Kajihei villain or victim?

[paulb]

All,

Im looking for information on Kajihei, the son/student of Jiritaro Naokatsu.

He seems to have a mixed reputation in that he was a highly skilled smith but specilaised in making counterfeit blades of top Koto and Shinto smiths.

Trying to work out whether he was a victim of the times trying to survive the downturn in demand for swords or just a dishonest but highly skilled crook.

All information/ leads gratefully received.

thanks

PaulB

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi Paul,I own the 2 vols.of Ikeda.Kajihei Oshigata

with hundreds of Oshigata on more than 600 pages with the faked Mei plus the Shoshinmei.He is commonly believed to be an ill-famed faker.It goes without saying that he did this to make his living but other than some of his contemporary swordsmiths,like even Kiyomaro,he did it on large scale.I found no examples as (his real name) Hosoda Heijiro Naomitsu.Ludolf

[paulb]

Hi Ludolph,

Thank you for the information. The fact you have such a large publication about his oshigata confirms the scale of the deceipt.

What is the general opinion of his skill as a swordsmith? I assume he must have been very skilled to be able to fake so many high ranking smiths.

It is a great shame that someone with what appears to have been considerable talent used it so dishonestly.