Novice Question about Temper Line

[itsoverthere]

Hello and Greetings,

 

I'm new to the forum but have lurked for some time to read the good advice that is regularly dished out here. Well I guess now it's time to get involved as I am hoping that someone with experience may be able to guide a novice on a matter that is confusing me. I very much admire this (I believe Sanbon-sugi) hamon that appears to be a characteristic attributed to Kanemoto. I actually thought that perhaps there was nioi-gire but the dealer (one who has been commended for his honesty and integrity on this message board) assures me there is not. Thus I wanted to ask advice - does it look like there is nioi-gire and if not, why not? Please forgive any ignorance, I am new to this, but I thought a break in the temper line (as seems to appear here) constituted a fatal flaw. Any suggestions that anyone might have would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

 

Adam

[Brian]

Adam,

I don't see a break in the hamon anywhere? Could you perhaps photoshop an arrow or something to point out the area you are concerned about?

Nioi-giri would be an area where the hamon stops abruptly and then continues further along. I don't see that here anywhere?

 

Brian

[John A Stuart]

I agree with Brian, in that your picture shows no nioigiri that I can see. Could you be seeing a type of hataraki? See here for examples; http://www.nihontocraft.com/nihonto_hamon_hataraki.html

John

[itsoverthere]

That's really all the advice I needed, thank you. As I have not had much opportunity to study such flaws up close I fear I may be over cautious, seeing things that aren't there I have much to learn!

[itsoverthere]

John,

 

Yeah I think so, I was a bit confused about which parts should be touching if that makes sense. I've been so worried about flaws.....

 

Thanks.

[itsoverthere]

Actually, I do have another question about this same piece, concerning Mei but I guess I'll start a new post for that.

[reinhard]

There seems to be a basic misunderstanding about the nature of nioi-gire here. What can be seen on your pic is the white, artificial "make-up" drawn by hadori-finish. Nioi, which is a crystalline structure in the boundary area between Ji and Ha, is seldom visible on amateur pics and if so, only over a very small area of the hamon. To make nioi (and eventually disrupted parts) visible over the entire length of a blade, it takes special measures. The best photographer of Nihon-To of all, Mr.Fujishiro Okisato, gives an example of nioi-gire in Meito Zukan, vol.11. It depicts a blade by Sue-Soshu FUSAMUNE.

In order to find nioi-gire, you have to check the blade under good light conditions from bottom to top on both sides.

 

reinhard

[Brian]

Reinhard is of course entirely correct.

Just to elaborate..In this case I wasn't looking at the hadori finish, but at the hamon itself. While nioi can't be seen there, I would expect that with a loss of clay while doing yakiire and a subsequent gap in the nioi-giri, would also come a gap in the hamon itself. By looking at the hamon itself under the hadori, there is no appearance of an incomplete temperline, and therefore I was assuming no nioi-giri.

Of course this isn't strictly correct, but for the purposes above where a fatal flaw was questioned, I can't see any gap in the hamon to suggest this. However Reinhard's summary of nioi-giri is 100% correct and the correct useage.

 

Brian

[reinhard]

As a footnote:

 

Those of you, who have the opportunity of visiting the exhibition about swordsmiths of the Tokaido in Sano museum, should examine closely the first sword of the Ise Sengo school by shodai MURAMASA. Nioi-gire in its hamon is quite obvious.

 

reinhard