Kunishige mei opinions

[Ray Singer]

Hi all, recently my wife and best friend (also a collector) conspired to get me a wakizashi for my anniversary. Beautiful piece done in soshu-den. Slightly suriage, but the mei is intact. I would love the group's opinion on this mei.

 

Bitchu (no) Kuni Azai ju ōtsuki Saburōbeijō Kunishige Saku

Keichō San Nen hachi Gatsu (1599)

 

 

Thank you,

Ray

[Alex A]

Hi,i couldnt tell you much about the signature, sorry, but i have shown my misses this post

 

Alex..

[Ken-Hawaii]

Ray, you're a lucky man to have a wife who supports your Nihonto addiction! Nice blade!

 

Ken

 

P.S. I'm also one of the lucky ones.

[Ray Singer]

Hi,i couldnt tell you much about the signature, sorry, but i have shown my misses this post

Ray, you're a lucky man to have a wife who supports your Nihonto addiction! Nice blade!

 

Thank you both. I took a self-imposed, three year hiatus on all collecting, while we purchased our first house and after the birth of our daughter. She recently saw the pained expression while I was window shopping online and decided something had to be done. Yes, very lucky and appreciative

[Curran]

Missed you in Tampa this year. I'd like to see that Antiques Roadshow sword some day.

The Baxleys asked after you, and I let them know you probably weren't there on the basis of being a new papa (Ah-bu-ji).

[Ray Singer]

a new papa (Ah-bu-ji).

 

A papa to-be twice over. Nara Singer is due in July. Missed seeing everyone, will get back on the show schedule next year for certain.

[Jean]

Congrats, Ray :D

[Curran]

Oh my. Congrats to you Ray.

 

But two daughters?

Time to switch to collecting shotguns. Ask Pete K or Jean for advice there.

[hxv]

Curran and Ray,

 

I have 4 daughters, two of whom are in college. *HEADACHES* I tell you. On the upside, they are very close to me and are sweet to me (most of the times anyhow). Congrats Ray!

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Ken-Hawaii]

I keep my daughter a few thousand miles away, Hoanh, but the grandkids can come visit any time. In fact, one granddaughter lives with us while she's attending university.

 

Congrats to you, Ray, but I'm really glad I don't have to start over again!!

 

Ken

[Ray Singer]

two daughters? Time to switch to collecting shotguns.

 

Yes, so I've heard. It's all fun and games, until they start dating. Thanks everyone for the kind words, and pls don't forget to look over the Kunishige mei. I believe that this would be the yondai Kunishige, rated jo-saku, if the mei is good.

 

Best,

Ray

[John A Stuart]

In my poor opinion the sword does not match what I would expect to see from this smith. I would see midare suguba with chu or hosoba, never this type of hitatsura and muneyaki. Also the signature is at odds with examples. It just doesn't fit the profile all in all. It is attractive however. John

[John A Stuart]

I have found mention of this smith producing muneyaki, subsequently, in the books, so... also found that hitatsura was a feature starting with Tatsubo Kunishige 1st gen. Matsuyama-Mizuta ha. So, Ray, this sword may indeed be of that school and correct, the signature not with standing. My previous belief was extrapolated from a faulty assumption. John

[Ray Singer]

Thanks again John, I finally got home and had a chance to put in a bit of legwork on this. Found similar references in Fujishiro and Nagayama to his/their work work in hitatsura and following the Soshu-den. I would have to agree that the mei is not a favourable match to most examples in my library, however appears (to my eyes) a closer match to the Compton Kunishige yari (volume 2, item 241, c. Keicho).

 

- Ray

[Ray Singer]

Here is the Compton example. A sayagaki from Dr. Homma is mentioned, but no papers listed.

 

[John A Stuart]

Not easy to see the strokes eh? It does show some similarities to yours, but, it is hard to tell by the pic for me. We really need more examples to compare signatures, being as how the work does seem to correlate so well. What a nice gift!! John

[John A Stuart]

From Nihon Koto Shi, Honma.

While Osafune smiths were thriving in Bizen Province, there were a few prominent smith of the Aoe school in Bitchu Province in this period. ‘Meikan’ lists the smith names of Ietsugu, Kagetsugu, Hidetsugu, Moritsugu, Kunitsugu and Munetsugu as well as some smiths who were active after the Oei and Eikyo Eras. I have never seen their work, except for a tachi by Ietsugu and a tanto by Kagetsugu. Ietsugu tempered choji-midare in a small pattern on the tachi but with no saka-ashi that is a distinct feature of the Aoe school. Kagetsugu tempered chu-sugu-ha with few hataraki on the tanto. The workmanship of their extant works is not at all refined. Thus we have insufficient information to describe Aoe smiths of the Muromachi Period. The school called ‘Ko-Mizuta’, represented by Kunishige, occurred in this province around the Kyoroku Era. Their production sites of Ehara, Ihara, Asaibe, Matsuyama and Niimi become clear from the inscription on their extant works. The smiths of this school did not add ‘Mizuta’ to their mei in this period. Entering shinto times, the most prominent smith of this school, Oyogo Kunishige, made his appearance and lived in Mizuta then all the smiths of this school came to be called Mizuta. Then smiths who were active in Koto times are called Ko-Mizuta (or Matsuyama-Mizuta) This school comes from the Tatsubo school of Bingo province and there is an extant katana with the mei of ‘Bishu Tatsubo Kunishige Saku’ and the production date is Daiei 8. The hamon of this katana is gunome-midare in nie-deki and the boshi is midare-komi, with a relatively long kaeri and the nakago has ha-agari tip. The blade shows the characteristics of the Tatsubo school very well and the workmanship resembles that of the Ko-Mizuta school. There is an extant work of Kunishige with the mei ‘Ashihara Ju Tatsubo Kunishige’ and this smiths appears to be the founder of the Ko-Mizuta school. He tempers o-midare based on gunome and o-notare, occasionally hitatsura on tanto. His nakago has a long length and ha-agari tip. Generally speaking the workmanship of Kunishige looks like Tatsubo and Sue-Bizen. Their production dates range between the Kyoroku and Bunroku Eras. They normally signed their mei with their common name, such as Saburo Saemon no Jo, Uhyoe no Jo, Toshiro, Matasaburo, Sahyoe no Jo and Jusuke also adds their family name Otsuki to their mei.

 

It was this connection to the Tatsubo school that caused my misplaced deduction earlier. John