Reddit sword: 備中國住人貞次 + ?目包???之 (also, fuchi: ?次 kao)

[Gabriel L]

Hello,

 

Another Reddit user is looking for help with his wakizashi.

 

Here is a rotated nakago photo. I've got the 備中國住人貞次 Bitchū (no) kuni jūnin Sadatsugu (though I doubt this sword is Aoe school as all the genuine Bitchū Sadatsugu seem to be). But what does the left column say? So far all I have is ?目包???之.

 

 

Also, the fuchi is signed here. Looks like ?次 plus a kao, but I don't know tosogu very well and am having trouble finding the first character, though it is well-inscribed.

 

Tsuba is 武州住正房 Bushū jū Masafusa btw.

 

Thanks in advance for any help. That first character of the left nakago column seems pretty clear but I'm just not getting it.

[John A Stuart]

Fuch is signed 直次 Naotsugu or Tadatsugu. John

[Gabriel L]

Thank you John. Do you have an idea if that would be be Yanagawa school, or something else? There is a photo of the fuchi here. Looks like a tachibana mon in shakudo. The nanako seems moderately well executed to my eyes, not masterwork but not dock stuff either.

[John A Stuart]

Maybe, I tend to Hamano, but, this type mon tousogu are rather hard for me to pin and the kao seems to be of Hamano genus. Not that this is definitive. John

[Markus]

I am not 100% sure about the first character but I think the mei to the left reads:

 

眘目包則摺揚之

 

"Tsutsushime Kanenori kore o suriageru" - "carefully shortened by Kanenori"

[Gabriel L]

I am not 100% sure about the first character but I think the mei to the left reads:

 

眘目包則摺揚之

 

"Tsutsushime Kanenori kore o suriageru" - "carefully shortened by Kanenori"

 

Thank you so much Markus. That was a stumper, but your translation looks pretty good.

 

Odd. The shinogi change had me thinking maybe another welded nakago (we've seen so many recently). But both columns seem to be in a similar hand. Is it purporting to be ō-suriage ato-mei? Hmm. Maybe I'll make a discussion thread in the nihontō subforum.

[sohei]

Back to the fuchi: the Kao (& mei) doesn't match the pictures of Yanagawa Naotsugu in the Kinko Meikan and Wakayama's Toso Kodogu Meiji Taikei. I don't see one that does match... Mike

[Gabriel L]

Thanks Mike. There are a few open questions here – what's going on with the blade (gimei and/or ato-mei?), the fuchi (which naotsugu?), the tsuba (shōshin?), etc. I think what I'll do is open two discussion threads, one in the nihonto and one in the tosogu subforums. Maybe a little spammy, but they'll get a little more visibility that way, and keep the topics more organized.

 

Blade thread

 

Fittings thread

[k morita]

Hi,

 

春 日 "Kasuga"(maybe family name) is correct reading, not "Tsutsushime"眘目.

[Markus]

Thank you for the correction Morita san! I had a hard time trying

to find the first character but wasn´t able to see that it is a

variant of 春.

 

[k morita]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

 

I guess,even 99.999 percent of Japanese people could not read the variant character of 春(haru).

 

Kanji dictionary "gotaijirui" (五體字類)is useful, which means the dictionary of five calligraphy styles .

(Attention,it is difficult to consult this dictionary for non Japanese people. )

[Gabriel L]

Thank you Morita san!