Kinmichi maybe

[David McDonald]

Dear All

 

I bought this wakizashi and I am having trouble with the translation.

 

Maybe the period Meiwa

then the zodiac year tori

then??? maybe Aki and katsu

Kin

michi

tsukura

明和辛酉秋勝金道造

 

Any thought on who this is and what is on the other side??

 

thanks

david

[Gabriel L]

How interesting David.

 

FWIW I would like to agree that you have the one side down, 明和辛酉秋勝金道造. However I can't really make sense of it. Meiwa 明和 (1764–72) would seem ok, as would kanoto tori 幸酉 (58th year of the zodiac). But they don't work together, do they? The cycle restarted on 1744, which would make kanoto tori 1801. Looking at other combinations and characters doesn't gel either. Aki 秋 (autumn) works in a zodiac date, but then Katsu Kanemichi/Kinmichi 勝金道 ? That's just odd. I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what.

 

As to the seal script, I have no chance, except to surmise that the third character is 則. :lol: Need to get Markus's book…

 

Good luck, I will watch with interest.

[k morita]

Hi,

 

悳 行 則 福

Meaning is "virtue brings happiness".

悳　is same as 徳

[Brian]

Wow. Nicely cut mei. Thanks for sharing David.

Nice looking sword from what we can see so far. More pics please

 

Brian

[David McDonald]

Dear Gabriel L. and K. Morita

 

Thanks for the help.

Gabriel you did get the third character on the side with the seal script.

 

Thanks K. Morita I would never have translated the seal script.

 

Now to find out about the other side. Is the smith one of the Kinmichi????

 

The Wakizashi is 21.5 inch with hamon an active suguha in nie.

The hada is masame with some itame/mokume about 3 inch from the ha-machi.

 

The tsuba is signed Umetada, Nishijin ju -- a little hard to see and took me a

number of hours to translate. But I have not found out anything about this smith.

 

The sword was a Christmas gift to the WWII vet from a Mr. Hashimoto?? some

time after the end of the war. The vet also has a wooden hilt NCO picked up on

one of the islands during the war, nambu 14 with extra barrel (he made the holster

while in the hospital during the war), bayonet, and a Japanese pilot flight suit.

I bought the lot and now need to find a home for every thing but the wakizashi.

 

The wakizashi I will have the boshi repaired and have the blade shinsa'ed.

The vet is looking for the missing menuki. If it is not found I will be having one

made and then do the tsuka-maki in the dark green tsumami-maki style.

I told the vet I would take the sword to shinsa and let him know the results

and if it is the 1st generation Iga no Kami Fujiwara Kinmichi we would renegotiate the price.

 

 

Attached are some images of the sword and fittings.

 

later

david

[David McDonald]

Dear All

 

I have done some more work and with help off the board think the translation is:

 

let me know what you think.

 

later

david

 

明Mei

和wa

辛Kaneto

卯U (not酉tori)

秋Aki (autumn)

藤Fuji (as in Fujiwara) (not 勝katsu)

金Kin

道michi

造tsukura --- made

 

Meiwa period started 1764

Kaneto-u --- 28th year in the Zodiac cycle starting 1744

So 1771 NOTE: Meiwa hachi is 1771, u is year of the hare (rabbit)

Aki --- autumn

 

So the sword was made (tsukura) by Fujiwara Kinmichi

in the autumn (aki) of the 28th year (kaneto-u) of the zodiac cycle, year of the hare,

in the Meiwa period (1764) or 1771.

 

“Everything seems to have been translated accurately except the cyclical date. It is Autumn of Meiwa Kaneto-U, which is Meiwa 8th year or 1771. The character "U" (or rabbit year) is written in seal script so that most people cannot read it. I'll try to do a little research to see which generation Kinmichi this is.

 

Because of the style of the Chrysanthemum crest (without leaves) we can assign the maker to one of the later generation of the Yamashiro Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi (brother of Iga no Kami Kinmichi) line. The first five generations are recorded and their family title is Fujiwara. The fifth generation worked around 1750. Very little, if anything is known about later generations, if any did in fact stayed in the sword-making business.The date on your sword falls later than the 5th generation. Given the fact that there were very little demand for swords during late shin-to time period, I can see why the output for later generations would be very low (if any) and thus are unrecorded. I think what you may have is a very rare discovery sword for the 6th generation of the Izumi no Kami Fujiwara Kinmichi line.

 

By the way, I have seen in the past the use of a single character "Fuji" as a short-hand for Fujiwara藤原 in order to fit a long signature onto a wakizashi nakago. Also, by the 5th generation, the family line no longer use the honorary title Izumi no Kami. “

[Gabriel L]

Fantastic! A very interesting sword David. Glad you posted it.