Daisho questions

[nihonto1001]

And then, to make things even more complicated, there is the matter of Daisho Koshirae made for the Bushu's choice of blades, perhaps mating an old family heirloom Katana to his favorite wakizashi.

 

As historians, we have a mental image of what a Daisho should be. Daisho really just means long and short [sword]. So, perhaps koshirae does not even have to match. If a particular Samurai carried a long and short sword as an unmatched set, should it still be considered a Daisho? The NBTHK would say no, in most cases. But, how about from a historical standpoint?

[Jean]

Jon,

 

A daisho is a daisho, does not have to match. The Lord offered the wakizashi to the samurai who had to buy the long sword, they did not match even the koshirae.

 

To have what we call nowadays a "Daisho" with a capital "D" you had to be very wealthy or have a good sponsor. Both Daisho (blade or koshirae) had to be specially ordered.....$$$$$$$.

[Darcy]

My daisho was referenced here and I am not aware of anyone else who got Daisho Token when they submitted anything. Mine were found in the USA and I bought them at the SF sword show from a table. Usually people are getting their swords and have the papers already and you can just check the dates. Dates are different, means they were not even submitted at the same time, means no chance of daisho token (99.99% unless you have the miracle of reuniting long lost blades). If you check the papers and they have the exact same submission date, it means someone tried to get them passed as a daisho and they got rejected and papered individually.

 

As Jean said, you just need evidence that they are indeed made as a matched set. This is a flexible definition. In the case of mine, it probably helped that they were the same style, the smith was not a great smith and the quality matched pretty much dai to sho. They were both mumei and nakago had identical age and condition and features of manufacture. Same state of polish, look like they were polished the exact same amount. Just has to pass the smell test.

 

On the basis of the evidence it was less likely that they were made separately and added together than that they belonged together.

 

Then about the rest of it, in terms of the definition, the problem is that "daisho" is ambiguous and when you say this it means different things to different people.

 

Technical terms:

 

Daisho TOKEN = pair of swords made as mates for daisho use

Daisho TSUBA = pair of tsuba made as mates for daisho use

Daisho KOSHIRAE = pair of koshirae made as mates for daisho use

 

Practical terms:

 

Daisho = a katana and a tanto or wakizashi in daisho koshirae.

True daisho = a katana and a tanto or wakizashi in daisho koshirae that were made for use before the end of the samurai era (this is my current definition, I may have conflated that with daisho token in the long ago past, I last wrote about this 10 years ago on my site).

 

So you don't need daisho TOKEN to have a daisho, though a daisho may have daisho TOKEN in them. Then the problem is that we will refer to daisho TOKEN as a daisho casually.

 

Anyone can make a daisho. A dealer can sell a set as a daisho as long as the koshirae match, the period does not matter. A true daisho is much nicer to have because it is a historical item rather than an assembled jury rigged item put together by a collector. Even if put together they can be quite nice though (I put together a nice set with two Shizu blades and nice Tokubetsu Hozon daisho tosogu). A true daisho with daisho token is the holy grail. That is what I had, mine were not anywhere close to Juyo level but it was a true historical set and rare for that reason. Not nearly as expensive as the set I put together with the Shizu in them because it just was not as good quality.

 

Mostly these things are rare now because collectors will pay more for the parts than they will for the set. It is madness, but it is the truth.

 

Economic principles at work:

 

Bad koshirae + good sword = one set... sword collector buys this, dismisses value of the koshirae, says at least it has koshirae, bonus, but will not want to pay a penny extra when he evaluates the package because he doesn't like the koshirae. Dealer can't strip off the koshirae because nobody will buy it by itself. So he leaves it in place to encourage someone to buy his sword.

 

Good koshirae + bad sword = one set or two sets, sword if terrible is a tsunagi to hold it together. If it is worth a little bit more, then it is pulled, sold separately, koshirae held together with tsunagi, sold separately. Because the koshirae collector will not pay one penny more for the crummy sword. So it has to stay really crummy to stay with it.

 

Bad sword + bad koshirae = TWO sets. Bad sword is stripped off, sold for what it can get. Koshirae is held and matched to a better sword to help move the more expensive item.

 

Good sword + good koshirae = TWO sets. Koshirae collector will not pay for the sword. Sword collector will pay for the koshirae, but won't value it highly enough compared to what a koshirae collector will do. So these are split and sold to two people. Good sword might be matched up with free bad koshirae above.

 

...

 

I viewed a beautiful sword once at a dealer's shop and it had an amazingly intricate habaki with a nice mon on it. Yosozaemon Sukesada made the sword. Juyo Token. For some reason I asked if it was part of a daisho. I was told yes but someone else owned the shoto. Then the dealer brought out the Tokuju books and flipped to a page with koshirae and he said, "Here are the koshirae." He said his friend owned it and split everything up. Koshirae went Tokuju, one of the swords went Juyo, probably the shoto, I think a tanto, is Tokubetsu Hozon. Mon on the habaki matched those on the koshirae too. How sad.

 

If we did our jobs right as collectors then this would be really worth more than the sum of its parts and people are fair enough to ask a price that is more than the sum of its parts. But in the market, few people will pay that and in the case of these swords above, if the koshirae are Tokuju and the katana is Juyo and tanto is also good quality, you end up with a very high price for the package. In some cases maybe you have people that agree that it is worth every penny they just don't have that to spend. By breaking it down it's possible for the dealer to find a customer that can afford each one much more easily so in this way, he also addresses his cash flow needs.

 

Those forces keep it pretty rare to encounter matched sets with everything intact.

 

I found a Tokubetsu Juyo sword with Juyo koshirae that was made for it in the Meiji period for one of my clients. The koshirae has elements with signatures of two or three different high level kodogu masters. It is a miracle that nobody split that thing up and parted it out as a tsuba, menuki, fuchi/kashira, etc. and then put the sword out into shirasaya.

 

All of these swords had koshirae at one time and now we're in a state where I think no more than one in ten has them. That is a lot of splitting up and breaking up. It's not about to stop either. So if you have a matched set, hug it.

[Gasam]

Gentlemen

Another point probably worthy of consideration is the shorter katana (mostly from Bizen swordsmiths such as Sukesada, Tadamitsu I believe) that were present in Sue-koto times. It was said that this was to facilitate the techniques of fighting with 2 swords, ie nito made famous by Musashi, and the shorter needed to be longer than a tanto, and so was a wakizashi. This has some credibility as it was around this time that wakizashi begin to be seen.

Clive Sinclaire

 

Indeed, Musashi says, or rather writes in the Go Rin No Sho:

 

"Warriors, both commanders and troopers, carry two swords at their belt. In olden times these were called the

long sword and the sword; nowadays there are known as the sword and the companion sword. Let it suffice to

say that in our land, whatever the reason, a warrior carries two swords at his belt. It is the Way of the warrior.

 

(..)

Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start with the sword and long sword in

either hand. This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is

false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn."