Help with sayagaki

[Roland]

Dear NMB colleagues,

 

interested in gendaito I got offered a dated Ikeda Yasumitsu (one of the better smiths of the Yasukuni shrine). My knowledge of the Japanese written language is so worse that I'm not able to decipher the sayagaki. So if anyone could be helpful I would appreciate this very much.

 

Here are two photos of both sides of the shirasaya...

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for the inconveniences! I should have turned the pics to the upright position before uploading...)

[saipan59]

Here's some:

 

Yasumitsu

Showa 13 nen 8 gatsu kichi nichi (a good day in August, 1938)

Ha naga(sa) 2 shaku 2 sun 1 bun kore (the length)

Yasukuni Jinja uchi Nihon Token Kyokai

 

Heisei 21 nen 3 gatsu kichi nichi (a good day in March, 2009)

(apparently the name of the person who wrote the sayagaki)

 

BTW, I used to have an Ikeda Yasumitsu, dated 1937.

 

Pete

[Toryu2020]

I think it reads;

 

Yasumitsu Ha-cho 2 shaku Issun Ichibu san rin kore ari Yasukuni Jinja nai Nihonto Tanren Kai Shunin Toko nari

 

All is as Pete translated but the "something" at the end which I think means "Chief swordsmith of the Nihonto Tanren Kai (which was located within) the precincts of the Yasukuni Jinja

 

The name below the date on the ura is;

 

Soshu-sai ki (Soshu-sai recorded [this]) this is the Go of the calligrapher, don't know if he was a To-ken personality...

 

and I think the Tsuki-hi should be romanized as Kichi-jitsu not kichi nichi

 

not really sure on the Shonin kanji as they are hard to see in the photo...

 

-tom

[Roland]

Thanks a lot, dear friends,

 

that was very helpful. I'm indeed interested in this Yasukuni-to. It seems to be one of the better works of Ikeda Yasumitsu. What's your personal opinion about the work of Yasumitsu and accordingly the Yasukuni-to?

[saipan59]

  Roland said:

Thanks a lot, dear friends, that was very helpful. I'm indeed interested in this Yasukuni-to. It seems to be one of the better works of Ikeda Yasumitsu. What's your personal opinion about the work of Yasumitsu and accordingly the Yasukuni-to?

Thanks Tom, for your better transliteration - I messed up a few things (it's what happens when I wing it on my own, without getting my wife's help...).

 

My recollection of my Yasumitsu (I sold it about 15 years ago):

It was a bit "short and thin" for my taste - I guess I like a little more "meat".

It was suguha and muji-hada, so there was not much to look at - it was quality work (I think), but not very interesting.

Mine had several marks in the mune from where it had been hit by a semi-sharp object (I'm guessing a bayonet?).

Last I heard, it was owned by Chris Bowen in Japan.

 

Pete