Shinshinto smiths and other questions

[Paz]

Hi all just a couple  questions. 

 

1. Does anybody have a list or know any smiths or schools that worked in the soshu tradition/ made soshu style swords during the late shinshinto period ? 

 

2. Was Gimei performed on a sword after the real smiths death or while he was still alive or didn't matter. 

 

Thanks 

Kind regards 

Paz

[mywei]

Kiyomaro (and disciples) come to mind when thinking of Shinshinto soshu den

Naotane also made soshu den works

[Paz]

Well funny enough it's a kiyondo (Kiyomaro student) gimei blade that I'm researching. 

 

It's 75cm sword which doesn't have a shallow sori, and has soshu characteristics. 

 

Any more information on my second question will be grateful. Did it matter if gimei was done during the time or after a smith who was being impersonated. 

 

Thanks 

[mywei]

Gimei is gimei regardless of when it was done. However it was not uncommon practice for contemporary colleagues in the same school to cut the mei on each others blades during the Shinto period onwards in my understanding, during times of high workloads (this is not gimei).

 

Most gimei would probably have been done posthumously for various reasons, like a Daimyo family needing to possess a Masamune for prestige, or a struggling smith in the 19th century trying to make ends meet (eg Kajihei/Naomitsu or even Gassan Sadakazu)

 

Hope that answers your question 

[Paz]

Thanks Matt. I could well have a kajihei sword. It seems to match the timeline and read seskos article on him. 

 

Very interesting indeed. 

 

Regards 

Paz 

[Baba Yaga]

17 hours ago, mywei said:

 However it was not uncommon practice for contemporary colleagues in the same school to cut the mei on each others blades during the Shinto period onwards in my understanding, during times of high workloads (this is not gimei).

 

 

That's interesting. What's the source of that information? 

[mywei]

6 hours ago, Baba Yaga said:

 

That's interesting. What's the source of that information? 

I think there's lots of examples of this i.e Daimei. E.g Shinkai signing for his father Kunisada, or Hizen branchline smiths signing for one of the mainline smiths etc

 

Markus' article on Kajihei mentions this also specifically regarding Kajihei and the Naokatsu forge

https://markussesko.com/2019/12/31/kajihei-鍛冶平/

[Baba Yaga]

33 minutes ago, mywei said:

I think there's lots of examples of this i.e Daimei. E.g Shinkai signing for his father Kunisada, or Hizen branchline smiths signing for one of the mainline smiths etc

 

Markus' article on Kajihei mentions this also specifically regarding Kajihei and the Naokatsu forge

https://markussesko.com/2019/12/31/kajihei-鍛冶平/

 

Ah, thank you very much! 

 

I've also prescribed to this theory moons ago, although the article starts with the famous disclaimer  "However, there is some second and third hand information available from that time that was recorded by people who knew him." That means some truth "may" be in there somewhere. But we're not sure and can certainly fill in the blanks rationally "maybe". Much of this has always been logical to me anyway.