New piece - kantei anyone? : )

[DirkO]

One of the better posts in a long while and very educational at that! Thanks to all who contributed

[micha]

Dear Darcy,

 

When I said the boshi is not typical Motoshige I meant that it wouldn't let me think about this smith because it's not 'common' for him.

Obviously my kantei was wrong. No big deal.

 

Sorry to post some oshigata that I found in my books of Motoshige and Den-Motoshige to enjoy the members and share some information about this smith.

 

And about the question 'is there more than one generation ?' : I wanted to start a discussion and hoped that some members gave their own opinion about it BUT now that you have said that nobody knows unless you have a timemachine, the discussion ends.

If we can't discuss different opinions about history than what's the use of reading about it. Dear Darcy history is like a Japanese sword it changes if you change the angle from where you're looking at it. And if you ask my opinion about anything that concerns history (including anything that have been written about Motoshige), I don't believe anything, I just have an opinion.

 

Greetings Micha

[Ted Tenold]

Excellent posts Darcy, well stated.

 

One of my favorite quotes is; "When you hear galloping hooves in the distance, it's better to assume it's a horse rather than a zebra" which conceptually metaphors the "Ockham's Razor" approach of analysis.

 

I actually vacillated between two inconsistencies and tried to arrive and the more explainable inconsistency based on experience; Motoshige vs. Kanenaga on the basis of boshi vs. deki. I have seen a Kanenaga that was very similar in nioi deki, and the hada on this sword also pushed me to Kanenaga, and I couldn't connect the boshi on this one to Motoshige in the same manner. So I went to Kanenaga. I've only seen one Motoshige in hand and one other very strong candidate for Motoshige that had all the hallmarks but was unvetted, so I went with Kanenaga based on a larger number of in hand experiences. I'm always glad to get the period, tradition, and region correct at that's more than half the battle and narrows the field to a degree that mistakes are more or less just detail items that smiths can and do ebb and flow within. This ebb and flow is the reason for "den" attributions many feel is a demerit, rather than recognizing it as a range of creative variance good smiths were capable of summoning.

 

That said, this piece being solidly targeted to Motoshige is cause to make it a rare and valuable study piece to a better understanding of Motoshige's virtuosity. It's been said that to understand any swordsmith entails studying 100 of their works. A daunting task considering the rareity of many makers, but clearly the message is that any smith's body of work will have work inconsistencies that only come into full focus after many many known works are studied. Thus the importance of signed and dated works in establishing a foundation cannot be overemphasized, and the absence of them contributes to the division in beliefs of solitary vs. multiple generations of any particular smith. In the absence of signed and dated "missing links" it's reasonable to believe in the long life of a multi-talented smith that lived through the transitions of work styles, or succesive generations that each expanded their creativity and individuality while maintaining elements of their lineage.

 

Excellent read and exercise. Thanks for sharing your sword with us Rich!

[Rich Thomas]

Hi guys,

Thought this was a relevant example of one of his midare komi boshi in case anyone interested. Important Cultural Property - Motoshige (Boshi in the pic displaying the ura is more obvious) Click on it and zoom right in

http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100491?word=&d_lang=en&s_lang=ja&class=6&title=&c_e=&region=&era=&cptype=&owner=&pos=89&num=3&mode=detail

cheers

Rich

[Darcy]

  cabowen said:

Is it correct to assume that Darcy was the seller of the sword under discussion?

 

No, that would be an incorrect assumption to make. It came from Japan Sword. I did though help him find it and offer my advice in picking between a few choices available to him, and I think the statements stand on their own.

[gudis]

  Veli said:

Rich,

 

Just like others, I admire your skill of photography (as well as the Bizen tachi you photographed).

 

I wonder if we should open a new thread in "General Nihonto Related Discussion" called e.g. "Ultimate Photography", where members who have taken such a great photographs (or even decent ones) could share the parameters they used (light source type, lighting angles, distances source-object-camera, camera type, objective specs, aperture used, pedestal use, triggering method, exposure selection etc. This would help us all on our way towards the Holy Grail of the nihonto photography:

 

 

Hi to you all, Im in for the photograph thread !!

[Veli]

Hi Niclas!

 

The thread has been here for a while...

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10640

 

I am not sure whether the skilled photographers are just modest or wanting to keep their secrets... A proposal for parameter template is there in any case.

 

I would very much like to read about your photography methods; the pictures you have posted earlier reveal blade characteristrics very nicely!

 

Veli

[gudis]

Hi and thanks Veli,

 

I will try to write it down so that all of NMB members can read of how I do my photograhing of my small blades.

 

But that will be another day

 

I'm half way in to a nice red wine that will make my english worse than it is

[nihonto1001]

In any circumstance, it is absolutely a beautiful sword, regardless of the beautiful attribution. Nice find. Congrats!

 

 

 

Jon