Wakizashi - how to assign the period by shape?

[Andi B.]

Hello all,

 

here is a wakizashi which I can not assign to a special period. I know the first thing to look at should be the overall shape.

 

 

Whole Length about 22.8"(58cm)

Nagasa about 17.7"(45cm)

Sori about 0.6"(1.5cm)

Motohaba about 1.1"(2.9cm)

 

I my books there are only few shape indications and examples for the different periods which seems to be too sketchy (especially for wakizashi)...

So I hoover between Kanbun and Genroku but era but for Genroku it is too short (?) and for Kanbun the sori is too deep (?)

(I do not know how stringent these indications for special era's were carried out by the smiths...)

 

Any hints and tricks how to approach a correct attribution (your knowledge , checklists, reference images, books etc.)?

 

Thank you!

 

(Please do not comment on the overall condition and the "katanakake" of this blade...)

[Jean]

I my books there are only few shape indications and examples for the different periods which seems to be too sketch

 

Andi,

 

Try the Nyusatsu Kantei book by Paul Martin (a must have), There are pictures of Tachi/Katana shapes through different Eras and the same for Tanto/Wakizashi

[estcrh]

Andi, I liked your article on making a shira-saya etc. http://www.zatoichi.de/tanto_01/index.htm

[Tokaido]

Hello Andi,

the disadvantage of the most books are the small and scetchy pictures/drawings as you allready mentioned.

It is not easy to compare a 2 inch pic in a book to a 18 inch sword in your hand!

 

The answer to your question is simple: do it yourself!

There are a lot of sites like aoi-art oder seiyudo who provide high resolution pics of full size sword fotos.

They show very little disortion of the shape.

 

Save them, invert them (to get rid of the black background) and print them out in scale 1:1 on a large

size plotter. Or print them on you DIN A4 printer and glue the parts together.

This will provide you with a collection of full size sword "maps" to compare with you own swords.

I have done this several times and it is fun! You can make your own charts for wakizashi, tanto, yoroidoshi etc.

 

Another advantage is the effect of intense studying the stuff: collecting the pictures, selecting the

references -best are dated swords, use only ubu blades if possible, collect sword-pics of the same time

period, but by different areas - eg. Osaka Shinto and Edo Shinto differ in shape although made during

the same time!

 

It is not a quick and comfortable way for the lazy ones, but its worth the efforts.

 

Greetings

Andreas

[Andi B.]

Andreas,

 

thank you for the simple answer - you're right: a book is good but it is better to learn "compulorily" by collecting and sorting information (from books, internet, friends...)

 

### Off Topic ###

Andi, I liked your article on making a shira-saya etc. http://www.zatoichi.de/tanto_01/index.htm

If you are interested - here are a few "teasers pics" of my second tanto project (I will upload the complete site when the blade is finished...)

 

http://www.zatoichi.de/tanto_02/t02_habaki_g.htm

http://www.zatoichi.de/tanto_02/t02_saya_g.htm

[John A Stuart]

So, Andi, what did you reckon finally was the period of your wakizashi?

 

Shinto-Kanbun

 

John

[Andi B.]

John,

 

I would guess Genroku due to the deep sori (seen in Paul Martin's Guide to Nyusatsu Kantei book...Jean, I have it ).

 

When you say Kanbun, which characteristics point to this era?

 

#############

Hmmm...I have a similar question on a German forum (it's a bit easier to communicate...) with three blades.

One of these is the wakizashi of the first post (currently without any answer - I should guess first) and an other one is this - which is attributed to Kanbun Shinto (small sori, a slender sakiba and the smith's name) - and it's shape is different to the one on the top.. :

 

Lenght: 670 mm

Nagasa: 545 mm

Sori: 13 mm

Kasane: 6,5 mm

Motohaba: 31 mm

Sakihaba: 20 mm

Hamon: midare based on notare (?)

Mei: Yamashiro Kuni Ju Kiyotsuna

[John A Stuart]

I was looking primarily at the relation of the motohaba to sakihaba. Your post didn't include the sakihaba and it looked to be narrower. The sori a little deep, but, not much. I agree the second one being Kanbun as well. The difference in sori being 0.2 cm. or 2mm. John

[Andi B.]

Thank you John!

 

...I have to look at some more blades of these periods to teach my eyes to see the subtle diffenences.

And to assess/weight the relevance of the different characteristics for a correct assignment.

 

Ok, while we are at it, here is the third and last blade with a similar shape, so it could be Kanbun too...(?)

And it could be Mino, later generations of Kanemoto school due to the sanbon-sugi hamon...(?)

 

Length: 618 mm

Nagasa: 476 mm

Sori: 15 mm

Kasane: 7,5 mm

Motohaba: 33 mm

Sakihaba: 22 mm

Hamon: sanbon sugi

Boshi: o-maru (?)

 

[Jean]

In fact Mino was not the only one to adopt sanbonsugi

 

Have a look : swords/wakizashi/ sold Sukesada

 

http://www.ricecracker.com/

[Markus]

Due to the shape of the nakago-jiri, we should think about Kaga as well.

Darani Katsukuni is also known for his sanbonsugi hamon.

The third generation was working around Kanbun.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Andi, I was trying to formulate a mathematical formulae to help identify wakizashi by indexing common curvature to standard lengths and came up with this formulae.

(Depth of sori/ Length of nagasa)x 100= index.

The Kanbun Index would be 1.8-1.95

The Genroku Index would be 2.7-3.4

The first wakizashi, I guess wakizashi #2 has an index of 3.3 which falls within the Genroku period typology. Motohaba/Sakihaba ratio would define absolutely.

Wakizashi #1 has an index of 1.9, Kanbun range

Wakizashi #3 has an index of 2.4 and is between both standard ranges, so again the Motohaba/Sakihaba ratio must be definitive.

So, the first one mathematically could be a Genroku period wakizashi.

Can you give the sakihaba of the one in question to see how that stacks up. John

[Andi B.]

John,

here are the dates of the blade:

Length: 578 mm

Nagasa: 448 mm

Sori: 16 mm

Kasane: 6,5 mm

Motohaba: 30 mm

Sakihaba: 21 mm

Hamon: gunome choji (?)

 

[John A Stuart]

Thank you. It is as I thought, all three swords exhibit the same relative taper from motohaba to sakihaba. John

[Tokaido]

Hi Andi,

Wakizashi 2 leaves me with an impression of saki sori....Maybe I'm mislead by the uneven distributed lighting on the blades length.

So the short nagasa, the tapering and the deep (saki) sori reminds me of sue Koto, up to very early shinto.

The shaping of the nakago together with the hamon (a kind of round gunome midare) may point to a Mino origin like Kanefusa. But thats only a very wild guess (as always: statments about blades based on fotos only are not reliable

Compare the shape of this sword with your Waki2:

http://www.aoi-art.com/kantei/kantei78.html

(This Kunimichi looks like a pre Kanei one, if I look at the signature)

 

Greetings

Andreas

[Andi B.]

Andreas,

 

that's great what you found out: I got another appraisal (based on these photos) and it goes - conditionally - in the same direction for wakizashi No 2: Sue Kote / Early Shinto, hamon similiar to Kanefusa, Mino Den (and even an attribution to Early Echizen Seki).