Kanetomo Tanto

[Jean]

I bought it from Aoi Art and as usual, I asked Tsuruta san if Tanobe sensei would accept to put a sayagaki on this unpapered sue Koto Kanetomo tanto. He agreed.

 

I have no translation problem for the school/smith, Nagasa, date of kantei but here are Tanobe sensei comments .

 

What does it mean ?

[Brian]

I think it says:

"The owner of this sword owes me $500 for this attribution" :D :lol:

 

So sorry for the OT Jean..I couldn't resist

I will slap myself on the wrist now.

 

Brian

[Jean]

"The owner of this sword owes me $500 for this attribution"

 

Already paid but I have a special discount :lol: :lol:

 

I always worry it can mean :

 

"to hell to the one who decipher this"

[Bugyotsuji]

Since no-one has answered, I'll have a little attempt:

 

 

二字銘ありこれ同工ノミナラズ関鍛冶ノ

真面目ヲ示す典型作也

Two character Mei, naturally the same Seki smith

I certify this as genuine and a typical work

 

 

Somebody (Nobody?) please reject, rewrite or refine for me!

[Jean]

Thanks a lot Piers, I always worry that it could be :

 

"That was a booby trap, you fell in it"

 

Ok Brian, I'll slap my hand

[Nobody]

同工ノミナラズ関鍛冶ノ真面目ヲ示ス典型作也

 

The latter part of the sayagaki loosely means something like this.

---> This is a typical work which shows the steadiness of not only this smith but also (all) Seki smiths.

[Bugyotsuji]

Oh, that's good! After I had finished, I started thinking about the 「ノ」 and how it works in there, and I began to think that it had a big role to play in that sentence and my translation wasn't allowing for it properly. It has all suddenly become clear! Thank you, Moriyama san!

[Bugyotsuji]

The only word I would spend more time on is Majime. Even the biggest dictionary does not really give a good English word.

 

'Honesty', 'consistency', 'earnestness', 'honest workmanship', or 'sterling character' may be closer to the Japanese.

[Jean]

Many thanks to you Piers san and Koichi san

 

I started thinking about the 「ノ」

:D :D :D

 

Piers, the day when I am thinking about such details, my Japanese shall be almost fluent

[Jean]

Here it is

[Bugyotsuji]

I was just going to ask you to post the pics. Thank you Jean! You must be proud to own such a blade.

[Jean]

Hi Piers,

 

In fact it is far above my expectation and much like Naoe Shizu school.

 

It is incredibly healthy. Sue Koto, late Muromachi, I would place it, from the suguta, beginning of 16th century (circa Eisho), masame near hamon and mokume, typical boshi.

 

From the translation of Koichi san, a serious/solid blade not a kazu uchi mono.

 

In fact, I prefer short blades - tanto - though my small collection is made of katana :D :D

[Curran]

There is a special tanto koshirae I am interested in purchasing from a friend some day in the future. He had me look at it and confirm signatures on it, including the menuki signed Mitsuoki (all has Toku Hozon papers).

 

He told me the blade inside it was a Kanetomo (also Toku Hozon papers) and I thought 'oh, decent smith' but I really didn't give much of a damn since my brain was focused on the koshirae. Then I finally saw the blade this past fall. It made me stop and think, "okay maybe one of these c. 1500s Kanetomo guys was extra good or had a good day". Since then it seems I've seen two or three good Kanetomo. Of particular note is that the jigane has been tight and well forged in all of them. Better than I would expect in most 1500s Mino manufacture.

 

Thanks for the post Jean.

 

Curran

[Jean]

In fact there were quite a lot of Mino Kaji in the 15 C. who were named Kanetomo. mainly Seki smiths who can be sorted by the "Tomo" kanji, this one is "友", with a nijimei could lead (according to Malcom E. Cox) to a 1532 smith. It suits the suguta as Mino Tanto blades after 1550 tend to have more Sori and be a bit longer (sunobi to ko-wakizashi):

http://www.aoi-art.com/sword/wakizashi/07559.html

http://www.aoi-art.com/sword/wakizashi/05237.html