KOZUKA FROM EARLY_KOTO PERIOD ?

[roger dundas]

Is this the place to ask the question- Just how different, if at all, were the earliest kozuka and blades from those we see today ?

I don't know that I have seen any early examples posted.

Hoping those with any examples are o.k with the question and might oblige with some pictures ?

 

Roger j

[roger dundas]

Was the question not worth considering ?

I was just wondering about how much kozuka and ko-gatana had changed and evolved from earlier times .

I have never researched this particular topic and thought someone might like to tell what they know ? The knowledge of Board members is usually broad and enlightening- especially in these (for some 'fraught') times.

Thank you.

Roger j

[Jean]

Roger, you are going to be very disappointed. Kozuka/kogatana appeared at the very end of Nambokucho and became more common in Muromachi with the rise of daisho. You won’t find them easily. There is a Japanese book on kogatana which should fill you with happiness😀

[Curran]

+1  What Jean said.

    I was just reading the JSSUS publication on ko-kinko yesterday, looking at very early kogai, and thinking on muromachi ko-kinko kozuka.

 

I haven't purchased much this year, but I did pick up an late muromachi ko-kinko kozuka. It is the second one I have owned, and the geometry on both of them is a bit different. Longer, thinner, slightly higher raised.

Thanks to Darcy, I got to study a full mitokoromono set years ago and first noted some of the slight differences in geometry.

 

[roger dundas]

Thank you Jean and Curran for that . A not so old ancestry and little change.

I asked because I have seen tsuba with broader than usual apertures/ana  and wondered if it indicated a larger ko-gatana or kodzuka but apparently not.

So again, thanks.

 

Roger j

[Bob M.]

Hi,

Understand this to be Ko-Goto from Muromachi period - oldest in my collection - 9.6 x 1.33 cm

[Shugyosha]

Hi Roger,

A ko Goto (I believe) kogai naoshi kozuka. It's essentially part of a kogai that has been re-purposed as a kozuka with the original inro motif and surrounding shakudo nanako set in smooth shakudo frame:

 

[Curran]

@John J.      Very nice example.

 

@Roger D.     Late muromachi and momoyama was also the period of O-kozuka.  Fred Weissberg of Nihonto.com has an excellent high end collection of them.

I rarely see them come to market, so they must have been uncommon.

Conclude from this that sizes varied a lot more during earlier period?

[roger dundas]

Once again, thank you for the information and great examples pictured.

 

Roger j.