Kodachi Or Boy's Sword?

[jct3602]

    Just had some repair done on the tsuka and saya of what I thought was a boy's sword.  The restorer said he thinks it might have originally been a kodachi which had some very nice furniture added to it to make it a boy's sword. 

    My question is what is the smallest dimensions that anyone has seen for a kodachi or the largest for a young boy's sword?  The dimensions of the piece in question are as follows:

      blade length - 44.1 cm

      motohaba - 2.0 cm

      sakihaba - 1.45 cm

      kissaki - 1.7 cm

      sori - 1.1 cm, over a 5.1 cm span almost precisely in the middle of the blade - within .2 cm of same

                distance to the kissaki and to the motohaba.

      Even for these tiny dimensions, the blade is very thin and lite.

 

    Am enclosing picture -

[Ken-Hawaii]

John, did you measure sori from the end of the nakago, or from the mune-machi (which is the correct place)?

 

Ken

 

[jct3602]

Ken,  the sori measure was from tip to the munemachi.  However, according to Nakahara, the measurement to the end of the nakago is in fact correct (page 61, facts and fundamentals...), not the one i used.  Maximum sori from tip of kissaki to the upper end of the mune is 1.55cm.  Including picture of some of the furniture 

 

    Thank you for the clarification, John

[Ken-Hawaii]

Nakahara is incorrect: http://meiboku.info/guide/form/sori/index.htm.

 

Ken

 

[jct3602]

Ken, who is the author that you are quoting for your information?  I know that information falls under "common knowledge", but have you read Nakahara's book?   The quote from page 61 is "to define the correct curvature of a tachi, a line should be drawn from the very butt of the tang to the tip of the sword...Currently, swords are measured by using a line from the back end of the sword (munemachi)

to its tip...  This kind of measurement is only used for sword licensing."

[Ken-Hawaii]

I'll tell you what, John: pull out your copy of Nagayama, & look at page 52. That should be definitive enough for you. If you don't have a copy (which you should), then just type in 'Nagayama sori' into Google search, & the third entry (at least on my system) will take you to page 55, & you can just scroll up to page 52.

 

Ken

 

[Geraint]

Gentlemen,

 

We are getting confused over nothing.  John, you quote from page 61 which is a section devoted to considering sori, here Nakahara is making the point that sori should be judged by looking at the whole sword.   If you look at pages 13 - 16 you will see that he uses the conventional definitions of length for blades though he perhaps holds to them somewhat less rigidly than the current collector market does. 

 

For what it's worth I don't think anyone would classify this as a kodachi, but that's another debate.

 

All the best

[Jean]

In fact a blade can have several sori, mainly early Koto ones when koshi sori is very pronounced. Nakago can have a sori. Often early blades have two sori, because a part of the blade can have a very strong sori and the other a very small one. This is typical of Ko Bizen blades. The only important thing is to precise how the sori was measured when it is not from mune machi to the point.

[Geraint]

Jean.

 

I think this was what Nakahara intended to focus on.  

 

John,

 

I do like the fittings, what are the rest of them like and, second question, is the sword ubu?  The nakago looks quite clean to me from what I can see in your picture.

 

All the best.

[seattle1]

Hello:

 Jean is entirely correct. There is no dogmatic single measure of sori. The most thorough analysis of the special characteristic of the Japanese sword that determines its proverbial cutting prowess is found in Sam C. Saunders, "Shape and Cutting Efficiency: The Unique Nihonto Curvature", Newsletter (Japanese Sword Society of the United States), Vol. 33, No. 7 (Dec., 2001), pp. 20-30. Dr. Saunders is a retired Professor of Pure Mathematics, Washington State University, and his analysis of the special equi-angular shape of the Japanese sword which involves several measures of sori, is simply stunning.

 Arnold F.

[jct3602]

Hi Geraint

     The sword is ubu, as far as i can tell, and has a signature which i think is either daimei or gimei.  Enclosing some pictures made from my cellphone of the furniture (with the caveat of the effects of file compression on the quality of the pictures).  The repair of the saya is about 50% complete, but will add some pictures next post.  Also, If you wish, can send pictures of the hamon, etc., but would like to get some opinions on the blade before opinions are influenced (or not) by the questionable mei, so that picture will be later.  Will also send pictures of the unsigned side to show nakago shape and yasurime.

 

 

Thank you for your thoughts,

john twineham

[jct3602]

Hi Geraint -

     Some of the extra pictures.  Hope you find them of interest.

 

Yours,

john twineham

 

[ggil]

nice fittings for and interesting blade.  masame in the shinogi ji (in the burnished edge facet away from the ha), accompanying mokume in the ji, is common Shinto hada.  Your repairer thinks possibly its the cut off/broken off and nakago added to an old tachi (I think that is what you are saying).  Who knows?  Your picture of the nakago (or lack of a decent one) is limiting the discussion.  Also, the polish/pictures don't show off the hamon well enough to confirm profuse nioi or nie that would lead to speculate this came from an old tachi.  a mystery here, but a  nice set of fittings made/modified for this nice small blade.  I especially love the tsuba.  It appears to be have some gold in the brass alloy maybe (don't even know if this is done or not).  The menuki look to be nice.  The same looks old and lovely, although since the koshirae is miniaturized the same nodes appear huge/higher quality than they actually are, but its old and lovely anyhow.  Whatever its providence, quite a nice boys day example. 

[jct3602]

Hi Grant -

    Some pictures of the nakago and the blade when i first acquired it.  The kodachi possibility was not an added on tang, but it is true that something causing loss of patina has been done, and the signature appears to be gimei or perhaps daimei.  It does seems to be illogical to add a tang with a poor signature and damaged patina.

    I did not show the saya, since it is not finished yet.  The restorer will hopefully have the lacquering repair finished by the Burlingame token-kai.  He restores lacquering on writing boxes for the Portland museum, so he is quite good; however, it takes steady warmth, high humidity,  and about 2 weeks for each layer to set (plus top lacquer is expensive; $30 a tube from Namikawa-Heibei).  Since you are from California, if you are attending the Token-Kai stop by the Stephen Strauch table and you can take a look yourself; I am sharing the table with him.

[ggil]

Deeply chiseled signature which is nice and indicates confidence of the signer, but I'm way too lazy/tired to translate kanji.  What does the signature say?  You must have already translated and looked up characteristics to say gimei, or its a big name and you didn't need to look it up.  I like the nakago shape.  Anyway, from the looks of the nakago I'm guessing made in the 1700/1800s (with an element of older blade sugata being made a boys day sword) maybe.  Pretty cool piece!

 

about the token-kai: I had better make it this year, since I haven't yet after these 7 years living so close.  I will look forward to meeting you there John!

[Brian]

Tanba no kami Yoshimichi.

[jct3602]

Hi Grant -

    Would be great to meet you. 

    As for the signature, it is Tanba no kami Yoshimichi, but my feeling is a daimei, since i  can not match some portions of the signature to any examples i have found, but the work is very good and has many characteristics of the Tanba school (could also be gimei, of course). 

    The hamon is in ko-nie deki, with spots of nioi kuzure inside the hamon and two areas with extensive nie kuzure making the hamon in those areas not very distinct.  Some areas are showing extensive but light sunagashi, plus a prototypical "Mt. Fuji in clouds".  There is also a formation which has the same ordering as the "dragon chasing a tama"; a tobiyaki  separated from an almost tobiyaki with a tail trailing towards the nakago from it.  The nie kuzure makes me wonder about the quality, but the very tiny ko-nie throughout and lots of ji-nie gives the opposite impression .

    If it is daimei, would like to discover the actual smith; if gimei, would like to have that removed and the nakago repatinated  (Despite common opinion that creating a good age patina so that it can not be differentiated from a real one is impossible, i know someone who can and has).

    A few more pictures, but getting accurate photos of activity is very tough, and with file compression, etc. oh well.

 

Yours,

john twineham

[jct3602]

Sorry about the last pictures; file compression make them useless.

 

Yours,

john twineham