Den Horii Toshihide Meiji

[mizuta]

Do any of the board members have a list of sword smiths working in the Horii school in the Meiji times.

Thanks in advance

Bernard

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Bernard,

Search the Index of Japanese Sword Literature on the JSS/US website. Choose the swordsmith index and search for Horii; you'll get 10 hits.

Grey

[cabowen]

can you post a better photo of the nakago?

[mizuta]

THe ww2 handle was rusted on to the nakago I thought it was a koto bizen blade before shinca

Regards Bernard

I cant work out all of the nthk paper so dont know if osuriage or not

[cabowen]

Without seeing it in hand, it is hard to say for certain, but I find it highly unlikely that this is a Horii school blade. Do the papers give Meiji as the period?

 

The nakago-jiri is not typical of Horii Toshihide or those he worked with. The bo-hi cut through the nakago is not typical as well. Three mekugi-ana are also highly unusual on a blade of this period.

 

Toshihide produced the bulk of his work in the Taisho and Showa periods. He was born in 1886 so was only 26 at the end of the Meiji period.

 

I agree that the nakago looks very Bizen...I would recommend another shinsa before I felt confident that this is indeed a Horii school blade....

[mizuta]

the Paper

[cabowen]

The papers say the blade is from the Showa period and gives Hokkaido as the location. Thus, they are more or less attributing it to Horii Toshihide....For the reasons I give above, I find this very unlikely. The picture is small and difficult to read so I can't say if they call it osuriage or not...maybe you can post a closer shot....

[mizuta]

Hope these are better

Bernard

[mizuta]

Hi Chris i was thinking of repolish and back to shinca.

A trained polisher looked at the sword before shinca and said it was a very good blade and dont be suprised if shinca team gave it shinshinto date.

Bernard

[mizuta]

One who looked at this sword said is it a shinshinto sword made to look koto ? ie a shinshinto copy of a koto sword?????

Papers are to stop the ? are thay not!

Merry Xmas

Xmas eve to night in Kiwiland :D

[cabowen]

There is nothing in the kantei-sho to indicate the blade is (o) suriage.

 

The worksheet has the period listed in kanji as Showa, then, underneath, someone (I can only guess who) has miss-translated this as Meiji.

 

The yasuri-me are listed as katte-sagari. Horii Toshihide used suji-kai and o-suji-kai, and always with kesho. I do not see kesho yasuri on this sword. The nakago shape is entirely wrong for Horii as well. Please see below for typical Horii Toshihide nakago. Notice the way the bo-hi end. This is also typical.

 

Again, there are many reasons to question this attribution. I would indeed resubmit, but not to this shinsa team.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am affiliated with the NTHK-NPO.

[mizuta]

Sorry i should have checked the date.it was done by the same person who wrote fujiwara inplace of minamoto on my Kunishige work sheet.

I can not see showa at all in this blade the tsure hi is worn from repolishes more than one i think it has a old sword cut on mune 3 peg holes .It seems wrong to question the shinca teem but Chris has come up with very good points. Not Toshihide not showa I think but i am not the experts.

thanks

Bernard