Sword maker mei

[kissakai]

Hi

I bought a scroll from the MNB last week and I'm asking for help with its translation

 

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

BUZEN KUNIYUKI, I think.

[Nobody]

當麻國行 - Taima Kuniyuki

長二尺三寸六分 - Length 2-shaku 3-zun 6-bu

網屋藏 - Amiya’s possession

[kissakai]

Thanks for the translation

I assume Amya was the owner but not being a sword collector can anyone supply any more information?

 

[Nobody]

Amiya seems to be a historic sword shop founded in Edo period.

 

Ref. 網屋 - 名刀幻想辞典 (meitou.info)

[kissakai]

Interesting - Would Amiya be the equivalent of say Liberty's as a sign of quality

So just to find out about the maker

Would any more images help?

 

[Nobody]

Taima Kuniyuki is famous. His sword is national treasure class.

[Brian]

https://japaneseswordlegends.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/page/4/

(New page...I haven't seen it before)

Mentions the Amiya family oshigata collection.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Grev can you post a picture that shows the tang? As the length is given I can check it in comparison to similar examples I have.

[kissakai]

This is turning out better than I'd hope for and some nice articles

I felt the oshigata scroll is 185- 1900 due to similar images with 'foxing' but it all depends the conditions it was kept in

 

New images as requested

 

 

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thanks for the additional pictures Grev, very interesting piece. I tried to compare to the known Taima Kuniyuki around this length but I did not have this one. I also did a comparison to Rai Kuniyuki tachi around this length that I know of but there was not a fit in there either.

[Gakusee]

I wonder if this is an oshigata of the Taima Kuniyuki sword which was formerly owned by Shigemasa Fukushima and passed Juyo in the 17th Juyo shinsa session. See the attached image below. There are some minor differences (eg the bottom ana has been slightly enlarged, and also I wonder about the spacing between the first and second ana). 

 

Taima swords are viewed very highly, and are known for their fine jigane and elegant ko-nie. In fact, I dare say they are the most highly rated Yamato swords in general (happy for a friendly debate to ensue, following this bold statement, as I yearn those:).

Having a signed one is tantamount to owning a treasure. Zaimei Kuniyuki are, in the words of the NBTHK, ‘extremely rare’. He is rated at 1500 points in the ToKo Taikan. 

 

In fact, I wonder what happened to that sword. Having passed Juyo in 1968, I do not think it has re-surfaced recently, and I cannot find it in the Tokubetsu Juyo volumes, but believe it should qualify for that status given the length, mei and the reputation of the smith. The actual blade must be a beauty. 

 

[paulb]

Sorry Michael but I for one must dissappoint your desire for debate. I agree with the widely held view that Taima was the finest of the five Yamato schools.  The jigane,  the ji-nie and general high quality hada means the best taima is often mistaken for the work of the famous soshu Smith Yukjmitsu

[Jussi Ekholm]

I think it might be possible Michael, the ana are bit different and I skipped it but sometimes the oshigata are not 100% similar. This is one of few with plausible length.

 

Of course it can potentially be a "hidden" Kuniyuki too. As signed tachi by him are extremely rare, I haven't documented too many of them only 5 + 1 kodachi. There are some amazing swords in Japan (shrines, museums, private etc.) without any designations.

[Rivkin]

I prefer Hosho. Taima tends to loose better blades to Yukimitsu attribution, and what is left ranges in quality significantly. There are things that did not go Tegai only because they are itame based and nie forms clouds-like formation rather than nijuba per se, but the quality is still somewhat rough. I am all for it as a school being a notch above Tegai or Shikkake, but at the same time some of this fame comes from people owning Taima because they can't afford Yukimitsu and arguing instead "my sword is just as good".

Senjuin has some significant early examples and I would not discard those.

[Gakusee]

Love it - Kirill has bitten. 
Senjuin looks significantly more rustic and cruder. Tegai is not bad indeed but could be more flowing, right? As to Taema, hada seems finer. 
In fact, there are some Yukimitsu which are probably Taema - if you look at the construction, etc. Even when certified as Juyo. 

Is the comment about nie and nijuba about Yamato swords or in general? As there are plenty of Sanjo/Gojo/top KoBizen that have nie based nijuba. 

[paulb]

One of the first swords I got really excited about was a ko-Senjuin blade sold as part of the A.Z. Freeman collection. Interestingly when Professor Freeman bought it it had a gimei to Rai Kunitoshi but was told if the mei was removed it would obtain Juyo attribution. It did, to ko-Senjuin. I am not sure what this tells us about the quality of the sword or attribution but the blade itself was beautiful.

Having said that I have subsequently seen several Taema works where the jigane was just outstanding and very beautiful. However I think a point Kirill makes should be expanded a little. In all of the Yamato traditions I have seen, with the possible exception of Hosho where I haven't seen enough to say, the quality varies considerably. Tegai blades by Shodai Kanenaga are outstanding. Later Tegai work mediocre. Some early Shikkake work from the first two generations signing Norinaga were also very high quality but later Shikkake work uninspiring.

I find Taema the most consistent of the schools (but this is based on a relatively small sample base) and of the highest quality. I don't think their reputation is based on them being talked up or oversold I think they were just very good.

 

 

 

 

[Rivkin]

In general I would and do agree, however after seeing some stunning Taima blades I was buying for a while whatever came up with under Juyo papers. Third blade which turned out to be junk upon arrival did it for me. Just very average Yamato junk with itame instead of masame. I would still take Taima over Tegai or Shikkake, but there are unfortunately average examples out there.

Which turns me to thinking - what is Taima in the first place? Realistically, signed examples are nowhere to be found, so its an attribution based on features, and tends to be applied to blades with Yamato-like hamon and stronger hada in itame with some mokume and nagare rather than clear masame features. The problem is, if hamon is really strong it borders a lot of Soshu examples. Yukimitsu, with even higher grade - Sadamune, possibly Hasebe, Echizen period of Tametsugu... I fear that while Taima is still very strong school, the "truly great Taima" might never get to be Taima so there is a cap on quality.

Hosho seldom looses its members to anyone. I've seen some weaker blades, even Juyo and such, but most Hosho for me are as strong as it gets. The very best ones can do really dense itame as good as Awataguchi, they have thin hamon in full nie which is very bright, flowing masame with clusters of ji nie which are as large as what one sees in Norishige's ji... I think its an exceptional school, and also it never really meets the style of the rest - Taima, Tegai, Shikkake. I don't think these smiths interacted much with the main Yamato families.

[Gakusee]

Agree with some of the above statements: variations do occur across schools and even smiths, as we well know. And it could be that among the remaining hundreds / thousands of Taima blades, some of the blades were substandard to start with or were ‘optimistically’ appraised by the NBTHK. 

 

I like Taima because of the finer workmanship on average and, while I find Hosho distinctly quaint,  I mostly cannot come to terms with the ‘acceptable’ longitudinal hadaware. In fact, to me, such ware should not be acceptable and are detracting from the beauty of a blade. While good examples of Yamato work do exist in the other schools (Shikake etc - eg in the 2019/20 NBTHK Juyo exhibition, ie the last one before the impending one, there was a beautiful Shikake), the top blades there seem to fewer. Most of what Yamato I have seen outside of Taima and Hosho has been mundane. Some Hosho examples are quite nice (cf, https://yuhindo.com/hosho-sadakiyo/). 

 

I believe the two examples below (Kokuho and TJ) illustrate why Taima got its fame. In some of these blades’ surface areas, there is some minimal  jigane tiredness, but the majority of these two blades show the compact itame/mokume  and gentle nie that characterize top blades across schools/traditions. That level of skill is what the unnamed and mumei Taima blades must evoke to some degree for the attribution to be justified. 

In fact, I believe that the fact that some top Taima blades possibly get attributed to Yukimitsu or other Soshu, is a strong compliment to their workmanship. I am not sure I would get as far as saying some Taima would go to Sadamune or Norishige (as these two smiths produce to a degree of exuberance and temperament that is beyond Taima, I believe).