Edo and Showa period sword books

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Hi chaps,

 

Had a bit of a result in a tiny secondhand bookstore today and walked away with the titles below for virtually peanuts.

Apparently, an old Japanese gentleman with an interest in swords dating back to the 1930's had passed away and his family were getting rid of his books.

 

From what I can make out, the first is a thick, ribbon-bound booklet from around 1933 listing various ko-to and shin-to smiths along with various photos of comtemporary smiths and appraisers:

 

The second is an early Showa period hardback (in it's original dustjacket) by a member of the Honami family giving a general overview of Nihonto appraisal:

 

The third is paperbound, in a presentation box, and is by another early Showa Honami. I think it is a treatise on the author's love of swords and, interestingly, shows a rough drawing of the (then) prototype Shin-gunto koshirae in it's introduction.

 

Lastly, my best find was a complete, 9 volume, set of Edo period books dated 1792 and showing various woodblock oshigata of famous ko-to blades. The following pic is the cover of Volume 1:

 

Not bad for an afternoons grubbing around a dusty old bookshop ("hunting for junk" as Milt would put it)!

 

If anyone can shed more light on any of these titles I would be extremely grateful.

 

All the best,

Simon

[Stephen]

some really nice finds, how bout a page or two from the last book showing some oshigata?

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Working on it Stephen!

 

At over 200 years old, they are rather fragile and so I'm pretty wary of scanning them and putting any stress on the spine.

 

May have to resort to photos (which aren't my strongpoint!)

 

All the best,

Simon

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Here you are at last Stephen,

 

I had to re-sew the spine on volume 9 anyway so I took that opportunity to scan a few of the pages:

 

 

 

 

 

All the best,

 

Simon

[Stephen]

very interesting, I was wondering back when a Oshigata was drawn if the person doing so had to do it just dead on or did he stand a chance of losing ones head if it was off on the stroke, a question put to me about Shinto Bengi Oshigata.

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Interesting question. I don't think these oshigata can be too accurate as they'd have been hand drawn first then carved onto a wooden block for printing in book form. So, lots of lost heads, maybe?

 

I'll try to get shots of other pages as some of them show pictures of the hamon as well as the nakago.

 

All the best,

Simon.

 

PS/ If anyone out there knows what this is (or any of the other books), then please let me know.

[Nobody]

I found that the book is "Koto mei-zukushi taizen (古刀銘尽大全)" written by Ogi Hirokuni (仰木弘邦) in 1794. And there seem to be several reprint versions until Showa era.

Ref. http://www.library-noda.jp/homepage/dig ... otom1.html

 

On a web page of National Diet Library, you can read all pages of a reprint (1901 version) of the book. Go to the URL on the following page.

http://www.dap.ndl.go.jp/home/modules/d ... and_or=AND

http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/BIBibDetail.php ... m=40072506

 

You can also read "Token kantei hiketsu (刀剣鑑定秘訣)" by Honami Yasaburo (本阿弥弥三郎) in 1905 through the following page.

http://www.dap.ndl.go.jp/home/modules/d ... and_or=AND

http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/BIBibDetail.php ... m=40072555

 

*press "本文をみる" button on the web page to read.