STRANGE KINZOGAN MEI

[Gilles]

Dear all,

 

I have a rather strange mei on what I believe a Shinto period sword. the translation was made thank to our NMB friends.

 

It is signed KANESHIGE.

Nagasa: 73 cm,

Sori: 1.3 cm,

Nakago: ubu,

Hamon: ito suguha

 

I understand it is a shinto smith from Mino, do you have other details about this smith and the dates he worked ???

 

On the other side the signature is :

 

May, the eight year of kanbun period(1668)

Owned by Okubo Genba-no-kami,he wore this sword at 91 years old

and a svastika at the top of this mei.

 

I will need to know why such a svastika ??? which is a buddhist emblem. Was it made after the death of its owner (Okubo Genba-no-kami) ?

 

About the date, is it the date when the sword was made or is it linked to the name of its owner (date of death) ????

 

Why such a gold filling, for what purpose, because it does not look like a tameshigiri or an attribution ??

 

Well, a lot of questions, that is why I ask your help again.

 

Thank you all

[cabowen]

 

I understand it is a shinto smith from Mino, do you have other details about this smith and the dates he worked ???

 

Kaneshige was a popular mei. According to the Meikan there were at least 10 Mino smiths in the Koto/Shinto era using that mei. You will have a daunting task narrowing it down....I would start researching using oshigata....

 

I will need to know why such a svastika ??? which is a buddhist emblem. Was it made after the death of its owner (Okubo Genba-no-kami) ?

 

The polyglot is a buddhist symbol, nothing more or less. The mei says nothing about the death of the owner.

 

About the date, is it the date when the sword was made or is it linked to the name of its owner (date of death) ????

 

It says it was carried by Okubo when he was 91 years old on that date.

 

 

 

Why such a gold filling, for what purpose, because it does not look like a tameshigiri or an attribution ??

 

It is unusual but used for special occasions, events, etc. It lasts a long time and looks nice.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I sure wish that someone would do something like that for me on my birthday!

 

Ken

[Gilles]

Thank you Chris for those details. Is there other opinions ?

[runagmc]

Are you sure it's a Mino smith? There were several Kaneshige during this period outside of Mino. Also I assume the date may be refering to the period that this owner wore the blade and when the kinzogan mei was done. The blade may have been made earlier. Just things to consider.

[Toryu2020]

寛文八年戊申五月吉辰

大久保玄番頭所持九十一歳指之

Kanbun 8 nen Tsuchinoe Saru Gogatsu Kichi Tatsu (jitsu?)

Ôkubo Genbangashira Shoji Kyûjyû-issai sasu kore

 

"Lucky Dragon day of the fifth month of the Elder brother of the Earth Monkey Eigth year of Kanbun

Ôkubo Genbangashira (a) posession of, who wore this at the age of ninety-one"

 

Nothing new above just my rendering of what I think I see on the nakago. Chris already having given us the gist. Although the Kane kanji looks like the Mino Kane, I too would like to see more photos.

-t

 

Genbangashira was a title within the Edo Bakufu usually reserved for hatamoto with salaries of 5000 koku or higher...

[Gilles]

Dear Chris, Adam and Thomas,

 

Thank you so much for the details given. It helps a lot. I will post close-up of the mei after the week-end. If you need other views, please tell me.

[Gilles]

Dear Thomas,

 

Here are some more pictures (of poor quality I am afraid). Please note that the SHIGE on the swordsmith MEI is quite rusted.

I hope it will help.

[mdiddy]

I ran across this recently. Very similar to the one originally posted except dated to his 92nd year. Okubo-san must have been a proud bushi.

[Gilles]

Dear Matt,

 

This is quite incredible. It seems to be a wakizashi. Do we have here the daisho that this proud samurai wore at an advanced age ? Is it signed by a swordsmith ? Do you own that blade ? A good thing will be to join them again........ but I start to dream here

 

Thank you for this input. the percentage of chance to find such a sword was quite low.

[mdiddy]

Gilles,

 

Not sure if it was part of a daisho. I think not since one says he wore it at 91 years old and the other says he wore it at 92 years old. I don't own it but the blade was otherwise a mumei wakizashi.

 

Certainly very rare to run across these.

 

Matt