Paper Translation

[Prewar70]

Thank you.

[Shugyosha]

Hi James,

 

Reading from right to left:

 

1st column - Paper number: 309

2nd - Meibun - suriage mumei

3rd - Forging pattern - mokume

4th - Hamon - Gonome

5th - Boshi - notare komi

6th - Nakago - 2 mekugi ana - Yasurimei - I'm struggling with this bit - sorry.

7th - Comments - Owari Seki, around Kanbun.

 

Best,

John

[Prewar70]

Hey John thanks. Unless I'm really dense, is their a smith attribution or a school or is Owari Seki the school?

[Shugyosha]

Hi James,

 

The school is Owari Seki and the Kanbun period started in 1661. So it puts it in the province of Owari around the middle of the 17th century.

 

It's not attributed to a particular smith, though that there are six seals on the paper suggests that there weren't too many doubts amongst the shinsa panel about the attribution if that helps.

 

There's some info on smiths working in Owari on Shoshin's website:

 

http://www.sho-shin.com/shinto-owari.html

 

Best,

John

[Prewar70]

Great info John, I appreciate the help. I will be doing some reading this evening. This was the other part of the paper I forgot to include.

[SteveM]

Yasurimei = sujichigai 筋違い

[Bugyotsuji]

Gonome = Gunome.

 

刀　伝　尾張関豊後の守正全　Katana, Attribution, Owari Seki Bungo no Kami Masayasu

 

(Edited, see below)

[Prewar70]

Piers that is great so there is a specific smith attribution. Now, I can't find anything out there on no Kami Masakane. I checked Hawleys and Fujishiro. I didn't see any references on the net searching no Kami Masakane.

[Bugyotsuji]

"Bungo-no-Kami" is just a fancy title, a grand-sounding fashion that swordsmiths used prolifically in the mid-Edo Period.

Focus on 正全 and only use the title if you need to narrow the field, although the same smith would have produced swords even before starting to use one or more titles during his/her working life.

 

Edit, my mistake; the last character was 全 and not 金. I am not sure how he liked to have his name read, but a quick check should tell you.

 

PS Just found it, 'Masayasu' 正全

[Prewar70]

Ahhh that helps a lot. Thank you!

[Shugyosha]

Yasurimei = sujichigai 筋違い

 

Duh - should have got this. "Sujikai".