Omamori Inscription?

[Peter Bleed]

Dear Friends,

A couple of days ago, I burdened the Forum with a question about a black gunto tassel. I had never seen one before and apparently no one else had either - so the topic died.There is a bit more to say, however.

 

To review, the sword was NOT for sale, I was just asked for information. Recall, too, that sword had been sent to the current owner who was then 10, by his brother who subsequently was KIA. The brother was a Marine but the current owner was uncertain where the sword was acquired (Saipan, maybe) and also unsure where the brother had been killed (Iwojima seemed likely).

This lack of historical and personal appreciation was distressing, so I kind of suggested that I would help the family do research on the sword's history. I've heard nothing - Sempre Fi.

The sword is a buke-zukuri Muromachi osuriage mumei that had been equipped with a leather boot and tsuka cover and the black tassel.

When I disassembled the sword for the owner and his son, I found a rather fresh inscription on the nakago.Aside from being certain it was NOT a mei, I was not sure what this was so I took a quick snap. With some help I have realized that this inscription says. "Fudo Miyo O Shinko".

Now, we have all seen blades with horimono Fudo images, but I have never seen a written dedication like this on the tang.

Is this in essence an omamori, a good luck charm? The inscription itself was obviously rather new. Sorry I don't have a better image.

Peter

[lonely panet]

is that a traditional Japanese srew iin the 2nd ana

[SteveM]

不動明王ヲ信仰

 

Believe (have faith in) Fudō Myō-ō

 

Sounds (and looks) rather dodgy. Fudō is one of the Japanese Buddhist gods. See more here

http://www.Japanese-buddhism.com/fudo-myo-o.html

 

I've never seen any slogan exhorting soldiers to profess or entrust their faith to any Buddhist god. I've seen bonji and buddhist images, but no textual invocations like this on the tang. It kind of sounds like a westerner's clumsy attempt at writing something he thinks might be plausible on a Japanese sword. Together with the clumsy squeezing of ヲ right next to the 信 makes me very suspicious. 

[george trotter]

No offence intended to Steve, but I disagree...I think a sword that has been in the same hands since say 1944 and since the owner was 10 years old is unlikely to be a "fake" inscription. I think it likely that when the (possibly family) sword was taken in to a sword fittings shop to be fitted with the military leather covers etc,  the owner or the owner's family who took it in asked the shop to cut the inscription. I think there is no reason to suppose the shop would have a professional nakiri shi on hand, but maybe a reasonably skilled mei cutter they could call on. I don't think the inscription is that badly cut at all...as for the cutting of a Buddhist inscription...well I have no opinion on how appropriate/inappropriate it is, but Fudo Myo-o is a fierce protector who sweeps away all impediments to the righteous I believe,,,perhaps cut on the tang as a personal good luck/protection wish from within his family...this is just my opinion.

Hope this helps,

[SteveM]

I meant to add, there are Buddhist invocations such as 南無阿弥陀 or 南無妙法蓮華経, and those would not be so unusual (maybe a bit unusual to see one on the tang).

 

The Fudō motif itself is common, and it just came up in another thread recently where there were kurikata and sanko carvings in a blade, which are motifs of Fudō Myō-ō. 

In this case, its the exhortation to believe in Fudō Myō-ō that I find strange. He is one of those quasi mythical characters that serve more as representations of something rather than a god that requires our faith. So while I might expect a pictorial representation of Fudō, or some image of him (chains, or chain-cutting sword, etc...), I think its unusual to find a sentence inviting (who, the reader, the owner?) to believe in Fudō.

 

That is what makes me a bit suspicious. Now that I see the screw in there, I'm wondering about that as well, but that may be a later addition. And, like I said I think the way ヲ is offset to the left, and is crowding the space where the 信 is, is a bit rough and shows poor balance. (Why not put them all in a straight vertical line? There seems to be enough space. Or better yet, do away with the ヲ all together and just write 不動明王信仰. )

 

But I don't hesitate to say that my unfamiliarity with something is no guarantee that the thing is fake. I've seen a lot of funny things lately that turned out weren't funny at all, but were in fact legitimate things. The invocation above could definitely be an outlier, or maybe from a family that is particularly devoted to Fudō?

 

Some more observations; I think Peter said in another post that this was O-suriage koto, but this tang doesn't look very koto. Maybe I am mixing up two different posts. (If a koto family heirloom, I think that reduces the chance that the family would have an unskilled engraver make an alteration to the tang). Maybe more and closer pictures of the sword and fittings can shed some more light.

 

Anyway, hopefully George's comments above and mine will give Peter and the owner some food for thought.

[Geraint]

Dear All.

 

" Peter said in another post that this was O-suriage koto, but this tang doesn't look very koto".    If osuriage then the entire Koto tang could easily have gone meaning that the new nakago would not look as old.  Unless efforts were made to replicate the age of the nakago then you might expect it to look 'of the period' in which suriage was performed.

The fact that it might have been an old family sword does not necessarily mean that the family would know very much about swords, nor that they would hesitate to send it to war with their son, nor that they would feel the need to find the best craftsman to engrave such a message.  

 

I am sorry that this does not add much to our consensus about the sword in question.

 

All the best