Nanboku-cho Tachi

[Tengu1957]

Tachi and Tachi mounts 

NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon

Papered to 1st generation Omiya Morishige

O suriage 75.7 cm Hi , 9mm thick at mune .  Very healthy with lots of activity 

 

[John A Stuart]

Hello Gary, and...? Some views of the blade and its' activity would be nice. Have you just bought this or is it newly papered? Tell us more, please. John

[Shugyosha]

Hi Gary,

 

What John said. Also, I love that you keep your hand cannon on the kitchen counter.

[NewB]

This one looks great

 

John 

[Tengu1957]

Sorry for the poor photos. I just got it. It's really a beefy blade for it's age. It was recently polished and papered. 

[Tom Darling]

A picture of the tang would be nice to see. Thank you.

[Tengu1957]

Here you are. 

[Tengu1957]

[Tom Darling]

Hi Gary,  you have a very interesting sword, made in the nanbokucho period, with tachi mounts. The attribution to Omiya Morishige,  would be a yamashiro blade, I believe so.

Did you acquire it from a dealer or out of the woodwork.   I like this sword a lot, it has great potential.  Please take a pic. of the menuki both sides.  Thank you.

[Gakusee]

11 minutes ago, Tom Darling said:

Hi Gary,  you have a very interesting sword, made in the nanbokucho period, with tachi mounts. The attribution to Omiya Morishige,  would be a yamashiro blade, I believe so.

Did you acquire it from a dealer or out of the woodwork.   I like this sword a lot, it has great potential.  Please take a pic. of the menuki both sides.  Thank you.

 

Tom, Omiya is Bizen den. Yes, some predecessor might have relocated there from Yamashiro but Omiya is in Bizen/Osafune. In fact, there are some very good Omiya swords, with very expressive hamon, that one could confuse for some of the more famous Soden or Osafune guys. 

The name Morishige persisted for several generations, from late Kamakura to Muromachi. Started off as a niji mei Morishige and moved on to Bishu Osafune Morishige mei across the generations.

 

And on the blade - I concur: it looks like an excellent and impressive blade!

[Tengu1957]

It's the same on either side. Not exactly sure what this one is. They are oversized
  

[Jacques]

I don't think we can talk about Nanbokucho but rather the beginning of Muromachi; OEI to be precise. 

[Tengu1957]

It is papered mid to late Nanboku-cho NBTHK 

[paulb]

Gentlemen,

The reality is you are debating a 30 year time window i.e. 1360 to 1392 from 700 years ago. Allowing for fluctuation in style and changes in form overtime are you not being a little optimistic trying to be so precise?

 

[Tengu1957]

I'm not debating just stating what it's papered to. You are free to disagree with the paper. It's papered to a specific smith and not a school so convention would dictate it would match his recognized working period. I am not knowledgeable enough to argue one way or the other. 

[Tengu1957]

Two Tachi both NBTHK papered to Morishige mid to late Nanboku-cho

One is longer and thicker. 

[Tom Darling]

It is amazing that you'd  have  two tachi same kaji.  You must have acquired them together. One last request, take pic of the boshi/kassaki and hada,  that's it. Thank you.

[Tengu1957]

They were acquired a year apart 

[Tengu1957]

[Jwrussell]

Really beautiful blades. Interesting to see such variation in the Harmon between two blades by the same smith. 

[NewB]

Very nice

 

One has a hamon that is definitive of the era.

 

 

Great

 

John

[Hoshi]

The upper piece has a typical soden-bizen hamon. Fine swords. 

[Jacques]

13 hours ago, Tengu1957 said:

I'm not debating just stating what it's papered to. 

 

 

 The sugata is not the one ordinary seen in Nanbokucho jidai which was a short but specific era . 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shugyosha]

Another here attributed to late Nanbokucho period that lacks the classic sugata: 

 

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-kashu-kagemitsu/
 

The link is wrongly titled but it takes you to an Omiya Morishige blade. The kasane is very thin so I wonder if it is much narrower than originally and may have looked closer to how one would imagine for the period? 

[Jacques]

Worth reading which raises some questions.

[Jwrussell]

I have no interest in stirring any pots or trying to cause friction. Please understand this question is simply a question so I can better understand. @Tengu1957 you mention this is specifically papered to mid-late Nanbokucho Omiya Morishige. May I ask how the paper expresses this? Is it simply based on the signature on the blade being typical of that period Morishige, or does it actually specify a time period?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Tengu1957]

I have another sword coming from Japan that has the Last Morishige paper. I will post at that time. Mr. Tanobe was injured recently and it was either wait for the Sayagaki and paper or send the sword. I asked for the sword to be sent. I am being told it states to Morishige and mid to late Nanboku-cho. Again , i will list the paper. The Sayagaki means much more to me than the paper. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

You have 2 very nice blades. And will be awesome if it will have sayagaki, and will be nice to see the paper too.

 

Now on for the discussion about Ōmiya school and Morishige. This is just a personal view and might not be correct but I have tried to follow multiple sources.

 

The Sukemori (助盛) tachi that was featured in Nihontō Kōza that Jacques posted earlier was attributed to Bizen Ōmiya in Jūyō 11 but has been further researched and reattributed as Ko-Bizen Sukemori from Early Kamakura period at Tokubetsu Jūyō 14.

 

For Moritsugu (盛継) I have so far found 3 items. There are Jūyō Bijutsuhin tachi and naoshi that are both signed, and I believe he is generally thought as late Kamakura smith. There is also signed naginata in Jūyō 21, he is identified as Ko-Ōmiya Moritsugu in the entry.

 

Morisuke (盛助) is most likely also a late Kamakura to early Nanbokuchō smith. I do have only tachi and 1 orikaeshi-mei for him. I know there is second Jūyō orikaeshi-mei in session 43 but I don't yet have the book, the item comes with specification Ōmiya & late Kamakura. The tachi I have only found in very old Tōken Bijutsu magazine, and it states Late Kamakura to Nanbokuchō in the text. Similar as it does for the orikaeshi-mei in Jūyō 21.

 

Then for the Morikage (盛景) there are tons of items to research. So far I have found range from 1360 to 1402 in dated items.

 

As we come to Morishige (盛重) I do believe it would be Late Nanbokuchō to Ōei for him. I do know there are most likely dated pieces by 1st gen from Ōan to Kakyō (1368 - 1389) as that information is listed in many sources, yet so far I haven't personally seen such a date on a Morishige item. So far the range for dated pieces I've found and have references for are from 1414 to 1433. For mumei pieces that NBTHK attribute to Morishige I have seen Ōmiya Morishige (大宮盛重) and Osafune Morishige (長船盛重). The tachi currently at Aoi Art that John posted earlier has been so far the only NBTHK verified item for him I have seen that has specification for late Nanbokuchō in brackets (granted I do not have too many signed non dated items for him as reference).

 

Lastly for Morokage (師景) I have found so far date range of 1415 to 1442 for dated items.

 

There are some very less known Ōmiya smiths by whom I might have so far found only a single sword or two so I don't include them here. And of course my own research is always evolving if I do uncover items previously unknown to me but those above are based on the items I currently have information on.

[Jwrussell]

2 hours ago, Tengu1957 said:

I have another sword coming from Japan that has the Last Morishige paper. I will post at that time. Mr. Tanobe was injured recently and it was either wait for the Sayagaki and paper or send the sword. I asked for the sword to be sent. I am being told it states to Morishige and mid to late Nanboku-cho. Again , i will list the paper. The Sayagaki means much more to me than the paper. 

 

Aha, gotcha. Yes, I'm sure the Sayagaki would be much more detailed. 

[Jacques]

4 hours ago, Tengu1957 said:

The Sayagaki means much more to me than the paper. 

 

Sayagaki is only the opinion of one person who can be wrong even if he is an expert. Origami is a matter of a panel of experts, so the risk of error is limited. A sayagaki has in fact no real value (except the price paid).