Gassan sword

[C0D]

Hello everybody, this is my first post here.

My name is Manuel and i come from Italy.

I recently bought the following sword and i'm doing some research to find out where it comes from.

The sword is a katana in shirasaya with following size

Nagasa: 67.5 cm.

Sori: 2.1 cm.

Moto-haba: 25 mm.

Saki-haba: 14 mm.

Moto-gasane: 5 mm.

Saki-gasane: 4 mm

 

The blade is really slender and lightweight, more than a usual katana, and probably made for one hand sabre in western style koshirae.

It has horimono skilfully engraved on both sides and bo-hi.

It presents two ware one near the dragon and one inside the bo-hi in the opposite side and is in old polish (is now being polished by a togishi that should fix also the ware)

The nakago is signed in both sides and has the following mei:

大正聖帝御即位御太刀餘鐵帝室技藝員月山貞一八十二歳彫同作 (Made from remaining iron from the making of the enthronement tachi of Taisho Emperor, Imperial Household Artisan Gassan Sadakazu, age 82, horimono by the same)

大正六年七月吉日以備前一文字傳謹精鍛之 (Forged in Bizen Ichimonji style, Auspicious Day, July 1917)

 

Now i think you can understand why i want to have more info about it

 

Pictures following

 

[Mark]

i would submit the sword for shinsa first. You want to make sure the mei is genuine. Where are you located? maybe there is a sword club or collector group near you that you use as a resource.

[Brian]

This one rings a bell...like it has been around or posted about before.

A friend owns a shoshin Sadakazu made from left over steel when he made another sword for the Emperor. Compare yours with this part mei.

Fwiw, I think yours is gimei, and I think there are professionals working on these high level fakes. But it is just gut feel, so you need to have it checked out.

A sword like this should have papers. Good luck, still looks like a nice sword, but the horimono doesn't look like Gassan level work.

Perhaps some better pics/scans not at an angle?

 

Brian

[C0D]

@Mark

As i said i'm from Italy, i'm actually member of the INTK (italian association for the Japanese sword) and the polisher confirmed that the mei appears to be genuine.

Anyway i can't submit to shinsa before it's polished.

The sword will be soon seen by Leon Kapp and Yoshindo Yoshihara in an event in Novara, Italy, since the polisher (Massimo Rossi) already talked them about it.

If you have any dubt about it i'm glad to hear

 

@Brian

I seen many mei about Gassan Sadakazu and Sadakatsu, and the mei of my swords looks like a daimei from Sadakatsu, not from Sadakazu himself as the one you posted.

If you compare the characters "gassan" and "sada" with a Sadakatsu mei i think you'll notice the similarity

 

 

here a Sadakatsu

[cabowen]

Without even considering the mei, I believe the sword to be gimei for the following reasons:

 

The yasuri-me are incorrect.

 

The forging (masame) and hamon do not seem to match what is stated on the nakago.

 

The quality of the horimono is nowhere near the level of the Gassan school and in fact looks rather poorly done.

[Eric H]

Sadakazu the First, born Yagoro in 1836 at Hikone in Koshu province, present Shiga pref. became an adopted son of Gassan Sadayoshi who was a swordsmith lived at Osaka. Sadakazu started to learn when he was eleven years old and mastered traditional ayasugi-hada of Gassan school as early as twenty years old.

He continued forging after the Meiji Government administered a law to forbid wearing the sword in 1876 and was approved as a Teishitsu-gigeiin, a Craftman to the Imperial Household in 1906 and received a command to forge a gunto for the Emperor Meiji in the next year. Sadakazu passed away in 1918, aged 84.

The First Sadakazu had been constant in his devotion to forge sword all his life. Everybody respected him for the nobility of his mind. His character appears on his works in every corner especially on their meticulous attended tang to the file pattern. That goes without saying about the excellent ability of forging sword, Sadakazu was preeminent not only in the carving but also cutting signature by free and easy stroke of tagane.

Especially he is very skillful of Gassan hada an also he is good at Horimono. (Comment Aoi to Gassan Sadakazu)

 

To underline what was said in the comment on yasurime, mei, and horimono, the pics of a wakizashi 33.5 cm.

 

Eric

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

Many red flags on that sword. Horimono, mei (style of engraving), yasurime etc... And it was sold if i'm not wrong by Komonjo.

 

Much more chances it is gimei (even daisaku) than genuine.

[Bruno]

Yes the horimono speaks for itself :? , otherwise the sword look of good quality (too me at least)

[Bruno]

Sorry the sword is not so good, I missed the big kitae-ware.

[Eric H]

Manuel,

A Katana by this Gassan Sadakazu is now up for auction at Aoi...compare...and make up your mind before spending a lot of money for polishing.

 

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

 

Eric