Kiyondo

Hi all,

Someone asked me to post this for them, and ask if anyone had shoshin mei to compare with, and an opinion on this one.

At first glace, it doesn't look shoshin, but the work is good and I'm also interested if the mei variations here appear on other swords of his at all. No other pics for now.

Thanks in advance.

Brian

Brian,

The Yasurime is correct, but the angle of it is not. Looking at many oshigata of Kiyondo, they are all consistent in Yasurime.

The Mei is correctly placed.

Will post images...soon.

Getting error:

The image file you tried to attach is invalid.

/Martin

I think that both Mei and Yasurime are not good.

(only my opinion)

Attaching some Soshin-mei

藤原清人作　（保存）

and

清人作之　（特別保存）

Hi,

Gimei, Kiyondo and Kiyomaro used the same particularity in their tagane mannerism. This one is not present on this mei.

Hi,

For research of Kiyondo mei, this book is very useful.

Thanks all, that has been very useful and conclusive.

Martin, do you perhaps have a supersized version of that image? Thank you all for the info and pics all of you. Jacques, are you perhaps willing to share that "super-sekrit" tagane peculiarity with us?

Brian

Brian,

I must then send an email.

Check your inbox.

/Martin

Brian, I assume Jacques is talking about the way they did the "hooks" on some of the vertical strokes...

Hi,

Brian, I assume Jacques is talking about the way they did the "hooks" on some of the vertical strokes..

Yes :D

Last year we had a meeting with the theme: Kiyomaro students. And here are the photos.

Nr. 1: Masao, Kiyondo, Kiyondo and Kiyondo

Nr. 2: Masao an Kiyondo signatures

Nr. 3: Kiyondo (a later work)

Blade Nr. 4 is unsigned but a very, very fine piece.

Uwe G.

Thank you very much all, we have built up a good reference on Kiyondo here.

Mei does appear to be gimei..although I still think the sword looks great. Nagamaki-style shinshinto, with o-kissaki and well cut naginata-hi. Everything you would expect from a Kiyomaru school work. Must try and get pics of the blade sometime.

Brian

Here is another reference:

http://www.aoijapan.com/katanaushu-shon ... ra-kiyondo

To be noticed that swords from this smith are seldom encountered for sale. 3 years ago, I had the opportunity to handle one in Japan, masame hada. I was with Robert Hughes and he commented that he had not seen more than 3 Kiyondo swords for sale in more than 25 years. The asking price for this sword shows how his work was/is appreciated and how seldom his works are encountered for sale.

One of the the 10 top Shinshinto smiths.

He is also highly thought of in Japan for his excellence of character.

He is also highly thought of in Japan for his excellence of character.

In 1852 Kiyondo started to study under Kiyomaro as his last student.. Kiyondo was responsible for succeeding Kiyomaro after his master‘s suicide in 1854 supplanting even Yamaura Saneo, Kiyomaro‘s elder brother and senior students Suzuki Masao and Kurihara Nobuhide. By sense of duty Kiyondo forged all of the swords already ordered to satisfy the customers and to protect his masters reputation.

Kiyondo‘s boshi kaeri has hakikake which appears just like the marks of a comb and this kind of characteristic is not seen in the work of Kiyomaro schools other smiths.

Eric

Thanks Eric for filling in the spaces re: Kiyondo's character. This story of how he worked tirelessly to satisfy the commitments of his teacher is what I was referring to when I made the comment above.

Swords by Kiyondo are rarely offered for sale. It might be useful to give some more informations about this smith. A peculiarity is the number of his diverse mei, from 1872 to 1874 he signed with Kiyomaru.

Table 1

Typical hakikake in the kaeri of the boshi

Katana with mei Kiyohito, Ansei ninen

Nakago from the book "Kurihara Nobuhide" by Noboru Toyama, p.64... the mei is very questionable.

Table 2

Tanto mei Kiyomaru, Meiji gonen

Eric

Actually, there is one for sale right now at Aoi with a Tokubetsu Hozon paper:

http://www.aoijapan.com/katanaushu-shon ... ra-kiyondo

Mariusz,

I posted it on the 27th of December, reason why this old topic revived (cf page 1)

I'm curious about prices that Kiyondo tantos fetch.  Does anybody have any information about this?  I may have an opportunity to buy one but am in the dark about typical prices.  Just looking for a range here, since I have no photos or specific information yet about this tanto.  

Time traveling again

A signed tanto with papers (TH): 15.000 EUR + X

an unsigned tanto: 3.000 + X

Uwe G.

Well I made this. A little bit late.

Blast from the past

Nothing wrong with bumping old topics if they add something, or add to the education. No point in forcing related info to be years apart

The "Kiyondo" in question was offered to me here, I passed on it due to finances and a friend bought it. About a year later, it was offered to me again, but I still had not won the lottery. Mind you, in $'s it was probably a very fair price even for gimei. So a dealer here bought it, and likely added at least 50% and sold it.
So it is still probably floating around South Africa. I was sure it was gimei, but it was a real beautiful sword..just stunning.