Thoughts On Fittings Of Two Nagamaki-Naoshi Wakizashi

[FletchSan]

Hi All,

 

I have two wakizashi that I believe are nagamaki-naoshi. The blades themselves are out of polish and not much to see at the moment so I thought I'd focus on the fittings which seem high quality.

 

I do not know much about koshirae - so keen to hear thoughts on whether all fittings are authentic and go together and what period they may be from?

 

cheers,

 

Ben

 

[FletchSan]

Second wakizashi

[Greg F]

Hi Ben, the koshirae looks good. Any pix of the saya? (For 1st sword). The saya for 2nd sword looks nice.

 

Greg

[FletchSan]

Hi Greg,

 

The saya for the first sword is just plain black lacquer. I added a photo.

 

cheers,

 

Ben

[Tanto54]

Dear Ben,

 

My impression, for what it's worth, is that the fittings appear to be genuine (I can't tell for sure about the tsuba without having them in hand - the first bothers me around the sekigane - are they really separate pieces of metal? -and the seppadai - strange vertical scratches).  Both sets appear "put together" (long ago) with mismatched parts and seppa.  Most of the kodogu are lower mid-range but the saya of the second appears to me to be upper mid-range. The blades look interesting.  The first Tsuba depicts two Sennin: Tekkai Sennin and Gamma Sennin.  The Sennin (Tekkai) at the top is an immortal who can breathe out his spirit to allow it to go on long trips (you can faintly see the breath “marks”).  Once he breathed out his spirit to allow it to visit his master on faraway Mount Hua.  When his spirit returned, someone had cremated his body and scattered the ashes, requiring him to inhabit another recently deceased body. Unfortunately, the only available body was of a lame beggar, so he is often depicted in Kodogu leaning on his walking staff and breathing his soul out (sometimes shown as a small figure or a cloud). The lower figure is Gama Sennin who is always shown with a toad (sometime a three legged toad) usually climbing on his shoulder or head (on your tsuba, you can see the toad above his head between the two Sennin).

[FletchSan]

Thanks George - that is very interesting about the two Sennin! I do think that Tsuba may be cast on closer inspection. I think I see what remains of a seam inside the nakago-ana and I'm not sure whether the copper is separate metal or just copper applied on the surface to look that way.

 

I've attached two higher res. photos.

 

cheers,

 

Ben

[MauroP]

Hi Ben,
judging a tsuba from pictures is often misleading. Anyway I'm not fully convinced that what you have taken in the picture is a seam proving a casting piece. It could well be the result of the awasegitae (i.e. the last folding of an iron plate during forging). See here below an example from a papered Akasaka tsuba.

Bye, Mauro

[kissakai]

Hi

For a cast tsuba with an seam evident I would expect the seam to be an almost straight line

Mauro's example shows an irregular line and a good example to learn from

 

 

Grev UK

[ROKUJURO]

There is no reason for a straight seam line from casting unless you use an industrial die-casting process. If a traditional one-of-a-go sand mould is used, it is still a manufactured (hand-made) item with potential irregularities. 

The impression that the TSUBA in question might be cast could be based on other features like small blisters and holes, grinding marks around the SEPPA-DAI, and the lack of visible chisel tracks in the corners. Not saying this one is cast, but I believe it could be. Difficult without seeing it in hand. 

[Ford Hallam]

In my opinion the tsuba in question is a modern cast copy, fwiw.