Seki Blade Queries #1: Fukuda Sukemitsu

[JohnTo]

I’m putting on two posts requesting further information regarding features in two Seki arsenal blades, the first by Fukuda Sukemitsu (this post) and the other by Yoshimichi (see other post).  There are several features in these blades which I feel lie outside, or at the fringes, of classical definitions and seek clarification.

I bought the Sukemitsu back in 1973 and it represented the first katana in my collection.  I had become interested in Japanese swords more than 10 years earlier and had manged to purchase a rather tired koto wakizashi out of my schoolboy pocket money.  A girl and marriage reduced my spare cash until I bought this sword from a friend.  I was over the moon with it at the time as it had everything that I expected in a Japanese sword, namely a blade in good polish, recognisable hamon, signature and traditional mounts.  As time went on, and experience grew, I began to realize it was not as good as I first thought.  The blade is signed Seki ju Fukuda Sukemitsu and has what I later found out to be a Seki arsenal stamp.  The odd thing about the sword is that it had been mounted with old koshirai (tosho tsuba, Mino Goto fuchi/kashira etc.).  Probably the sword was remounted as an iaito in the UK, but remember  prior to 1973 cheap Japanese swords were still readily available, but spare parts (kurikata etc.) were not.

However, I digress.  I have recently started to catalogue and describe my collection and have found some features of the Seki blades which don’t quite match up with similar features in pre-Meiji blades, e.g. nie.  I know I’m being pedantic, but that’s what collecting is about.  So I welcome comments and help.

The blade is a typical WWII gendaito, shinogi tsukuri construction with a muji (or overcleaned) hada and a shallow sanbon sugi hamon of nioi incorporating spots of ‘nie’.  The sanbon sugi consist of a repetitive pattern of two small peaks and a third larger peak (see poor photos and oshigata type drawings).  The questions that the hamon raises are as follows:

1. The smaller peaks in the hamon often show pointed ‘nie’ thrusting upwards into the nioi.  The bottom of these ‘nie’ particles are usually open, fading away into the ha.  They are also seen in the Yoshimichi blade (better photos).  They are bright shiny flashes that look like nie, but I hesitate to call them that as they lack randomness in their placing.  I assume that the smith removed a speck of clay at the apex of the peaks before yaki-ire to form these (martensite?) features.   Are they nie and is there a specific name for them?  Are they a feature of Seki arsenal blades?
2.  The larger peaks often have a bright circular ‘nie’ particle of about 1 -2mm in diameter near the tip.  However, on some of these peaks part of the hamon breaks away forming two types of isolates spots (Questions 3 and 4 below)
3. The first type of spot is a bright shiny centre surrounded by nioi.  As the spot is free from the hamon I am happy to call this tobiyaki (though not quite like the classic tobiyaki seen some of my older blades).
4. The second type of spot only consists of nioi.  I would have called this yubashiri, but Nagayama (The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords) defines yubashiri as a ‘collection of nie within the ji’.  As there is no nie, are the spots still yubashiri (I would have thought so)?

Sorry about the quality of the photos, taken after many attempts (see posting for Yoshimichi for better examples).

[Jim P]

Hi JohnTo,  Its Showato,  The stamp means that the sword is not traditionally made.        http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/4333-gunto-mei/

[Dave R]

 Non traditional covers a broad spectrum, as many posts make clear elsewhere. I would take this to the Military sword forum.