Mei Assistance Please

[vjk]

Can someone please help me with this mei? I think I have it all but one character. (click the image below for an ungodly huge version; I apologize for the quality of the image, Mr. Brockbank I am not)

 

 

I believe that the mei is 豊州高田住藤原?行 which reads Hoshû Takada ju Fujiwara ?yuki. I can't make out the second-to-last character. Here is a slightly better view of it:

 

 

I believe the left half of the character is 糸 and the right side appears to be a "hat" over a box over a "hammer":

 

 

I've looked several places to try to find that character, with no luck. Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Ted Tenold]

I ran a comparison of the character to my art signatures book. The closest composite to yours reads "fusa". I've searched through some other books and come up short on any "Fusayuki" though ("Sogyo" would be the alternate reading). *shrug*

 

The radical on the left of that character in isolation is "shi" or "ito", but in conjunction with other strokes can comprise more familiar characters such as tsugu, nori, or tsune. The character it most looks like is the one that is also shared in the province names of Shimosa and Kazusa, also seen as Soshu. You can see the character I'm talking about in Rich's Nihonto Kanji pages in the Tokaido road section at:

 

http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/kanji_ ... inces.html

 

Bit of an enigma. Moriyama-san? Any comment on this one?

[Bungo]

I got " bungo-ed " from mumei and you actively seeked a signed Bungo.........bungo-ed by choice.

 

you come to the right place to ask as I am the resident Bungo..............

 

your sword is Muneyuki.....mei compare very well with my Bungo-to boo( yes, I have that book )

 

milt THE bungo-ed ronin

[Bungo]

 

your sword is Muneyuki.....mei compare very well with my Bungo-to boo( yes, I have that book )

 

milt THE bungo-ed ronin

 

it's on page 327( Bungo-to ).......... he chiseled the kanji " mune " really bad.......for an accurate rendition of that kanji, look up Robinson's book appendix E, kanji # 160.

you can trust me on this...................

 

 

milt THE ronin

[Nobody]

As milt said, it is Muneyuki (綂行). The kanji 綂 is identical with 統 (tou, tomo, mune, ..., etc.).

[vjk]

Thank you all for the responses.

 

Any info on the smith?

 

Hawley's list a Bungo Muneyuki, but with a different character for Mune. The Nihon-to Koza shinto book merely mentions that there were smiths with that name. Google was no help.

 

Searching the smith database, I get three hits, the second of which (Muneyuki III [is that sandai?]) has an exact match for this mei, except that the kanji for "Mune" is missing for some reason. That smith was kicking around Shoho, 1644.

 

As for the blade itself, I seem to buy with the eye and heart. I love this little guy. It's a smallish Wakizashi (nagasa 43.8cm, or approximately 17 1/4") with a deepish sori (15mm), and - to my eye - an elegant sugata.

 

Edit: here's a (terrible) picture:

 

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi,there are at least 4 generations in the books (Nihonto Meikan & Hawley's),from the end of Koto till about 1700:Hawley MUN 779 -MUN 782.

Ludolf

[vjk]

Ahh, thank you! I didn't go far enough back into the "Mune" section to get to the next character.

 

Edit: It looks like all four generations used the same Mei. Hawley's mentions that the first two worked in suguha; I'm pretty sure mine is gunome, so a good indication for third or fourth generation, I guess: 1644-1688 then.