Swords 2 of 3: Bizen Osafune style Katana

[cju777]

As promised the second addition, this one for the Bizen crowd.

 

This sword is o-suriage mumei with gonome choji-ba hamon, ko-nie, and utsuri. The better photos are again courtesy of @Ray Singer (that may be a trend with these) with some of my own thrown in... I know I need a darker background. Happy to provide any photos of specific areas if my skills allow.

    nagasa 69.9cm

    moto-haba 3.2cm

    kasane 6mm

 

There is varying opinion on attribution: The NTHK attributed the blade to Hidekage, Eikyō era; there is a remnant of an old kinpunmei (see photo) that might be mitsu 光; and a previous owner was told it could be Nanbokucho Omiya. Attributions all in the same general style but vary from Nanbokucho to early Muromachi. In hand it has a lot of heft to it. I do plan to send to NBTHK shinsa once global shipping is more reliable and will update the thread then. The blade has a lot of heft and a lot of activity to see in hand that I am not good at describing quite yet. This was a forum purchase so some of you may have seen glimpses of it before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The black line in the boshi is a relfection, not a ware)

 

 

 

 

[Michaelr]

WOW WOW That is a beautiful blade. Thank you for sharing   

   MikeR

[vajo]

Great sword. Looks very nice.

[paulb]

well done Chris a good looking blade (and that from someone who claims not to like Bizen work)

You are putting together an interesting and diverse group of blades. congratulations

 

[Brian]

It is so nice to see swords in decent polish

[JH Lee]

That might be among the most beautiful nihonto I have ever seen.  Ever.

[cju777]

I promised an update post-shinsa, although it's taken me awhile to get there... As with my other post, kudos to Robert @Keichodo for providing a great shinsa, sayagaki, and you name it services in Japan! A pleasure to work with.

 

This blade received a Hozon paper to Osafune Morishige, but did not get TH, so probably a later Oei, Eikyo Morishige. Morishige (NBTHK) and Hidekage (NTHK) both worked in Eikyo period, so similar types of call and in the ballpark. Since I had the other piece out to Tanobe Sensei I asked if he could take a look at this one as well. Tanobe senei took a look and offered to make reference to Morikage of late Nambokucho. So all in all while I was hoping on a full Nambokucho attribution, the difference of a couple years/decades in the grand scheme, it's close but there is some question. I like this piece a lot and generally happy with the calls made.

 

Will update once I get the full sayagaki. Cheers!

[Ray Singer]

Again, my congratulations. One additional note I wanted to add is that Morikage is within the Omiya group and new attribution provided by Tanobe-sensei aligns with what was suggested earlier for this sword: Nanbokucho Omiya. 
 

 

[Rivkin]

I often feel Omiya is undervalued. Some of it is very good Soden-Bizen in nie, other works are quality follow ups to Kanemitsu's school.

[Nihonto student]

Dear Chris,
I came across your post very interesting for a comparison with my blade of which I have already requested opinions in these 2 posts 

 

and which had the same attribution (Late generation Morishige) but JTK.
I am happy to see that Mr. Kirill has already participated in this post and having seen his interventions in mine, I hope he can intervene here too with his expertise regarding the obvious but complex question ... "are the same hands that forged these two blades?”.
In my humble (Very humble) opinion sugata looks quite different, Chris' blade seems to have a shallower sori (It would be helpful to have all the measurements) less tapered and with more motohaba but equal kasane.
The nakago has a different shape, more squared in Chris's blade (As in all Omiya-judged swords I've seen).
Surely both have a common style in the hamon, I would define mine as more "crowded", boshi also look for me similar but mine look more sugu. Regarding the Hada it is still difficult for me to distinguish from the photos but I would still say similar.
I therefore leave the floor to the experts who, as always, I thank in advance for their contribution, hoping that this comparison can be stimulating.