"Bundle Swords"

[Leatherdog]

Hi everyone,

 

Most of what people discuss are the better blades, which is understandable. However, I'm curious about the "mass production" koto blades that are so often mentioned, but seldom discussed in detail. I've not been able to find any good info on just exactly what these blades look like...if I've missed it and its already posted somewhere, please redirect me...

 

It seems with many of us American collectors, (at the "amateur" level, anyway) have been brought up in the school that "old is good" when this is of course not necessarily the case. I am wondering what characteristics are common to the muromachi "throw-away" blades; simple hamon? Lots of forging flaws? Poorly shaped nakago?

 

If anyone has photos of one of these, I'd love to see them. I'm at the point now where I feel like I can distinguish a decent sword from a poor one, but my curiosity got going when I recently acquired a "Bishu Osafune Sukesada" wakizashi that seems very healthy and has a great hamon...I know that the Bishu Osafune - - - mei, though generally looked down on, is found on some good swords. Frankly, on this particular wak, the nakago isn't really long enough for an extended inscription. I evaluated the sword and determined that it's at least "decent" but realized I didn't know much about the "bundle swords" this mei is so often associated with, and got to wondering...

 

Looking forward to everyone's input, as always!

 

Tyler

[Jean]

Hi Tyler,

 

You won't be able to distinguish a Bundle sword from another one without holding it in hand.

 

Mei is not enoughn though it can be an indication.

 

Bundle swords follow the same trend/fashion as good ones, same shape (purpose was the same), more or less same hamon (both were done by the same smith). Main difference are the following : less folding (layer) and above all less tamahagane which leads after a few polish to see core steel. As a general rule, you won't find original Hi or horimono because these were very time consumming to achieve and did not bring any added value to their primary function : efficiency on battlefields. Primirarly forged for foot troops under uchigatana form.

[Leatherdog]

Thanks Jean.

 

I'm still a bit confused, however...

By the description you give, if one were to find such a sword that had somehow escaped the numerous polishes, how do you then differentiate it from a "good" sword? Hamon is the same, no core steel showing, etc... I wouldn't think a coarse hada showing a lack of folding would be enough, would it?

[Jean]

I would expect less refined hada, less hataraki more dull. But for this ou must be ablle to compare with good swords of same area, it means having seen/held some swords ...

[Brian]

As Jean said.

Bundle swords aren't solely categorised by a certain era or group of makers. They are termed as such because they were made fast and for mass production. Therefore the quality and the workmanship is lacking. You should see less care in forging and less attention to detail. Sugata might not be as graceful or symmetirical, and hataraki are lacking.

You need to be able to look at it with a background of seeing good works, and say to yourself "this wasn't made particularly well"

There are some exellent swords made during these times, but many are just not well made, and this can be seen if you can recognise good hamon, hada and other characteristics.

Of course, this depends to a large extent on a good state of polish where all of these can be identified, and it is the lower priced "eBay" type swords that are out of polish where you can't tell, and where these are often unloaded on the public.

I am also led to believe that a lot of these swords are of general uchigatana and short katana length and style. There are still some good deals to be found, but the main thing is to be able to identify good work from mediocre mass produced blades.

 

Brian