A question for Nobody in particular...

[Toryu2020]

The owner can read the Omote - Echizen O wo Motte

however the Ura has us all stumped - I suppose Nobody will ever be able to read this...

-t

[Toryu2020]

another shot

 

[SteveM]

於越前囗　(maybe a repitition of 前?)

囗無布施経(經)

 

 

I don't see wo motte in the first line. The final character looks kind of like 前, but it is written differently from the first one, which might be due to calligraphic rules (a repeated character should be written differently) . 

 

The other side says something Fusenaikyō, which is both a type of tameshigiri cut, and the name of a sword by Sanenaga (made famous by a duel wherein that kind of cut was made against an opponent). Also the name of a kyōgen play.  

[Toryu2020]

持越前翁 I am pretty confident about these four, thanks very much for the insight into the others that first kanji being struck by the mekugi-ana makes it difficult but this is brlliant!

-t

[Toryu2020]

From the phrase - 布施ない経に袈裟落 - Fuse Naikyo ni Kesa wo Ochiru

When the alms are not delivered the (Priests) sash will easily fall...

Starting to make sense...

-t

[Bruce Pennington]

17 hours ago, Toryu2020 said:

I suppose Nobody will ever be able to read this...

Is that an intentional play on words? Ha!  I would bet @Nobody actually can read this !

[Toryu2020]

Bruce - I see nothing gets past you...

[Ed Hicks]

Thanks for the help with this, but it remains unclear what it reads. 

[SteveM]

Hi Ed - we have most of it, with some doubt on a few characters, but the gist of it is relatively clear.

 

1. It's from a swordsmith in Echizen.

 

2. On the opposite side is a phrase "Sutra Without Payment". It refers to a Kyōgen play - a comedy/farce. The story is; a priest goes to a family to perform a ritual buddhist sutra chant. At the end of the sermon, the priest lingers around so he can collect his payment, but the payment isn't forthcoming. The priest then starts hinting that he's waiting for his payment, jingling coins in his pocket, going out of his way to use the word "alms" in his sentences, etc. But the family is oblivious to his hints. Then he leaves, but can't stop thinking about the payment, so he hides his sash in his pocket, and goes back to the family telling him he's forgotten his sash, and starts to make even more broad hints about the payment.

 

So it's a farce that alludes to several themes; the greed of priests, the lengths people will go to in order to get what is due to them, the ridiculousness of man in his quest for riches, how desperation makes people do crazy things, etc. It has given rise to the phrase Fusenai Kyō Ni Kesa wo Otosu ("when the payment isn't forthcoming, the sash gets dropped"). In everyday English we might change this to, "if you pay peanuts, expect monkeys". On this sword we might imagine it has more of a nuance of, "if you don't pay what I'm worth, don't complain how the work gets done", but this is just my own speculation. We can't step inside the mind of the person who had it written. 

 

Coming from this kyōgen play, we know the sword (or, at least the inscription) won't predate the play. I don't have an exact date for the play, but I would guess late Edo (1800s). 

 

I think we know a lot about the sword from what it has written on it. And an enigmatic inscription like this is always attractive to collectors, assuming the sword itself isn't a write-off. 

 

 

[Brian]

And just like that.....we get a free and fun education yet again. Steve, you are amazing.

[ChrisW]

Amazing bit of information there. I am curious to see the quality of the sword based on the inscription, as Steve pointed out.