US Army Infantry Collection Sword Translation Help

[chgruener]

Hello all,

 

I am an active duty Army officer and I currently work with the National Infantry Museum located in Columbus, Georgia. We have dozens of swords here. Most, if not all, are untranslated and have not been taken apart for inspection. While looking them over today I pulled a few for photographs and was able to see a couple tang signatures without much effort. 
 

This sword in particular caught my eye and was wondering if anyone here recognizes the smith and has a possible date range for its manufacture. All of our swords were either donated or captured by the US Army and have been in the US Army’s possession ever since. I do not have the sword’s details on hand, but could pull them if the blade is significant enough. Not every item will have provenance or additional information.

 

This is all in effort to update the museum’s catalog. Most of the Japanese artifacts have been neglected in that the staff is overworked and cannot research everything they’d like. I have made an effort to aid in the research of as many items as possible.
 

See attached photos of the sword in question via the Imgur link. I will post more as time goes on.

https://imgur.com/a/dxE8nww

 

[Ray Singer]

Hoki no kuni ju Yoshiyuki. Appears Shinto.

[DTM72]

Looks to be this guy. 1848-1864

https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YOS1051

[mecox]

Chris, here is some more (from Sesko) also some comments for your records. 

 

YOSHIYUKI (吉幸), Bunkyū (文久, 1861-1864), Hōki – “Hōki no Kuni Fujiwara Yoshiyuki” (伯耆国藤原吉幸), “Hakushū Yonago-jū Shohōken Yoshiyuki” (伯州米子住曙峰軒吉幸), “Shohōken Yoshiyuki Un´han ni oite” (曙峰軒吉幸於雲藩), “Hakushū-jū Yoshiyuki” (伯州住吉幸), “Hōki no Kuni-jū Yoshiyuki” (伯耆国住吉幸), real name Shimizu Tōshirō (清水藤四郎), he was the son of a certain Yamazaki Hei´emon Yoshihiro (山崎平右衛門吉広) but was later adopted by Shimizu Masayoshi (清水正吉), he signed his name first with the characters (吉行) and used the gō Shohōken (曙峰軒), he came originally from the village of Osa (小佐) in Izumo province and worked for the Izumo fief (出雲藩), later he moved to Yonago (米子) in Hōki province and died on the 21st day of the ninth month Meiji 19 (明治, 1886) at the age of 75, we know blades from the Ansei era (安政, 1854-1860) to the ban on wearing swords in the year 1876, dense ko-itame mixed with mokume and fine ji-nie, the hamon is a gunome in ko-nie-deki, the bōshi is sugu with a ko-maru-kaeri, the yasurime are gyaku-sujikai with keshō, he chiselled his signature close to the mune of the tang, chūjō-saku.

Your sword is a wakizashi in late Edo koshirae, the pieces are nice, and original but do not all match.  Probably later rewrap tsuka in Japan.  This sword not likely to have been taken to war.  The blade is an unusual shape with grooves and tip in the style of a nagamaki.  Habaki is copper with silver foil and grooved pattern. The pair of seppa are also silver foil over copper. Fuchi is shakudo with a water/lake scene with stork? and leaves (gold and shakudo). Cant see kashira. Menuki also shakudo and gold, with pair of wild boar.  Tsuba is correct size for wakizashi, by Echizen Kinai school and has aoi leaf design, probably of Rokudai Takahashi generation (see Kinai downloads in NMB).  Blade looks to be in good condition with medium width hamon of gunome-midare pattern.  Need to measure length of edge (habaki to tip).   Iit is a complete sword, but not all original en-suite fittings.  More likely acquired in Japan end/after the war.

 

 

[chgruener]

2 hours ago, Ray Singer said:

Hoki no kuni ju Yoshiyuki. Appears Shinto.

Thank you!

 

is Hoki no Kuni ju the place? And Yoshiyuki the name? I am still fairly new to swords and haven’t quite figured out the way they signed these. Thank you again. 

[chgruener]

29 minutes ago, mecox said:

Chris, here is some more (from Sesko) also some comments for your records. 

 

YOSHIYUKI (吉幸), Bunkyū (文久, 1861-1864), Hōki – “Hōki no Kuni Fujiwara Yoshiyuki” (伯耆国藤原吉幸), “Hakushū Yonago-jū Shohōken Yoshiyuki” (伯州米子住曙峰軒吉幸), “Shohōken Yoshiyuki Un´han ni oite” (曙峰軒吉幸於雲藩), “Hakushū-jū Yoshiyuki” (伯州住吉幸), “Hōki no Kuni-jū Yoshiyuki” (伯耆国住吉幸), real name Shimizu Tōshirō (清水藤四郎), he was the son of a certain Yamazaki Hei´emon Yoshihiro (山崎平右衛門吉広) but was later adopted by Shimizu Masayoshi (清水正吉), he signed his name first with the characters (吉行) and used the gō Shohōken (曙峰軒), he came originally from the village of Osa (小佐) in Izumo province and worked for the Izumo fief (出雲藩), later he moved to Yonago (米子) in Hōki province and died on the 21st day of the ninth month Meiji 19 (明治, 1886) at the age of 75, we know blades from the Ansei era (安政, 1854-1860) to the ban on wearing swords in the year 1876, dense ko-itame mixed with mokume and fine ji-nie, the hamon is a gunome in ko-nie-deki, the bōshi is sugu with a ko-maru-kaeri, the yasurime are gyaku-sujikai with keshō, he chiselled his signature close to the mune of the tang, chūjō-saku.

Your sword is a wakizashi in late Edo koshirae, the pieces are nice, and original but do not all match.  Probably later rewrap tsuka in Japan.  This sword not likely to have been taken to war.  The blade is an unusual shape with grooves and tip in the style of a nagamaki.  Habaki is copper with silver foil and grooved pattern. The pair of seppa are also silver foil over copper. Fuchi is shakudo with a water/lake scene with stork? and leaves (gold and shakudo). Cant see kashira. Menuki also shakudo and gold, with pair of wild boar.  Tsuba is correct size for wakizashi, by Echizen Kinai school and has aoi leaf design, probably of Rokudai Takahashi generation (see Kinai downloads in NMB).  Blade looks to be in good condition with medium width hamon of gunome-midare pattern.  Need to measure length of edge (habaki to tip).   Iit is a complete sword, but not all original en-suite fittings.  More likely acquired in Japan end/after the war.

 

 

Thank you for all the fantastic information and reference!

[Ray Singer]

That is correct. 

[Kiipu]

Lets flesh out this translation a little bit more by adding some additional information that is not in the inscription.

伯耆国住吉幸 = Hōki no Kuni-jū Yoshiyuki = This sword was made by the swordsmith Yoshiyuki 吉幸, a resident 住 of Hōki Province 伯耆国.

Hōki Province

[mecox]

and go to Tottori (Hoki) and visit the incredible sand dunes:   https://www.Japan-guide.com/e/e8102.html

[chgruener]

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

Lets flesh out this translation a little bit more by adding some additional information that is not in the inscription.

伯耆国住吉幸 = Hōki no Kuni-jū Yoshiyuki = This sword was made by the swordsmith Yoshiyuki 吉幸, a resident 住 of Hōki Province 伯耆国.

Hōki Province

Now I understand, thank you!