Tight hada

[paulb]

From time to time we have dicussed various types of hada and the merits of different forms. The term "tight" is often used, particulalry when descripe something of quality. It is, I think, a generally accepted view that amongst the finest (tightest) hada ever produced was that of the Awataguchi school in the early and mid Kamakura period.

The Nashiji hada created by the 6 brothers and subsequent smiths such as Yoshimitsu is extremely beautiful. Unfortunately, because it is extremely fine, it is also incredibly difficult to photograph.

Well the snow has stopped here and been replaced by storm force winds and bucket loads of rain so I finally picked up a camera and tried to produce some images. The results are far from perfect but I think they do show the fineness and tightness of nashiji hada. It also shows the prolific nie, and Chickei. Unfortunately to see the detail in the jigane the hamon is over exposed. In reality it is formed of a diffuse nioi guchi with a great deal of very fine ko-nie, inazuma and kinsuji throghout it's length.

I hope the attached at least give an indication of the quality of Yamashiro steel produced nearly 800 years ago.

[Brian]

Paul,

I think you have done a wonderful job of showing off a very hard to capture feature. Nashiji isn't easy to show.

That really is a beautiful jigane.

 

Brian

[runagmc]

Thanks Paul,... anymore pics or info about the sword?

[paulb]

Hi Adam,

there is brief paper on it in the articles section

http://www.militaria.co.za/articles/Norikuni.pdf

I wrote it about a year ago and since then have done a lot more looking so I think there should be some modifications to the text. That will be the work of another day!!

[David Flynn]

Wonderful, thank you Paul.

[sanjuro]

Paul.

 

Congrats on producing a study on what is firstly a difficult feature to show photographically, and second on illustrating the beauty of koto steel. 800 year old Yamashiro steel is awesome. For the Koto guys out there, Thankyou.

[Markus]

Thanks for sharing! It is amazing to see how much effort they put back then into refining

the steel as much as possible. Interesting is alos how Hizen Tadayoshi tried to revive this

nashiji-hada via his konuka-hada. This becomes apparent at a very fine Yamashiro-inspired

sunnobi-tanto of Tadayoshi I published some time ago in my "Swords from the Nihonto-Club

Germany". This blade is awesome when examined hands on. I guess the pic below fails to

meet the brilliance of the jigane but may the uniformity of the steel can be grasped.

 

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

A very nice sample of nashiji hada :

 

http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/101111?x=& ... =&century=

[paulb]

Thanks for the link Jacques. Interestingly this blade is attributed to the same smith, Norikuni. The example I photographed is suriage and mumei but has three attributions to Norikuni. I used the sword you illustred in the paper I wrote last year.

[cabowen]

The activity in the early steel is what sets it apart from the later attempts. The chikei and ji-nie are so active and uniform that in the best examples the hada almost looks like it is covered in worms! Tadayoshi and the like seem to come close but just don't have the finer, extensive activity of the earlier steel. Late works (shinshinto) are tight and fine, but lack both the even, fine ji-nie and the chikei, in most cases. At least that has been my experience....Nice job Paul illustrating the beauty of Awataguchi hada....

[Jean]

Very good Paul

[paulb]

thank you for the kind comments.

Just for fun I have put images of an Enju blade and the Awataguchi side by side.

The Enju is a very good wakazashi i have discussed before. Were it not for the O-maru boshi I think that it would have papered to Rai rather than Enju. I had always considered the hada on this blade to be extremely tight and full of activity. However when you see them side by side you can see there is a considerable difference.

[Curgan]

Thanks for the excellent photos!

[Danocon]

Beautiful.

 

Thanks Paul. Great pictures. I have added them to my library.

 

Any place you guys can point me too as to texts/diagrams that describe how chikei and ji-nie are formed? There is more going on here than just tight hada. Folding enough times to appear patternless would result in a massive loss of material based on what we know in this day and time. I can't see them wasting material in such a reckless way. That leaves us with a different process than what has been used in recent times. The tatara used today was developed around 1500 I think. A smith I worked with, Taizoh Nakagawa would not use the modern Tamahagane. He would travel around looking for old burned out shrines and salvage the iron and make orishigane from it. Still this was modern iron relatively speaking.

 

I have a design for a small Kodai tatara ready to go up as soon as I build the shelter for it. But, it is based off of information I have found online and some old books, But not old enough. However, it is a good place to start. Understanding how chikei and ji-nie are formed will allow me to evaluate the product of the furnace.

[Sam Elliott]

Paul,

 

As a novice to Nihonto, this is something that one reads and sees tosed about a great deal, but this actually aids via a very strong visual. Speaking strictly for myself....this was an "aha" kind of moment.

 

Thanks for the effort and in turn allowing me get a better grasp on the term.

 

Sam

[paulb]

Sam

I am glad the pictures helped. there is considerable range and variation in the form of hada within the work of any given school or smith. however this type of visual comparison does at least offer some indication of the differences between schools.

 

Dan,

Your question about ji-nie and chickei is one that has been vexing me for a long time. I always qualify what I am saying, pointing out I am neither Engineer nor chemist so the opinions expressed are based on observation and reading. Based on this you might consider the follownig:

1. I think ji-nie and chickei are chemically identical and are formed from martensite. For some reason I do not understand they appear to form close to the weld or fold boundaries in the jigane. If this is the case it would explain in part why you see so many in the tightly formed hada of Yamashiro work.

2. For Ji nie and chickei to form in the ji the jigane must be rich in hard, pure steel with a higher carbon content. The Awataguchi smiths were largely working for the aristocracy and therefore had access to and only used the highest quality steel available. They were also not producing in volume so could take their time forging.

 

3. In John Braerley's DVD Art of the Japanese Sword the swordsmith Manabe Sunihiro makes his own steel. In the conversation he says words to the effect that Tamahagane produced in the modern Tatara is not suitable for making Yamashiro style swords, it is good for Bizen type work.

Based on the above I have concluded that the presence of jinie and chickei is dependant on the quality of the iron you start with. The frequency of their occurrance is based on the amount of work put in during the forging. The trick (or magic or skill) is folding the metal sufficiently to obtain the frequency of activity without burning off all the carbon in the process. Sounds simple but I have no idea how they did it and as Chris Bowen intimated in his post although many have tried to re-create it few have come close to succeeding.

I wish you luck in your endeavors

Best Regards

Paul

[paulb]

Just for fun I have copied below an image of another sword with extremely tight hada. It is richly covered in ji-nie and chickei although these features are less bright than on the other examples. The nioi guchi is very tight and interspersed with ko-nie. there is ko-nie forming nijuba like patches within the hamon.

I will post a more complete description of the sword once I have had a while to look at it but thought this made an interesting addition to the first two examples

[Marius]

Paul,

 

is that a Mihara?

[Jean]

Some pictures of a Tegai blade tight hada (itame/masame):

 

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12731&start=0

[Alex A]

Very impressed Paul, i want one.

 

Alex.

[paulb]

Jean,

thank you for the link and reminder about your sword it is a very fine blade and I hope you are continuing to enjoy it.

This latest image is from a blade that arrived here today. I still need to spend a lot of time with it to understand it better. So far it has exceeded my expectations, but having said that I was not sure what to expect. Based on the images and the sellers description it looked to be a good sword. I could not understand how it had not sold (nor could the seller) Finally I gave in to the "greed gene" and bought it. Based on my focus for the past 6 or 7 years it is the wrong period, a smith I have never heard of (based on the attribution) and a school I know nothing about.

First impression is that it could easily pass for a Yamashiro piece, one of the offshoot schools or something copying Yamashiro. I have listed the basics below:

 

Description

An ubu katana, shinogi zukuri, iori-mune koshi zori. It is mumei

Sugata 65.8cm

Sori 1.4cm

Motohaba 2.8cm sakihaba 1.8cm

Nakago is ubu with 1 mekugi ana. It is slim narrowing sharply to irayama-gata tip. The yasurimei are kesho.

Hada- A very tight ko-itame interspersed with ko-nie and chickei throughout

Hamon- Chu suguha with a very bright and narrow nioi guchi and covered in ko-nie. There is ko-nie within the hamon forming small areas of ni-juba.

Boshi- Ko-maru with medium long kaeri.

I will take some more images, assuming we get a little more light at some time but in the meantime the image below shows the sugata.

[runagmc]

Thanks Paul, I will be interested to see more...

 

Jean, so you call your sword Tegai and not Hosho? :D

[Jean]

Adam,

 

The shinsa called it Tegai, Honma Junji and Tanobe sensei, Hosho. Whatever it is, as was saying Kunitaro sama, it is a Yamato meito .

[cabowen]

My first though was Hizen Tadayoshi...

[paulb]

Hi Chris,

I can understand why. The hada and classic shape have a Hizen look to them.

However if it were a Hizen blade I would expect the nioi guchi to be thicker. When I compare it to the Hizen blades I have had at various times and the Enju pictured earlier this is much more like the Enju. The nakago is also wrong for Tadayoshi, both in shape and the yasurimei not typical Hizen. The boshi which isnt clear in the image is a quite sharp ko-maru and occuppies a lot of the kissaki, again not what I would expect to see.

I bought this because it appeared to have a lot in common with Yamashiro Enju and Hizen, all schools I have spent a lot of time studying and enjoying. The attribution places it much later, as shin-shinto and I was interested in comparing the jigane between this and blades made between 500 and 700 years earlier.

As suggested before I was pleasantly surprised by the hada and the qualitiy of the forging. As you mentioned in an earlier post the big difference is in the activity in the ji-hada. while this sword has ji-nie it lacks the brightness, blackness and clarity produced in the earleir jigane.

This is all early opinion. I have only had the blade a few hours. Once i have looked in more detail I hope i can make some more sensible observations.

thanks for your interest

[Alex A]

Does someone know why nashiji hada as never been matched, was Tadayoshi trying to match it exactly? If he was, but couldnt, is it simply down to a lack of knowlege or is there other factors as stated such as quality of iron. As any modern smith tried to match it, that would be interesting.

 

Alex.

[paulb]

thats a 64 million dollar question Alex. I think Tadayoshi (s) were trying to emulate Yamashiro work most commonly Rai and also enju. While they had considerable skill the basic material was different, also the time factor. The Awataguchi were making for nobility so used the very best material available and could take a lot of time over it. I think later smiths had did not have the same material to start with and were under greater pressure to manufacture

This of course is pure hypothesis on my part and I am sure there are many different ideas.

[cabowen]

I have often heard the Tadayoshi school was emulating Yamashiro but I think it is as Paul has said, they didn't have the same materials, and probably, they processed things a bit differently as well. They still made fantastic hada, it just isn't as active as the best of the koto steel.

[runagmc]

Paul, the close-up reminds me of Sa Yukihide a little... suguta, not so much...

 

Can you tell us the attribution, or are you gonna make us wait :D

[george trotter]

I have often heard the Tadayoshi school was emulating Yamashiro but I think it is as Paul has said, they didn't have the same materials, and probably, they processed things a bit differently as well. They still made fantastic hada, it just isn't as active as the best of the koto steel.

 

It is mentioned that the quality of the Awataguchi steel may be a factor in the excellence of their hada (nothing but the finest steel and plenty of time to do the forging)...so, perhaps this point is relevant here...sorry for my ignorance, but did the Tadayoshi's produce nashiji in both tamahagane and nambantetsu or just nambantetsu?

If there a difference in the hada depending on the material...and if only nambantetsu was used, could this be why they didn't quite revive the result of the Awataguchi of early-mid Kamakura.

Just a thought,