Ihara Teruhide search

Dear All,

I'm attempting to research a blade and after everything thus far, I did a search here and suddenly there were not two Ihara Teruhides but three, as listed by Chris

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17727&p=157632&hilit=teruhide#p157632

I found Markus Sessko's book online where two were shown and with identical dates...

Showa 1926-1989…Saitama…Teruhide…burgerlischer name Ihara Kametaro…geb 1902…and was rikugun-jumei-josho

Showa 1926-1989…Saitama…Minamoto Teruhide…Musashi no Kuni Omiya-ju Ihara Tessai Minamoto Teruhide saku…burgerlischer name Ihara Fukutaro…geb 1914…in 1936 at Hikosaburo Akihides…Schmiedezentrum Nihonto-tanren-denshujo…in Tokyo, 1940 grundete er die Schmiedevereinigung der Prafektur Saitama…and was rikugun-jumei-josho

The reason I'm asking is b/c aoijapan listed a sword with the following info:

Signature :Tame Minoura ke Judai Shugo

Omiya Ju Ihara Teruhide Tsukuruno

Showa 61 Hinoe-tora(1986) February Lucky day.

Special feature : His real name is Ihara Fukutaro.

He has lived in Omiya and has won 14 prizes.

He was born in Taisho 3rd year and was formerly an authorized army sword smith.

He was studying under Kurihara Hikosaburo.

I would have thought that with 14 prizes he might have been noted with some distinction rather than only being known to have been an army smith and to have studied at the Nihonto Denshujo under Kurihara Hikosaburo. The search has been fascinating, but we'd like to know more if possible. Is there perhaps a book which specializes on these smiths who made swords before the war, during the war for the army, were prohibited thereafter, but returned to swordmaking under the later initiative? A place where we can know of these "14 prizes?" A search under Ahira Fukutaro turns up nothing here, and note that in Markus' book his artistic signature has differed from that provided by aoijapan. Was he a part of the 1980s nihonto resurgence/renaissance?

It doesn't matter one way or the other, except that we feel drawn into his life and like talking about him. And you never know...the story of Ishido Teruhide is fascinating, and we just like story...

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms." (Muriel Rukeyser)

Thanks

There were three smiths who signed Teruhide during the war. As I recall, two were brothers, from Saitama. One signed:

Ihara Kametaro Teruhide 　井原亀太郎 輝秀

The other:

Ihara Fukutaro Teruhide 井原福太郎 輝日天 <- note different kanji for "hide"

Ishido Teruhide (石堂輝秀) is a different smith. He is said to be the last of the Shinto Ishido line. He was from Tokyo.　His name was Kikuchi Seiichi 菊池清一 . He was born Meiji 13 and died Showa 57. He became famous after the war for making blades for hand planes.

All three are actually good smiths. Ihara Fukutaro continued to make swords after the war and was a very respectable smith. He won a variety of awards at the NBTHK sponsored sword making contests post war.

Both Ihara brothers won a few awards as I recall during the war era sword contests. I don't believe they made many swords during the war because their work from that period is pretty rare. Ishido Teruhide on the other hand, made a lot of swords during the war and his work is often seen.

None of them were highly ranked, but they made nice swords.

Thank You Chris,

I also posted the question at reddit and received this response

http://www.reddit.com/r/SWORDS/comments ... one_being/

The Smith

Anyway, there have been at least five smiths signing Teruhide, but with your description it is quite clear which one we are talking about. I quote from Markus Sesko's e-Index:

Teruhide (輝日出), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Saitama – „Minamoto Teruhide“ (源輝日出), „Musashi no Kuni Ōmiya-jū Ihara Tessai Minamoto Teruhide saku“ (武蔵国大宮住井原鉄斎源輝日出作), civilian name „Ihara Fukutarō“ (井原福太郎), born 1914, he studied from 1936 in Hikosaburō Akihide ́s (栗原彦三郎昭秀) „Nihontō-tanren-denshūjo“ (日本刀鍛錬伝習所) in Tōkyō, in 1940 he founded the swordsmith association of Saitama Prefecture and worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō.

As Dr. R. Stein notes, this Teruhide (and his brother) seem to have had no relation to the famous Ishido Teruhide. The brother born 1902 also signed Teruhide 輝秀, had the civilian name of Ihara Kametarō 井原亀太郎, and worked as a RJT smith (i.e. for the war).

Note that the -hide name is most famous due to the great Suishinshi Masahide, father of the Shinshintō era. Masahide was fond of variation and "word games," and signed -hide using 秀, 日出, or 日天 alternately. This explains the variation in signature that you will see with your Teruhide listed as either 輝日出 or 輝日天… though I have only seen 輝日天 examples in my brief online search for your smith.

He seems to have been a skilled smith, perhaps slightly undervalued judging from the works below IMHO.

http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2014/1410_1146syousai.htm

http://www.tokensugita.com/KA037.htm

http://winners-auction.jp/productDetail/29994

And one by his brother

http://yakiba.com/Kat_Teruhide.htm

Your Sword

Your description was quite obviously one of Tsuruta-san's (the "special feature" line is a special feature of his, haha). The original page at Aoi Art for your katana seems to be defunct, but it is still online in Google's cache, at least for now.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... ent=safari

The photos are still active (one, two, three, four, five). It is a nice gendaitō (modern-era sword) with similarities to Shinshintō-period copies of Nambokuchō-era blades… sort of a copy of a copy. A very grand shape with ō-kissaki and saka-midare hamon.

I humbly note that the transcription Aoi provided missed a character. The full signature on your blade, with explanation, is as follows:

Omote (front): 為箕浦家重代守護・大宮住井原源輝日天造

Tame Minoura ke jūdai shugo · Ōmiya jū Ihara Minamoto Teruhide tsukuru

For the sake of the Minoura family, to guard their descendants · Made by Teruhide Ihara of the Minamoto clan, resident of Ōmiya.

reading kanji meaning reading kanji meaning

Ō- 大 Ōmiya is a ward of Saitama city tame 為 for the sake of

-miya 宮 Mino- 箕 (Minoura is a family name)

jū 住 resident (thereof) -ura 浦

I- 井 Ihara is Teruhide's family name ke 家 family

-hara 原 jū- 重 successive

Minamoto 源 a traditional honorary clan name used by many smiths -dai 代 generations

Teru- 輝 Teruhide was Fukutarō's gō (art name used for smithing) shu- 守 shugo means protection or guardian

-hi- 日 -go 護

-de 天

tsukuru 造 made (this)

Ura (rear): 昭和六十一丙寅二月吉日

Shōwa rokujūichi Hinoe Tora nigatsu kichijitsu

Year of the Tiger 1986, a lucky day in February

reading kanji meaning

Shō- 昭 Shōwa period (1926–1989)

-wa 和

roku 六 6 (× 10 + 1 = 61 years of Shōwa, or 1986)

jū 十 10

ichi 一 1

Hinoe 丙 yang/fire (part of Zodiac dating)

Tora 寅 tiger (end of Zodiac dating)

ni 二 second

gatsu 月 month (i.e. February)

kichi 吉 lucky/auspicious

jitsu 日 day

More works

It is not very difficult to find more examples of both brothers' works online. Here is a sampling of your smith's swords:

1991 · 74.2 cm · NBTHK Hozon 大宮住井原源輝日天造・平成三年十月吉日

1985 · 74.4 cm 大宮住井原鉄斎源輝日天造・昭和六十乙丑八月吉日

1990 · 28.9 cm 大宮住源輝日天造・平成二庚牛五月吉日

And one by the brother if you are interested.

Conclusion

I hope that gives a little more insight into this smith. It looks like you have a very nice sword, I hope you treasure it and keep it well-maintained.

As to why you cannot find more information… well, first off, more information would likely be found if you searched in Japanese (try googling 輝日天) rather than English, and second, nihontō is a very traditional art form and these smiths do not really have anything to do with the internet 95% of the time. Most knowledge is passed around in-person, records kept on paper, etc. There are many smiths working in Japan about which most westerners know practically nothing. This is why middlemen like Paul Martin are nice to know. Also, this Teruhide clearly lived a long time (the 1991 work listed above would have been when he was about 77 years old) so it is not surprising that he would have picked up a good number of NBTHK prizes. You should understand that multiple prizes are given at each annual contest, so it is expected that a good successful smith will earn a certain number of awards in his career; indeed, to become mukansa (above contest level) you would have to earn quite a number of higher-ranking awards. So while "14 prizes" is absolutely very respectable, it is not necessarily exceptional, depending on which prizes they were and how long the smith worked.

Please let me know if you have a more specific question.

Regards,

—Gabriel

So Thanks Chris,

And Markus, and Dr. Stein, and now Gabriel. It turns out that I'd already collected everything referenced here, but I had no way to separate and contextualize the bits and pieces. And it's so neat to know that as my wife and I walked the dogs every night, musing over whether the maker was some 70-years-old when he did the piece, we were actually fairly zeroed in. I can see the addiction potential here.

Even off the NMB, Gabriel goes to great lengths to provide a huge amount of info and research

Brian

Brian, thank you for your kind comments. There are few hard facts in my Reddit post that have not already been stated or written by other people, but as most Redditors are not nihontō-obsessed I tend to err on the side of verbose explanation and contextualization. Ultimately too it is always good practice for me to research a blade and its maker, if nothing else it serves as more kanji practice.

FYI if anyone else reads this, the Markdown-based tables I tend to use frequently on Reddit don't really work when copy-pasting text… the formatting is clearer in the original post.