what is kodachi? (info on Tsukushi Ryokai)

[Marius]

Gentlemen,

 

I haven't researched this subject yet, but I want to get my starting points here.

 

Kodachi - these were comparatively short swords worn edge down like regular tachi. That much is sure.

 

Questions are:

 

- what was their purpose?

- were they worn by fighting men?

- were they worn by courtiers?

- how long/thick/boad were they?

 

I ask these questions because I am lucky enough to own a kodachi (and no, it is not a shortened tachi) attributed to Chikushi Ryokai. An excellent Yamashiro sword, BTW.

 

The sugata is delicate, almost diminutive, and graceful. The blade is very slender, but seems not tired. It appaears almost ubu, with some minor machi okuri. It has nashiji hada, utsuri and a hamon in ko-nie (suguha). Pictures are attached.

 

What is your opinion about kodachi (not necessarily this sword)?

 

I will try to take some pics in which this delicate sword is next to an ordinary daito.

 

Thanks for your time :-)

[John A Stuart]

To me kodachi is any companion sword, wakizashi, shoto. Most kenjutsu use the term for the wakizashi as in, kodachi no seito. Kodachi varied by the period in which they were made. John

[Marius]

Thank you John. I appreciate your interpretation of the term, I don't quite agree with the comparison to a wakizashi. That function was fulflilled by the uchigatana or/and the koshigatana.. A kodachi, it seems (correct me if I am wrong) was worn edge down. It was, in fact, a small tachi...

 

But all my questions remain unanswered...

[Jussi Ekholm]

That is fine looking blade Mariusz I like the slender sugata. How long it is?

 

As for what kodachi is for me, I see it as a small tachi. However I think that there is wiggling room in the term at least for me. Kotoken Kajihara states in Nihonto Yogo Jiten that average length of the tachi is around 85 cm and any tachi much shorter or longer are called kodachi or odachi respectively. For kodachi koshirae he writes "Kodachi koshirae means a small tachi koshirae that to put kodachi into it. This koshirae is intermediate between tachi koshirae and katana koshirae."

 

Here is the image of kodachi koshirae from the book:

 

 

Personally I tend to see tachi that are longer than 3 shaku as odachi and those that are around 2 shaku as kodachi. That's my current understanding which will evolve as I learn more.

 

In Seskos Koto-Kantei book you can see couple kodachi, 2 of them are around 55 cm and 2 are around 60 cm. Generally in books that I have kodachi are around that length. Longest that I can find on quick browse through is Kunihira kodachi from Sano museums "curve book" and it's 63,2 cm. I think that slender sugata is also necessary for kodachi attribution as there are many swords in my books that are only bit over 60 cms but are still classified as regular tachi by the same experts.

 

Hopefully we can gather information to this thread, as I have also often wondered about kodachi.

[Jean]

Search the Board for kodachi. It has been treated already. Discussion started about a 70cm blade for sale on Aoi Art that Tsuruta san described as a kodachi.

[Marius]

Jean,

 

Thank you :-) I have done it, but the only thing in this discussion that I have found meaningful (regarding the term kodachi) was Guido's statement:

 

"A Kodachi is kind of a scaled down Tachi."

 

I seem to remember that the opposite opinion was brought forward on another occasion

 

Of course I know that it is difficult to determine what a kodachi was, exactly. The name suggests a small tachi, i.e. a sword worn edge down. But are there any sources which confirm that short, diminutive tachi were worn, too, perhaps in civilian/court life?

 

Regarding my blade, its measurements are:

 

Nagasa: 56.8 cm (1 shaku 8 sun 7 bu 4 rin),

sori: 1.3 cm (4 bu 2 rin),

motohaba: (width at base) : 2.43cm

sakihaba (thickness at top) : 1.39 cm

 

This is a very slender sword.

[Guido]

I googled 小太刀 (hey, I'm at work, nothing else to do ), but there isn't much info out there. One website stated that most of them were made during the Kamakura era, because kodachi became fashionable among court nobles who wanted to wear a sword like the buke, but one that did not get in the way at the palace, and especially when travelling in ox carts - therfore the "scaled down version".

[Eric H]

"A Kodachi is kind of a scaled down Tachi."

[Marius]

Thank you Guido and Eric, this is very kind of you

 

Looking at this sword, I was thinking - an extremely carefully made sword for a courtier. It is so short and light, that it wouldn't have been cumbersome to use wither in the palace or in the ox-cart.

 

NBTHK's attribution is Chikushi Ryokai, so it would be Nambokucho (or later), provided that the NBTHK is correct (not for me to judge, of course)... It is a Yamashiro tradition blade, for sure. Very slender, elegant and with very good steel (loads of ji-nie, etc).

 

Eric - this pic is great, thanks :-)

 

Attached is a picture which shows the hada and utsuri on this sword.

[paulb]

Congratulations Mariusz it looks to be a beautiful sword. I would be interested as to what led the NBTHK to the Chikuzen Rai attribution, perhaps we can talk it through some time.

I dont know if it helps but The Awataguchi Norikuni I wrote about a couple of years ago share the same elegant shape. It is 68.9cm long and O-suriage so not made as a shorter sword although the overall shape is slim and elegant.

I have always assumed this was made for a nobleman (as I believe most Awataguchi blades were ) I never considered this to be a kodachi but it sort of fits the definition given here

[IanB]

Mariusz, A museum about 30 miles from where I live acquired two collections made by local rich families who traveled to Japan in the 1880's and competed with each other as to who could acquire the finest pieces of lacquer, arms and ivories. Among the rather good collection of swords is what I decided when I examined it, was a mounted kodachi. It is probably 15 or 20 years since I handled it so please forgive the lack of details. This sword is about 90cm total length with a gold lacquered scabbard and silver mounts, the tsuka having stylised kenukigata. It would be easy to leap to the obvious hamamono conclusion except that everything about the sword gave me the impression of an extreme restrained and refined taste. I have a mental image of it having a sageo of violet deerskin and perhaps ho-o birds on the saya. I remember the blade struck me as having the proportions of a regular sword, except for a rather pronounced sori, whilst being diminutive. It might have been made for a boy, but in my opinion was far too refined. I came to the conclusion it was for wear at a court whilst wearing ceremonial robes. I'm sure I have read somewhere that such swords were worn because they would have been rather useless in an assassination attempt.

Ian Bottomley

[Marius]

Ian,

 

very interesting, thank you :-) Yes, diminutive is the word, but also refined. I can obviously speak only about the blade, as the sword has no koshirae.

 

I have seen only few genpuku swords, so I cannot draw any conclusions, but yes, they were not particularly well made (not bad, but definitely not refined). This blade is very well forged, which, I hope, can be seen in the pictures.

 

Paul,

 

Why the NBTHK thought this sword to be Chikushi (Tsukushi) Ryokai? Probably due to the konie-deki suguha and somewhat limited hataraki (although I have to look closer to examine it in detail). I guess one should expect more activities in earlier Ryokai swords. Also I have to have a look at some oshigata of Ryokai swords.

 

Thanks for the pic of the Norikuni.

 

One more thing about this kodachi - the patina on the nakago is excellent and deep, neither dry nor excessively lustrous. It seems like the hi could be original to the blade - they are polished down and start in accordance with what seems the original length of the sword (my take is it is suriage and machi okuri by 4 cm at the most).

 

The habaki is gold plated, and a very high quality work. Somene has cherishied this sword, which is not surprising, as it has the elegance of an early Kyo-mono. I may be just dreaming, of course

[Jean]

In Ryokai swords, you should expect some masame as he was a son of Rai Kunitoshi. According to Nagayama Kokan, his style was the one of hhis father but of lesser quality, he was the grandfather of Nobukuni.

 

Musashi used a Ryokai sword

[Guido]

In Ryokai swords, you should expect some masame as he was a son of Rai Kunitoshi. According to Nagayama Kokan, his style was the one of hhis father but of lesser quality, he was the grandfather of Nobukuni.

Not Ryōkai himself, but Tsukushi Ryōkai, Jean.

 

Yoshisada, a pupil of Yamashiro Ryōkai Hisanobu, moved to Kyūshū around the beginning of the Muromachi period, and his mon gradually flourished and spread throughout Chikushū and Hōshū. Therefore Yoshisada, Yoshizane, Kazuyoshi, Shigeyuki, Muneyoshi, Hisanobu, Yoshimasa, and a great number of other tōkō are all grouped together, and called Tsukushi Ryōkai 筑紫了戒. The quality and style of the beginning period was the style of Yamashiro, their home kuni; hamon of suguba or suguba-hotsure is the most common.

 

I attached some pics of a Tsukushi Ryōkai tanō I owned about 10 years ago (on another note: this tanō displays clear mizukage - although ubu [as Mr. Tanobe states in his sayagaki]).

[Marius]

Thank you Guido

 

The hada on your Tsukushi Ryokai seems more pronounced (o-hada?), while it is pretty fine in my kodachi. This is of course nothing I could build upon, given my paltry knowledge, but I think it is worth noting - it seems the Tsyukushi Ryokai smiths worked in several styles.

 

Also, there is a Ryo Hisanobu tanto on Aoi, here is the link, and I am attaching a picture too, as these links do not last:

http://www.aoijapan.com/tanto-mumei-unsigned（ryo-hisanobu）

[Jean]

from what I read, there are several versions as often in Japanese Genealogy, depending of Nobukuni being the son or grandson of Hisanobu Guido:

 

one of them is:

 

Rai Kunitoshi==>Ryokai==> Ryokay 2 (Hisanobu)==>Nobukuni

 

http://nihontoclub.com/schools/YamashiroNobukuni

 

Submitted by kazarena on Thu, 2010-12-30 00:16

山城信國

Tradition: Soshu

Province: Yamashiro

Start Era: Kenmu (1334-1338) ND

End Era: Ōnin (1467-1469)

 

Description:

This group was founded by Shodai Nobukuni.

 

Shodai/Nidai Nobukuni

There is a difference how first two generations of Nobukuni are defined by various sources. This is most likely due to lack of dated examples of Nobukuni (the earliest was made in the Enbun era (1356). There are a few extant works of Nobukuni without dates and of which workmanship looks older than that of the Enbun Era [1]). It is noted by most sources that the first generation of Nobukuni worked in two distinct styles, one resembles Ryōkai style, while another resembles Sōshū [2]. One opinion says that Nobukuni Shodai was the student of Sadamune. Other opinion says that it was Nobukuni Nidai who was Sadamune's student, while Shodai is in fact Ryōkai Nobuhisa who changed his name to Nobukuni [3]. The second opinion explains differences in style. Accordingly there are several opinions of relationship to Hisanobu, Nobukuni being his son or grandson. Nihonto Club relies on the version of Nobukuni Nidai being Sadamune's student. Attribution of different generations of Nobukuni to the records in Hawley has been a challenge. One should be careful with references to Nidai Nobukuni as in many cases it may mean 3rd generation.

 

A number of Yamamura school smiths signed Nobukuni due to close connections with Yamashiro Nobukuni. It still has to be identified if they were double-listed as Yamashiro smiths.

 

After Bunmei (1469), the Yamashiro smiths moved to other lands. This was at the time of the Ōnin Civil War (1467-1477) in which the inner parts of Kyōtō became scorched earth due to the ravages of the war. This was said to be a time when many people fled the difficulties and moved to other kuni. It is thought that the Yamashiro swordsmiths also searched for a peaceful place in which to live and make swords [4].

 

See also Tanobe Michihiro's Nihonto Wo Miru (translation by Markus Sesko) for observations on stroke direction in the signatures of Nobukuni.

 

(to be continued)

 

References

Nihon Koto Shi (History of Koto), Honma, Junji , (2002)

Swordsmith, Yamanaka, Albert , Nihonto Newsletter, (1968)

Yamashiro Nobukuni School, Cole, Robert , (1998)

Nihon Toko Jiten, Fujishiro, Matsuo , Volume Koto, (1964)

 

In Nihonto Koza P79, First volume, it is said that first Nobukuni is either the son of Ryokai or Hisanobu Ryokai

[Marius]

Jean,

 

nobody said it that this is all easy :-)

Thanks for adding that info

 

PS: I have adjusted the title of this thread

[Guido]

This is getting confusing, Jean - Chikuzen Nobukuni is a different line.

... Nobukuni being the son or grandson of Hisanobu Guido

"Hisanobu Guido"? Wow, didn't know I had a namesake back then!

[Marius]

Gents,

 

Returnig to the kodachi problem... I have taken a pic of this Tsukushi Ryokai kodachi alongside an osuriage Tegai blade. The Tegai is ordinary katana size.

 

Here are the measurements of both swords:

 

....................katana................kodachi

 

nagasa:...... 69.2 cm .............. 56.8 cm

sori: .......... 1.1 cm ................ 1.3 cm

motohaba:. 2.95 cm .............. 2.43 cm

sakihaba:... 1.97 cm .............. 1.39 cm

 

 

Hopefully that will give all an idea how delicate this kodachi blade is.