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naginata

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sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

Posted
Posted

Eric.

 

Fourth frame down on your pics. Unpolished blade, nagasa about 15inches - nice blade! very elegant old style sugata. Is this signed at all? It has a Soshu look about it.

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
Posted
Eric.

 

Fourth frame down on your pics. Unpolished blade, nagasa about 15inches - nice blade! very elegant old style sugata. Is this signed at all? It has a Soshu look about it.

 

Keith, it is signed, I have been told it the mei translates as "Kazusa no Shigeyasu saku kore".

 

naginatablade-1.jpg

100_2039.jpg

sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

Posted
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A Yamato smith, early Edo if memory serves me. There cant be that many Shigeyasu's, and even less who signed 'Kazusa no kami'........ I'll look him up, see what I can find. The swordsmith database at the top of the page isnt working at the moment so I'll have to hit the books. Of course after all that, it could be gimei....... That would be so depressing. ;) Still, theres less chance of a gimei naggy than there is of a gimei katana.

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
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John and keith, thanks for the info, very interesting. Henk, nothing to be jealous of, mostly low to mid quality samurai items, once in a while a really nice item sneaks in, always willing to share pictures though.....now there are SOME members who do have items worth coveting!!!! I just know there are some really high quality naginata lurking out there, maybe we will get a peak of one or more.

sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

Posted
Posted

Oh yes! Naginataphile Nihonto eye candy. Truly a magnificent piece. And a magnificent price tag. :D Would that I could afford it.

 

Yet I must remain true to my beloved koto. :bowdown:

paulb Grand Master

paulb

Posted
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yes me too. Maybe the reason I like Hizen work so much is that it copies so many good features of the Koto schools I most admire.

Looking at the price, and it is a starting price not necessarily the sales price, you can see how highly regarded this man was. His works signed with his own name are rare as he mainly produced daimei for his father. He also died in his early 50's and the nidai survived him. As his Katana and Wakazashi are rare I can only assume his nagijnata are even more so.

sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

Posted
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Paul

 

I can certainly see why he was so highly thought of. Yet in his day, there was and still is a fairly limited call or appreciation for naginata. One can only suppose that he made very few of them. As someone else has observed, they have such a large area of hada and ha to appreciate and are relatively difficult to forge, so that tosho could really show off their skill in making one. The price reflects the quality and the rarity.

paulb Grand Master

paulb

Posted
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it is said that he destroyed any blade he was less than happy with. Combine this with the fact he was so short lived and as you say naginata were not in such high demand you can imagine how rare these must be. there are many authors who consider him to be the finest main line Hizen smith, his jigane is extremely beautiful even when compared to that of his father who is also highly rated in this regard.

I would certainly be very happy to have this as an example of his work in my limited Hizen collection but as I dont do the lottery I think it will remain a wish!

drbvac Mentor

drbvac

Posted
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Funny to hear Keith say to Koto be true and I must in my case agree and it is partly because the technology to forge and polish today although similar were not there 400 years ago.

 

Add to that the fact that the object itself, considering its use, has survived for that long - AND - I here 12000 miles from Japan have it in my study - priceless. :clap:

Lee Bray Mentor

Lee Bray

Posted
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That Mutsu no Kami Tadayoshi naginata is great...I've been looking at it since it was posted and drooling.

A high price for a naginata but very reasonable compared to his other works - Tsuruta-san would have to remove a couple of zero's from the tag before I could buy it, though.

I've handled a Shodai Tadayoshi naginata and it is a very intimidating weapon.

sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

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Doc Brian.

 

I envy your ownership of such a fine blade. As far as my love of Koto pieces goes, the preference goes back a long way, but particularly in the case of naginata. I have a preference for the more elegant sugata of the koto pieces and lets face it, you can usually place them within one of the five schools relatively easily. This is not so easy with shinto pieces, or at least I find it not so easy. The tendency for shinto and later examples to have a very pronounced curve at the boshi for me at least takes something away from the elegance of the sugata - Purely a personal view, that is sometimes modified by the appearance of a fine example from a later period as we are seeing here.

One other major consideration for me in addition to quality, is also the practical viability of the weapon. During the Sengoku Jidai, the naginata was very much a weapon of choice for some warriors. Those naginata are more robust, some being as thick as 8mm at the base of the blade, and with a nagasa in excess of 25 inches (64 cm). Formidable weapons indeed, and apart from being in many cases a fine blade, they are also very impressive. They are I think a most fascinating side study to nihonto, and yet there is comparatively little published material dealing with naginata.

 

So, we appear to have some admirers of naginata among us....... I am pleasantly surprised. :glee:

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
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Does anyone have a complete glossary of terms for the parts of the naginata shaft. The ones I have found just list one or two parts and do not list names of all the parts.

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
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Two books come to mind:

Japanese polearms by Knutsen

150 Japanese Polearm Terms by Hawley

Thanks Dirk, 150 Japanese Polearm Terms by Hawley $312.79 and Japanese polearms by Knutsen $135.00...ouch!

sanjuro Veteran

sanjuro

Posted
Posted

I believe Guido Schiller would know all the names of the bits on the shaft, He's pretty good at this sort of thing and perhaps he may be kind enough to contribute his knowledge of the correct nomenclature.

 

The parts I am aware of starting at the top and working down the ebu (shaft), are

the guchikanamono,

seme or clasps (Metal bands)that vary in number according to the style of mounting.

The large metal ferrule about two feet from the top, ????? (I dont know).

The metal mount at the end of the ebu is called an ishizuki the same as the similar mount found on yari.

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
Posted

Here is the part of the shaft that in a yari would be called the "tachiuchi (tachiuke)" which is the the reinforced area. In a yari the rings are called "dogane" and the wrapping would be "kaburamaki (chidome)" , but I have seen the wrapping on a naginata called "sendan maki''. I do not know which if any of the yari terms apply to the naginata. I see the word "sakawa" being used to describe the large metal fittings like on the tip of this example, on a yari this fitting would be called the "gyakuwa". Any opinions?

 

 

naginatatachiuchitachiuke.jpg

estcrh Veteran

estcrh

Posted
Posted
Dear Eric,

QUOTE : " Any Opinions ? .... Yes .... The Japanese have too many words for the same damn thing !

... Ron Watson

Ron, tell me about it, just finding the most commonly used names for the various parts of a yari shaft was hard enough.
Cello Rising Star

Cello

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hey I glad to see my post has generated so much intrest.Really have learned quite a lot from everyone. The only problem is that now I really want to pick one up.... but my woman will probablly use it to remove my head if I do lol........!!!! :phew:

DirkO Mentor

DirkO

Posted
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It's from the polearm terms book from Hawley. Picked it up a few years ago from Satcho for 15USD. All terms also have their kanji, but it's Easter and I don't have time to look them all up :)

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