Help with Kozuka

[Antonis]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about this Kozuka, like an approximate date and what is actually depicted on it. The only thing I can make out is a bamboo rod in the centre. I'm not sure if the rest is meant to show something specific or if it's just 2 different patterns divided by the bamboo.

 

I am still a novice in this field but I can tell the craftsmanship isn't the best compared to other pieces but it still looks authentic to me. From what I can tell, both the blade and the handle seem to have been unfortunately polished and the blade's tang is wrapped in old paper (nothing under the paper). The blade is magnetic and the handle is a bit magnetic but I'm not sure if it's because of the tang inside. The handle looks like bronze and the bamboo rod is silver in colour with black parts (the black looks like oxidised silver but I can't tell if it's that or just oxidised bronze).

 

I would appreciate any help and more experienced opinions.

[kissakai]

Is this a castle wall and river?

 

[Brian]

It's a fairly common design, more mass produced, but still authentic and late Edo period.
Kogatana also seems genuine. low quality pieces, but genuine and fine for mounting imho.

[Antonis]

Thank you for your response! do you know the name of the common design used or at least what the depiction is?

 

I don't really see the castle wall and river option as I am familiar with that motif/depictions in other Japanese arts.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Antonis,

the blade is mounted in the opposite way - the cutting edge should point to the other side. The basic material looks like brass (not bronze), and the working style reminds me of SENDAI, very late manufacture.

Not exiting, but an o.k. piece. 

[Spartancrest]

Hi Antonis, I have a hamidashi tsuba with the same pattern [it was described as Nashiji when I bought it but I don't think that is correct] As Grev has said I think it is "Castle Wall"

 

The design was used on all types of fittings like the fuchi/kashira and tsuba - [at least the smaller variety] I believe there was an old thread dealing with these fittings somewhere probably pre 2021?

[kissakai]

I think there is a barrier between the castle walls and a moat/river

[FlorianB]

Nashiji (pear skin pattern) just refers to the small structure (not the wavy one).

The generic term for those surface patterns is ishime (stone surface).

 

Castle wall seems plausible, imagine You look over the wall into the moat.

 

Best

Florian

[Geraint]

Ah. well that's better!  My first thought was Sendai but I couldn't reference it, after a search finally found this which was from a post by Rich S.

 

Quote

The Kozuka and Kogai are the type known as Sendai. Many tanto of the period were fitted with complete sets of fittings of this type. Here's an excerpt from "Sendai Koshirae" from

"Edo no Tanto Koshirae" by Ide Masanobu. He is of course referring to the entire set of fittings.

-------------

This is an attractive little koshirae. When looking at this koshirae, a

person from an old sword shop would say, "Oh, this is an Ogaki

Koshirae, isn't it?"

 

Because this has frequently been sold in Ogaki of Gifu, it has the

name of Ogaki Koshirae. At the same time, it has quite a bit of

appeal and there seems to be a large number of them on

the market. Speaking of Ogaki, it is close to both the Nakasando

and Tokaido and the Ogaki Han, the Toda Ke, was also a fairly

large fief.

 

At any rate, the Ogaki Koshirae is also called a Yamazashiki

Koshirae. Its origin was far from Ogaki in Sendai. In the Sendai Han

Date Ke, the residential area for the lower class bushi was fairly high

ground and was called Yamazashiki. As for the samurai of this time,

the standard of living was rather austere, and even though they were

bushi of this Han, they seem to have had occupations of doing piecework.

One of the items that these lower class bushi of Sendai made and were

paid for by the piece for was this Yamazashiki Koshirae. However, no

mattter how many of the koshirae they made, the number they could

sell in Sendai was limited. Thus, the Date Ke, besides sending these to

their friends in the Toda Ke, also sent a large number of them to Ogaki,

and because there seemed to be a demand for them, this meant that

there were shipped from the far distant Sendai to Ogaki.

--------------------

 

Hope this helps

Rich

Just needed to cement the facts into my brain.

 

All the best.

[Spartancrest]

A matching kogai in the auctions https://www.jauce.com/auction/d1089459430  a lot cruder in workmanship

[Antonis]

Thank you for your corrections and pictures! I have just flipped the blade correctly. 

Looking at the blade I can see the "Y" stamped part as a rocky wall, the silver inlay as roof tiles and the "water" pattern as clouds behind the wall. I remember seeing that pattern paired with clouds on a woman's kimono in a painting and found out the pattern is called  Tate-waku (rising steam).

 

So this style of sword fittings was created by low-ranking samurai in the Sendai domain as a means to make a living, but because these would be sent to be sold in the Ogaki domain they are known as Ogaki Koshirae/kozuka? Sorry for rephrasing, I just want to make sure I understood the information correctly😅

 

Also would dating this as late Edo period mean from 1800-1867 or would it it be a smaller time frame?

 

thanks again for all of your help, this was been very enlightening!