Marumune

[jct3602]

Some questions -

 

Do some of you have marumune tachi or katana in your collections, what period/schools/makers are they thought to be if you have any information on them?

 

How steep is the curvature - that is, almost flat, rounded with max height about 1/2 the width of the mune (a circular radius), or a higher rounded oval?

 

I know this style is uncommon, so would appreciate any info.

 

thanks,

 

john

 

 

[Marius]

I used to have a late Kamakura Enju tachi, 74 cm nagasa, suriage, 2.6 cm sori (torii zori). It had a maru mune. 

[jct3602]

Hi Marius -

 

Do you remember the nature of the arc?  Was it a  fairly flat curve or higher.  The reason I am curious is one of my first blades from is marumune, the height of the curve at the munemachi is around 1.2mm and the width of the mune is just under 5mm, so about a 1:4 ratio.

 

Thanks,

 

john

[Marius]

Sorry for the delayed reply. It was high rather than flat.

[tony edmunds]

Hi John

I once owned a hirazukuri tanto with marumune. As I recall it was quite a medium height mune.

 

Tony

[Darcy]

Mino Kanesada (Nosada) with Marumune, around Bunmei, said to be copy of Rai. But I think now maybe it's a copy of Aoe. 

 

Aoe Tsugunao, fully signed, 77cm, marumune. Dated around Enbun though no date on it. Marumune shows up a bit more than normal with them.

 

All I can say is "pretty round" for both. I don't see it very often at all anywhere. It is probably the most time consuming thing you can do to a mune. Without a really strong reason to do it, one has to really wonder why it was done at all.

 

Still have the Tsugunao. 

[Ted Tenold]

Maru is rare and as Darcy mentioned tends to be associated with Aoe school works.  I have a wakizashi with marumune consigned for sale on my site, and the papers attribute it to late Uda.  I cannnot recall having seen another Uda sword with marumune.   It's so infrequently encountered, even the judges missed it on the notation sheet when it went through shinsa.     

[Toryu2020]

As I recall Hayama Enshin used it often - fwiw

-t

[Ian]

I have it on one of my swords if it's a photo you require 

[Mark S.]

Probably not what you are looking for, but from Nakahara:

 

"The less common so-no-mune [maru-mune] was thought of in the past... as not being used in the five traditions (that is, Yamashiro, Yamato, Bizen, Soshu, Mino).  However, exceptions by the top-ranked smiths of the Soshu tradition (Shintogo Kunimitsu school, Masamune, and Sadamune) have been discovered in the form of swords offered to shrines."

 

And then later he writes, "Rounded mune may be seen among the works of smiths of Chikuzen no Kuni Kongobei, Satsuma no Kuni Naminohira, and Mutsu no Kuni Gassan."

[jct3602]

Thanks for all the replies -

 

    Here are 2 pictures of the mune to give an idea how shallow it is -

 

    The wakizashi is about 2.80 cm at the machi.

 

John T.

[Ron STL]

The marumune on this mumei naginata-naoshi daito does not look particularly "high" but more low or what I'd call "normal." The sword has been called den Naoshizu which should put it into Nambokucho era. At present, it is in Japan awaiting Tanobe sayagaki and later, submission to this year's Juyo shinsa. Not a sure thing, but I'm told worth the submission. A stateside shinsa assigned it to a sue-koto Mihara smith. Differences of opinions, but the Naoshizu fit more with our original judgement of the sword. Once before I submitted a marumune sword for a friend during an earlier stateside shinsa and I "think" that one was judged sue-koto. Perhaps sue-koto did produce some marumune blades but sometimes I think a "late" call is safer than pushing a work back a few hundred years. All opinion...

Ron STL

[jct3602]

Ron, thank you for the picture.  What significance, if any. to the shallowness of the marumune on my wak? 

Trying to clear things up to the point where i can submit it to shinsa at a Burlingame Token-kai, hopefully next year.  Looks to be Mino in Soshu style. 

[seattle1]

Hello:

Toryu is certainly right about Enshin. I have three Hayama Enshin and all of them have a low marumune. Though he was a leading smith during the "near death gap" between the Haitorei and the 1920s, his forte was utsushi of very old blade styles of Heian sugata and even kogarasu-maru, so it is safe to say he was emulating something early with marumune.

Arnold F.

[Ron STL]

John,

 

Honestly, I've no idea what a shallow marumune vs a more rounded/higher marumune indicates. Seems very little solid information is available regarding this, as opposed to mitsumune being wide or narrow often indicating age.

Ron STL

[Simon]

On Maru mune...

Appraisal quiz .....Blade ....;

Nagasa 66cm ,

Maru Mune

Nakago  18.73 cm , hammered  , kijimomo  1 mekugiana  ,

Kasane at motohaba .....0.635cm,

Motohaba.......................3.01cm,

Sakihaba.......................  2.22 cm

soft steel, opening at end Nakago shows  200+ laminations ( 8 folds)

Fumbari ( looks ubu)

Hira Zukuri  with high rounded waist ( sword pointed forward.

No Shinogi

No yokote

Suguha...........................Tori zori

Sori.................................1.58cm

kissaki  length.................3.9cm

Jihada ............................Needs polishing faint mokume / masame

 

Anyone like to hazzard an appraisal...?  Thanks  Simon