Help with mei : Bishu Ju Yasumitsu

[mfarrar]

Hi all,

 

I have just recently aquired this Katana/Wak nagasa 23" and I was wondering if anyone knows who this smith is and if the signature looks to be genuine or not. Looks to me to be made in the syle of Oei Bizen.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[reinhard]

Mark,

The mei is in all probability gimei. Shodai YASUMITSU, working during Oei era in Bizen, signed his blades either with a nijimei of his name or "Bishu Osafune YASUMITSU", sometimes including his title "Uemon-no-Jo", but he never omitted "Osafune". The mei "Bishu (no) Ju YASUMITSU" (mei on your sword) is highly untrustworthy. To some extent, this is true for his successors as well, working during Muromachi period. Other details pointing towards gimei are its overall writing style and minor details like the first stroke of the kanji "YASU" pointing towards wrong direction. No expertise, of course, but personally I wouldn't bet anything on this mei.

 

reinhard

[pcfarrar]

Hi Reinhard,

 

Hawleys lists a Bizen Yasumitsu working in the late 17th century could be him? Sword must be shinto period as it has a yakidashi.

 

Peter

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

 

This blade is clearly Shinto: yakidashi and (if i'm not wrong) shinogi-ji in masame are characteristics of the Shinto Osafune School. .

[mfarrar]

So am I right in thinking its a gimei of Oei Bizen Yasumitsu?

 

It seems odd that they would miss out the Osafune character though if doing a gimei of that smith.

 

I was wondering was there a period after the destruction of Osafune by the flood around 1590 where the surviving smiths didn't sign Osafune because of this?

[reinhard]

Hawleys lists a Bizen Yasumitsu working in the late 17th century could be him?

 

Peter,

Meikan lists only one YASUMITSU (written with these kanji) working during ShinTo period (Enpo-era). His name was Uemura YASUMITSU and he worked in Kii province. He belonged to the Kishu Ishido group and it is said, there was a second generation working around Genroku era. These two can be safely excluded. There is no Bizen YASUMITSU working during ShinTo or ShinShinTo times to be found, neither in Hawley's nor any other compilation I checked. Hawley mentions one though working during early Meiji period. I don't know anything about this one, but Meiji ToKo are somewhat beyond my focus. After all, the mei looks gimei to me.

It is "just" semantics, but for the newbies: it is SUGU-yakidashi pointing towards ShinTo. Yakidashi just means: the area of hamon about two or three inches above the ha-machi. Almost every NihonTo has yakidashi in some shape or another (except some very old swords, whose hamon starts a few inches above hamachi).

 

reinhard

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

Peter,

 

This blade is obligatorily gimei (except in the case of an unrecorded smith), It is shinto an there is no Yasumitsu in Osafune shinto School (mainly Sukesada). However, i think this gimei was done without a bad purpose; maybe a gift.

[Jean]

Peter,

 

I like the sword and I don't give a damn about mei, my swords being Koto suriage but 2 (Both Bizen)

[mfarrar]

I pretty much assume that anything with a signature is gimei unless it has papers and I generally buy unsigned or o-suriage blades.

 

It is a very nice sword and a gimei signature doesnt really put me off, just means if this blade is one of my next shinsa submissions I will have to think about having the signature removed. Of course I dont want to do this unless it is an definate gimei.

 

I guess there is chance it is a unlisted smith, there must have been more than one smith called Yasumitsu working during the Shinto period.

[Jean]

Mark,

 

For opinion on the mei, just send a picture to NTHK (with the corresponding fees) and you will have an answer

[reinhard]

A simple question for those still sticking to the ShinTo theory:

 

The sword is either suriage or strongly machi-okuri. What is sugu-yakidashi doing up there?

 

reinhard

[pcfarrar]

I think the mei and the bottom mekugi-ana were added to the sword at a later stage. I think the sword is machi-okuri and not suriage.

 

PS. Not my sword its my brothers.