Opinion

[Jean]

I am going to do it simple.

 

Yesterday, semi annual meeting of our sword association. A guy came with a blade, suriage, with a signature (gimei)4 mekugi ana of which one at the base near nakago jiri is punched, the other three being drilled, slender suguta, no boshi, the hada run off the kisaki.

 

Have you ever encountered this kind of hada which extends into the shinogi ji.

 

It looked a bit like the picture on Sho-shin website of the Hankei tanto:

 

http://www.sho-shin.com/index2.htm

 

Someone mentionned the name of 19th Century smith : Mito XXX who had something like a clock as a mon.

 

Here is the hada picture, the only one I took with my neww macro lens.

[paulb]

Hi Jean,

Not identical but another Shinshinto example with a similar prominent hada is on Andy Quirts site

http://www.nihonto.us/YOSHIKAZU.htm

As you will see it is a sword papered to Yoshikazu and described as a copy of an earlier work.

having spent years hearing and believing that Shin-Shinto blades had little or no visible hada and were boring this tends to explode the myth. I have to say I am not a great fan, it is altogether too prominent and "blousy".

Good images BTW I think you will get a lot from your new lens

Best Regards

Paul

[Jean]

Thanks Paul,

 

The lens is a : AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

 

The picture of the mei in the Translation Assistance topic where also taken with this lens (a snapshot)

 

I just had a go to my Naoe Shizu to see what could be done without tripod, not a lot of light, I had to push the Iso to 4000.

[Gunome]

Hello Jean,

 

May I am wrong, but it seems to me that the mentionned name was something like "rekko"

 

Regards

 

Sebastien

[Grey Doffin]

Rekko, sometimes in English as Lekko, is correct for the name of the smith who signed with a clock face.

I question whether the 1st picture is really hada. To me it looks like 2 different qualities of steel worked together, not crystalline structure in one steel. I'd be interested in hearing what others think about this.

Grey

[cabowen]

Hada is just that- the pattern made from the layers of steel that have been folded and forge welded. If differing steels have been combined and/or the number of folds fewer, one gets a bolder, more contrasting pattern. I have seen Japanese swords made with the addition of meteoritic steel that is high in nickel which produced a similar pattern. Common damascus steels are often made with steels of different alloying elements to produce a bold pattern. In the shinshinto period there was a great deal of experimentation going on to reproduce the hada seen in koto blades....some experiments were more successful than others....

[takakage]

(Re-uploaded by admin to transfer image from Imageshack)

[cabowen]

I should add that I once asked Enomoto Sadayoshi, now deceased but a mukansa smith in his day, why his soshu style blades often had a prominent hada much like some of the pictures above. He said it resulted from mixing in old nails and other old iron/steel he had collected along with the tamahagane he got from the NBTHK....

[Jean]

Thanks Patrick for the name, I am totalling losing my memory

 

Grey, yes it is hada undoubtedly.

 

I have already seen Rekko mon several time but am not familiar of his work. Has he done hada like this?

 

I thought my Yasumitsu hada was violent/outstanding, but compare to this one it is muji hada

[takakage]

Thanks Jean but it was Sébastien for the answer rekko (tic toc 10h10)........i only add a photo of an other hada by sukeshige

Morever, you can add a photo of your next dream, long hair as D G :D

 

https://www.aoi-art.com/auction/en/auct ... 1213703271

an other outstanding hada.

[Grey Doffin]

In only 1 of my books did I find pictures of blades by Lekko: Tetsu no Isshin. Below are pictures of the 2 best shots of hada.

Grey

[Ken-Hawaii]

Very nice macro lens, Jean. Looks like you will be adding a lot of close-ups to our knowledge base.

 

Ken

[lbkmd43]

Tsuguhira late shinto was known to add pure gold to his tamahagane called ogon hada giving a similar beautiful hada LKanarek MD