Yari Sayagaki Help

[Mark S.]

Tried my best on this Kanekage yari sayagaki.  Have a few questions:

 

1) Please just a quick check that everything in black looks correct.

2) Not sure what last 2 kanji are at end of date?

3) Could not read who signed this sayagaki, nor do I recognize the kao.  Not really up to date on who is writing sayagaki (and has some weight to their judgment) presently (other than Tanobe-San)?  Treating this one as an ‘inventory sayagaki’ and not a judgment of quality or valid mei.

 

Thank you in advance for your help and time. 

[uwe]

The red question mark after the period might read “年間” (nenkan), I guess.

[SteveM]

This sayagaki was written by Okano Taromatsu, art name of "Bizan" 備山. 

 

Small point

文　　Fumi (or Fu in this case, both are acceptable)

月　   Tsuki  (not gatsu in this case)

 

So the two together are Fumizuki, or Fuzuki

[Bugyotsuji]

Okano Taromatsu is an interesting character for a number of reasons... 

(His daughter inherited his extraordinary collection, I believe.)

[k morita]

Hi,
The kanji for Okano Taromatsu is 岡野 多郎松

[SteveM]

Looking at this again: Okano Taromatsu was born in 1900, so he wouldn't be writing sayagaki in Reiwa 5 (2023). 

Needs a bit of checking.

[Mark S.]

17 minutes ago, SteveM said:

Looking at this again: Okano Taromatsu was born in 1900, so he wouldn't be writing sayagaki in Reiwa 5 (2023). 

Needs a bit of checking.

Not sure what to make of this sayagaki. Didn’t think the dates made sense based on a quick on-line search. 

[Mark S.]

Thank you to everyone so far!

[Mark S.]

UPDATE!

Just found some info on an EBAY seller’s posting that states that Sato Hitoshi, the director of JASMK (Japanese Art Sword Museum of Kurashiki - Sword Dealer), is using the “Bizan” pseudonym or art name.  I did not know he was doing sayagaki, but the kao and print style of “Bizan” on mine are very similar to the one in the listing.  It would also explain the current 2023 date.  Will treat this one as an inventory sayagaki and not a judgment of shoshin mei or quality.  
 

Just want everyone to know there is a new source of sayagaki you might come across.  I guess mystery solved…

[SteveM]

This is interesting info. I'll watch out for other sayagaki like this. I must say, Sato deciding to use the exact same art name of Okano Taromatsu strikes me as very unusual and deceptive.

Maybe there is a back story I'm missing (for example: something like Okano himself trained Sato and allowed him the use of the art name). Without knowing the details, it seems, at least on the surface, to be very dodgy. 

[Mark S.]

Here is the listing in case anyone wants to double check the info.  
 

https://www.ebay.com...r=artemis&media=COPY

[Bugyotsuji]

That seems pretty clear now.

 

Not sure whether this is underhand or not, but I will put out some gentle feelers into the community, kind of like fishing, to see what the general atmosphere is. Meantime thanks for the discovery, Mark!

[Mark S.]

On 12/11/2023 at 7:33 PM, SteveM said:

This is interesting info. I'll watch out for other sayagaki like this.

Another one… Tsuruta-san mentions it, but does not go into any details, so I’m guessing it was a bit of one dealer not wanting to discuss another dealer.

 

https://sword-auction.com/en/product/17523/as23195-刀肥州八代住源盛吉延寿宣次合作之無鑑査刀匠/