Yasuyoshi Kinmei, who is the attribution by?

[Adrian S]

Hi guys,

 

Picked up a very nice naginata naoshi wakizashi with a kinpun mei. The attribution is to Sa Yasuyoshi, I was wondering if anyone recognises the attributor's mei or Kao (kakihan?)? Has anyone seen a similar attributor's mei in any references?

 

thanks in advance

Adrian S

[Nobody]

The attributor’s name on the nakago is 忠恕 (Tadahiro/Tadayuki/Tadanori/Chujo?). I do not know its correct reading or who he was.

 

There are some examples with the name.

http://www.aoi-art.com/sword/katana/09069.html

http://auction.woman.excite.co.jp/item/ ... e=rss_lite

https://www.aoi-art.com/auction/auction ... 1213703271

[Adrian S]

Hello Moriyama san,

 

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I also saw the recent Aoi Art auction with the same attributor's kinpun mei. I bid on the sword too , but was outbid. Interestingly, all three examples have Hozon papers so I expect that the NBTHK knows who Tadahiro is and he is respected. Also interesting is that the Aoi Naotsuna katana has a Meiji period sayagaki mentioning the Kinpun mei, so one would assume that the mei is pre the date of the sayagaki (1896). I bought my sword on the strength of a nice blade and pretty much disregarded the attribution. Guess I will do a little more research, at this stage the mei looks very very similar...

 

Thanks again,

Adrian Schlemmer

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

I wonder if Yasuyoshi ever made naginata

[reinhard]

Interesting enough, the two katana blades on the sites provided by Moriyama-san (Aoi and "auction.women.excite") are the same sword. Same measurements and many other details are proving it. The kinpun-mei look slightly different though. On Aoi's site the kanji for "TSUNA" is partially erased and looks more real, whereas on the "auction.women.excite" page, it looks perfectly intact at first sight, but not quite as reliable considering the picture's quality. - It doesn't really matter in this particular case, for kinpun-mei from Meiji times are not of real importance, but this is a good example for showing the importance of staying cautious when buying online. Many times you don't get what you see when buying on the basis of pics and descriptions.

Nihon-To is about most subtle details and nowadays most people are just not used to this kind of perception anymore. My advice would be: Check as carefully as you can, then check again and after a while: check again. Collecting NihonTo is not about being quick. It is about looking carefully at the real thing. Dealers may have other priorities though.

 

reinhard

[Adrian S]

Hi all,

 

Yasuyoshi did indeed make naginata. The top sword at the Sydney NTHK shina was a Yasuyoshi Nagamaki naoshi. My sword is not of the same proportions , but I have found many examples from the same era with similar shape and size, so it is quite possible. I bought the sword in hand from another collector, having seen the Sydney sword I can see many similarities in ji and ha. Having said that, I didn't buy the sword with too much consideration to the kinpun mei, after all they are pretty easily faked.

 

cheers and thanks again,

Adrian S