Opinions

[Tom Clancy]

Hi Guys

Would just like your general opinion of this blade that I have recently purchased. I did not post the mei so that you could judge the blade on its own merits. All comments are most welcome.

 

Tom.

[Tsugio Kawakami]

I'm concerned about that picture of the kissaki...

[sanjuro]

Yes...... If that's Kitaewari or some type of Tori nokuchi it would be a problem.

[Tom Clancy]

Hope these are better photos of the kissaki.

 

Regards

Tom.

[pcfarrar]

It could just be the photos but my first thought was an oil tempered showato. Can we see the nakago and overall shape of the sword?

[SwordGuyJoe]

Tom,

Overall, looks to be a nice clean blade. That is, if the photo's of the kissaki do not actually show a small hagire. It is tough to tell from the photos, but I assume it isn't thinking that you wouldn't invest in a blade like that.

 

 

There seems to be a great deal of activity in the hamon for showato and I'm not good enough to see a kissaki and ji and tell you the jidai. Oh heck for giggles, I guess late shinto/early shinshinto.

 

I have been wrong before and the only thing I am positive about is that I will be wrong again.

[Tom Clancy]

Apologies for the delay (Work commitments).

I was interested in hearing your comments regarding this blade as there appears to be some controversy over the smith.

Yasuhiro moved from the Yasukuni Shrine to the Okura Tanrenjo in 1937 where he stayed until the end of the war. Blades forged there were signed Kunimori - as this is.

Chris Bowen states blades signed Kunimori were not made by the man himself, so in the eight years at this forge did he not produce any blades or did he use a different signature.

It seems rather strange that the Baron went to all the time, trouble and expense to establish a forge and employ one of the most talented smiths of that time just to cut the mei's. It is also claimed that he used Western Steel and employed a little known smith named Mitsukoshi Hiromasa to produce these blades.

This leads us to believe that Miyaguchi and the Baron were only interested in financial gain by mass producing blades using non traditional materials/methods and an unknown smith, then adding the famous name so as to get a premium price from the Army.

Whenever these blades appear on the market they are described as Gendaito but if the above is correct they should be described as Gimei Showa-to.

Looking forward to hearing your comments.

 

Regards

Tom.

 

P.S. The Kissaki has just a couple of surface scratches (Bad photographer / perhaps poor lighting).

[cabowen]

My first thoughts when I saw these pictures was mantetsu-to....

 

The story I was told about the Kunimori signed blades is as follows:

 

They were made of western steel in large quantities, many/most/all (?) were made by Mitsukoshi and all were signed by Miyaguchi with the Kunimori mei. Miyaguchi would receive them in large bundles and sign them in large batches. The fact that they were made with western steel is even noted in Fujishiro's Shinto Hen as I recall...

 

The source of this story was Miyaguchi's son, himself a smith, who held the blades while his father signed them.

 

Of course Miyaguchi was making his own blades for special order, he wasn't doing nothing...He was good at horimono and did this as well. As I recall his son thought that his father made some of these as well but he was much clearer on signing large bundles with his father that came from Mitsukoshi. He used both the Yasuhiro and Toshihiro mei at the Okura Tanren Jo....

 

Swordmaking was a big business during the war and no doubt Miyaguchi was an enterprising smith. The Baron, well, he was a Baron....The less cynical might say that these were produced out of a patriotic duty to outfit the soldiers with well made gunto...The mei Kunimori (国護) means, after all, "protect the country"...

 

These blades are not gendaito or nihon-to. Many people try to get big money for them claiming that they are Yasukuni-to, etc. In truth, they are in that grey area-handmade using non-traditional material. They are not gi-mei, many would seem to be daisaku....

 

Hope this sheds some light on the issue....

[Stephen]

fascinating info, Chris you so need to put all your Gendaito knowledge into a book as you have planned over the years. Info like this needs to come to light. So good to have you on board.

[huntershooter]

Absolutely agree with Stephens sentiment.

Thank you Chris.

[Mark]

I had a Kunimori in Navy mounts i sold at the last Chicago show, if anyone was at that show they may have seen it on my table

[Lee Bray]

These blades are not gendaito or nihon-to. Many people try to get big money for them claiming that they are Yasukuni-to, etc.

 

All great info, thank you.

There is a Kunimori close to where I live in poor Chinese polish being offered at HK$110,000 - approx. US$14,000.

I managed to contain my shock at the offer and graciously declined...

[Tom Clancy]

Chris

Thanks for your reply it made interesting reading. Just one point I would like to clear, I had assumed that he could only use the Yasu mei while at the TNK.

 

Many thanks

Regards

Tom.

[k morita]

Hi,

 

Here is an Oshigata of Yasuhiro mei at Okura-Tanrenjo in March,1941.

[cabowen]

Chris

Thanks for your reply it made interesting reading. Just one point I would like to clear, I had assumed that he could only use the Yasu mei while at the TNK.

 

Many thanks

Regards

Tom.

 

Yes, one would have thought that but I have seen work made at the OTJ with the yasuhiro mei, much like the example oshigata kindly provided by Morita san...