FS: Owari Nobutaka Tanto, Third Gen.

[Wayben]

Up for sale is a tanto by the third generation Owari Nobutaka, signed Zen Hakushu Nobutaka Nyudo.  He was active in the Enpo period, 1673-1681.  The blade has an old, high quality polish that shows off the activity in the ji nicely.  Nagasa 27.6cm, kasane 5mm, motohaba 2.8cm.  Very nice gold foil habaki.  The Koshirae is late Edo period and all carved ebony.  The various carvings depict early Chinese warriors and politicians including GuanYu and ZhangFei.  The carvings are very well done.  The kogai and kozuka are carved as part of the saya and not removable.  There is a small makers mark near the jiri.  There are no cracks or chips in the koshirae.  The blade has a 1960 NBTHK Koshu Tokubetsu paper, as well as recent NTHK papers and worksheet.  The koshirae also has NTHK papers and worksheet.  Both the blade and koshirae received scores of 76 from NTHK.  Does not include a shirasaya.  Overall a very nice package.

 

$5750 to your door in the US, includes PP fees and shipping.  International shipping will be considerably more and we'll have to work out the details depending on destination.  If you are interested send me a PM.

 

Thanks,

Wayne

 

 

 

[Mushin]

Very lovely tanto. But I think the NTHK made a mistake with the attribution. Only the nidai, the second generation, used the signature Zen Hakushu Nobutaka Nyudo. The NTHK made a similar mistake with a blade that I once owned with the nyudo signature. The first and third generation to my knowledge never added the Nyudo honorific or the Zen Hakushu prefix. Nice piece and interesting koshirae! Good luck

[Wayben]

Hi Bobby,

You may be right.  When I bought it, it was sold as second generation, with that explanation.  I'm certainly no expert so went with the NTHK version.  Second generation puts it at Kanei period, 1624-1644.  Thanks for the input.

Wayne

[Mushin]

From Markus Sesko:

NOBUTAKA (信高), 1st gen., Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615), Owari –

“Nōshū Seki San ́ami Kanekuni-matsuyō Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka Bishū Nagoya ni oite rokujūsai saku” (濃州関三阿弥兼国末葉伯耆守藤原信高於尾州 名護屋作六十歳) “made by Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka at the age of 60 in Nagoya in Owari province, successor of Mino San ́ami Kanekuni”),

“Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka” (伯耆守藤原信高),

“Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Ason Nobutaka” (伯耆守藤原朝臣信高)

 

Real name Kawamura Saemon (河村左衛門), he was born in the sixth year of Eiroku (永禄, 1563) in Kōzuchi (上有知) in Mino province and was by his own account a successor of San ́ami Kanekuni (兼国), he moved to Kiyosu (清洲) in Owari province around Tenshō 16 or 17 (天正, 1588/89) and received his honorary title Hōki no Kami, on the eleventh day of the fifth month of Tenshō 20 (1592) by the agency of the kanpaku regent Toyotomi Hidetsugu, but there is also the theory that he had already received this title back in Tenshō nine (1580) because a blade with that date supposedly exists which bears that title in the signature, anyway, it is assumed that he moved to Nagoya when the castle of the same name was finished in Keichō 15 (1610), in the ninth year of Kan ́ei (寛永, 1633) he retired and entered priesthood under the nyūdō-gō Keiyū (慶遊), leaving the management of the school to his son, the 2nd generation Nobutataka, he died three years later in Kan ́ei 13 (1636) at the age of 76, his blades have mostly a wide shinogi-ji, a high shinogi and an elongated kissaki, i.e. basically a Keichō-shintō-sugata, the jigane is a dense and beautifully forged itame mixed with masame and ji-nie but some works also show a standing-out hada and others in turn a shirake-utsuri, the hamon is a notare-midare or gunome-midare, rarely also a chōji or suguha, whereas he hardened in ko-nie-deki and with a wide nioiguchi, there are also some blades with ara-nie and plenty of sunagashi known, together with Sagami no Kami Masatsune (相模守政常) and Hida no Kami Ujifusa (飛騨守氏房) he was one of the so-called “Owari-sansaku” (尾張三作), the “Three Owari Masters,” jō-saku

 

NOBUTAKA (信高), 2nd gen., Kan ́ei (寛永, 1624-1644), Owari –
“Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka” (伯耆守藤原信高)
“Zen Hakushū Sangetsu Nobutaka koji” (前伯州山月信高居士
“Nobutaka, Buddhist lay name Sangetsu, formerly Hōki”)
“Hōki ni Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka Kan ́yū Nyūdō” (伯耆守藤原信高閑遊入道)
“Zen Hakushū Nobutaka Nyūdō” (前伯州信高入道)

His real name Kawamura Hōki (河村伯耆), son of the 1st gen. Nobutaka, he was born in the eighth year of Keichō (慶長, 1603) and suc-
ceeded as head of the family in the tenth year of Kan ́ei (1633) when he also received the honorary title Hōki no Kami, he retired in Kanbuntwo (寛文, 1662) under the nyūdō-gō Sangetsu-Kan ́yū (山月閑遊), he died in the ninth month of Genroku two (元禄, 1689) at the age of 87,
his chū-suguha, notare, or gunome is similar to that of the 1st gen. and his hamon are mostly nie-laden and show a wide nioiguchi, he also hardened a
flamboyant gunome-chōji-midare in ko-nie-deki with a conspicuous amount of chōji, we know date signatures from the 20th year of Kan ́ei (1643) tothe second year of Jōkyō (貞享, 1685), the roundish kurijiri of the Nobutaka lineage becomes ha-agari kurijiri from the 2nd gen. onwards, jō-saku.

 

NOBUTAKA (信高), 3rd gen., Kanbun (寛文, 1661-1673), Owari –

“Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka” (伯耆守藤原信高),

“San ́ami-raiha Hōki no Kami Nobutaka saku” (三阿弥来派伯耆守信高作, “made by Hōki no Kami Nobutaka from the San ́ami school”).

 

Real name Kawamura Sannojō (河村三之丞). He signed in early years with Nobuteru (信照), he received the honorary title Hōki no Kami in the fifth year of Kanbun (1665) and died in the eighth month of Hōei four (宝永, 1707) at the age of 76, chūjō-saku.

 

 

 

[Wayben]

Still available.  Price drop to $5150.

 

Wayne

[lonely panet]

what a pleasant little package Wayne

[Wayben]

Price drop $4750.