Question About Smith Kunihiro

[brannow]

Hi All,

 

I bought a nice wakizahi this week that is signed Kunihiro tsukuru.  It looks to be soshu and has mitsu mune.  My question is any idea on which Kunihiro it is?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[mywei]

some reference mei from the 'the' Kunihiro fyi

https://kougetsudo.info/horikawakunihiro/

[seattle1]

Hello:

 Wakizashi?

Arnold F.

[brannow]

Thanks Matt!  Hi Arnold yes it is,  The cutting edge is 20" long.  Ill probably bright it to San Francisco with me if you want to have a look.

[Geraint]

Dear Bill.

 

I think Arnold may have been referencing a typo in your first post.  An interesting and unusual koshirae!

 

All the best.

[brannow]

Hi Geraint,

 

Yes it is and the handle is quite large.

[seattle1]

Hello:

 No Geraint that sort of wiseacre stuff isn't my style. I hadn't yet finished my first coffee.

 In that the primary question refers to the blade and not the koshirae I'll restrict my comments to that. As always the nakago is a gold mine of information and from the nakago shape and o-sujikai yasurime it seems to fit nicely into the period from Keicho 4 (1599), that being the time when Horikawa Kunihiro followed Masamune, Sadamune and Shizu as models. Thus the mitsumune fits as does the strong nie. I can't tell about the mei but it doesn't look wildly different from the last shown for Kunihiro in Fujishiro, though more study of the mei is called for.

 On the more suspicious side is the placement of the mekugi-ana rather far up the nakago. It is common on Kunihiro blades to have low set mekugi-ana and we see many otherwise ubu blades having an additional mekugi-ana further up the nakago. I don't know the reason for that peculiarity for Kunihiro other than it is believed by some that he was a samurai before becoming a smith and may have inferred something of actual blade use that led him to tend to place the mekugi-ana low. On this blade the placement looks "normal". Secondly it is well know that shinogi-zukuri wakizashi by Kunihiro are very uncommon, perhaps beause he tended to do quite a few horimono on hira-zukuri blades.

 Let us know the shinsa outcome.

 Arnold F.

[Geraint]

Dear Arnold.

 

What do you feel about the hada as far as it is visible in image %?

 

All the best.

[Ian B3HR2UH]

I looked at quite a few kunihiro oshigata in my references last night . Marcus Sesko's excellent shinto oshigata book has quite a few . In all of the Niji mei examples that I looked at the kuni is placed really close to the mekugi ana  wheras on this piece it is placed some distance away which worried me .I couldnt find any examples signed Kunihio tsukuru although one reference indicates that he did sign this way . Is that a polishers signiature on it ?

Ian Brooks

[seattle1]

Hello:

 The hada in two of the images is too hard to really see and in the third whether  itame, which is a Kunihiro characteristic, with nagare effects, or masame which would be out of place I do not know. As for the mei Fujishiro Shinto-hen, p.267 left has a tsukuru. I am more concerned with mekugi-ana placement and it being shinogi-zukuri just on probability grounds.

 All of this just points out the danger of internet kantei: I would like to know if it has mizukage, though that isn't always seen, and particularly whether or not the hamon widens in the monouchi, an important feature.

 It needs a shinsa.

 Arnold F.

[brannow]

I asked because I have hardly any oshigata examples for kunihiro.  It is signed by the polisher on both sides.  Arnold it looks like there is a mizukage,  Anyway ill bring it to San Fransisco and you can have a look in person.