Kikumon.....gimei Mei?

[Mortis]

Gentlemen,

 

Here is a blade with a kikumon, but the mei looks fairly “shaky” to me. Not a strong, crisp mei that one would expect from a smith given the right to use the kikumon. What do you all think? I’m terrible at reading mei, I can’t read the first three kanji, but my best guess for the last three is Minamoto Kuni Sada. Doing some internet research I can’t find any smith who used this mei. Thank you for your opinions.

[ROKUJURO]

Justin,

it looks like YAMASHIRO no KAMI MINAMOTO KUNIMICHI. 

Compare this one: https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-kikumon-yamashiro-kami-minamoto-kunimichi/

[Mortis]

And there it is! Thank you, Jean. Found him on the Nihonto Club website (don't know how to link it). It looks like he wasn't terribly prolific, being active for only twelve years. I suppose this could mean that his blades are fairly rare, but maybe hard to discern the quality of his work, due to few examples. Would this line of thinking be somewhat correct?

 

Or, is the kikumon, in and of itself an implied mark of quality? I would have thought that one would have had to practice for more than twelve years to have the kikumon bestowed upon them.

[leo]

Justin,

without pics of the whole blade any comments on the quality would be purely hypothetical. From the mei and the kiku its a typical Mishina school mei. 

 

It seems that this signature might be an early variant of the famous Dewa Daijo Kunimichi. See the link to a text from Markus Sesko´s index:

 

https://www.Japan-budo.com/antike-wakizashi-/yamashiro-kunimichi-1615-1624-genna-15896-wakizashi-sword-.html

 

Best, Martin

[seattle1]

Hello:

 I think it is almost certain that this is not the Kunihiro student Dewa Daijo F/W Kunimichi. The only intriguing feature is the kiku-mon, used by the Mishina group, which Kunimichi had some relation too, but I am almost 100% sure that no blade of his ever carried that mon, and further the kanji is entirely unlike Kunimichi's early kanji, so in those senses, leaving out consideration of an image of the full nakago, jihada, yakiba and boshi, I would say no!

 Arnold F.

[Mortis]

Thank you, Martin and Arnold. I too was a bit skeptical of the Dewa Dajo connection after following Martin’s link to further research. Although I’m entirely certain Martin knows far more than I imagine I ever will.

 

I am planning on going to see the sword on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to take some additional/better photos.

[leo]

Dear Justin, thanks a lot for the compliment! If you should own this blade, it might give you an opportunity to study.

 

Dear Arnold, i am afraid you have to revise your statement that Yamashiro no Kami never used kiku. I have seen a few blades and they all had kiku engraved. I enclose one of mine that I sold about 15 years ago. It was suriage and machi okuri but had TK and Hozon papers. But do not worry, we all learn until we die

 

Whether Yamashiro no Kami aka Yamashiro Heianjo was an early name of Dewa Daijo or not, is interesting material for another study.

 

Best, Martin

[Jacques D.]

This Kunimichi  is in no way Dewa no Daijo Kunimichi, it's another smith working in Genroku. 

 

http://www.taiseido.biz/cn11/cn22/pg394.html

[leo]

Jaques, I do not doubt that. Would be too many reasonable saijo saku blades if it was.

All these samples with the Kiku and Yamashiro mei are most probably the Kunimichi listed in Hawley as KUN480. My former blade was sold as KUN480. Still I have not seen one of those early 國道 mei by the later Dewa daijo and I would like to see one. Always interesting to raise a discussion.

 

Cheers, Martin

[seattle1]

Hello:

 Well we can all make mistakes, however I have studied the smith called Dewa Daijo F/W Kunimichi for years, have owned quite a few of them, and have many examples of his mei from wide sources and therefore am almost certain it must be another man.

 Arnold F.

[Mortis]

Gentlemen,

 

An update.  This sword was up for auction at a mom & pop auction house today.  The auction was in progress by the time I had made it and the sword was put up for sale one-half hour or so after I had arrived.  I was able to look the sword over briefly, but was not able to take any photographs.  They wanted it back in the display case, so close to the sale time.

 

So, it definitely had many of the common kantei points for a Mishna School blade (which I just learned of in the past few days....thank you, Martin).  Nagasa was 22 inches; ubu iriyamagate nakago-jiri w/ two mekugi ana; thick sudare/kikusui hamon; boshi was omaru (i think) with muneyaki; the ha-machi was very substantial.  The polish was old, the blade was a "milky" color, but was rust and ware free, and it was still very sharp.  I couldn't make out any hada, but I didn't have very much time to concentrate on that.  It seemed overall that this blade was very well taken care of and the sudare/kikusui hamon, was really cool to see.  It also had some hardened circles (tobayaki?) here and there above the hamon.

 

The blade was mounted.  The mounts looked old and were not in the greatest shape.  Everything was there, except for one seppa.  And the horn kojiri on the saya end was broken in half and it was also loose within the saya.  Menuki were of dragons, shakudo I would guess (they were totally black), but were pretty grimey.  The fuchi and kashira had some detail, but were also rusty and hard to see the theme exactly, but were also dragon related I would say.  Habaki was copper, but I thought I could see some remnant of gold foiling.  The tsuba was an iron plate (somewhat rusty) with a kiku / Satome look.

 

I was handily outbid.  The sword sold to a phone bidder for $2,200.00, I believe.  Which I felt was probably about right considering that, to make it look nicer and "fix" some things with the koshirae, you'd have to spend several hundred dollars more on it.  I know it's hard to say without viewing it in hand and based on my weak description, but the "value" is something I'd be interested in hearing more opinions on.  I knew it was a good blade, but I was hoping to "steal a deal".  At that dollar figure, without a lot of extra money to blow and a wife that "tolerates" this somewhat expensive hobby, I always feel that once you get into even the low-low four figures, I'd rather save my money to spend on blades from dealers that are in better shape, maybe papered, etc.  But I imagine there is a special feeling from saving an old sword, that isn't a rusted mess, from just out of the woodwork.

 

Thanks for reading and thank you to the members who have commented throughout the past few days!  I certainly know more than I did a week ago and for that I am grateful.  ~  Justin

[tokashikibob]

Thanks for the write up Justin, as a auction hunter I know the effort it takes hunting them down at the mom and pops, days off work,  4 a.m. on the road driving for hours in the rain all for naught.   I do hope the ride was pleasant and you had some fun.   It would have been rough to plunk that 22 down and then fail to paper,  but it did sound like a good blade to take a flyer on if the price was a bit lower.  

Best regards,

  Bob