Yokoyama Kozuke No Daijo Sukesada Signed Katana Gimei ?

[Frank Reile]

Hello everyone. A friend of the family owns this Katana. I told him that I would try and find out about his sword. I have come up with Yokoyama Kozuke no Daijo Sukesada on one side of the tang and Bishu Osafune-junin on the other. Have not been able to find any photos of a blade  tempered in Suguha by him to compare. I have compared the signature with many others in my books and they look different. The blade's mune is Mitsu-mune. The only swordsmiths from the Shinto period that I have been able to find that did this were Umetada Myoju, the Horikawa School and Echiizen Yasutsugu. Also have read that there are many forgeries of this swordsmith. It looks like  Gimei to me. What are your thoughts ?

 

F. Reile

[Frank Reile]

Here are more photos.

F. Reile

[Frank Reile]

More photos.

F. Reile

[Frank Reile]

Sorry for my bad photos.

 

F. Reile

[Brian]

The sword gives a feeling of being decent quality. The signature looks similar to others I have seen. Hamon isn't typical though. This might be a decent candidate for a window polish at least.

[Sly]

Hi Frank.

 

The shape (narrow sori) seems to fits with the era during when yokoyama sukesada used to work (Kanbun/Enpo era). I agree with you and Brian, I've never seen one of his work with suguha hamon. He is well known for his kani-no-tsune hamon (crab claw shape).

 

I have one katana made by him, and something bothers me with your mei. It is close to yokoyama's mei, but at some point it is weak. Especially on the ura side with the bishu osafune ju nin. Strange.

 

Here's the signature of mine, to compare.

 

Sylvain

[Ed Harbulak]

Hi Frank,

I wouldn't worry about the suguha hamon as the books do list that as one of the styles he used and I have seen one in suguha. He died at the age of 89 in 1721 so there's reason to think his signature varied somewhat over the years. He is considered the 6th generation and there was a 7th generation (plus others into the shinshinto era) who I presume would have done dai mei and daisaku dai mei for him. The only way to be sure of course is put the sword through shinsa. 

[Frank Reile]

Thank you Brian, Sylvain and Ed.I will pass on the info to the owner and see what he wants to do with it. Sylvain, does your katana have a mitsu-mune(3 sided mune) like this one. F. Reile

[Sly]

Frank, I've checked and mine is iorimune. Sorry.

 

Sylvain