Hizen Konuka Hada

[Bryce]

G'day Guys,

I have never handled a hizen blade, only studied photographs, so I am coming from a position of ignorance, but there seems to be a huge range of what people call konuka. Some looks like very tight koitame to others that look closer to itame. How is it different from the very tight koitame you often find in Shinshinto Bizen works? Here is a shot of a Bizen Yokoyama Sukenaga blade to illustrate what I mean.

Cheers,

Bryce

 

[Bryce]

Bizen on left. Hizen Tadahiro on right.

Cheers,

Bryce

 

[Toryu2020]

Konuka is rice bran - imagine that it is used in a pillow - press the pillow tightly and the grains all line up and "poke" thru the fabric - the pattern you see is repeating tiny concentric circles - this is where the name comes from...

 

-t

[DoTanuki yokai]

Konuka Hada is more about the Jinie that is not visible in this pictures and less about the welding pattern.

[Rivkin]

I feel its another case when Japanese introduce a noun to mark something specific, but westerners would just see it as one element within many similar ones.

Its very hard to judge Hizen away from Osaka based on hada alone. If its a specific smith like Hizen Tadayoshi the third generation, maybe you can, but if you mix seven Hizen blades from different smiths with seven Osaka I would be very hard pressed to tell which is which based on hada alone.

Yes, every dealer will write "and you can definitely feel its konuka hada!" when selling Hizen.

You can judge Hizen versus Bungo on hada though.

[Bryce]

G'day Rivkin,

You are right that the pictures I am mostly looking at come from dealers' pages. If a blade is Hizen the hada is called konuka, but to my eyes, Hizen blades have a very large range of hada types. I guess my problem is that not all Hizen blades actually have konuka hada, yet the dealers will all call it Konuka. The same looking hada on another blade may be called Osaka or just koitame or komokume if the blade comes from another school.

Cheers,

Bryce

[Nobody]

  On 2/28/2024 at 9:06 PM, Toryu2020 said:

Konuka is rice bran - imagine that it is used in a pillow - press the pillow tightly and the grains all line up and "poke" thru the fabric - the pattern you see is repeating tiny concentric circles - this is where the name comes from...

 

-t

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Your understanding of Konuka is rather rice husks. Konuka (rice bran) looks more like powder.

 

[Toryu2020]

Thank you

[Jacques]

To understand what konuka hada is, which is nothing other than a variety of ko-itame, it is absolutely essential to see it with a hizento in hand. All the rest is just meaningless talk. This is not just for konuka hada, but for all special hada.