Jussi Ekholm Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 I admit I have always liked the kantei threads a lot and made few of them over the years. So I thought it would be also fun to start a year with one. Unforutunately I don't have any items in my collection that I could post as a kantei item, I will improvise from the massive amount of books I have. This is not too serious as the pictures are far from perfect and my text description is not either. This is supposed to be fun experience and possibly make you open a book or 2, some may of course get it correctly by just quick glance. Then of course after the reveal we can have some discussion in the thread. I will post the answer some time on 11.1.2025. I don't know my schedule for that day yet, so it can be any time during the day. Type: Tachi Nagasa: 77,3 cm Sori: 2,2 cm Motohaba: 2,5 cm Sakihaba: 1,5 cm Kissaki: 2,1 cm Nakago: 18,0 cm This is a shinogi-zukuri tachi with iori-mune. It is narrow style and width of moto and saki are different. Sugata picture is shown. Jigane is tight ko-itame hada. Hamon is shallow ko-midare with some ko-chōji. There is yaki-otoshi. Bōshi is thin ko-maru. Unfortunately, my pictures of hada and hamon are not showing details and I do not have the knowledge is tiny details to give more accurate description. There is horimono as seen in the picture. Horimono are commonly seen in works of this smith. Nakago is ubu and has 3 holes and there is a long signature. Usually this smith signed katana-mei. 7 1 Quote
oli Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Aoe or maybe Ko-Aoe, i am not shure because of the yakiotoshi. My guess as noob thanks for the kantei Oli 1 Quote
Natichu Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Thank you very much Jussi! Unfortunately I don't have many books to dip into, so went with internet digging instead. As I found the sword itself, I won't post my guess as that's entirely based on internet luck and not on any kantei knowledge-based skill. But very much enjoyed digging into things over a morning coffee, so thank you! Great way to start the new year. 1 Quote
Tsuku Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Spoiler The elegant sugata and delicate ko-kissaki right away puts it in early Kamakura. It is difficult to see much detail of the jigane from the photos, but the horimono is very iconic. With all this and especially with the hint that the smith often made horimono in this style, I will say Bungo Yukihira. 1 Quote
GeorgeLuucas Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Spoiler Just going off the images: The sugata and kissaki had me searching my reference material for Heian era tachi - then my searching evolved to the Kamikura era and Ko-Senjuin. No luck there, until the yakiotoshi helped narrow my search in another direction. I use my library and internet. I'm not good enough at Kentai yet (or memory ) to attribute individual smith lineages - but i'm getting better at eras and schools - which helped me narrow my search and also land on Bungo Yukihira. This is an explanation of my novice Kentai train of thought Cheers, -Sam (PS. Thanks for these. They are a lot of fun.) 1 Quote
Jacques D. Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 i know this sword it's a rare one with a tachi mei, it's signed 豊後國行平作 1 1 Quote
Caracal Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Bungo Yukihira Teikei (定慶)1200’s to 1220’s, early Kamakura period Property of Futarasan Shrine Yukihira 1 Quote
atm Posted January 1 Report Posted January 1 Spoiler Before looking at the bids/guesses of others, I searched Sesko’s eSwordsmiths for smiths often having yuki-otoshi, which took me to Bungo Yukihira, among others. According to Sesko, many Yukihira swords have horimono. As a complete novice (and now having reviewed the other posts), I am glad to see I am not alone in this attribution. 1 Quote
nulldevice Posted January 2 Report Posted January 2 Spoiler The sugata and katana-mei first led me to Aoe as many of those smiths have longer katana mei, especially Yoshitsugu and Moritsugu who signed long mei and also signed katana-mei with occasional horimono. However, the yaki-otoshi was referenced by Nagayama as being a key part of Kyusho area Saikado smiths. I have examples of both So Sadahide and Bunko Yukihira that have similar sugata and yaki-otoshi. I'm leaning towards Yukihira just because the examples I have all have well done horimono and the Sadahide example I have does not. I know that's not a good kantei to just base it off of that but that would be my guess. 1 Quote
Benjamin Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 Thank you very much for the kantei Jussi, this one threw me in valley of despair but here is my guess Spoiler Bungo Yukihira - Sugata and Funbari directed me toward early Koto. - Jihada and hamon... I was blocked here.. so many smiths working ko-itame, ko-mokume, suguha-based or ko-midare hamon... but yaki-otoshi directed me toward Bungo (thanks to Nakahara's book) - Boshi is consistent - All the works from this smith I found were with horimono - And he frequently signed katana mei 1 Quote
Alex A Posted January 5 Report Posted January 5 Spent a bit of time on this the other day and was leaning towards Ko Aoe, maybe later. Though then read somewhere that horimono were pretty rare with this school, which kind of put me off. Anyways, thats where i was at. 1 Quote
Jussi Ekholm Posted January 10 Author Report Posted January 10 The answer is 豊後国行平 Bungo Yukihira and the answers were starting to be quite one sided. I think the text was pointing fairly easily towards Yukihira as so many got the answer right and many even knew the actual sword. This sword is indeed the Jūyō Bunkazai tachi of Futarasan Jinja, and that was one reason I chose this one as I have personally seen it at the shrine in 2023, and their book has fairly good photos. Unfortunately, the photo of a photo didn’t come out too well so text description was better. The sword also has dedication inscription on the blade as it was dedicated to the shrine in 1461. I tried to mask it by taking a sugata picture with flash on top of that. The katana-mei in tachi is usually hinting towards Aoe as many wrote down their reasoning. There are some other smiths that made use of it too. Bungo Yukihira is actually quite rare smith, I have been lucky to see 6 tachi by him in various shrines and museums in Japan. The 3rd oldest dated Japanese sword is made by Yukihira. It has a dated signature of 1205, unfortunately the sword is saiha. I was lucky to see the sword at NBTHK in 2023. It is still a remarkable historical sword. I have so far gotten 46 signed works by Yukihira for data. 31 of these signed swords feature a horimono, so it can be very often seen in the works of this smith. Unfortunately, I lack the understanding in giving out fine details in workmanship. From sugata and written description people were going for early Kamakura which was really good thing. I think Bungo Yukihira might be a rare one for kantei as his blades are so rare and highly appreciated in general. Making these is a lot of fun and I think I will try to come up with another one fairly soon. Perhaps I try to jump out of my comfort zone and not do an old sword next time. However the difficult thing is that as the sword should be typical for the smith, I don’t really know Edo period smiths that well. I’ll try to make an interesting next one too. 10 Quote
Alex A Posted January 11 Report Posted January 11 Thanks Jussi, as always some folks get it right, well done to those. Quote
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