The Honjō Masamune - again???

[Guido]

Well, yes. But hopefully a more sober approach.

 

As announced in this thread, I've revised my article on the Honjō Masamune; actually it wasn't much of an article anyhow, Brian just copied and pasted what I wrote in a thread a few years ago.

 

Just to make clear: no, I don't have any sleepless nights over this sword. My main interest and field of collecting is Sōshū and Sōden swords, however. And it's a Sōshū sword, to state the obvious.

 

Starting in 2002 (IIRC), the most outlandish and funny story was posted by a gentleman in the US, who claimed that the sword was sold at an auction in March of that year, that it was stored until then in a trash barrel for 30 years with a large collection of fencing swords and other junk, owned by a lawn mower repairman by the name of Mr. Robinson, in a small town. It’s clear from what he made public, including photos and videos, that it’s an Edo period wakizashi with bo-hi from Kaga province, signed Kiyomitsu 清光 (which, he says, is the "secret signature" of Masamune). The blade is rather “tired”, the mountings nothing to write home about (and of course don't fit the description we have of the original). He is nonetheless convinced that it’s the Honjō Masamune, and states that the sword was appraised at US $ 600,000,000.-, which he later raised to US $ 2,000,000,000.-. That's six hundred million and two billion (!) respectively, for those weak with zeros. He constantly changed his story, though: one time he was just helping a friend, the other time he owned the sword himself. It was buried at a secret location, and then it was not. The NBTHK confirmed it as real, and then they even didn't know about it. And so on and so on.

 

All good entertainment. In the beginning, I more or less only tried to put his misconceptions straight. OTOH, I have to credit him – and others that resurrected the topic - for making me doing some more research. In the process, I learned a lot about meitō, the Tokugawa family, post-war Japan, and even linguistics. The result is the attached article. Hopefully a solid foundation for future discussions.

 

As they used to say in the TV series Dragnet (if you are old enough to remember it): "Just the facts, Ma'am!" I'll leave the wild goose chases to others.

 

Brian, please replace my writings in the articles sub-form with this article. It's meant to be viewed on a pc or tablet, but I chose a page format that should print out equally well on Letter and A4 paper.

 

Edit: I replaced the article due to a typo and some other minor formatting changes.

HonjoMasamune.pdfFetching info...

[Guido]

Oh, and if anyone is interested in how the *real* Honjō Masamune looks: here's the picture of the Two-Billion-Dollar-Sword:

[Gabriel L]

To clarify for future readers, Guido's last post (with the "real" HM) was sarcastic. Obvious enough if you actually read the text, but if you are scanning, it might be a source of confusion.

 

Thanks for the article Guido, nice to get a straightforward, down-to-earth treatment of the subject.

[Eric H]

A brilliant article on the outstanding importance of Masamune in the history of the Japanese sword, in the center point the Honjo Masamune with its own history, now missing since end 1945. What happened after that has been thoroughly researched as much as possible...but it remains „The lost Honjo Masamune.

 

Thanks for sharing

Eric

[Brian]

Thanks Guido, articles section amended. Great article.

I find it interesting (and pleasing) that the 3 oshigata posted including Morita san's one have some identical details and seem to confirm each other.

 

Brian

[k morita]

Great article!!!!

A little correction.The author's name of [Yūmei Kotō Taikan] is Iimura Kashō,not "Imamura" Kashō (page 5).

 

 

I took the pic② from a long scroll of Kōtoku oshigata [Ōsaka gyobutsu meibutsu tōken oshigata] in The Library of Congress at Washington D.C. :D

[Guido]

  k morita said:

A little correction.The author's name of [Yūmei Kotō Taikan] is Iimura Kashō,not "Imamura" Kashō (page 5).

Thanks a lot for pointing out this typo! I corrected it (as well as a formatting error) and moved the unedited oshigata (all from you, as stated in the acknowlegements :D) to the main body of the text.

[Bugyotsuji]

As a gentle aside, anyone in Japan for the DTI travelling around can see a selection of swords & koshirae, (10 Kokuho, 12 Jubun and 1 Jubi) in the Fukuyama Castle Museum next to the Shinkansen Station until Dec 7th, including the Meibutsu Hyuga Masamune Tanto and the Meibutsu Bungo Masamune Tanto.

(On loan from the Mitsui Kinen Bijutsukan and the Komatsu Collection)

[Tcat]

Great read!

[bigjohnshea]

That really was a wonderful and thorough article.

Wherever it is I hope someone is taking care of it.

Cheers,