Help with a Wakizashi

[Lookin4answers]

I have 5 samurai swords that have been in my family’s or my personal possession for the last 50 years. I am interested in learning as much as I can about each of these swords.

 

The first sword I would like information on is a Wakizashi. I have included as many pictures as possible, although I realize the quality of the pictures leaves a great deal to be desired. I have also included as many of the “specs” for the sword as I can ascertain based upon my novice level of knowledge and ability arising mostly from the information gleaned from a number of select sites. Note that the pictures of the boshi are less than ideal, but someone has done some polishing on that area making it very difficult to capture the hamon details on one side in that area.

 

The sword is a Shinogi-zukuri Wakizashi, based upon a total length of 56.9 cm. The Nagasa length is 45.4 cm.

The Kasane (Motokasane measured at Mune) is 5mm in thickness and the Kasane (Motokasane measured at the Shinogi) is also 5mm.

The Mihaba and Motohaba both measure 2.7cm. The Sakihaba measures 2cm. Is this considered a mild or moderate taper?

There are 2 Mekugiana, one clearly punched and a bit oblong. The other appears to have been drilled.

To the best of my ability to determine, the Hada appears to be Itame in the Ji, and most likely the same in the Shinogi-ji, although it may be Masame. The polish on the Shinogi-ji has been disrupted enough with parallel scratches running most of the length of the blade making it difficult to make an absolute determination.

Sori=1.4cm. Toriizori form. Is this considered a moderate curvature for a sword of this length?

Chu-kissaki.

Hikushi Mune.

The Hamon appears to me to be Midare.

The Habuchi(??) is Nioi in what I would call a fairly bright narrow line. It also seems to have a number of other interesting features including Tobiyaki.

The Boshi is hard to visualize on one side, but on the other it looks to be Komaru.

The Nakago is Ubu Futsu-gata.

The sword is Mumei

The polish is raw.

 

I would be interested to know when this sword was made, in what region or school, and or potentially what smith. Any other details would be appreciated as well. My best guess is maybe mid-Edo period, Shinto sword era, but I have no clue where or who since so many of the features seem to be widely present in many swords. I could also be completely wrong, so please forgive my ignorance if I’m way off.

Thanks for any insight you can provide on this sword. I appreciate the enormous body of knowledge this site possesses and the willingness to help educate.

[Lookin4answers]

A few more pictures.

[Rivkin]

Looks like more or less classic sue seki sword, late Muromachi.

[Nihonto student]

Hello Hunter,

 

grouped gunome, togari and some tobiyaki combined with the classic Muromachi sugata... it is a blade from the sue Seki school of the Mino tradition.
Arriving at a single attribution is much more complicated, stylistically there is a lot of similarity between Seki smiths in the late Muromachi.

 

Regards,

 

Giordy

[Lookin4answers]

Wow gentlemen! Thank you for your quick responses. I appreciate details of some of the underlying factors that helped form your conclusions. I don't know if I would have ever arrived at any reasonable estimation of source or date, as you can see from my shot in the dark "Mid-Edo,Shinto" guess. Just identifying the variety of features in the Hamon was a bit mind boggling, let alone trying to determine the pattern in the Hada and Boshi. Measurements I can make, but the more nuanced determinations are quite a ways beyond me. I have to ask if the information I provided was accurate and sufficient for your evaluation, or is there additional information I could have provided. It took me the better part of a week to prepare my inquiry, reading the many great articles, especially by Markus Sesko, taking pictures, sizing pictures, orienting pictures, trying to learn at least the rudimentary terminology, etc. I have 4 additional swords that I would like to submit and want to make sure I do it properly so I don't waste your time. I will also work to find a way to provide better pictures where possible. 

[Rivkin]

I feel like a cruel anti-hero dissing traditional dojos but your description was proper, laborous, mostly accurate but not very useful.

Kasane is important when the blade in suspected to be Nambokucho or earlier. Generally with Muromachi or later dimensions alone don't tell you much.

Itame does not tell you much. Its rough and its alone can be a distinctive Muromachi trait.

There seems to be a faint bo utsuri (?). Muromachi.

Its periodic gunome with groupings and well defined togari. This alone is sufficient. Mino is not so much judged by jigane, unless you count masame in shinogi-ji...

Pictures were ok, maybe the overall shot was a bit dark and indistinctive.

[Lookin4answers]

Thank you for the details. They will guide me in my future investigations and perhaps inform my submissions. I wasn't in fact sure that the "peaked" features actually qualified as Togari since most of the examples I saw as references were seemingly more pointed and these seemed kind of "soft". My other blades are all Shinogi-zukuri, but I'll provide the Kasane details for them on the off chance they offer some hint. None of the blades is in really great polish so I expect they'll all be defined in pretty general terms anyway. Again, many thanks to you and Nihonto student for all of your assistance. 

[Nihonto student]

Hunter, you're on the right way, it's clear that you've spent some time on it and this is in itself a sign of a good attitude, keep going!!.

Some considerations:
the sori is related to the nagasa, a sori of 1.4 in relation to the nagasa 45.4 is an accentuated curvature, if you had a nagasa of 70 with the same sori it would instead be moderate.
Regarding the hamon the term midare is generic (Midare = irregular) practically all hamon are midare with the exception of the pure suguha. In your case we have a Gunome midare, Kirill (Rightly) used the word periodic to describe it, this indicates that even if the individual patterns are irregular (Midare) and differ from each other they still tend to repeat themselves constantly.
I look forward to seeing your other blades soon ;).

 

Regards,

 

Giordy

[Geraint]

Dear Hunter.

 

Nicely put by Giordy, and just to add to his comment, many resources illustrate and name hamon but very few swordsmiths are so obliging as to stick to the rules.  Most descriptions of hamon in Japanese sources are much more complex, using phrases like, 'suguha tending to notare', gentle gunome midare with isolated areas of togari', 'exuberant choji midare becoming more restrained toward the monouchi', and so forth.  I suppose that it is more a case of describing what is in the sword rather than seeking to classify it into a set of boxes.

 

Enjoy the journey!

 

All the best.

[GeorgeLuucas]

Good info here, and cool sword Hunter. I am also looking forward to seeing your other blades. 

Nice to see more Nihonto collectors in the Northwest.
A kind hello from your southern neighbor (Oregon)!

Welcome to the forum,
Cheers,
-Sam

[Lookin4answers]

On 5/23/2024 at 12:13 AM, Nihonto student said:

Hunter, you're on the right way, it's clear that you've spent some time on it and this is in itself a sign of a good attitude, keep going!!.

Some considerations:
the sori is related to the nagasa, a sori of 1.4 in relation to the nagasa 45.4 is an accentuated curvature, if you had a nagasa of 70 with the same sori it would instead be moderate.
Regarding the hamon the term midare is generic (Midare = irregular) practically all hamon are midare with the exception of the pure suguha. In your case we have a Gunome midare, Kirill (Rightly) used the word periodic to describe it, this indicates that even if the individual patterns are irregular (Midare) and differ from each other they still tend to repeat themselves constantly.
I look forward to seeing your other blades soon ;).

 

Regards,

 

Giordy

Giordy, Thanks so much for the additional specifics regarding the Sori and its relationship to the Nagasa. I really couldn't find anything that spoke to the issue in all of the reference material I reviewed. Also, your further explanation regarding the Hamon is very helpful. Other swords to follow as I can generate pictures and data.

[Lookin4answers]

On 5/23/2024 at 6:29 AM, GeorgeLuucas said:

Good info here, and cool sword Hunter. I am also looking forward to seeing your other blades. 

Nice to see more Nihonto collectors in the Northwest.
A kind hello from your southern neighbor (Oregon)!

Welcome to the forum,
Cheers,
-Sam

Thank you Sam. I was surprised that there didn't seem to be any Nihonto clubs or groups here in the PNW that I could find. I would have thought with the heavy population of retired military specifically near Ft. Lewis that some kind of group would formed. Nearly all of the swords I have were acquired by my father from military personnel in the late 1960's and early 70's, and most of them obtained them from immediate post war Japan. 

[Lookin4answers]

On 5/23/2024 at 12:23 AM, Geraint said:

Dear Hunter.

 

Nicely put by Giordy, and just to add to his comment, many resources illustrate and name hamon but very few swordsmiths are so obliging as to stick to the rules.  Most descriptions of hamon in Japanese sources are much more complex, using phrases like, 'suguha tending to notare', gentle gunome midare with isolated areas of togari', 'exuberant choji midare becoming more restrained toward the monouchi', and so forth.  I suppose that it is more a case of describing what is in the sword rather than seeking to classify it into a set of boxes.

 

Enjoy the journey!

 

All the best.

Thanks Geraint. A great piece of knowledge to add to my toolbox.

[GeorgeLuucas]

It's a shame there's not a club up here, I was surprised too. There's a few of us collectors scattered about. I've thought about trying to start a club, but I'm just too busy. Maybe someday. (But crossing my fingers someone else starts a PNW club before then ).

 

A great alternative is the Northern California Japanese Sword Club. They do zoom meetings and offer a bunch of other great resources. I have yet to join their meetings, but I just recently renewed my membership, thanks to a advice from @Toryu2020

http://www.ncjsc.org/

All the best,

-Sam