Today is a red letter day. A personal audience with the 'Albrecht-Masamune'

[Lewis B]

Its not often an opportunity presents itself to handle a blade by arguably the most famous Japanese swordsmith, Masamune. The owner was Albrecht Von Roretz and he brought this blade along with 60 others from Japan in the late 1800's, after several years spent establishing a modern Western health system during the Meiji period. He had a keen interest in Nihonto which makes this particular Masamune worthy of a hands on viewing. Markus Sesko was supposed to inspect the collection but left for the USA before getting the chance. There are certainly some questions as to whether this is a genuine blade by the Master but given Dr Von Roretz's status, knowledge around the subject etc, its worth giving it a careful look.

I will ask if I can take some photos and if possible, view the Nakago.  

 

 

[Rivkin]

Very aggressive koshi-zori curvature may be not too consistent with Masamune style. Out of polish Muromachi blade is suspected.

Overall almost nothing of sword value has been exported from Japan before Compton's time. Even MFA collection held in very high regard when you handle the blades, they are big names but aside from one or two pieces are lesser works. It is not at the level of high end modern private collections.

Until almost now having foreigners to take good old blades out of Japan was considered unthinkable.

In 1900 aside from junk and soft metal tosogu, even high class, it was just not happening. Plus collectors back then knew nothing. Even today its still very much a sensitive issue.

[Lewis B]

Well you could well be right. Even so I had an absolute blast and got to see the entire collection of 60 blades of which 40 I removed from their shirasaya and inspected. The overall condition I have to say was a little upsetting. The blades have been languishing in a storage room since Anton Petermandl donated them to the museum in the late 19th century. 

The curator was more than gracious and allowed me to remove the tsuka and inspect the nakago of the 40 blades. I spent 3 hours in the room with the swords that were stored in 4 pull out drawers and could have enjoyed 3 days. 

When people say old polish that would have described these blades, probably rarely out of their saya in over 100 years. 

There were 2 Heian era blades and a total of 4 or 5 blades that had signatures. Then we can judge if Albrecht von Roretz had been taken for a ride.

The Masamune is in desperate need for a polish. So much Ware and uchiko like scratch patterns it was almost impossible to see the finer detail hiding underneath. At first blush it looked like a good blade, whether it is up to the standard of the top Soshu master is yet to be determined. The motohaba was approx 2.9cm.

I will post the photos I took of the sayagaki for the 30 or so blades that had attributions and the Mei on the Nakago. Maybe those more knowledgeable  will be able to say who wrote the sayagaki.

My first cursory inspection suggested there were maybe 5 blades that could benefit and justify the post of a proper polish. One Bizen blade and what might be a Go seemed especially worthy. 

 

Here's a teaser. I was a little perturbed a Masamune would have a copper habaki though.

 

[Lewis B]

Katana/tachi #1

 

 

Katana/tachi #2 omote

 

Katana/tachi #2 ura

 

Blade 3 

 

Tanto. This one had some age. My favourite short blade (sorry for the blurriness? 

\

 

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

For signatures I would guess

 

1. 兼貞 - Kanesada

2. 備州長船XX / 天正XX年八月日 - Bishū Osafune XX (c.1573-1592), cannot identify smith or year with certainity.

3. 越前国下坂貞次 / 大和大掾藤原正則 - Echizen no Kuni Shimosaka Sadatsugu / Yamato no Daijō Fujiwara Masanori

4. 行平作 / Yukihira Saku

[Lewis B]

8 minutes ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

For signatures I would guess

 

1. 兼貞 - Kanesada

2. 備州長船XX / 天正XX年八月日 - Bishū Osafune XX (c.1573-1592), cannot identify smith or year with certainity.

3. 越前国下坂貞次 / 大和大掾藤原正則 - Echizen no Kuni Shimosaka Sadatsugu / Yamato no Daijō Fujiwara Masanori

4. 行平作 / Yukihira Saku

Thanks. So could #4 be the "Demonic Yukihira"?

Yukihira (行平), who is traditionally dated to the Genkyū era (元久, 1204-1206)

He seems to have been quite a character

 

I took some video footage of 1-3, and these had some nice activity in the jihada visible even though in poor polish. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I feel you had wonderful experince Lewis. Many people me included would love to experience things like this, and I am very happy you are posting info about the items and pictures to the community. Uncovering items and studying them is something that is very rare to experience. Personally I would not be that stressed about the quality of the items, just the experience in general would be a special one.

 

Even though some blades would not be what they were described to be, they could still be nice items in general. It is extremely difficult to judge from just the picture of the mei alone. I do think the Kanesada could very well be a plausible signature. I am not liking the Sadatsugu / Masanori signature. I am not liking the Yukihira signature either, I could think that if it is a legitimate signature it might be some unknown much later Yukihira. Of course this is all just speculation based on single picture of signature and I am not even well versed on any of the smiths in question.

 

Still in general it is extremely fun to research and look into the subject together as a group

 

 

 

[Lewis B]

Yes truly an exceptional and unique experience, probably once in a lifetime opportunity to see a 150 year old collection that really hasn't seen the light of day. Bit of an Indiana Jones moment  

But I think Kirill hit it on the head. There were a lot of low/mid range quality pieces that might have been upsold either through sayagaki attribution or gimei. I'll post the attributions and they should add a little more seasoning to the broth.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Great opportunity, if you're able to share the videos you would have a highly interested audience. 

[Lewis B]

7 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Great opportunity, if you're able to share the videos you would have a highly interested audience. 

Currently continuing my vacation in Austria and Slovenia but will get to this when I have some time. Its a little more involved than posting a pic. I got video of the Masamune, the Bishu Osafune (#2) and the Sadatsugu (#3). The trouble is that these blades have 100 year oil residue smeared on much of the blades which is now solidified and sticky. They really needed a wipe with isopropanol. 

[Lewis B]

22 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I am not liking the Yukihira signature either

 

 

Confirmed by another very respected expert. Shame, it really seems that dealers were offloading blades with gimei to unknowledgeable buyers. The expert inspected a "Sadamune" from the Petermandl collection that was also gimei.

Regarding the Masamune he said it was highly suspicious that all the mekugi ana are of a similar size. The suspicion being that the holes were punched at the same time rather than at different points in its history. This had never occurred to me but makes sense if you wanted to deceive and give a blade more historical context than it really experienced. So rather than being a red letter day, its turned out to be a rose coloured one. 

At least the museum won't feel the pressure to invest large sums to polish the blades.

[BIG]

Hi Lewis, great job. Enough history and unearthed swords to write a book..

 

Thought after my old thread it`s work for a little 4 man team including 2 photo specialists to clean and oil and photograph and stay for some days ..

I also had the feeling that „some“ treasures waiting for explorers.

 

Best regards

[Lewis B]

And just to complete the reference matter, in case anyone is interested. First one is on the Masamune.

 

[Lewis B]

[Lewis B]

Just to complete the story, I passed on my thoughts on the collection in a detailed reply to the curator. I thought given the limited funds available the museum should know what they have and that many of the pieces are not what they purport to be. eg the signed Yukihira tanto. The Masamune is worth more detailed inspection but in light of the entire collection, its highly unlikely to be a real Masamune. Perhaps another Soshuden Masterwork piece and that if the museum wanted they could have a trained togishi open up a window to expose the jihada and hataraki. If worthy of a full polish to have it returned to Japan for a high end mukansa polish. In its current state almost impossible to glean any further insight. 

I'm guessing the Curator didn't appreciate the feedback and never responded...... but better to know right.

 

Btw a preeminent expert inspected another sword, which wasn't at the Steyr museum when I visited, and signed Sadamune. He says that was also Gimei. 

[Gakusee]

Good thread, HB! Thank you for the efforts to document the collection and for sharing your images here. Indeed, a lot of big names mentioned by you and on the sayagaki….I am also not sure how one can draw conclusions looking at unclear steel covered by a congealed oil layer….anyway. Kudos!

[Lewis B]

This was a vid of a blade with an interesting hamon. One of the better ones from a condition perspective. At least it wasn't covered in solidified oil and scratches 

 

 

[Rivkin]

Masamune is probably Muromachi Masahiro or the likes (they usually are), this one is probably sue Bizen, but both are wild guesses.

[Lewis B]

3 hours ago, Rivkin said:

Masamune is probably Muromachi Masahiro or the likes (they usually are), this one is probably sue Bizen, but both are wild guesses.

This was the sorry state of the 'Masamune'

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/46PcnciJYVE