Mystery kanji on wakizashi 川住?俊

[miura_anjin]

Hi everyone I recently won the auction for this wakizashi on Aoi-art. The seller can't make out the third kanji down on the mei, and I've tried to find a matching kanji myself but no luck.

From what I can see the first kanji read 川住 or kawazumi/sumi then the mysterious kanji plus 俊/toshi.

Any help you can give is much appreciated.

Also any thoughts on the sword?

The seller (Tsuruta-san)says he's not completely sure about the sword, it looks osuriage and the name added after.

Is it kiritsuke mei just gimei?

 

Many thanks

 

Andy

 

 

https://www.aoi-art.com/auction/img/temp/1317114965/1317114989_2.jpg

 

https://www.aoi-art.com/auction/img/temp/1317114965/1317114994_3.jpg

 

Here's the sellers description in Japanese and english

 

脇差：拵え入り

 

銘：□州住□俊と銘がある。

 

研磨済み

ハバキ：金着一重

登録証番号：

交付年月日：昭和平成年月日

刃長：54.3センチ

反り：1.7センチ

目釘穴：1個　

元幅：2.87センチ　

先幅：2.22センチ

重ね：0.56センチ　

時代：　室町時代初期頃

体配：表裏に棒樋を彫り身幅広め重ねやや厚く反りの深い切先延びごころの体配の良い脇差し。

地鉄：小板目肌詰んで地錵が付きねっとりとした肌合いとなる。

刃紋：錵出来互の目乱れに小互の目乱れが混じり刃中、足、葉が盛んに働く。

 

特徴：残念ながら茎の銘が判然とせず明確な刀工銘は不明ですが身幅もしっかりとした

作品で仔細に見ると大摺上無銘とも見え後に銘を入れたかもしれません。

時代の古い藤嶋辺りとも思える作品です。

 

 

拵：

鍔：円形の鉄鍔に真鍮で象嵌をほどこす。　平安城　安土桃山時代

縁頭：縁は赤銅磨き地に愛馬を引く人物と松の木を彫り金で色絵をほどこす。

鞘：状態に良い変り塗り鞘。

目貫：赤銅地で植物の図柄を高彫りする。

小柄：赤銅魚魚子地につり竿と魚籠を高彫りし金の色絵をほどこす。　小美濃

裏面に多少に小さな凹みがあります。

小刀：研磨済み　銘は判然としません。

 

葵美術評価鑑定：全身押し形

 

Wakizashi in Koshirae

 

Signature:? Syu Jyu ? Toshi.

 

The blade was polished.

Habaki: Gold single habaki.

Blade length : 54.3 cm or 21.37 inches.

Sori : 1.7 cm or 0.66 inches.

Mekugi : 1

Width at the hamachi : 2.87 cm or 1.12 inches.

Width at the Kissaki : 2.22 cm or 0.87 inches.

Kasane : 0.56 cm or 0.22 inches.

Era : Early Muromachi period.

Shape : The blade is wide and thick with deel sori and longer kissaki nice looking shape.

Bo-Hi is engraved both sides of the blade.

Jitetsu :Itame had and mokume had mixed with jinie attach sticky soft jigane.

Hamon : Koniedeki gunome midare and komidare hamon.

In Ha, there are many sunagashi and kinsuji scatter.

Also Ashi, Yo work. Boshi is midarekomi and Yakisage style.

 

Special feature : Unfortunately it is difficult to distinguish the whole signature.

From the shape, the blade might be Oosuriage mumei(cut shortened and made signature on the tang).

The blade itself looks like old Hujishima school.

 

 

Koshirae :

Tsuba :On the round iron tsuba, some parts were inlayed by brass. Early Edo period.

Fuchikashira :On the syakudo migakiji, a horse and a man, pine tree are engraved with gold color.

Saya : Very fine kawarinurisaya(good condition without kiss and screeches)

Menuki : some designe is engraved by syakudo.

Kozuka : On the syakudo nanako plate, fishing kit and fish basket are engraved with gold color.

Kogatana : this Kogatana was polished but difficult to see the signature.

 

Aoi Art estimation paper : whole Oshigata.

[Ludolf Richter]

Masa 政 or Tsugu 次 ?Was the swordsmith drunken when he chiselled that charakter!? My favourite is Masa 政.There are 6 Masatoshi 政俊:MAS 33-38,but it's not MAS 37 from Sagami,because there is a mei-pic in Token to Rekishi TTR 618 with a different signature.From the other 5 guys I could not find a mei-pic in the books (Koto Taikan,Fujishiro/Koto,Tokuno and Iida).If the 1st Kanji is in fact Tsugu 次,there are 5 swordsmiths possible,again without a mei-pic in my books:TSU 123 and 124 from Bitchu and TSU 125-127 from Bizen.Ludolf

[miura_anjin]

Thank you very much Ludolf, they do both look like the likeliest options for the kanji. :D

I unfortunately don't have any sword reference books to see the smiths you mentioned.

If the sword is early muromachi then the signature is extremely unlikely to be that of the smith who made the sword, but rather the one who shortened it -or if not then gimei.

Looking at the sword, do you agree its early muromachi?

And looking at the tang, when roughly do you think it would have been shortened?

 

Best regards

 

Andy

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi Andy,I believe the description is correct:you do now have a fine Koto-sword!There is no reason to be seen,why the blade should have been shortened.All the swordsmiths Masatoshi or Tsugutoshi I showed are from that period,mostly 16th Century.No Gimei!Ludolf

[miura_anjin]

Thanks again Ludolf, do the books mention with schools the smiths belonged to?

All the Best,

 

Andy

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi Andy,as long as we don't have the real name of the Mei,arguing about schools of possible Masatoshi or Tsugutoshi swordsmiths makes no sense.Fact is,the experts from Aoi-Art recognized the sword as made in the Muromachi period without attaching it to a certain school of that period.So the only solution (including the identification of the Mei) may be,to send the sword to the N.B.T.H.K.in order to get their paper (origami),but that's not cheap and you have to wait some time till you get your sword back.Ludolf

[miura_anjin]

Hi Ludolf, Tsuruta-san does attribute it to the early Fujishima school-"時代の古い藤嶋辺り" (in the english version he mis-typed 'Hujishima' school)so I was just curious to know if any of the smiths in your books were of the Fujishima school.

I fully agree the only way to be sure about the blade is to send it to shinsa. Fortunately I live in Japan so it shouldn't be too costly in terms of time and money. To that end I will be handing over this and another blade to the N.B.T.H.K on the 7th of next month for the next shinsa so if all goes well by the end of December this mystery should hopefully be solved.

Best regards,

 

Andy

[Bugyotsuji]

Tsuruta san also says: 大摺上無銘とも見え後に銘を入れたかもしれません。

 

"O-suriage, so it may have been Mumei, or there is a possibility that the Mei was added later."

[miura_anjin]

Indeed he does, as mentioned in the original post.

 

Best,

 

Andy

[Bugyotsuji]

Indeed he does, as mentioned in the original post.

 

Best,

 

Andy

 

Dang, I did look back hoping it would not be a re-post!

[miura_anjin]

Hi, just a quick update. I put this and another sword in for the January shinsa in the end and have finally got the results today.

My mumei wak passed and has been attributed to the Fujiwara Takeda but the mystery wakizashi proved too mysterious. They've reserved judgement and the results said I should further research the name.

I put them both in for just Hozon papers, so would it be worth sending this one through Hozen/Tokubetsu Hozon in the hope that the Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa team will be better able to evaluate the sword?

 

Otherwise I'm pretty stumped right now :?

 

Best regards,

 

Andy

[cabowen]

If they gave it a horyu paper at Hozon shinsa, they will not give it TH....

[miura_anjin]

Hi Chris thank you for your reply, it looks like that would be a waste of time then.

Do you think it would be worth sending it to the NTHK or should I just try to further research the mei?

 

Best regards,

 

Andy

[runagmc]

The NBTHK has some of the most knowledgeable people who have access to the best references in the world... If they couldn't make an attribution, then I would just accept it as an unattributable sword... specially if it's a lower end sword.

 

Researching your own swords is always good, since it's one of the best ways to learn, but I wouldn't kill myself trying to make an attribution.

[cabowen]

Hi Chris thank you for your reply, it looks like that would be a waste of time then.

Do you think it would be worth sending it to the NTHK or should I just try to further research the mei?

 

Best regards,

 

Andy

 

I would just keep at it yourself though if the NBTHK drew a blank, not likely you or anyone else is going to do much better...

[miura_anjin]

Thanks again Chris and thanks Adam,

self study it is then!

May I ask your thoughts on the blade? Where do you think would be a good starting point to research?

 

Best regards,

 

Andy

[runagmc]

I don't really know. I do agree that the mei looks like Tsugutoshi 次俊, but since Aoi-art said it's osuriage, it's hard to know what to make of the signature. From the pictures I would have thought it was ubu, so...

 

There are a few Tsugutoshi signing this way in later Aoe school... mabey you could try to find out something about them and see if there are any similarities with your sword.