kanetoki gunto

[markc]

hello everyone,

just for general discussion,

i have just acquired this sword, the seller did not translate the mei, to me this was an easy one. it reads "noshu seki ju kanetoki kore saku"

there is no other stamps or a date on the nakago. This appears to be the exact same nakago that was photographed in Dr Stein's oshigata translations. the hamon is sanbon-sugi,hada- mokume and boshi is omaru. i believe this to be a traditionally made sword, please correct me if i am wrong either way it is a great sword and is the work of kojima kanji - kanetoki son of kojima kanemichi. he was born in taisho 14-1925 so on the assumption that with this sword having no stamps it could have been made 1940 or before which would have made him 15 years old at the time. If this is the case could it possibly be the work of kanemichi in his early days as he did sign kanetoki as one of his early mei.

the reason for posting is to share and ask the forum if anyone has any further information on kanetoki as there is not much documentation on this smith only the facts as stated above and that he was a navy smith rated at 1m yen.

Some pictures attached for your viewing.

thank you in advance to any forum member who replies

[SwordGuyJoe]

I took a look at Slough's and it says that Kanetoki was an early signature of Kanemichi, not Kanemichi's son. I am not giving an opinion or saying that Slough's is right or wrong, just saying what is listed there. It's on page 46.

[george trotter]

Hi Mark,

Interesting sword. I had a look at the books (hope you don't mind a comment?)...Kojima (not sure Tokijiro?) born Mei 32 was firstly Kanetoki. He became Kanemichi . He made swords for the army in WWII.

His son was Kojima Kanji born Tai 14. In Sho 15 he entered the mon of Watanabe Kanenaga. He took the name Kanetoki (2nd Gen) and although I'm not sure he probably made swords for the army...the books don't specifically say so. Your sword may be either man as I don't know when 1st Kanetoki became Kanemichi or when exactly 2nd gen Kanetoki started. I would presume this sword to be the 2nd as the strokes of Kane and saku don't match Kanemichi's mei, and if him (as Kanetoki) I would expect Kane and saku strokes to remain unchanged when the Toki became Michi.

As for the lack of stamps, as you say, it could mean pre 1940 make, but also, I have two Showato without stamps, and I would put both after 1941 and these both show handwork, (masame and nie and ko-nie), so can't be definite...perhaps, army swordsmiths were able to make "private orders"?

I must say, the field of Showa era swords 1926-1945 is very interesting. keep on hunting.

Regards,

George.

[markc]

thank you to joe and george for the reply, i have a copy of slough's and thats what threw me a bit until i found this article on http://www.ninhontocraft.com - mino gendaito that says that kanemichi did have a son kojima kanji art name kanetoki. the references used for this article do point to this fact. also as has been discussed on this forum before there are many navy smiths who produced high quality swords but there is little documentation on them as most of the research has been concentrated on the army smiths of the period. as george pointed out there is a marked difference in the style of mei between kanemichi and kanetoki therefore i think it is the latter. i am just waiting for a copy of kanzan shinto oshigata dictionary to be delivered so hopefully this oshigata will be in it. i believe this book has many oshigata of the lesser known smiths.

thank you again for your replies

regards

markc