tsuka kanji translation help, please

[doug e lewis]

these old tsukas --- maybe late Edo?? -- discarded when menuki were recovered, i believe, have this fine kanji on them.

 

wonder what they say.

 

any ideas??

 

thankx all

 

doug e lewis

[Rich T]

G'day Doug, I can read bits and pieces of it but not enough to make any sense of it. Koichi is away for 2 weeks on a family matter so he will not be able to answer in that time. Maybe someone else can chime in ?.

 

Best

 

Rich

[doug e lewis]

Sounds like you are pretty busy, Mate.

 

i'll try to get better close ups. also have a mumei, ubu katana in poor shape that Mike Virgadamo (my sayashi friend) says has the sugutha of an Uda School ca. 1560. i have my doubts, but since i know nothing....

has several kizu and an area where a small patch was welded on, i guess to cover up the shigane peaking thru. a bundle sword of some sort...but at least cared for for a few hundred years, even if it is not from the late Sengoku.

 

these tsuka did not come from that katana. the tsuba i posted, with the wrapped tsuka with menuki in the picture did.

 

later. doug e.

[Darcy]

I think the upper right is:

 

肥前守戸塚工

 

Hizen no Kami do tsuka kou.

 

I may have the character pronunciation wrong, but the meaning I believe is that Hizen no Kami is the Daimyo of Hizen province, the "do" (not sure on the reading of that) is the household, and the last part "tsuka kou" is "tsuka artisan."

 

So he is naming his title, Tsuka maker for the House of the Daimyo of Hizen.

 

Next you have his signature:

 

黒?久作

 

First character is not exactly right, didn't attempt second as first I couldn't really find. It could be an older style of writing the character that has now changed, this happens sometimes and makes me go bonkers trying to look it up. So I'll just defer on that, but the last part is of course saku, for having made this.

 

Under that it looks like it says:

 

正村之常負

 

Which is something about owing or responsibility to the perpetual immortality of Shomura? I could be comically wrong on that, hard to read the kanji, Shomura could be Masamura, first two characters, middle is Kore. Last two carry the meaning, Shomura/Masamura I believe is a name. I think maybe Shomura/Masamura either ascended to power or maybe died? If I were to guess. Again, could be COMICALLY wrong.

 

To the right of this I read:

 

暦元?

 

Which looks like a reign name, first character is "calendar", then I'd speculate that it is Genbun (1736) or Genji (1864). Can't really read the second character, but first is obviously Gen (Moto) so that narrows it down. Leaning to Genbun.

 

三月

 

3rd month.

 

Then something-something kore, probably a super lucky day or something blah blah.

 

On the opposite side now, looks like another date or the continuation of the date or something. Skipping over the first part because I can't quite make it out, the left part looks to read second month, lucky day.

 

ﾆ月吉日

 

Maybe one is date of manufacture, other is commemorating something.

 

Last part looks like it starts with Yuki 行 and the next character drives me insane every time Tanobe sensei writes it because it is scripted and it takes me forever to map it over... though in theory it is easy I can never count the strokes in it and I keep forgetting what it is. I lose the next couple, then it looks like it says 日七有之 which is almost gibberish to me so I am probably wrong (day 7 this is... but the order is weird).

 

Anyway hope this helps at least narrow down the meaning, looks like for the maker this was important, maybe someone died or someone ascended to the ruling seat of Hizen province I would guess and this was for commemoration of that.

 

It's sad that it got taken apart for the menuki, however you'd never find out this information if this did not happen. A very cool collectable thing, and I look forward to seeing my clumsy work here cleaned up and finding out what is going on.

 

Please keep in mind that a slight error can really cause the meaning to deviate so take all this with a grain of salt until it can be corrected and confirmed.

[doug e lewis]

THank you very much, Darcy. i was hoping it would have more to it than "this is the ura side for such and such 's sword"

 

certainly seems like there is a story there for me to seek out. Must learn about Hizen Province.

 

do not know anything about the menuki or sword this tsuka came from. My friend has had these tsukas for years, but i will ask, if anyone is curious. I am!

 

thank you again. and thanks to you and Bob Benson for the great Bizen sword book.

 

doug e.

[Nobody]

Hi,

I am back.

 

I could not read whole. But some parts may be as follows.

 

[Owner’s title and name]

肥前平戸藩士 (Hizen Hirado hanshi) – the servant of the Hirado clan in Hizen

黒瀬久作正村之帯佩 (Kurose Kyusaku Masamura kore taifu) – Kurose Kyusaku Masamura bears this.

 

[Craftsman’s name]

藤元 ? ? ? 造之 – Fujimoto ? ? ? made this.

 

[Date]

嘉永六丑歳 (Kaei roku ushi no toshi) - =1853

二月吉日 – a lucky day in the 2nd month

 

[specification???]

行手籐巻目 ? ? ?

I cannot read this part. This could be a specification of the wrapping of tsuka.

Tomaki (籐巻) means a wrapping with rattan.

[Darcy]

So I wasn't so very far off! That's great, if I understand correctly, this means it has the name of the samurai who wore the sword as well as the craftsman who made the tsuka?

[doug e lewis]

it would be interesting to find out more of what it says as to how it should be wrapped.

 

is there a site where i can research the samurai named on this, i doubt if the craftsman would be in any records.... 1853, eh? maybe in clan records?

 

now i have to think how and where i want to display this tsuka. Certainly not putting it back in a drawer after learning all this about it.

 

thank you very much guys.

 

doug e

[Nobody]

Sorry, I should have said Hirado Domain (平戸藩) in stead of Hirado clan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirado_Domain