Utsuri

[FletchSan]

Hi All,

 

I recently took a shinto wakizashi to my local togishi and he pointed out a subtle but beautiful feature of the sword - utsuri. I hadn't noticed it before though it can be seen clearly as a misty reflection parallel to the shinogi if captured in the right light at an angle.

 

I tried to photograph it. Is it fairly common to see utsuri in Shinto swords and is it an aspect of kantei that can help attribute to a particular school or smith?

 

thanks,

 

Ben

[Ken-Hawaii]

Ben, I honestly can't decide if your photos are showing bo-utsuri. It's hard to see with blade in hand, let alone in photos.

 

Yes, utsuri is normally seen in Koto Bizen blades & some high-end Soshu, & it's definitely a kantei point. I can't recall seeing utsuri in Shinto blades.

 

Ken

[FletchSan]

A few more in different lighting - still hard to see I know but definitely more obvious in hand.

 

Also - thought of a novel approach converting movs to images.

 

Ben

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hello,

 

Cool video post, what type of lighting were you using? Suggestion, Shinto Ishido utsuri https://www.google.com/search?q=Shinto+Ishido+utsuri&oq=Shinto+Ishido+utsuri&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Yamanaka's Newsletters revised has a fair amount of information including defining different types of utsuri.

[lonely panet]

the shinogi looks very high for a Shinto blade

[Brian]

Ah..animated gifs. Well done. A first here, and very effective!
Hope it starts a trend. You may even want to draft up a little tutorial that we can post for people who would like to try it.

[FletchSan]

Hi Brian,

 

Yes, remember when they were all the rage It was actually a lot easier than I expected and given the small file size agree that it would be great to see a few more swords like this and helps a lot with the challenge of photographing swords given you can subtly move the light across the blade.

 

This is how I did it.

 

1. Shot a few short videos of the blade with my iPhone using a single hanging light above the blade in a fairly low ambient light room.

 

2. Copied the .mov files to my PC

 

3. Used a free online converter of .mov to .gif (there are several though this one worked well and created small files. Limited to 5 seconds). Make sure you check the make private option if you don't want them stored on the site.

 

https://imgflip.com/gifgenerator

 

4. Uploaded them as regular images to the post.

 

Cheers,

 

Ben

[SwordGuyJoe]

That's actually pretty cool!

[Stephen]

Post 3 last pix shows it quite nicely, Thanks Ben

[Kronos]

Shirake is it not?

[FletchSan]

Had to look that up

 

The togishi said that it was deliberate utsuri and not unintentional which I gather shirake may be as it's described as whitish areas that form utsuri like patterns?

[paulb]

because of its random appearance there has been a lot of debate as to whether shirrake utsuri is intentional or accidental. It appears consistantly in certain schools work, Sue Aoi, Sue Mihara Mino etc so if it is unintentional they kept making the same mistake every time.

I think it was meant to be there it just did not follow a regular path in the same way bo or midare does on Bizen work. If you think about it one of the earliest forms of Utsuri descibed is Jifu and that is random but not considered accidental (some regard it as not being utsuri at all)

As Franco mentioned look at Ishido school work. They were a Shinto extention of the Bizen tradition and commonly produced a form of utsuri in their work. It also appears less frequently in other schools but I think Ishido would be a good starting point for your blade.

[FletchSan]

Thanks Paul. Very informative as always!

 

I've been looking at Ishido thanks to Franco and the Kishu Ishido school also tends to have a high shinogi and choji midare hamon which ticks a few boxes. Back to the books !

[Guido]

... so if it is unintentional they kept making the same mistake every time.

 

How to destroy an urban legend in one sentence - brilliant!    

[Brian]

Brilliant

[hxv]

Ben,

Nice sword! Question: how do we know it's Shinto as opposed to Koto? With utsuri on a Shinto blade, Ishido school is a good bet. My only trouble is that hamon for Ishido blades are exuberant and tend to go high up to the shinogi ji, which I don't see here. May be it's Koto? I hope it is.

 

Hoanh

[FletchSan]

Hmmm. You know I never considered that it could be anything other than Shinto, though now you have me thinking.

 

The main reason I think I've assumed Shinto is the mei is a Shinto smith - though gimei and has been discussed previously.

The sori is also pretty shallow at 1.0cm and the shape looks Shinto to me at least.

 

Okay - this is probably a naive question though if it is gimei could it be possible that a Shinto smith reshaped / shorted a Koto sword to try to pass it off as a well known smith? I would find this surprising though given it is a quality blade? Did this happen or was it more likely a lesser smith signing a false signature for a contemporary smith?

 

Don't want to go too far off topic though interested now that maybe it was a koto sword given the utsuri, and the mei and sugata are throwing me a curve ball..

 

Measurements

Nagasa: 56 cm

Mihaba:  5 cm

Kasane: 0.5cm

Kissaki:  2.5cm

Sori:       1.0cm

 

A few more pics to both help determine whether it looks like Koto or Shinto work and an excuse for me to upload another animated gif

 

Ben

[paulb]

Ben

I cant see in the images (or your wonderful animation) but what is the hada in the shinogi-ji.? is it the same as the jihada or is it masame.

In answer to your question yes I am sure people took old koto blades shortened them and resigned them. But you would have to ask yourself why sign with a shinto smith. If you have a koto blade it would make more sense to sign it as a koto smith and it would probably command a higher price.

For what it is worth (about as much as the opinion costs) I don't think it is koto. I understand Hoanh's point but there is nothing I can see that suggests it is earlier than shinto at present

[FletchSan]

Hi Paul,

 

Very hard to tell with the naked eye - to me the shinogi-ji just appears as a mirrored surface with no noticable hada at all compared to jihada which is clearly visible. This photo may suggest it is masame though not sure if thats just a trick of the light.

 

thanks,

 

Ben

[hxv]

As Paul pointed out, if there is masame hada in the shinogi ji, together with the fact that the boshi does not seem to be a continuation of the hamon, then we are likely back to Shinto. I would suggest looking for another (Shinto) school that produces utsuri, or this blade is an atypical Ishido school blade. I do recall that there is at least one school outside of Ishido producing utsuri, but for the life of me, I can't recall the name of the school. San Francisco shinsa is not too far off. If you are certain it's gimei, you might want to have the mei removed and submit the sword to shinsa to get an opinion.

 

Hoanh

[Gunome]

Hello,

 

Don't see this blade as an Ishido work. With such sunagashi, nie, hada, ... Seki or Echizen school could be a good call.

I already see utsuri on a shinto seki wakizashi.