Koshirae Project

[Darcy]

You guys helped as I bounced this off of the NMB and opinions here influenced how it went finally.

 

I went through five different sets of menuki purchases before landing what I thought was the correct thing. They are Goto Teijo (9th gen Goto mainline), I found them in an old bag of stuff that had not been opened for 40 years (with lots of other kodogu). Owner would not sell them to me at the time but put them to papers first. He is considered one of the best goto and after everything it felt right. This took about 18 months from conception to (almost) finished product. 

 

Lots of help and work by Ted Tenold, Brian Tschernega, and Gen Saratani and of course Goto Teijo. These are just preliminary photos as it came out a bit dark and need to go back for some lighting work in the "studio."

 

 

Higher res here:

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/awataguchi-yoshimitsu/koshirae-m.jpg

 

Detail of one of the menuki. 

 

 

Very thick plate and good condition. Probably made back then for something of this level so completes a 400 year journey or so.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

This is looking gorgeous and one can guess the very high quality! DAIMYO grade!  Do you have a fitting blade of that level to complete that package?

[Brian]

WOW.

Don't know how that could have been done any better. Even the chosen same is perfectly matched and of high quality. Those menuki are mindblowing, considering their size and the detail.

Was the lacquerwork done in Japan?

[Greg F]

Beautiful koshirae Darcy! The link didnt work for me. I also would like to see the blade if any, especially if it matches the koshirae. Great job. Thanks for sharing.

 

Greg

[vajo]

It is unbelievably beautiful

[Ian]

Very nice Darcy 

[Fuuten]

Is this koshirae for the Hasebe blade? Looks fantastic.

[Darcy]

This is looking gorgeous and one can guess the very high quality! DAIMYO grade!  Do you have a fitting blade of that level to complete that package?

 

 

Signed and unaltered Awataguchi Yoshimitsu.

 

It's why making the koshirae was so painstaking and had a lot of thought go into it.

 

I started with a lot different concept on this. It was going to be just black lacquer Aoi mon with mitokoromono. After discussions here it went along a different way and after Guido's post I had to agree with him to do this. I went through Aoi mitokoromono and several different dragons then finally mounted this with dragons and it came back and the work was just a bit higher than the menuki. So it had to go back again and I got the shishi for it, which seemed to be "no expenses spared" at the time of manufacture and suited the koshirae and the blade. 

 

If not for the conversations here this would have been a lot different. 

 

All the work was done in the USA. But the guys above are all Japanese trained and the result I think shows.

[Darcy]

High res link was broken but now it's fixed.

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/awataguchi-yoshimitsu/koshirae-m.jpg

[Brian]

Someone sent me a link to Gen Saratani's Facebook page, and he is a real master. Amazing work, as can be seen here. Does he work out of the USA, or is he based in Japan, and just travel?
I'm assuming there is a LONG waiting list for his work.

[Darcy]

The wait is long but worth it... and it takes a long time to cure out the lacquer. I got him to take an shot of his bench when he was making it that I'll put on my site, very interesting to see. He was a bit worried that there would not be enough time but it came out really beautifully.

 

I'm going to get two more done, depending on the timeframe. 

[Guido]

Here's the initial thread: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/15652-aikuchi-koshirae

 

I'm delighted how the koshirae turned out, I have only one word for it: perfect! Darcy mentioned to me at the DTI that his project was finished, but I wasn't prepared for this stunning result!

[Darcy]

Yeah I snuck up on Guido and I said "you won." haha. But this is a nice example of when the site is working. Multiple inputs I got here really changed my mind and it created a really traditional great thing. So NMB is a co-author in this. It's much better than fighting over what the meaning of the word "is" is.

 

There is a matching box for this as well which was a factor.

 

It's an antique with a rough and humble outer box. You open this and it's a beautiful black lacquer box with kiri and aoi mon. So the koshirae thoughts were all centered around uniting the tanto with its koshirae into this box. 

 

So the owner has this beautiful experience of this old humble box and inside as you open it up are various levels of surprise and magic. Each one better then you get the amazing koshirae and inside it,  tanto fit for the Shogun, Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, best of all time. Gonna be sweet. Almost ready to write it up. 

 

[peterd]

Hi, Would you consider having this papered. Not so important now but this will be here for two or three hundred years and would be nice then to have original papers. Fantastic work and composition, well done.

[Jean]

Nothing to add (I am wondering why I just wrote this )

[nagamaki - Franco]

Wonderful, the Shishi are outstanding!

[Pete Klein]

I believe this thread should be placed on permanent reference status under, 'Oh - so you want to have a koshirae made. Look here"... LOL

 

PS: I'd kill just for the F-----G menuki. ROFLMAO!

[Stephen]

       

[Ed]

In a word, Stunning.  Glad you went with the shishi menuki opposed to the mons or dragons. Personal preference only but damn, they are sweet.  

It really came out fantastic, so much more classy and elegant than black would have been.  

 

Old Yoshimitsu is smiling today, along with all of us. Congratulations.

 

I would like to see the Habaki Brian made for it ??

[Darcy]

By the way this is Gen Saratani the "western" lacquer artist who did the finishing work on the koshirae.

 

http://urushizedo.wix.com/zedo#!bio/c1xfq

 

His Bio:

 

2006-2008    Studied maki-e technique under Akira Takeda (maki-e master) in Kyoto

2002-2005    Studied lacquer restoration under Tomizo (Lacquer artist and also his father)

1998              Studied at Tokai University in Japan, majoring in art design

1995              Graduated from the high school of Art in Kyoto, Japan, majoring in Urushi

[John A Stuart]

Bugger him, it's great. John

[Brian]

Ford has experience with his father (and possibly himself?) when he was doing master restoration work in the UK, and told me his work is fantastic. Hope you don't mind me paraphrasing Ford.

A true master. To those without an agenda of course...

[Curran]

I didn't know we had anyone like Mr. Saratani in the USA.

Wish I'd known he was there in New York while we were staying there.

 

Through Nakaya pens, I knew of a skilled maki'e artist in NJ- but he isn't at this level and has no knowledge of koshirae or restoration techniques for antiquities.

[brannow]

Absolutely Beautiful, Darcy!

 

[Yoshimichi]

01/23/16

7:15 p.m.

 

Dear Darcy:

 

Incredible workmanship! Certainly befitting of your tanto. Top of the mark menuki!

 

I just saw another Awataguchi Yoshimitsu tanto on Ginza Seikodo's website with similar style koshirae:  http://www.ginzaseikodo.com/yoshimitsumatsubaE.html. I am afraid to even imagine the asking price. It would make a nice companion piece to yours. Time to hit the Powerball.

 

Best regards,

Bill E. Sheehan (Yoshimichi) 

[Jorgensen]

Congratulations Darcy, it looks RIDICULOUSLY astonishingly beautiful 

[Darcy]

01/23/16

7:15 p.m.

 

Dear Darcy:

 

Incredible workmanship! Certainly befitting of your tanto. Top of the mark menuki!

 

I just saw another Awataguchi Yoshimitsu tanto on Ginza Seikodo's website with similar style koshirae:  http://www.ginzaseikodo.com/yoshimitsumatsubaE.html. I am afraid to even imagine the asking price. It would make a nice companion piece to yours. Time to hit the Powerball.

 

Best regards,

Bill E. Sheehan (Yoshimichi) 

 

 

There are only 16 signed available Yoshimitsu. Others are ranked with protected rankings, and anything with a name is locked up in major families and foundations and museums. Two of the 16 that the NBTHK passed are meibutsu and are not going anywhere. So there are only 14 really and it's very rare for anything like this to come up at all and coincidental. The koshirae on the Seikodo one are antique and mine are modern and that will factor into people's decisions. I haven't shown my tanto yet, but it is in better condition than the Tokuju blades (which are not great, none of these are fully perfect at this point. 

 

Very unusual for this to happen. There are no bad Yoshimitsu, there is just some staggering of where they stand with each other based on condition and size. Mine is not one of the larger ones, it's 22cm but it is very beautiful with a long nakago and gives this very elegant look. If someone can pull out a 30cm one somewhere he will have himself a real fortune. Count Ito Myoji had such a blade but I don't know what happened to it since then... possibly his was Kuniyoshi though. Memory is vague. 

 

Anyway thank you guys for your support and kind words. The photos were taken without my permission to execute a hit job elsewhere. So it's nice to see people appreciating it here. Brian T made the koshirae itself. Someone who professes himself to be a sensei of sorts went after its "proportion and balance" and so on. Brian having won NBTHK competitions in making habaki, he has to study and know how to make koshirae as part of knowing how to implement a good habaki and he is highly knowledgeable in this field as well as highly skilled. The hit job made it out as if this was a Walmart koshirae and set up to make it easy for people to knock down. This of course builds up the sensei.

 

For proportions, a koshirae is something that is made to fit a tanto and you can't expect say a 33cm and wide Sadamune with a stubby nakago and curved sugata to have something that looks like that which is made for an Awataguchi Yoshimitsu at 22cm and a long thin nakago. People making rushes to judgment about what should be like what need to understand that you can't really judge any of this without comparing the blades inside. 

 

I have good photos of things which are rare and special and though they are for sale the occasional photo of something that is excellent. Like Masamune or Go or Yoshimitsu, I think is informative and at the very least good for everyone to see as they represent the highest levels of what this hobby is about. I hold back on 99% of it because I don't want it to be like I am farming NMB with them. If I had $2000 gendaito and some inexpensive but good iron tsubas, I would have them in the sales section every day. But these kinds of things are not easily accessible by anyone who is not ready to sell a house to get them. So I am not expecting anyone on the board to run out and get a Yoshimitsu. I'm sharing something nice. Truth be told this was not bought thinking that someone is going to buy it from me because it's so expensive. I thought, well there is a good possibility that I will die with this tanto so I need to be OK with that. And I need to be OK with the koshirae. 

 

I am OK with both. You get one crack at something like this in your life if you're lucky and in this case I was lucky. Someone can be lucky with the item at Seikodo and have themselves a blade meant for daimyo and that was surely owned by daimyo and handed down through a family. It's a big game to be a player in but that's what someone will get out of it. 

 

For me, I will do the same if I can ever get that Masamune tanto I am hunting now for a year in Japan. But I think I lost it.

 

Anyway thanks for your kind words and I'm sure the men who made it will be happy to hear that people like it. 

 

Note the photos above are all done with a studio lighting setup that is supposed to make a particular effect. This is the same as the formal sword photos that I do, the layout photos. The casual photos show it what it looks like in normal light like you would be handling it. I think it is even more lovely.

 

[Darcy]

 

Out of interest this is the model Masamune that had the koshirae that was the starting point for the conversation, this is to scale against the Yoshimitsu tanto and they are lined up at the machi so you can see they are significant departures from each other over "what means a tanto." 

 

 

It's interesting to look at the work of two great tanto masters side by side. The Masamune is exciting but it looks kind of crudely implemented in the nakago compared to the Yoshimitsu. Half because it's been worked over and shortened. He has various styles one of which is closer to shintogo and Awataguchi and more elegant but this is the style halfway between Kamakura tanto and Nanbokucho tanto and it just illustrates how different two tanto can be even both made by masters. Two different visions.

 

This also bears out in the koshirae because the Masamune with a much longer and wider blade with curvature and a much stubbier nakago necessitates a different approach in its koshirae than an uchisori shorter nagasa blade with a long , slender furisode nakago.

 

If you're going to compare two koshirae, this is why I am saying knowing what is inside is important. Form follows function and some have thoughts that koshirae are made in a complete vacuum and the parts should be the parts and put where the parts should go. Koshirae is a functional thing that is shaped around the blade, and the blade dictates ultimately what you can and can't do. 

[paulb]

Darcy

Many thanks for sharing this and for the comprehensive discussion and write up around it. In every area of collecting there is always much debate and strongly held views as to how such projects should be approached. There are some that think one should attempt to recreate the look of earlier work, effectivelt making a new koshirae look several hundred years old. For others this is a form of dececption and they aim to make something that look as the original would have when it was brand new.

The first might be considered a reproduction, the latter an original work that is sympathetic to the sword. This approach has been taken throughout history with new koshirae being made for swords over many hundreds of years. The key factor is that you have used artists with proven skill and track record to produce what you have and to maximise and enhance the beauty of the fittings you have added.

As you know this style of koshirae is not my favourite and I had some questions about the compostion and overall look which you kindly answered  but the quality of the workmanship in the lacquerwork looks from the images to be exceptional.

Congratulations on completing this exceptional project

and BTW if I had to choose a sword to spend the rest of my life with this little tanto would be very high on the list!

[SAS]

That is a very beautifully executed koshirae for a very beautiful sword, Darcy. Your commission has brought an incredible art piece to life that will endure the ages. PS I recently bought the book you and Bob Benson wrote on Bizen swords Vol. 1; is there or will there be a Vol.2?