Gendai tanto by Sunaga? Masayuki

[george trotter]

As promised (or was it threatened?), here are a few pics of my little Masayuki tanto from the Perth Fair here in West Australia.

I'd be interested in comments from the gendaito members if they know anything about him...especially an oshigata or pic of his work/mei etc...even if it is on a sword.

Small aikuchi kaiken signed "Masayuki".

Mei is distinctive with personal features in the stroke 3 of Masa and strokes 1 & 2 of Yuki.

Yasuri is sujikai with kesho (also on curved nakago mune) and jiri is iriyamagata.

Blade is 5 sun...16 cm (about 6.25 in) and is 8mm thick at the machi.

Can't make out the hada but the hamon is definitely a gonome/midare and may have a semi ichimai boshi...which is good as it has a couple of chips and needs a polish.

What I've researched:

There were some late Edo and Meiji Masayuki smiths but the unrusted portions of this nakago say gendai to me. Of the Gendai smiths there was Ikeda Manji Masayuki of Osaka and at least 1 Masayuki of the Seki showato group. Looking at oshigata on Rich Stein's site, also F & G's yellow books, and on line, their oshigata do not match this mei.

The only Masayuki left (and whose oshigata I have not found yet) is Sunaga Wajuro Masayuki of Tochigi.

He was born about 1883 and from about 1922 was working in his forge at Uemachi, Aso-gun, Tanuma-cho (now Sano-shi), Tochigi-ken.

He was RJT in 1943 (age 60). He is listed in Meikan p.898 and in 1942 Dainihon Token Shoko Meikan p.297.

 

I would appreciate any comments, corrections, new info etc and especially an oshigata which matches/confirms (hopefully not contradicts) my ID to this smith, as I would like to think I have a tanto by a RJT smith.

I'd be interested to know if a member has or has seen a RJT by Masayuki....also where can I get these small circular shitodome (one missing).

Thanks.

 

Edit to add: Well, this didn't last long...I may be back to square one!

I just had a visit from a Japanese collector/dealer and he looked at this tanto and said that he thought it was from about 1860 period. He said that in his experience these koshirae are of a style and quality that was popular in the late shin-shinto...1850s-60s. He didn't venture to ID which Masayuki it is, but he said the thickness of the blade etc indicated it was made for a male owner.

So...not gendaito it seems...now to start researching through the late shin-shinto Masayuki smiths...anyone match the mei?

Regards,

[Eric H]

but the unrusted portions of this nakago say gendai to me

I see strong similarities to a Tanto by Seishinshi Masayuki which was for sale by Nihonto.com

 

Masayuki, Keio 1865-1868, Musashi, student of Jikishinshi Masahiro

 

Eric

[cabowen]

I agree with Eric- I think that is your man George....

[Geraint]

He is in Hawley's, from memory mas1444. I have a very similar blade by him, it would seem that he made a specialty of tanto. I have never come across katana or wakizashi but this would be the fourth tanto and all very similar sugata.

 

Enjoy.

[george trotter]

Gentlemen, thank you so much...what a pleasant way to be corrected...Seishinshi Masayuki...I did not go back to search diligently in the 1860s but as you have shown Eric and Geraint...it certainly does seem to be him and confirms the comments by my Japanese visitor yesterday...1860 in his opinion. Fantastic...I am smiling :D

Now that I see another series of tanto nakago and mei to compare, I do agree...it looks like a fat little yoroi-doshi (type) tanto by Seishinshi Masayuki. Not a bad find in our militaria fair here in "far end of the earth" Perth.

Thank you Eric, Geraint, Chris...I just love this board.

Regards to all,

 

Edit to add: Since this afternoon I have found another mei picture of a small NBTHK papered Seishinshi Masayuki tanto...the mei is even closer to mine than the pic above, so there is little doubt that my Masayuki is him.

You may be interested to know that his line is as follows:

Suishinshi Masahide sandai (MAS 104) - Jikishinshi Masahiro (MAS 150) - Seishinshi Masayuki (MAS 1444).

Thanks to all....Here are the pics.

[Geraint]

Good work George, hadn't seen that one before. So far all that I have seen have been small, rather thick and in similar mounts in that all have some interesting lacquer work and either horn or lacquered fittings. I imagine that he was reduced to making them as a result of the Haitorei. Mine has a very prominent hada, the sort that you sometimes see on shinshinto as a result of mixing steels. Be nice to see what yours comes up like with a polish.

 

All the best.

[george trotter]

Hi Geraint and all,

This has been an interesting exercise.

While I ithought this Masayuki was gendaito, I thought he was most likely from the Taisho-early Showa period, and this was strengthened by not being able to find this oshigata in the Keio - Meiji period smiths to compare...thus I definitely went to Showa and eliminated the oshigata of those smiths there, leaving me with my "Sunaga Masayuki" as his was the only Showa oshigata not seen (also a bit of wishful thinking :lol: )

 

What this exercise illustrates is the value of this board. It was only that members had pics of this actual mei from tanto in their collections to compare with the mei pic I posted that led to the truth of who he was. I conclude that probably, without this board advantage, under normal circumstances of searching for published oshigata, I would not have ever found a mei to pinpoint my Masayuki....so, great stuff.

Thanks to Geraint, Eric, Chris and this board...and also "the web" that allowed me to find other mei examples.

Regards,

PS...by the way, the Hawley 1981 entry MAS 1444 that says he was living in Mito in Hitachi is wrong...he was in Edo in Musashi (Meikan p.898) and it is worth noting that Hawley repeats and corrects this entry by listing this Masayuki as MAS 1454 but this time as living in Musashi, "student of Masahiro", which is correct.

PPS...just noticed that Hawley 1981 list this smith twice more as "Seishinshi" MAS 1468 and as "student of Masahiro" on MAS 1470 (but does not ID his place as Musashi), so that is 4 entries for one smith...WTF...!!! Still, better 4 listings than none.

Regards,