Tsuba Mei : Kahe Umetada

[Christophe]

Hi every one, I just buy a tsuba and when I transled the mei, I have Kahe Umetada.  I searched the name of the smith in th book of Markus Sesko : Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists, I found Umetada (page 583). The signature look like the same for Umetada but nothing for Kahe. Did I make a mistake in the translation ? or if this smith exist, did someone have informations about it ?

Thanks very much for helping me about that.

Christophe

[Pete Klein]

Christophe -- I have been unable to locate the first kanji of the name and therefore am unable to go further.  If someone has a listing of the Umetada tsuba-shi it might help.   Perhaps a Japanese fluent member can assist?

 

Pete

 

PS:   Sesko's book is for Kinko-shi so it will not include Tetsu-shi unless they worked in both genre.

[SteveM]

I searched for Umetada Kahe 埋忠加兵衛 on the internet and all I get is an auction website showing the same tsuba as Christophe has shown here (perhaps, Christophe, it was where you purchased the tsuba?).

 

In any event, there are a lot of Umetada smiths. According to my reference (刀装金工事典・若山） there were two Umetada schools: one based in the Kyoto area, and another, later one, based in Kyushu. It doesn't list any Kahe specifically, but the listing isn't exhaustive, so it is impossible (for me) to definitively state whether there was such a smith, or which branch of the Umetada school he belonged to. 

 

Note that the ~兵衛 ending of the first name is actually pronounced as かへえ (Kahe-e, with the e sound extended). You might find some places where it is transliterated as Kahei, as the 衛 kanji is pronounced ei when by itself, and thus it is common for people to pronounce names ending with this kanji as, for example, Kahei, with the final sound being i. When speaking, the difference is hardly noticeable, but it is, in fact, incorrect. It is yet another example of how confounding the language can be.   

[Ed]

I looked at this earlier and couldn't find this exactly, but did find reference to a name sometimes used, "Kaijuemon" 加治右衝門.   Christophes Tsuba  seems to bear at least part of this, ???   There is an example in Wakayama vol. II page 20, center photo with the inscription Umetada Kaijuemon 埋忠 加治右衝門 (Kao).  The mei doesn't match the one in question and merely contains these kanji.  

 

What this means or how it is correctly read is above my pay grade.  My gut says the one in question is just a poorly done forgery attempting to copy that mei, but I was wrong once before.   

[John A Stuart]

Is this not Yoshie 賀衛 ? John

[SteveM]

I think its definitely a soldier under that 加, not a shell.

 

加兵衛 is a valid first name, so I don't think the name itself is suspicious. But this is starting to get over my head as well.  

[Ed]

John,

Looks like it, but again I couldn't find any reference to any Umetada Yoshie.  Haynes lists a "Yoshiei", but different "Yoshi" character, and no reference to Umetada or any usable info for that matter.  ???

[Pete Klein]

I can see Kahee but cannot find mention of him.  This isn't all that unusual actually as there are numerous unknown smiths.  It is what it is.

[Christophe]

Thank you very much for all your help, and for putting up with this mei.

I sincerely appreciate your help.
thank you again.

Christophe

[Bazza]

Gents,

 

Just having a run over this again it strikes me that the romaji pronunciation of kahee 加兵衛 that SteveM says is a valid first name should be kabei, exactly as it is prounounced in sword signatures.  As one example among many I offer the following:

 

源兵衛尉

genbeijō

 

加兵衛

kabei

 

Bestests,

BaZZa.

[Barrie B]

Good work Bazza,

 

Kabei Umetada. Haynes lists him on page 494 as H 02332.0 Worked in Edo ca. 1600-1650. Haynes states he is not listed in Wakayama and I have not checked other sources yet; I have to get to work. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Barrie B.