Opinions On Sukesada Wak?

[Nihonto Chicken]

Below are some pics of a wak I acquired eons ago that is inscribed Bishu Osafune Sukesada (my thanks to Mark Jones on the Translation Assistance Forum!). If I might I'd like to inquire as to whether the mei is shoshin or gimei and, if the former, which Sukesada in what period. I apologize for the less than stellar photos, note that as my penance I almost went blind with my point and shoot Canon in the full sunlight. The hamon is quite active as I believe shows reasonably well. The boshi, which I failed to capture adequately, is kaen (flame or brush). Despite the activity in the yakiba and the half dozen or so small, loose hada type ware, the blade is almost muji hada, very little shows up. If pushed to guess I'd venture itame. Also any opinions re the quality of the blade (well, as best as can be discerned from the iffy pics)? The hamon is great, the hada is meh, and the little ware put me off (I believe they are as-made and not from over-polishing, the wak is still pretty healthy). Thanks for any and all enlightenment!

 

[paulb]

Rick,

Let me start by qualifying my comments. I am not a huge Bizen fan and this is not my comfort zone.

As you have probably already discovered there were many smiths working in Bizen using the Sukesada name. The quality of swords produced ranged from some of the better Sue Bizen pieces to what are described as "bundle swords" which were semi mass produced to meet the volume needs of the day. As a rough rule of thumb (and there always exceptions) the better Sukesada's are signed with a long Mei which incorporated their personal name. They also tended to sign with Bizen rather than Bishu.

Your wakazashi looks like a fairly standard blade of the mid to late 15th/early 16th century. The hamon is again what you would see on the more general utility work produced by the Sukesada workshops of the day.

I think it would be extremely challenging to attempt to tie this down to a specific smith, there were just too many using that mei and producing work of this style and standard.

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

I would say Shinto due to the yakidashi, and with so small pictures, man cannot say if it is gimei or not.

[Brian]

...And with so many Sukesadas, unless it is trying to be one of the bigger guys, there is little point to it being a gimei.

I would chalk it down to one of the many, many Shinto Sukesada's, of average quality.

 

Brian

[Nihonto Chicken]

Thanks for the responses. Just another garden variety wak, it appears (though someone popped for a nice gold metal foil habaki for it). Seems to be equivalent to an Ei Roku Kiyomitsu tanto of mine, mediocre (perhaps "bundled sword" type) forging, but with the usual tempering job, i.e., very good with activity galore.

[Geraint]

Don't give up on it yet. Have a look at this.

 

 

http://www.michaeldlong.com/Catalogue/S ... anese.aspx