confirm

[Stephen]

working on this on another board, would like to confirm Sa Masatsugu kore tsuka,

any info on this smith? gendaito? blade has deeper sorri than gunto, and his light makes the nakago lighter, alot of new Gendaito coming to light, do you think this is one?

 

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=420454

[John A Stuart]

"Sa Masatsugu Kore Saku", yes, your 'tsuka' is misspelled. Is he not one of the smiths in the Gendai Toko Meikan, I do not have this book. Masatsugu p. 130,

Masatsugu p. 145, Masatsugu p. 186. John

[Stephen]

yes type error Tsukuru or saku, with the deep sori maybe not gendaito? waiting on more pix

[Stephen]

So you Gendaito guys dont know of a Sa Munetsugu?

[george trotter]

The "Masa" looks a lot like kokoro (heart/mind) which is read SHIN. Thus, it looks like SA SHIN SHI to me (but "Left heart/mind feeling" does not make sense to me). None of the Masatsugu's mei mentioned in Gendai Toko Taikan are done this way, and none used SA. Hawley also did not have any combination of these meis. Sooo..... I think we need more pics (front view) and of blade to be able to give opinion on mei and age and type of kitae.

Regards,

George.

[Stephen]

Hi George

 

heres the link again, shows better cuts of the mei and not so good pix of the blade.

 

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=420454

 

thanks for looking

[cisco-san]

Hi,

I am not able to open the pic (username and password necessary)?!

[Mark]

Stephen

 

i can not view them either (not a member), but i see the guy posting is from Ohio. Do you know where in Ohio? Maybe i can get with him and help

[Stephen]

sorry, yes one needs to be a member.

[Stephen]

mei closeups

[george trotter]

Stephen,

from your pics, the sword looks promising...good looking hamon, seems to have ko-nie (in the close-up), and is mounted in high quality fittings. It would still need an experienced member to have a look, in hand.

As for who it is, well, I think we need one of our Japanese speakers to confirm whether it is "Masa" or "kokoro/Shin"...but it looks like the latter to me.

I have had a trawl through my books and for Masatsugu have found about 9 in modern gendai period, about half can be eliminated as their mei are illustrated and are different people, but half have no mei shown in any of my books. No Masatsugu is listed using "SA" and there is no "SASHINSHI" either...sooo...not sure what to say...is it dated?...any stamps, painted numbers, anything? also look on back of tang (nakago mune).

Also, it would be good to see whole nakago shape and ha-machi area without habaki and overall blade shape laid flat and closeup of hamon .

Regards,

George

PS...this is an unusual signature...there is a smith called Yanagawa USHOSHIN (U means right) and his mei can be seen on Rich Stein's oshigata database site...maybe this guy SASHINSHI (SA means left) is his evil twin...heh, heh :-) Still, jokes aside, a nice little mystery...

[Nobody]

Masatsugu (正次) without doubt.

 

One thing which I do not like is why only 正 is chiseled in Sosho style.

[george trotter]

Stephen,

I see Moriyama san has confirmed Masa, so your reading is correct...(better than mine). I had another look around for Masatsugu, but it's a bit of a mystery. Moriyama san has noticed that it is only the "Masa" that is written in Sosho script and if you look at the link

here for Rich Stein's Showa Oshigata database, you will see that Sakurai Masatsugu also cuts "Masa" as the only Sosho kanji in his mei...yasurimei is the same also...and Masatsugu of Saga also does this (Toko Taikan p.563)...it is very commonly done, so I think you will need more clues than this...you'll need to research, research, research...there are probably still some Showa era tosho who are not known. If I find anything later I will let you know.

http://home.earthlink.net./~ttstein/masastug.jpg

 

Regards,

George

[Stephen]

Thank you kind Sir, ill pass along the info pm to owner as the thread is close to dead on the WM.

[Mark]

Stephen

 

Bob emailed me. It is a small world, he had the sword (and others) for sale at the SOS last month in KY. I remember his table. I do not t hink i looked at the mei then as the price (and seeing the sword) did not require a look. He will be at a show where i will be in a couple of weeks so i will help him out, hopefully I can nudge his interest and he will join us as a sword collector

[Stephen]

Mark

 

yea i sent him a link to this thread, he said he was contacting you. Must have been a high price tag for you not to take a look , thanks for the help.

 

Gerorge, thanks for your help as well, wondering if it might be shinshinto, Mark will know more in a few weeks when he sees it in hand.

[Markus]

Ouch, kissaki resting on hard kitchen unit. Makes me feel hurt