Yamashiro?

[Utopianarian]

I’ve been studying this blade for a while now and posted pics of the hamon a ways back but the only conclusion I keep arriving at is yamashiro.  26.5 inch nagasa. Motohaba 2.6cm sakihaba 1.6cm sori 2.86. Kasane 0.535cm. It is suriage but appeared to be much longer nagasa. Many chips in the ha and would require a lot of work and don’t know study piece vs polish. I think I will eventually submit for shinsa. Missed the San Fran shinsa last year. Hassle to mail off to Japan or worth it. I didn’t get a lot of feedback last time I posted on school or era. Anyways here are pics. What would be your assessment.

[Utopianarian]

[Utopianarian]

[paulb]

Hi George,

Can I ask what is leading you towards Yamashiro? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but wondering how you came to that view?

thanks

Paul

[ROKUJURO]

George,

there is no detail photo, but the KISSAKI looks strange with the BOHI going high up into it. Loss of material/reshaped KISSAKI?

[Utopianarian]

 Has most or almost all the features. Relatively narrow suguha based hamon comprised of kochoji, ko-nie. Lots of hataraki, uchinoke, ko-ashi, inazuma, kinsuji, ji-nie and chikei, nijuba. The pictures I think sort of reflect this sentiment. Looks better of course in hand than what is captured in pics. Casts rainbow of colors when light is cast on it. Hard to capture in the pics. Hada appears older than all the other blades I have examined side by side. Very thin blade. Probably an older tachi. In less than satisfactory condition. What’s your thoughts On it

[Utopianarian]

 

  On 4/24/2023 at 10:15 AM, ROKUJURO said:

there is no detail photo, but the KISSAKI looks strange with the BOHI going high up into it. Loss of material/reshaped KISSAKI?

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The bohi looks like it was added at a later period. The boshi is still there. The placement of the bohi does look odd to me

[paulb]

Thank you for the reply George. You can obviously see far more with the blade in hand than I can in the images. personally I find the hamon problematic for Yamashiro. The nioiguchi looks very broad and the overall activity looks far too flamboyant for Yamashiro ( until you get to Kunitsugu with Soshu influence and later). However you have the obvious advantage of holding it and examining in the flesh. It looks to have a very deep sori, especially for a blade that appears to be O-suriage. Is there any indication that t may be Saiha? the crumbly indistinct nioiguchi might point that way but again that could be a result of the polish condition.

Its certainly an interesting piece but I am struggling to find an attribution I'm comfortable with

[Utopianarian]

Thanks Paul for your thoughts on the blade. The pics may be somewhat misleading because I zoomed in which makes the hamon look large or out of proportion to the actual size. The activity is actually very small within the hamon. The noi guchi is not very reflective but it is there along the length of the entire blade. The crumbling appearance may be due to the blurring from the zooming in close to get pics. I would prob best describe the noi guchi as mostly crowded choji with streaks of kinsuji and inazuma at and right above the choji. There is utsuri that shadows above the choji that is irregular. I know that many say you cannot see nie in an unpolished blade but this blade you can. Much sparkling nie in the hada even though this blade is not polished. The grain is also very tight. The scaling of the nakago and the curve where it is especially on a suriage blade seems out of place which I agree. This may be one of those Muromachi renaissance blades of the old tachi. This is a very slender blade. It may be one of those oddball blades that just doesn’t fit into any category/era. It may well be saiha or fire damage but I would think it would affect the hamon and the activity which the nie would blob together or look very unnatural. It might have been treated with chemicals at some point to clean rust. I also failed to mention the other side of the blade is complete relic condition. Like somebody polished one side of the blade at one time and left the other side relic condition. This could be a sign that whomever did that stopped and decided not to pursue anymore restoration. I figure get shinsa and then decide if early blade or school warrants polish. This blade is a tough one