Submit Koshirae To Shinsa?

[Nihonto Chicken]

I am wondering whether it is worthwhile to submit the koshirae of a papered sword of mine to the coming NCJSC sponsored shinsa this coming August. The sword was papered hozon to eisho Norimitsu by the NBTHK in 1998. It was opined by the American agent who sent the sword to Japan for the papers that it was original as the last samurai had handled it and had not been futzed with by collectors since. Below are some quickie photos of the accouterments:

 

I haven't shown the saya, it is a plain black lacquer without pockets for the implements as suggested by the tsuba ana. It is original old Japanese lacquer, but has numerous small cracks and dings, but no major structural damage. However, it's definitely not in first class condition, been knocked around some.

 

The only signed koshirae piece is the fuchi, which is a heavy gold overlay on copper, exhibiting a high relief dragon and ken with fine nanako covered by black lacquer in the field. The kashira is plain black horn. One seppa is gold foil covered, the other has apparently lost this. The tsuba appears to be shakudo with gold highlights, and the habaki is a rain or cat scratch silver foil over copper. The menuki are red copper and shakudo.

 

I have always wondered whether this might have been a court sword. Besides the horn kashira and nice metal fittings, the sword itself is a quite thin and light kanmuri otoshi (original, not a nagamaki naoshi), fitted in a saya that is a good six inches longer than it needs to be. Makes sense to carry a light sword in an impressively long saya suggesting the contrary, given that it will not be drawn and prove the saya a bluff.

 

So would it be worth it to try to have this koshirae papered, considering the chance of success versus the potential gain in value, both intellectual and monetary? I have some other blades on which I'm considering submission, so would rather spend the money there if papers for this koshirae are either unlikely or else a "so what?" proposition. TIA for your considered input!

[raiden]

From what I know, by the OLD standards of the NTHK shinsa, this mount won't get too much info other than estimated age, and if the fuchi signature is deemed genuine, my advice is use the money for something more worthwhile like a blade as they have more hurdles to over come when sending to Japan, so usually we only send the nicer ones these days for shinsa and polish. But hey what do I know!

[Geraint]

Hi Rick.

 

Love the mounts, especially the menuki. I can't throw much light on the question but most of the literature suggests that court mounted swords have much plainer shakudo nanako mounts, sometimes with family mon, rather than this style. Unless you have a burning desire to know more it would seem that spending the money on papering blades would be the way to go with this one.

 

Whatever you chose, have fun!

[Nihonto Chicken]

Thanks for the responses. Well, without further encouragement, I guess I may just shelve this notion and instead prepare my cadre of battered and butchered Bungo for appropriate shinsa appreciation. :lol:

[Kai-Gunto]

Very Nice koshirae.

 

But please turn the tsuba , its mounted up side down

[Mark]

maybe I am wrong, but when I see a seppa that overlaps the opening in the tsuba I get the idea they were put together. When I have seen original koshirae it seems the seppa are always custom made to fit the tsuba so you do not see any overlap when you look through the openings on the tsuba.

[Nihonto Chicken]

  gunto said:

Very Nice koshirae.

 

But please turn the tsuba , its mounted up side down

 

The old fifty-fifty ninety rule. I can never remember which ana goes on which side, and so, of course, I chose wrong when I put it all back together after the photos.

[Nihonto Chicken]

  Mark said:

maybe I am wrong, but when I see a seppa that overlaps the opening in the tsuba I get the idea they were put together. When I have seen original koshirae it seems the seppa are always custom made to fit the tsuba so you do not see any overlap when you look through the openings on the tsuba.

 

In this case there are no pockets in the saya to accommodate the implements implied by the tsuba ana, so the seppa overlap has no real effect other than visual. Still, you may well be correct. I can only say that the rather well known dealer who sent the sword to Japan for shinsa opined that it was in his opinion stone dead original from prior to the Meiji era.

[Curran]

Wrap is nice. Menuki design is interesting.

 

The tsuba is perhaps worth more than the rest.

I'd link to a similar but (my opinion) overpriced one on Aoi-Arts, yet site seems to be down at the moment.

 

A little mismatch, but we get hung up on matchy-matchy in the west. As it is, the koshirae was probably rigged up this way long ago.

[Nihonto Chicken]

  Curran said:

Wrap is nice. Menuki design is interesting.

 

The tsuba is perhaps worth more than the rest.

I'd link to a similar but (my opinion) overpriced one on Aoi-Arts, yet site seems to be down at the moment.

 

A little mismatch, but we get hung up on matchy-matchy in the west. As it is, the koshirae was probably rigged up this way long ago.

 

Thanks for the reassurance! Re relative artistic merit, though I know little about kodogu, I had thought that the fuchi was the best piece, given that it is signed, consists of a thick gold overlay on the copper base, and exhibits much finer nanako and work in general. To me the tsuba is somewhat reminiscent of dockside Nagoya, though much better work (still not up to the level of the fuchi, IMO). In any event, unless the wolf comes to the door, I intend to retain the sword intact and divest it all in one piece when the time comes*.

 

*"Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"

- William Saroyan (statement to the Associated Press, five days before his death on May 13, 1981)