Muto Hidehiro

[hxv]

Greetings,

 

I have been pulling long hours for the last 12 months and am just coming for a bit of air. This is for all Muto Hidehiro fans on the board.  The sword was clearly originally mounted in gunto mounts, as there are arsenal stamps on the nakago mune, but by the time I got it, it was dressed in gendai tachi mount. Regrettably, gunto mounts and sword have been separated. The current (gendai) tachi mounts are in very good taste, with everything (habaki, menuki, tachi tsuba, etc.) sporting matching kiri mon. I would not be surprised if it was a custom-order job. The only bad part is the itomaki was done by an amateur, which can be correct easily. The sword has 25.5" nagasa, with tachi mei "Chikugo Koku Ju Muto Hidehiro," dated "Kouki 2602." So, it makes sense that there is no star stamp this early. There are inspection stamps on the nakago mune, though. The yasurime is kiri, consistent with his early works. The entire sword is ilterally covered with nie, with some areas sporting larger nie sizes than others. The nie is so thick that I can't see what the hada is underneath. The sword will need to be polished to correct the loss of yokote, but it is worthy of a polish, and I will have to save up for it. Enjoy the pictures, and any/all comments are welcomed.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

 

[SwordGuyJoe]

Hidehiro did some really nice stuff. I owned one for a few years done in hizen-den and tried to sell it at the Chicago show a couple years back... It vigorously objected to my efforts.

[hxv]

Joe,

 

I remember reading about you dropping some blood over it Nice sword, though!

 

Hoanh