Lookup in Wakayama's Toso Kinko Jiten

[dir]

I recently acquired a tsuba from a friend returning from Kamakura (attached) and had trouble finding the artist - though I could see he was living in Choshu. I had checked all the kundoku character variations with no luck, but neglected to check the single onduko combination since most of my signed tsuba are kun. Bob Haynes and Elliott Long gave me the correct reading - Yuji (Haynes H 12358). I haven't come across this name before in any of my signature books and there seems to be just a single source given for him In the Haynes Index. The source notes the signature is from a tsuba with grass and flowers design with a date of around 1800. My tsuba looks like ginko leaves and must surely be by the same chap.

 

As I don't have Toso Kinko Jiten in my library (yet!) I wonder whether someone who does would be kind enough to look up the source and post a picture of the tsuba if possible please. The source is W–591–U-3. W signifies Wakayama, followed by the page number (591), the U (meaning Upper section of that page, and the name entry (3) found by counting all names on that page starting from the right and counting left (instructions from the Haynes Index).

 

Thank you very much!

 

Regards, David 

[SteveM]

Hello David,

Wakayama's Tōsō Kinkō Jiten doesn't include photos of signatures. Just brief biographies of the smiths and list of mei/go they used. I am including a scan of part of page 591 that shows the entry for 友二. My perennial complaint against Wakayama is that he only occasionally lists the readings of the names, so in this case I can't be sure of the reading - probably Tomotsugu. Nowadays most people would read this as Yūji, but I doubt this would be a valid reading for the 1800s. 

 

 

 

 

[dir]

Thank you for looking that up, Steve! Much appreciaterd! Interesting to see the page - I didn't know the book contained no images. 

 

Regards, David

[dir]

I google translated the entry and it does not add anything more than is in the Haynes Index entry, except it just says mid-Edo.