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photo kantei


Darcy

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Online photo kantei... it's been a while. If you have seen the sword before, please hold back. This is a post for people who want to participate in the game.

 

Answer should be of the form:

 

1. period

2. school

3. smith

 

Especially for beginners, this is the route you should take and on any kantei your goal should be at least to be able to nail down the period.

 

Vibrant sword, roughly 70cm. Do your best!

 

Clicking on the image should bring up a high res version.

 

 

kantei.jpg

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Kantei by photos is very difficult, it is hard to get a "feel" for weight of the blade etc. At first look i thought the shape looked early Shinto, but the Hi extend into the nakago (probably would end near the machi if ubu) and the temper continues past the machi: so i guess it may be suriage. If suriage the shape could be very late Kamakura or early to mid Nambukcho. The temper/hada look interesting, lots of nie and activity so maybe Soshu or related. The hada looks like it has patterns i would assosiate with Etchu Norishige or Hasabe. I do not think i have ever seen this sword in hand, i do not remember seeing it in pictures, but i do recall you had a Hasabe katana on your website, So i hope it is not cheating but as i know you had one that would affect my guess. So i guess Hasabe, if not then another early 14th century Shoshu maker. If more of the nakago were shown and it looked ubu then i would say a skilled Shinto smith copying Soshu.

 

I look forward to learning from my mistakes when the answer is posted, anyone is welcome to "have at" my answer - it is all educational.

Mark Jones

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I am a beginner so I consider this to be very difficult, but I want to try anyway.

 

From the sugata, i.e. the rather robust (masculin) shape and the gentle sori, I would guess the period should be nambokucho. For a koto piece however, the blade looks very healthy to me, but I think this impression is largely due to the very wide temper. The hamachi seems rather small, so this indicates the blade has seen a number of polishes, which could confirm it being koto. The point looks chu-kissaki where I guess nambokucho (textbook) works should be o-kissaki, but I would stay with nambokucho due to the strong shape.

 

From the high-res picture the hada seems to be itame with clearly visible chikei (the dark lines in the ji). The very wide, flashy, midare hamon with nie particles would also lead me to soshu-den (like Mark already said, so I might be a little bit influenced, I maybe shouldn’t have read his opinion before drawing my own conclusions).

 

What also draws my attention with this sword is the particularly wide boshi, it seems to run almost along the ko-shinogi (or is this just the influence of the light giving the whole boshi area a white appearance?) If the boshi is indeed that wide I guess it should be a very important kantei point, as I have not seen this on other swords. Unfortunately I do not know where it should lead me :? (also don’t have any reference books here at the moment)

 

So I will leave my answer to be:

1. koto, nambokucho

2. soshu-den

3. ?

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ust before getting back to work :

 

 

Period

it looks like end Kamakura/ beginning Nambokucho suriage blade

 

School

slightly elongated kissaki, wide mihaba, running itame, jinie, chikei.

Ko notare gunome, sunagashi, kinsuji, lead to Soshu (unfortunatelly my eyes are not so good and I do not see distinctly the boshi).

 

Smith:

I would place it directly First generation after Masamune, one of its juttetsu, makes me think of Naotsuna or Kaneuji or perhaps Sadamune

 

Waiting with anticipation to NMB members' kantei ;)

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I have never attempted this before and I am a beginner too, so I guess the way to do it is start cataloguing the evidence.

 

After looking at shape in Connoisseurs' I am leaning towards late Nanbokucho or late Muromachi. I am basing this on the shape of the kissaki and shape of Ko-shingoi; it seems to me there is a gentle taper of the blade overall and the kissaki in relation to the rest of the blade. I am also trying to observe the shingoi which is not obvious and , I guess, runs along the bottom of the lower hi. Is this fairly close to the mune.... or just an illusion with the wide hamon? The sori looks to be slightly Koshi-zori, doesn't it (the deepest point of the sori looks to be closer to the munemachi.) Would this lean towards a Bizen sword?

 

I would describe the kissaki as chu-kissaki. The thing that jumped out at me straight away is the boshi that seems to cover the whole kissaki. If this is not just a trick of the light thaen it is "Ichi mai" (a new term for me which means fully tempered Kissaki). Nagayama says, “only seen in blades of the soshu-den and in swords dating from the end of the Muromachi periodâ€. Obviously this is what could narrow it down.

 

After reading about the types of hamon in the Soshu-den, I am now leaning towards late Muromachi period.

 

The width of the hamon also is striking. O notare?? Or would that be described as Hiro-suguha with notare?? Or Suguha hotsure?? The hamon doesn't match either side. The hamon seems to flow well past and below the hamachi, which according to the Connessoir’s is Yakidashi. It states that swords that have not been altered always have this tempering extending into the tang. There seems to be an abundance of Nioi

 

The blade has Futasuji-bi (two parrallel grooves). They are not consistent at the upper part of the blade on either side. They seem to extend well into the nakano.

 

I always find the jihada most difficult. I see a pattern and I guess could be described as o-mokume or itame. I think I also see what could be Chikei in the hada.

 

One name that pops up common to many of these things is Tsunahiro but there seems to be too much nioi in the hamon for his work.

 

Basic answer is I don’t know, but I will enjoy researching the answer when I find out!!

________________________

 

Apologies for my idle ramblings which are, in all probability, highly innacurate! :roll:

 

Thanks Darcy for this.... this sort of thing is great!! By the way, if you have a chance can we see the nakano (mei obscured) before the answer??

 

Cheers!

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As a beginner I took this challenge with hesitation, but I guess one has to start sometimes doing kantei in order to make progress.

So, sugata looks to me late Kamakura or early Nambokucho. As the sword is shortened (as far as I can see) it should have been koshi zori and around 80-90 cm which fit the characteristic of this period, also somewhat chu kissaki is fit as well.

As for school, ichimai boshi (as looks to me) indicates Soshu den as other wrote, but Nagayama in his book says that this kind of boshi usually appears in late Muromachi, but nonetheless I stick to late Kamakura.

The hamon which looks to me based on o-notare also indicates Soshu den.

As for smith I admitt that I took a long shot, and basically it is more of guess to Go Yoshihiro.

I hope that I found out at list some of the characteristics :) , Mike

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Thanks Darcy,

 

Always glad to have your kantei point, splendid, I was close with Juttetsu but did not get the right one (I would not have dared a Masamune reply). The blade was so outstanding that it could not have been less than a first generation after Masamune (or perhaps Sadamune).

 

Take care

:)

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