Kiritsuke Mei Aoi art

[Emma]

Hello Everybody

 There is a strange sword on auction on Aoi Art  with a kiritsuke mei (AS20201) .

The kiritsuke explanation make nonsense to me . Does anyone have a good translation of it ?

Thank you !

Emma

[paulb]

 

sorry Emma I misread your mail

[Gakusee]

Horrendous translation 

[Bugyotsuji]

Does anyone have a link?

[Geraint]

Dear Piers.

 

I think this is the one.  https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-shiga-seki-kanenobu-with-kiritsuke-mei/    The translation certainly leaves a lot to be desired.      Like coherence.

 

Looking forward to what you can make of it.

 

All the best.

[Shugyosha]

Here are the kanji from the paper if it makes anyone's life a little easier in terms of working out the meaning. I can't make any sense of it:

庚卯二月八日童子来鍛冶[ ]多一天君賜名找大刀可得一七日以後来卜日玄某

不審成七十余度鍛此釼作童子又来此釼貳百年迄国土治此羽

向敵不打共不[ ]三年找八地蔵之童子也卜玄給為末世記之置者也

[Bugyotsuji]

These in orange are a) most of the original *Chinese style inscription, and then below that is b) Aoi Art's Japanese "説明" setsumei explanation as to the meaning, for Japanese customers. *The full stops/periods will be Aoi Art's decision on punctuation. c) is their English version.

 

For accuracy I take no responsibility, but here is my own easier English version. Please forgive any artistic license.

'On the 8th February of the year Kanoe-U, a child appeared and apprenticed with many swordsmiths. He was given the name Itten Kun, (One Heaven). This my Tachi took 17 days before I could go and receive it; allegedly the Ken blade was created by folding and tempering more than 70 times. The child appeared again and declared that this blade would keep the country free of disasters for 200 years, that it would pacify the land, and that no enemy opposing this blade would be able to strike or escape even if they tried for three years. "I am the child of the Jizo" he said, and then disappeared.

This story is hereby recorded for posterity.'

 

切付銘: 庚卯二月八日童子来。鍛冶随多一天君賜名。
我大刀可得一七日以後降来ト。日去某不審成。七十余
度鍛此剣作童子又来此剣貳百年迄国土治此羽
向敵不打共不官三年我ハ地蔵之童子也ト玄給為
末世記之置物也

説明:庚卯二月八日童子来たり鍛冶多きを従えて一天君の名を賜る　我が太刀を得べく十七日以後来と
日ひて某不審成とも七十余度鍛え此の剣作　　童子又来り此の剣二百年官災いを避けて国土治まる
此れに刃向かう敵は3年逃れられず（３年は生きてはいられない）　我は地蔵の　童子なりと去り給いて末世の為に之を記し置く事なり

Kiritsuke Mei(Explanation): 8th February Kanoe-U year,a child came and received the made of Ichigenkun
with a lot of swordsmiths. We wanted and waited for 17 days for a sword. The sword was forged over 70 times.
This sword 200 years avoiding this country disaster and the enemy who faces
this is not able to escape for 3 years(enemy can not live for 3 years).
A child said he was a child of Jizo(Kshitigarbha). And he left.
I wrote this for posterity.

[Gakusee]

Thank you, Piers! A very interesting legend

[Emma]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Nice legend for this sword!

[Ken-Hawaii]

On 9/22/2020 at 9:17 PM, Geraint said:

I think this is the one.  https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-shiga-seki-kanenobu-with-kiritsuke-mei/ 

That sugata looks Kanbun, not Muromachi.

[Shugyosha]

To be honest Ken, the whole thing is a bit weird. No signature from the smith, yet this odd story recounted at length. It may be my ignorance or poor research, but the combination of Kanoe - U doesn't appear to exist in the Chinese 60 year calendar: http://www.jssus.org/nkp/kanshi.html

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

John, you could well be right. Strange.
(Out of laziness I did not double-check Aoi’s date reading. Mea culpa.)

[Shugyosha]

Being a little more generous, it might have been the case that the story was recounted verbally to the person who carved the inscription but who misheard the year: kanoe inu would be 1491, kinoto u would be 1496 or kanoe saru would give 1501 and might be close enough to this smith's known period of work (around 1492) to be plausible.

[Bugyotsuji]

Aoi gives a date of 1492 (When a man who must not be named sailed the ocean blue) for this blade, and they say that the inscription is a dream that Kanenobu had. This could account for the non-existent date?

[Shugyosha]

Honestly, I've no idea - it's a lot of effort to go to for a fake inscription when something far simpler would have done the job. I think the bottom line is that the NBTHK have authenticated it and that's what will matter at the end of the day. It's a very healthy sword for its age and the new owner will have an interesting story to go with it.

[Bugyotsuji]

In Aoi’s long explanation they say that Kanenobu’s typical file marks can be seen under the Nakago inscription.