Struggling again

[kissakai]

With a great deal of hope I tacked my first ‘grass’ script mei

Armed with my copy of Sesko’s Cursive script I tried to make some sense of this mei. After a couple of hours I found 吉 (Yoshi) which looks like the first character

The second may be 刀

The third maybe something like 孝

None of which makes any sense to me

So then went through all the mei starting with Yoshi in the Haynes Index but found nothing

I wasn’t sure of the three character mei. I know some smiths do have three characters but normally the third character would be something like carved, made etc

Ideally if some one can give me a few pointers so I can try to find these characters in Sesko’s book, maybe a couple of radicals?

 

Also on the same tsuba do you think the ‘holes’ on the moon are intentional/poor workmanship or general wear and tear?

 

The last tsuba was my recent purchase for Mariusz and although the chest handles are obvious has anyone any idea what the other sukashi represents

All I see is a sea horses head!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With thanks

Grev UK

[k morita]

Hi,

Your decipherment of the cursive script is completely wrong.

 

Cursive script of the tsuba says 青 虯 軒　(Seikyuken/Shokyuken),this is an art name "Go".

 

虯 reads "mizuchi",same as 蛟

[loiner1965]

Morita San can I ask you a question?

Is modern day Japanese the same as the kanji we see on older swords?

Script kanji , why is it different to modern kanji

Sorry if the questions seem stupid but if you never ask , you never know

Many thanks

[kissakai]

Thanks Morita San

It takes mistakes to learn

I can now look at the Haynes Index and Sesko's book using your translation as a guide

It's like when I started looking at basic kanji now each correction improves my knowledge

Anyone have any thoughts on the possible damage to the moon and the shape of the last tsuba image

 

 

Grev UK

[kissakai]

As you will see that with Morita’s kept I found out the following

 

No 01 8strokes 青 SEI – SHŌ

青 Radical: 青 Parts: 二亠土月青

青 8 strokes - Sesko page 341

 

No 02 8 strokes 虯 KYU (mizuchi)

虯 Radical: 虫

Not found in Sesko’s book or in the Haynes Index

 

No 03 10 strokes 軒 KEN

軒 Radical: 車 Parts: 干車

軒 Radical: 車 7 strokes – Sesko page 321

 

 

From Morita:

Cursive script of the tsuba says 青 虯 軒 Seikyuken or Shokyuken is an art name "Go"

虯 reads "mizuchi",same as 蛟

 

I can not find any makers in Haynes for the two variations of mei

Can anyone help me to track down this maker?

Also if the second character is in Sesko’s book which page is it on?

For me this is a good learning exercise

 

 

Grev UK

[sohei]

In Haynes, 3rd book page 1617, could it be:

 

W: Chōyō Hagi jū, Nagato Province

D: ca. 1750—1800

SCE. W—III—246 lower right

 

SEIRYŪKEN

H 08098.0

 

Also listed in Wakayama's third book, page 246. Hope that helps, if it is correct. Mike

[kissakai]

Hi Mike

Thanks for you reply

No idea how I missed this but I don't think it is

SEIRYŪKEN - H 08098.0 and I don't have a copy of Wakayama

 

Haynes then lists another 22 makers who used Seiryuken so I checked them all

Most had the 1st and last kanji as those shown but none had a match for the middle kanji (no idea why)

Only Yoshinari used sosho in part of his mei. He was a student of Ishiguro Masayoshi

Unfortunatly I have no idea if this tsuba has any similarities to the Ishiguro school (my next task)

If pushed I would suggest Yoshinari as a contender but in reality at this stage it should be stated as unknown/unrecorded smith

 

 

As before I've learnt a bit more

Grev UK

[Pete Klein]

I found this 'Begin Japanology' episode to be quite interesting and informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLbS1VKLk

[b.hennick]

Thanks Pete:

I really enjoyed the video.