Question on Terminologies

[hxv]

Greetings,

 

I recently purchased a new lens with help from the tremendously helpful photography experts (viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19214). I took out my Hoju daito for a photo session and the results are so pleasing that I had to share. While I am at it, I annotated the pictures with terminologies that I associate with the various features seen in the pictures. Please correct me if I use any terminology erroneously. I would rather be corrected than to keep misusing terminologies.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[hxv]

One more picture.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Marius]

 

That's for the pics.

 

And I think you got the terminology right, too :D

[hxv]

Thank you Mariusz!

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[ancientnoob]

FWIW- I am totally impressed with the photos of your sword. The activity looks alive. It gives me the impression of a liquid flowing inside of the sword. WOW!

[hxv]

Thank you Nathan.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Darcy]

Ichimai is a full tempered kissaki and is pretty rare. It's hard to tell from these photos if that is indeed what you have but my feeling is that it is not. If it were then the hamon should run out of the kissaki at least at the line of the shinogi.

 

Hakikake should look like someone brushed the boshi with a wide paintbrush that dried out as it was brushing.

 

This is something that you're going to find if you have masame grain going through the kissaki. You have an O-itame in the kissaki. So the activity you see with that is not correctly described as hakikake I think.

 

Chikei are usually dark. They are the dark lines formed by ji nie that have clustered together. What you have there looks to be a different grade of steel that is folded into the wood pattern. But, in some of the photos you can see chikei forming. Look for the black ji nie and where they start clustering so tightly together that they form a band, there you have chikei. The photo where you indicate kinsuji in fact has chikei that can be seen in the middle right.

 

Chikei may be independent of the grain pattern because they are formed by ji nie.

 

This section of a Go Yoshihiro shows black ji nie clustering so tightly that it is flirting with the distinction between being chikei and not.

 

[mdiddy]

I don't necessarily see chikei in your photos. I agree with Darcy they may be forming, perhaps the lighting is not exposing them.

 

When I think of an example showing chikei, I think of swords by Enomoto Sadayoshi. Here is a pic I pulled from the web that shows prevalent chikei.

[mdiddy]

Here is an example of an ichimai boshi from a katana I had. The nie below the yokote outlines the nioiguchi as it curves around to the mune.

[hxv]

Thank you very much, gentlemen. I have taken you pictures and annotated them to make sure I understand you correctly.

 

Darcy,

Is this the jinie area to which you referred?

Would you mind annotating my picture to indicate the area to which you referred? That would help me eliminate the guess work on my part. Also, how would you describe the boshi in this case? The boshi is very, very deep (hence the ichimai with question mark). It may not be clear in the picture, but there is no turn back. So, would it simply be described as Yakitsume?

 

Matt,

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[mdiddy]

Hoanh - yes, that is chikei.

 

It may be the lighting, but the boshi I see in your pictures is a thin hoso with some turnback, at least on one side. Perhaps the other side is yakitsume. As the hamon crosses the yokote, it looks to dip down toward the fukura then ride along it before thickening and turning back in. If this is an old Hoju blade, perhaps the kissaki saw action and was polished down over time leaving a smaller part of the boshi.

[echizento]

Super photo's, the activity in that blade is amazing.

[Darcy]

I highlighted the areas where you have dark ji nie clustering and starting to form chikei.

 

You are indicating the correct place on the Go.

 

Your inazuma is also wrong. Inazuma look like lighting striking into the hamon from the ji. It is like kinsuji that go in and out of the hamon. If entirely in the hamon it will remain as kinsuji. You have them in the same photo there.

 

Uchinoke are cresent shaped activities which are clusters of nie that dive down, enter tangentially, and then exit the hamon. Because of the hada on that sword you can probably find them too.

 

This sword has some similarities to Norishige in that it is going to be difficult at time to separate hataraki of the ji and hamon. This is part of what is causing the confusion in the boshi.

 

It is harder to deal with these by photo because we can't turn the blade in the light and see other angles of the same artifacts. But it seems to be a good sword for studing nie activities, though they are a bit heavy handed there are a wide variety present.

[hxv]

Thank you Darcy for the detail explanation. That helps to clear up a lot for me.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Jean]

Hoanh,

 

In the section "Articles", Paul Bowman has written an article on Yamato Shizu, in whiich you will finde some pictures of Hakikake boshi.

[hxv]

Thank you Jean. I just download the article.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Jean]

Hoanh,

 

The best example I have found is here:

 

http://www.nihonto.us/shizu_saburo_kaneuji.htm

[hxv]

Thank you Jean. Nice sword!

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[Darcy]

I knew I had a photo of hakikake somewhere.

 

[nihonto1001]

The best example I have found is here:

 

http://www.nihonto.us/shizu_saburo_kaneuji.htm

 

Funny Jean, this was the first sword that came to my mind regarding hakikake. This sword is now on display at the Morikami Museum's Samurai Exhibit in Boca Raton, Florida.

[Jean]

I have also a good example of hakikake on my Hosho/Tegai Kanekiyo blade I cannot attach due to Mr Riesling (a sacred from Burma) who has decided to monopolized my left arm as a pillow to sleep.