (mino).

 

Good luck!

 

mike

[pcfarrar]

Hi Mike,

 

Yes its masame and it does appear to be mokume as well. The shinogi is quite high and the mune tapers like a naginata.

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

[mike yeon]

like when you look at it head on does the shinogi's height almost make it look like the mune is scalloped?

 

Also, you mentioned taper, does it taper towards the tip and then "bulb" out at the kissaki?

 

mike

[pcfarrar]

Yes thats right it looks scalloped. Also the mune does taper towards the tip then flares out again a little at the kissaki.

[Jean]

Hi Peter,

 

Kongobei is a bit apart in the Chikuzen schools.

 

To simplify (a lot), before Masamune, almost all Kyushu schools are (more or less) under Yamato or Yamashiro influence (Higo, Satsuma, ...).

 

To be short Chikuzen shools can be roughly split into 2 schools after Masamune :

 

- Samonji school (one of his Juttetsu) -( Before Masamune, strong Yamato influence)

 

- Kongobei school which is a mixture of Yamato/Yamashiro (High Shinogi, mixed Mokume/Masame, hiro-suguha). This style mixture

brings Kongobei school to be classified as a wakimono school.

 

It was not unusual during Koto period that schools mixed 2/3 Gokkaden, even in the same province you can find at this time orthodox and wakimono schools (Higo: Enju/Dotanuki)

[mike yeon]

Very well said jean. I was asking about the high shinogi for that reason as the konogbei school stuck to the yamato/yamashiro tradition for the most part.

 

Can you get a pict of the bulb at the kissaki? If the bulb is large, I would wonder if it's not too old (more later koto/early shinto than nambochuko). Also, maybe it's a nagamaki-naoshi katana?

 

Good luck with your research.

 

mike

[Jean]

Hi Mike,

 

A wild guess, I would place it between Tenbun and Tensho (1532 - 1573).

[mike yeon]

Jean, I was thinking late koto as well. When I say scalloped (raised shinogi), look at the blade with the mune facing you. if the shinogi outline looks like a fat man standing behind a thin tree, then that's a raised shinogi. Not an exact way to look at things when looking at a nagamaki or naginata.

 

mike

[pcfarrar]

Can you get a pict of the bulb at the kissaki?

 

Thanks everyone, some great info so far. This is a picture of the mune leading up to the kissaki. As you can see its quite narrow across the mune but with a high shinogi bulging out.