My first Tosogu purchase (Soten style Wakizashi)

[Adrian]

The mounts come with a tired blade signed Bishu Osafune Sukesada. Not a perfect fit ( the blade has a really small movement towards the front) but very very close (easy fix with a SLIGHTLY thicker seppa or some sort of very thin brass washer between the seppa and the tsuba). The kogatana is missing but took me about 5 mins to make a wooden one that fits perfectly and keeps the kotsuka in place.

 

The kotsuka pocket has a crack and the horn piece at the mouth was broken and subsequently epoxied but otherwise the saya is very nice with only a minor dent at the bottom.

 

I'll let the pictures speak, feel free to share your impressions. I'm fully aware these are far from being top of the line Soten style mounts but for my budget they were by far the best I could manage. The fuchi-kashira set and the kotsuka are definitelly better then the tsuba and the menuki but the overall impression is great, at least to a beginner like me.

 

Jean told me that the mounts describe the battle of battle of Dan-no-ura, which seems to definitely be the case for the tsuba (warriors in boats).

 

Overall I'm very pleased with my first Tosogu purchase and I really want to thank Grey for putting up with my shipping requirements. (involving a PVC tube with 2 glued caps plus a cardboard box and the normal bubble plastic wrap and so on)

 

Was really anxious while the wakizashi traveled across a good part of the world but everything ended well some 9 days after it was shipped.

 

P.S. My wife likes it too :D

 

 

 

 

 

[Adrian]

More photos

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow the longer ones are not accepted by the forum, gotta figure out what the maximum size is.

 

Here are the flaws:

 

 

 

[Adrian]

Koshirae and the signed kotsuka:

 

 

 

 

I could use some help with the signature, it's probably gimei but...

 

P.S. I know the wakizashi isn't placed correctly on the stand, both arms should support the saya

[Adrian]

And some photos made by me today (flash sucks but it was already evening and I don't have professional lighting in the house )

 

 

 

 

 

[Adrian]

This one is a bit edited on the whitepoint and contrast since the flash fried it (the colors are off)

 

 

Same here, what you see on my hand is actually a white cotton glove:

 

 

As seen here:

 

[Geraint]

Hi Adrian.

 

Just posted a reply but it seems to have vanished into the ether. I think your sword is nice, I hate to disagree with Jean but the fuchi kashira and kodzuka to my eye suggest the rival generals at the Uji river. From the photos it seems that the fuchi kashira are better quality than the kodzuka, what do you think? I also really like the close ribbed saya, I really find that an appealing technique. I suspect that most tosogu collectors would prefer their pieces off a koshirae and in boxes or on a very good koshirae. There are finer pieces than yours but also much worse and if you enjoy the whole koshirae then good for you.

 

Enjoy.

[Adrian]

Thank you Geraint.

 

Indeed the fuchi-kashira set is better worked then the kotsuka, but to me they look like they belong to the same set.

 

The tsuba is definitely lower quality (and shows a lot of use) and probably the same can be said about the menuki (tho one clearly has some damage which makes it look bad and the other is pretty much hidden).

 

However the tsuba looks like it describes a naval battle as Jean said. But for the fuchi-kashira set (and probably the menuki too) the race across the Uji river seems a better bet.

 

Could be that the tsuba depicts the defense of the bridge over the Uji river by the Yorimasa and the Miidera monks against the army of the Taira clan? This would mean that the tsuba depicts an event from the first battle of Uji (1180) and the rest of the fittings depict events from the second battle of Uji (1184, fought between two Minamoto factions. Which wouldn't make much sense unless the tsuba belonged originally to another koshirae.

 

I don't know of any bridge fight during the second Uji battle (which would put everything together in a nice manner) but of course I'm far from being knowledgeable in Japanese samurai tales or history.

[Alex A]

Hi Adrian, i can tell your happy with your first purchase, the white gloves say it all . I like the fuchi kashira, and ive always been a fan of ribbed saya, but i am curious about the blade, how tired is it? any pics..

 

Alex.

[Adrian]

Eh, it's not that bad but it has some shintetsu and it's a very common type produced in large quantities.

 

 

 

 

I'll post more detailed photos a bit later (say 45 mins :D )

[Adrian]

About the white gloves, I had to use them because my hands were sweating after opening the PVC tube by round-cutting it trough the top of the cap :D

 

Detailed pics of the blade as promised:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Adrian]

Well, I think I identified exactly the events depicted on the fuchi, kashira and kotsuka, even the names of the characters

 

It's an episode from "The Tale of the Heike" called Ujigawa and described here in detail: http://www.glopac.org/Jparc/HEIKYOKU/1ujigawa.html

 

From the ninth scroll of the Heike Monogatari, "Ujigawa" is a heroic episode that tells of a competition between Sasaki Shiro Takatsuna and Kajiwara Genda Kagesue, two warriors who have been long-time rivals. They race to be the first to cross the Uji River and reach the enemy forces of the Taira.

 

(I think there's a small error here, as the enemy forces were actually those of Minamoto no Yoshinaka )

 

The description of the defensive works matches exactly the images on the kotsuka and fuchi:

 

The Uji and Seta bridges had both been pulled up, and there were branch barricades floating on the current, tied to ropes stretched between stakes driven at random in the riverbed.

 

 

 

 

We can clearly see the stakes driven in the riverbed and the branch barricades tied to them.

 

 

 

On the kotsuka we see both samurai racing to the river and entering it while facing the floating barricade.

 

Now I need to do some further reading and figure out the tsuba.

 

 

Update 1: found a much more reliable source - the complete translated text of he Heike Monogatari : http://library.uoregon.edu/ec/e-asia/re ... -whole.pdf

 

The smaller force of twenty five thousand men under Yoshitsune, with whom were also Yasuda-no-Saburō, Ōuchi-no-Tarō, Hatakeyama-no-Shōji Jiro, Kajiwara Genda, Sasaki Shirō, Kasuya-no-Tōda, Shibuya-no-Uma-no-suke and Hirayama-no-Mushadokoro, passed through the

province of Iga and pressed upon the bridge at Uji. Now after destroying the bridges at Seta and Uji, the enemy had planted sharp stakes in the riverbed and made fast a great hawser in the stream together with a floating boom of tree trunks to obstruct the crossing.

 

Update 2: I think I figured out the tsuba too. It's the subsequent phase of the same battle, when the forces of Yoshitsune have crossed the river and engaged the enemy guarding the remains of the bridge:

 

After this Kiso's men who were guarding the bridge kept up a defensive fight for a while, but when all the Eastern army had crossed over and advanced to the attack, they gave way and fled toward Kobatayama and Fushimi.

 

 

[John A Stuart]

Your kozuka is signed Goto Sekijo 後藤石乗(1609-1660) whose given name was Sonjuro. Later he took the name Yoshibei Mitsuyoshi. He became the hereditary 3rd head of the Goto Kihei family upon the death of his father Takujo Mitsumune. He lived in Kyoto. I have a papered kozuka by him and the mei and kao do not correlate very well. John

[Adrian]

Thank you John.

 

I found this one with a quick search (also papered) and while the mei bears some (not that much tho ) resemblance with mine, the kai is very different.

 

Yours looks close to this one?

 

 

Also the mine seems weak (tbh that's why I said "probably gimei" in the post where I presented it). The kanji on this one look much stronger.

[John A Stuart]

That is mine. John

[Adrian]

It's a small world and google makes it even smaller.

 

While the signature on mine is definitely gimei there are some similarities in the two pieces. For example the background on both is realised in a very similar manner (at least that's how it appears in the low res photo that I found .

 

 

 

Maybe same family but master (yours) and one of the students (mine)?

 

P.S. This is the website where I found it http://www.shibuiswords.com/goto-ryu.htm

[John A Stuart]

Yes those are all mine. I like his background colour for the page better than mine. John

[Adrian]

Got it John

 

I found another Goto schook ko-tsuka discussed here on the forum http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... 00b8476708

 

Looks very similar with yours in style while being (IMO) a bit lesser in general quality of the workmanship.

 

 

 

 

Can you please post a better photo of your Goto Sekijo ko-tsuka?

[Mark]

I remember seeing this sword. I thought the fittings were nice (but I am not info fittings) and the blade seemed to be a decent sword for the age. I only noticed one small spot I thought was possibly core steel but all in all the condition seemed better than most swords of that age. It seemed a nice package in good condition.

[Adrian]

Mark, that's pretty much how I also see this. All things considered I'm very pleased with my first purchase, particularly considering the very tight budget.

[Alex A]

I think you done well Adrian, especially if you came in on budget.

 

Alex.

[Adrian]

That's confidential, unless Grey wants to share it.

 

Anyway, back to the Tosogu part, I was wondering if any of the experienced Tosogu collectors cares to comment on my interpretation of the scenes depicted on the fittings?