Bizen koku...?

[Schneeds]

  On 11/16/2024 at 1:29 PM, Lukrez said:

 

 

 

Expand  

That picture is better, but I think you can likely get closer while still in focus, assuming you have a decent phone.  Try placing the blade down on a soft surface either in a well lit environment, or under a strong direct light source like a flash light/lamp.  If doing the latter, you'll want the light burst on the edge of the frame or just outside the window so you get highlighted details without over exposing the entirety of the image.  If just using wide diffused light, you'll have to play with angles of the camera relative to the blade surface to expose the details you want. Place your phone in manual camera mode, and set the focus distance to the shortest possible (.1 meter for example).  Put the camera right up to the blade, and slowly back out until you get into focus.  That will be your minimum focal length and the closest you can get.  That should help.

 

Also, he was comparing it to the finest work of what this high level smith is capable of.  That doesn't mean yours is poor in general

[Lukrez]

  On 11/16/2024 at 1:10 PM, Rivkin said:

The way one usually learns is you take NBTHK journal, look for kantei entries for Kiyomitsu and look at the explanations.

I can see now that one of Kiyomitsu's signatures can be a decent match for these kanji, which maybe the reason for the attribution - the writing style is not too common in Bizen.

This being said, Kiyomitsu's distinctive style is wide suguha with ko ashi, possibly ko choji. Most importantly he is a very high level master or Muromachi Bizen jigane, based on fine, bright itame.

The jigane in your blade I think is poor by comparison. He did some custom work which can be in Ichimonji style, can be similar to Oei Bizen, in which case his jigane is still fine but can be more subdued.

 

Expand  

 I guess a key point about the Jigane seems to be the less good polish, which is why the look of the Jigane can vary a lot, right?
 Even if you compare two identically interpreted blades from the same forge side by side. 
Does anyone have practical tips on what should be noticeable regardless of the finish of the polish, how to adequately identify the density and pattern of the forging structure? 
It doesn't work with old policies anyway, right?

[Rivkin]

90-95% are suguha with some variations (ko choji, "ashi" etc.). The variations are usually quite periodic, repetative, often small scale midare or small choji, or simply "ashi". Here its quite irregular, with large amplitude between ups and downs - its unusual for him/them (there are many generations, but there is a certain "Kiyomitsu" look). He did some "unusual" work though.

His jigane has excellent itame component - very regular, very bright. I can't see it. Bad polish, tired, photograph - can be many reasons.

Often there is also wide mokume, which is seen here.

If its tanto jigane will tend more towards very fine itame, but that's a different story.

[Lukrez]

Interesting.

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

This is just a personal opinion but I would just take the NBTHK attribution as probably the best opinion available. Similarily to mumei swords the attributions for such partial mei are not absolute. I believe their decision was that Kiyomitsu would be the most plausible opinion judged by their expert panel. I would just treat it as late Muromachi Bizen sword, could be Kiyomitsu, Sukesada, Munemitsu, Harumitsu etc. and the actual maker does not affect much to me as the mei is so partial. I do think it is a sword that has interesting hamon.

 

I can make a comparison to your other thread, as there are variations in Kiyomitsu collecting too. I believe Gorōzaemon is regarded as the best Late Muromachi Bizen Kiyomitsu smith. So aiming for the top you would look for very good sword that is signed with Gorōzaemon mei and dated.

 

As for NBTHK shinsa, they have quite recently put a limitation on how many swords they accept to H/TH shinsa session. It is currently at 1,600. They do run 4 Hozon/Tokubetsu Hozon blade shinsa per year so that is 6,400 swords. Then they seem to have gotten bit over 800 submissions for yearly Jūyō shinsa in recent years. Now this may sound like blasphemy coming out of low level collector like me but I believe the majority of items they process are not interesting. In general the majority of Japanese swords are not that interesting to me personally. Of course I do have quirky taste for historical swords vs. the "art sword crowd" (I personally hate to used the art sword as a term). I do think for many of the regular items NBTHK shinsa does not spend too much time on, I believe on the rare and important items they will spend more time even at Hozon level, as the sword is important.

 

To give some idea of rarity of NBTHK ranks I believe for blades currently c. 124,000 have achieved Hozon status and c. 77,000 blades have achieved Tokubetsu Hozon status. While it would of course be amazing to have info on each and every item, I understand they just don't have time and resources to write about each uninspiring mumei blade for example.

[Lukrez]

I would like to thank you for the many feedbacks and observations. In my research, I came across a katana by Masamitsu with very similar blade characteristics, unless any of you have an objection. Are there any plausible theories as to why in both cases the mei was partially removed, so that only the origin remains, but not the smith's name?"

 

https://www.aoijapan...th-nbthk-juyo-token/

[Natichu]

  On 11/26/2024 at 7:33 AM, Lukrez said:

I would like to thank you for the many feedbacks and observations. In my research, I came across a katana by Masamitsu with very similar blade characteristics, unless any of you have an objection. Are there any plausible theories as to why in both cases the mei was partially removed, so that only the origin remains, but not the smith's name?"

 

https://www.aoijapan...th-nbthk-juyo-token/

Expand  

I would have thought it was only shortened that much, so only the topmost characters of the mei remain. 

[nulldevice]

  On 11/26/2024 at 7:33 AM, Lukrez said:

I would like to thank you for the many feedbacks and observations. In my research, I came across a katana by Masamitsu with very similar blade characteristics, unless any of you have an objection. Are there any plausible theories as to why in both cases the mei was partially removed, so that only the origin remains, but not the smith's name?"

 

https://www.aoijapan...th-nbthk-juyo-token/

Expand  

 

My unromantic and boring thought:
Samurai: "Hey can you shorten this by about 3 sun?"
Swordsmith: "Okay"
 

[Lukrez]

  On 11/26/2024 at 6:24 PM, nulldevice said:

 

My unromantic and boring thought:
Samurai: "Hey can you shorten this by about 3 sun?"
Swordsmith: "Okay"
 

Expand  

Nomen est Omen😉