Tegai

[Jean]

Aoi Art has posted a new Juyo Tegai:

 

http://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeiunsigned-attributed-as-tegai-school-2

 

 

The kantei is not done on the jigane which can vary a lot between Tegai smiths but on the hamon. More or less Jinie, more or less masame. Compare with Mariusz Tegai for sale in the sale section and to my Tegai Kanekiyo

[seattle1]

Hello:

I was wondering Mihara; were you Jean?

Arnold F.

[John A Stuart]

The shikkake boshi kind of precludes that for me. John

[Jean]

Yes I was a bit surprised Arnold, I would not have gone for Tegai immediately, but who am I compare to NBTHK... But, there is a lack of Jinie, the hamon is very regular, almost too regular compare to the Tegai blades I have seen seen. The shinogi ji is not as large as one could expect. Yes I would rather have gone for a Yamato school influence as Mihara or Nio. There is perhaps a bit more nie in this hamon than on a Ko Mihara blade but you can compare easily with my Tegai Kanekiyo. But the boshi fits the Tegai attribution.

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17414-achieved-collection-gokaden/

 

One thing I have learnt is that hamon is often more important than hada, I have checked it on 12 ko Bizen....different hada but same hamon.

[seattle1]

Hello Jean et al:

Well it might be interesting to debate the issue of the most important determinant of being on the right kantei track, that is which step is first and most critical, jigane/jihada, or yakiba. I do not know but I notice that in going through a published physical description of a blade, both the NBTHK and the NTHK (Yoshikawa faction) treat the former first. I subscribe to the NTHK journal, translated in part by Gordon Robson, and in the text again and again the importance of the jigane/jihada is emphasized as paramount. There might be an inclination for many collectors towards hamon because that is so easy to see, even on a blade in poor polish, whereas getting a real fix on kitae features is harder.

When it comes to Ko Bizen, their early date and experimental and off hand approach might not make them the best model to draw inferences from IMHO.

Arnold F.

[Peter Bleed]

Thanks for this discussion. Visiting Tsuruta-san's site is always a treat, This sword seems wonderful, but as a kantei exercise, it seems pretty subtle.

Peter

[Mark S.]

Could the lack of kaeri in the boshi help steer away from Mihara? When a blade is close to several options, then do we look at what is 'not there' to further narrow the focus?