Boy's daisho koshirae?

[Brian]

A friend here recently asked me to purchase a low end daisho koshirae for him off eBay. Seems the one thing he didn't check was the sizes :lol:

 

Difficult to see in the pics, but these are a really small set. The saya of the longer one is only 20.5" (52cm) and the shorter one is only 14" (36cm) yet everything is scaled perfectly, only in small and elegant proportions.

 

No blades, just tsunagi, and both have a nice sori. My theory to him is that they might be koshirae for a young boy's first sword. I have heard talk about Boy's Day swords, and was wondering of anyone has any ideas or comments about if these could have been a young boy's first swords..or maybe they even contained dummy blades? The tsuba do show signs of having been mounted on a blade, but not sure if it would have been a live blade. The blade would have to be very thin...maybe 3mm.

Any info on these youth swords, and theories if this set belongs to one of them, would be much appreciated.

 

Brian

[uwe]

Hi Brian,

 

some times ago "fan" mentioned such a blade in his "kasane" post

 

Uwe

[fan]

hi uwe,

speakingof low end, i think my blade is just a low end tanto that happens to be very thin and has a maru mune. i dont think my blade is a boy's sword because while it is thin, the mihaba is of normal width at 2.5cm.

eric

[Nobody]

Refer the sword on the site below. It is described as a miniature katana (雛刀: HinaGatana) which seems to be worn by a child of wealthy samurai.

 

http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d67118433

[Brian]

Thank you very much for that link. It is exactly what I was looking for. The dimensions and style match the set above, and make me more confident in my theory.

My friend was surprised that it was such a small set, but I find it more interesting for the reasons that a child's daisho is probably less common than a normal set of daisho koshirae?

Are these blades called Boy's Day swords, or is there another term for them?

 

Brian

[Nobody]

As for the link in my previous post, the seller called it Genpuku To (元服刀: sword for coming of age) from its purpose, and also called it Hinakoshirae (雛拵: miniature koshirae) from its physical features.

 

However, I do not know the true name or purpose.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Strange enough, I've seen the reverse. A miniature Tachi without

Koshirae. It's so hard to sell that my friend has it in his living room by at least 10 years, notwithstanding good polishing and shirasaya.

It's really well made with shinogi zukuri and koshizori.

The kissaki isn't ikubi but I bet it was a pain in the back to polish it... :D

Edit to add : when i say small I mean really small. I wonder if it isn't an

exceptional well made Bunraku blade. It has hamon, activities and is sharp.

[kusunokimasahige]

actually that last thing you say might actually be very true!

 

I know that some smith's sometimes did forge Bunraku blades.

 

KM