Surrender tag and mei on a possible nagamaki

[Shuriken]

I posted the interesting long o-kissaki elsewhere; this is the Mei and surrender tag. Grateful for all translations.

[Shuriken]

In case the kanji is flipped:

[xiayang]

The mei reads

 

豊後國延竜子長秀 = Bungo no Kuni Enryūshi Nagahide

 

[Shuriken]

@xiayangthank you

 

[Shuriken]

Anyone have an idea on the tag? Cheers-Dave

[SteveM]

潮見町一組

Shiomi-chō, ichi-kumi

 

It's the name of a location (Shiomi-chō, possibly in Saitama Chiba prefecture) and "ichi-kumi" means "group #1". 

 

Maybe a neighborhood association, or the name of an organization that might have been in charge of collecting swords. 

[Ed]

Just curious, why do think this is a nagamaki? 

[Stephen]

36 minutes ago, Ed said:

Just curious, why do think this is a nagamaki? 

Agree was waiting for blade pix to understand 

[Shuriken]

Thank you @SteveM. @Ed and @Stephen here are some blade pics. The kissaki measures 5.5 inches. Welcome your thoughts.

[Geraint]

Dear David.

 

Have a look here,  https://www.bonhams....615-1868-dated-1862/ 

 

This seems to be the same smith so, the nakago on yours does not seem to be suriage to my eye, possibly machi okuri though I may have missed the photograph that shows the machi in your posts.  Tachi mei is credible for this smith and given the period then it is perfectly likely that this was always intended to be the sword it is now and therefore not ever a nagamaki.  Bear in mind that Shinshinto often copied shortened Nambokucho swords and that would account for the sugata, in other words it may have been an attempt to copy the sugata of what was an original  nagamaki.

 

Hope that helps.

 

All the best.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I took a look into my books and the smith lineage seems to be lesser known one. I am lucky to have "Bungo Taikan" so there was some info in there. I think there are 2 generations of Bungo Nagahide. 1st died in 1845 at the age of 72. 2nd gen died in 1881 at the age of 68.

 

I have seen 延竜 (Enryū) in Nagahide signatures but never 延竜子 (Enryūshi) those that know the language better can probably explain the difference.

 

Here are few more authenticated examples found online

https://aucview.aucf...m/yahoo/m1079015330/

https://www.samuraim...u-hozon-certificate/

https://aucview.com/yahoo/n221631552/

 

One thing that seems to be in common on all few examples with Nagahide mei I have references on if the signature is with 豊後国 (Bungo no Kuni) then the original hole is around 国 (Kuni) character.

 

I think it is an interesting item to research

[Ed]

It seems to me you were thinking of Naginata Naoshi opposed to Nagamaki.  True Nagamaki are quite rare. I see no evidence of this being either.

 

More likely a Shinshinto katana / tachi with O-Kissaki.  Yours is in Gunto Tachi mounts. It seems he is one of those smiths, like Tadayoshi, who signed tachi mei. The examples posted by Jussi are mounted as katana, yet signed Tachi mei.

 

Not positive, but likely that enryu is just another "go" or a condensed variation of enryushi.

Oddly enough, I could not find a listing of Enryushi using the characters Jan and Jussi provided (延竜子).

 

There are many variations of the spelling/pronunciation used in "go" such as:

 

Tenryushi 天龍子 

Kenryushi 見龍子 

Genryushi 現龍子 

Enryoshi 延陵子 

Senryushi 渕龍子  

Endoji 渕童子 

Enryushi 渕龍子

Enryushi 淵龍子

Enryushi 円龍子

[Shuriken]

Thank you very much @Ed @Jussi Ekholm and @Geraint. I really appreciate the breadth of knowledge you bring and share!

[tokashikibob]

Nihontophiles,   I ended up with this sword,  here are a few closeups of Nagahide's work for future people looking up this smith's work.    Sword is machi-okuri for WW2 mounts.     Forging is interesting with interesting metallurgy and flaws.   The second pics shows these cloudy areas which I am unsure of it being a forging characterics or some sort of age stain?

[ROKUJURO]

1 hour ago, tokashikibob said:

....The second pics shows these cloudy areas which I am unsure of it being a forging characteristics or some sort of age stain?

Bob,

humans get facial wrinkles with age, swords get corrosion. In your case, the rust on your blade looks like so-called 'spider rust'. A good TOGISHI will be able to deal with it; usually, it is not so deep.

[tokashikibob]

Jean,  thanks for the tip!  I did look at it with 10x headset on and most if not all is "spider rust"   I haven't seen this before,  but I usually buy blades with much more rust and discoloration!

[Geraint]

Aaahh!  You know when you are moving up an echelon in your collecting life when you can say that you are buying a better type of rust!

 

All the best.