Gak Kou Kozuka?

[william m]

Hi all,

 

I have had in my possession for quite a long time now a rather nice Kozuka (Compared to rest of my stuff) and I have never thought much into researching it and have just had it mounted into my nihonto. Recently a friend while looking at it identified a signature on the spine, which to my shame I had not seen before! My Japanese friends say that the writing is of an old style and is most likely "Gak Kou 学　光" but cannot be sure as it could also be "Ei Kou 栄　光"

 

I was wondering if anybody here could help me identify this signature and possibly suggest a time period?

 

Thank you!

 

[Geraint]

Hi William.

 

(You will get asked to put your name on each post, easy to do in your profile.) I am having trouble reading the first kanji but the second is mitsu I think. Have a look at the kanji pages from the link at the top of the homepage and you might have a chance to find the top kanji in hand.

 

All the best.

[william m]

Ah apologies, I have now added my name into my signature.

 

Thanks for the tip, I have gone through the names and I think this is the closest I can find. What do you think?

守 Mori is pretty close and it could also be 家 but I am less sure of that one.

[Geraint]

Hi Wiliam, I can't get any closer than you on this one. Someone else will chime in sooner or later.

 

All the best.

[John A Stuart]

I am not able to satisfy myself with the first kanji, but, the way it is carved makes me doubt if it is legitimate anyway. I was leaning towards 茅. It is just really horribly carved. John

[william m]

The problem is that the signature is really very small. It must be around 1.5mm in width.

[John A Stuart]

It may be small and kibatamei, but, this is just unskilled. John

[Brian]

I dunno John. If really just 1.5mm wide, and on the edge of the kozuka..that is really small.

 

Brian

[william m]

Haha, unfortunately I left the kozuka at work when I was using the studio. I will measure it up tomorrow.

[william m]

OK here we go! Looks like I was a bit wrong with the width estimate but its still pretty small. I wonder if it was just worked in with a knife.

 

[Markus]

The signature reads NORIMITSU or JÔKÔ (乗光).

Haynes lists one artist for each reading. The JÔKÔ entry (H 02160.0) says

that he was a tachi-kanagushi from Ôsaka, active around 1750, but I´m

not sure of that´s the man...

[John A Stuart]

I am thinking it was added by someone to ID the kozuka and it seems like Yanagawa school work. The nanori 光 'mitsu' shows within the school frequently. If the first kanji had been 守 'mori', it would have made the name fit well the workmanship, but, Nori skews that. John

[runagmc]

I wonder if genuine mei are found right on top of the solder seam like that?

[John A Stuart]

Here is an example of kibatamei. The seam is adjacent. John

[william m]

OK so it looks like I have quite a few leads on what this could be, ranging from on if it is genuine or not, whether it was scratched on at a later date as an ID and even what exactly the name is due to the unambiguous characters. Thank all you all very much for your input! Whatever the kozuka really is, I am happy as I think it matches up quite nicely to the wakizashi I currently have it mounted in.

 

Thanks all!