Sugata Exercise Answers Posted

[paulb]

Sorry my aim wasn't to frustrate you. As I said it wasnt intended to be a competition it was aimed at stimulating some thought.  I will have to be more sensitive next time round

number 2 was papered by the NBTHK not the NTHK

[tagheuer]

Thanks Paul for the exercise. It is definitely very helpful for newbie like me 

[Kronos]

Sorry my aim wasn't to frustrate you. As I said it wasnt intended to be a competition it was aimed at stimulating some thought.  I will have to be more sensitive next time round

number 2 was papered by the NBTHK not the NTHK

 

Sorry, I meant frustrated with myself, although not a competition I have my own internal competition and have a deep passion to know these things. Thanks for the exercise as it was enlightening, especially number 1.

[CSM101]

I liked it very much and I sticked to my answer, because if we are all right, then Brian can close the NMB. And so we all learn, what are the points in shape.

 

And by the way: my new project (Daido/Shizu).

 

 

Uwe G.

[Alex A]

Cheers Paul, appreciated.

 

Kanbun was a popular word in this exercise, once owned a Kanbun shape Katana, very little sori, only 6mm

[SAS]

Thanks for the exercise, very interesting. I sometimes wonder if the shinsa experts sometimes pigeonhole smiths into work types that the smiths themselves might have resented.....just my random thought of the morning.

[Jean]

Agreed with Kronos, 1 & 3 are atypical. From pictures, 3 has an O kissaki and not an extended chu kissaki and 1 really looks like Kanbun shape. That was very interesting Paul. The measurements are important as pictures can be misleading.

 

Last WE we had our semestrial meeting and there was a Soshu den sword with N°3 sugata. It was a Shinshinto copy....

 

Kantei by sugata is very difficult.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Utsushi during Shinshinto are what usually trip me up, & it takes a very close look at the jihada to differentiate in most cases.

 

Ken

 

[paulb]

Hi Jean

I agree I dont think you can do kantei effectively by looking at any single element of a blade you need to look at it as a whole. Unfortunately I think shape is often overlooked or just ignored at times. Even though it appears difficult most people who tried this got very close in the majority of cases. To be honest when looking at a mumei blade that may be between 6 and 700 years old what difference does 20 or 30 make in the overall scheme of things?

Ken

I know what you are saying and thought jigane would confirm what the shape might be telling you but in a number of recent swords I have seen I have seen incredible hada in shin-shinto work which compares very favourably with some koto blades.

I think all this could really do is point you in the approximate direction. The fact that so many got as close as they did says a lot for the level of understanding of members here. It was particularly good to see the number of relative newcomers have a go and give credible answers.

So the board looks to be working in helping to develop peoples interest and understanding.