Posthumous Gassan Sadayoshi?

[Gabriel L]

Hello,

 

I just noticed an odd feature of this sword. It's gassaku by Gassan Enomoto Sadayoshi (1908–2000) and his son Gassan Enomoto Sadahito (1954–)… but dated to 2004 (平成甲申 Heisei Kinoe Saru).

 

I suppose we can probably only speculate, but how can such a work be so posthumous? Might Sadayoshi have forged the blank (or some of the billet) and Sadahito completed the work later? Why the long delay (four years after Sadayoshi passed)?

 

Very curious.

 

—G.

[cabowen]

Actually, it is Enomoto Sadayoshi/Sadahito, who were from the Gassan school.

 

Sadayoshi died in 2000 and left, as many smiths do, a large pile of swords. Sadahito finished many of them and added the gassaku mei.

 

I knew them both personally and spent many an hour in their forge. They lived about 1 mile from me...Thus I know this to be true as I helped with the mei on some of these (holding the sword while the mei was cut)...

[Gabriel L]

Actually, it is Enomoto Sadayoshi/Sadahito, who were from the Gassan school.

Sorry, that was just a brain fart on my part. I was thinking of the right smiths but I was also in the middle of researching the Osaka Gassan school in general so I got my lines a bit crossed.

 

Sadayoshi died in 2000 and left, as many smiths do, a large pile of swords. Sadahito finished many of them and added the gassaku mei.

 

I knew them both personally and spent many an hour in their forge. They lived about 1 mile from me...Thus I know this to be true as I helped with the mei on some of these (holding the sword while the mei was cut)...

Thanks for the insight Chris. I didn't realize that smiths "pre-forge" so many blades. When does it legally become a sword, after yaki-ire?

[cabowen]

Thanks for the insight Chris. I didn't realize that smiths "pre-forge" so many blades. When does it legally become a sword, after yaki-ire?

 

Yes, I believe so. I think they can make as many as they want. They are only allowed to register and sell a certain number a month.

[Gabriel L]

So if the ju-tō-ho was (finally) revised, smiths would have a field day… interesting.

[cabowen]

Making and selling are not the same thing.....poor economy in Japan for the last 10+ years means few smiths are able to make much of a living at it...

[Gabriel L]

Good point. Something like 200 smiths registered in the All Japan Swordsmith Association, and only ~30 making a living?

 

But if they could sell more than 2 long / 3 short a month, could they not also reduce prices, increasing the market? I was under the impression that the restriction on quantity had artificially raised the prices at least somewhat.

 

I guess you'd need an economist to get the best prediction of what would really happen.

[runagmc]

The restrictions put on modern Japanese tosho is something that is hard for me to understand. I've heard that it's the goverments way of maintaining quality... but,

 

If you drop price- certainly demand would increase... but with more work comes decline in qaulity.

 

Of course, if tosho could sell as many as they wanted (traditional materials allowing), competition submissions and recent work would prove that their ability is at a certain level, and quality expectations could be handled on a piece by piece basis by customer and tosho - price being determined by quality... or vice versa, if a customers budget was set.

 

The question is, would a tosho make lesser qaulity works for customers on a budget? I would think yes, since I think many shinken made for martial artists are not top quality and therefore, less expensive...

 

Anyway, I don't know where I'm trying to go , but are these kind of government restrictions put on other traditional artist in Japan?

[cabowen]

The restrictions put on modern Japanese tosho is something that is hard for me to understand. I've heard that it's the goverments way of maintaining quality... but,

 

If you drop price- certainly demand would increase... but with more work comes decline in qaulity.

 

Of course, if tosho could sell as many as they wanted (traditional materials allowing), competition submissions and recent work would prove that their ability is at a certain level, and quality expectations could be handled on a piece by piece basis by costumer and tosho - price being determined by quality... or vice versa, if a customers budget was set.

 

The question is, would a tosho make lesser qaulity works for customers on a budget? I would think yes, since I think many shinken made for martial artists are not top quality and therefore, less expensive...

 

Anyway, I don't know where I'm trying to go , but are these kind of government restrictions put on other traditional artist in Japan?

 

Swords are weapons in the eyes of the government. The fewer in circulation, the better the authorities feel. Many feel fortunate to be able to make swords at all, as it wasn't until roughly 10 years after the war that smiths were allowed to make them again, and it took a lot of politic machinations just to get what we have.

 

The reason the current limit is set at 2 long swords a month is because during the law writing stage, government people asked Miyairi Akihira, a top smith, how many swords he could make a month. He said with his best effort, he could make 2. He is well known for working slowly- he actually dropped out of his position at the Tokyo Rikugun Zoheisho during the war because he was tired of being told to speed things up. We know that Yasukuni smiths produced as many as a dozen or more blades per month at the peak of the war. Talking with smiths, there is no doubt that they could make more than 2 high quality blades a month if they were allowed to sell more.

 

The current restrictions work for top smiths and against younger, up and coming smiths, to a great extent. I have never met a smith though who wouldn't like to see the restrictions lifted and the free market take over.

 

Most smiths do make cheaper blades for iai but I wouldn't expect smiths to offer a menu of cheaper alternatives- most of these people are proud craftsman and do their best to make the best swords they can. Iai blades are made to serve a defined purpose. They are cheaper because they are easier and less demanding to make.

 

If the restrictions were removed, I don't think we would see a large change in prices, especially at the upper end. There would certainly be cheaper blades available from the new and lower ranked smiths, but the better smiths would still charge the same most likely because the demand wouldn't diminish and they could still limit supply themselves if they choose...Smiths would still have to make enough to cover their costs including the opportunity costs.