Kantei

[Rivkin]

Nagasa 39.5cm

Signed, I photoshopped the signature out. Ubu.

 

[Ronin 47]

DEWA-DAIJÔ KUNIMICHI 出羽大掾國路???

 

 

[Rivkin]

Unfortunately no, but its shinto.

[Alex A]

One of the Osaka Kunisada line, Inoue Shinkai?

[Rivkin]

Inoue Shinkai would have been almost my guess, but the jigane is wrong. Very similar hamon - different jigane.

[Alex A]

Nice blade

 

First thought when i saw the image was Mino. The shape and long kissaki reminded me of some you see from the likes of Kiyonobu

 

No doubt it aint but thinking that time, around Keicho maybe?

 

Will look for a bigger name haha

[Rivkin]

Negative on timeline and it is a relatively big (well shinto considered) name. Not Kotetsu.

[Alex A]

Tough one

 

last attempt

 

Munetsugu

[Mark]

i thought Yasusada but jiri is wrong so i guess Yasutsugu

[Rivkin]

Negative.

[Rivkin]

It's Mondonosho Masakiyo.

I bought it without papers but obviously I saw the signature... which is btw not the most typical for him, so I was happy it papered - and possibly despite couple of kanji being a bit off... well, he did change the writing somewhat over the years and right before he went to the Shogun, so probably its from this time

 

My take is that there are couple of things here. First there are well defined "gaps" in nie right in the middle of hamon. This is something popularized by Inoue Shinkai and after him a lot of Soshu style works tried to do this. But Shinkai would have dense, Osaka-style jigane. Here the jigane has almost koto feeling, with wide elements, somewhat rough and darkish, with ara nie. We'll see this jigane a lot in shinshinto but with much more ara nie... Its Satsuma.

So its a top quality shinto work in Soshu style with Satsuma jigane.... Masakiyo.

[Toryu2020]

The "Kinsuji" are the giveaway - Inoue Shinkai would come to mind but he never made this shape. Very nice find, Kirill. I hope you'll bring it to our "Satsuma" meeting next year...

-t

[Tom Darling]

It's similar to a Kotetsu.

[Ian]

Kaneshige (Kotetsu’s teacher)?

[Alex A]

Tough one, being honest im very unfamiliar with the name and would only have got this if id owned or looked into buying one of his swords.

 

Was surprised when you said Shinto, as you mention the jigane looks earlier. Was hoping the shot at Inoue Shinkai was one of those swords that dont quite fit, like when you come across top Hizen smith blades that are not typical Konuka hada.

 

Again, the amount of big names and Ko-itame that was around on searches for swords of this period stood out like a sore thumb

 

Good to learn about this particular smith, interesting and fine blade.

 

Cheers

[DoTanuki yokai]

I had no idea and looked up a few things but Inoue Shinkai would have also been my best guess but with this Jigane i was sure i would be wrong. 

I would have loved to had the time to do more research but im sure now, knowing the answer i wouldnt be successfully. Thanks for showing this interesting blade.

[Ronin 47]

I got as far as Shinto-Soshu, and my mind automatically went Horikawa school. 

 

 I did think of Satsuma at one point, but the shape made me think it was a bit earlier. I guess hindsight is 20/20.

 

Thanks for the exercise! 

[Rivkin]

I can't be sure, but:

I think the shape was popularized by Kotetsu so you don't really see it before him (there is related late Momoyama shape, but quite different still), Inoue Shinkai did his usual waki-sticks... Maybe he wanted to disproof everyone believing that the first sign of great sword is great sugata.

After Kotetsu it was practiced quite often by Satsuma (maybe since they were effectively the only conistantly competent smiths in the 18th century) and through them got to Suishinshi Masahide who produced a lot of works in this sugata.

[Rivkin]

  On 12/5/2021 at 5:09 AM, Toryu2020 said:

The "Kinsuji" are the giveaway - Inoue Shinkai would come to mind but he never made this shape. Very nice find, Kirill. I hope you'll bring it to our "Satsuma" meeting next year...

-t

Expand  

 

Unfortunately I don't know what are the topics for this or following months, and its unfortunately a long drive. Satsuma is such a wide definition - does it include the objects from the sale, Naminohira or just the late smiths etc.

[Alex A]

An example of an early Edo blade. Not the same but guess you can say its in the ball park 

 

Appealing with the long kissaki

 

https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A060221.html

[Toryu2020]

Kirill - the monthly topics are always listed on the second page of your newsletter - Satsuma will not be until November of next year so you have plenty of time to drive down! :-)

-t