JAL

Sayagaki of my Taima Den Cho Aritoshi states the smith being active in Kenmu era (1333-1336 so Nambokucho).

And the last part, best regards John

Hi all, here are some pictures of the sayagaki of my Taima. Translation in earlier post. I was not really looking for specifically Taima, but did at that time have a vested interest in Yamato. Still own a TH Kamakura tachi, a juyo Senjuin Yoshimitsu Kamakura tanto and this Taima Cho Aritoshi. best regards John

Hi, Nice Taima sword. Although it is stated that Taima is a somewhat rare school, I owned four blades in during twenty years of collecting and two of them attributed to Cho Aritoshi. Currently I still have in my collection a juyo token attributed to den Cho Aritoshi (62nd juyo session) with a sayagaki by Tanobe sensei which translates approximately to: Sayagaki Tanobe Sensei 62th juyo token The Wasyu Cho Aritoshi. This sword is Osuriage Mumei. This sword smith was Taima school’s student, he was a sword smith in the Kenmu era. Hamon is Suguha and Syogunome with deep and thick Nie. Also, Hamon has many Niju- ha and Yubashiri. This sword has a lot of characteristics of Aritoshi and is excellent. Nagasa 2 shaku 2 sun 2 bu Year of the Rooster 2017 best regards, John

Thank you Steve, yess, the length I believe is 2 shaku, 2 sun, 2 bu about 67.3 cm. I am always struggling with the description of the year, but based on your transcription this should be the year of the rooster,, so 2017 which makes sense because the juyo paper is end 2016. best regards, John

Two more pictures.

Dear all, The setsu-mei and juyo paper translation are doable but sayagaki is still a problem for me. This is a 60th juyo session yamato Taima Den Cho Aritoshi o-suriage mumei sword Kenmu era. This is as far as I got with the Tanobe -san sayagaki translation but I might not be correct. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ‘’Washu (Yamato Cho Aritoshi. This sword is Osuriage Mumei. This sword smith was Taima school’s student, he was a sword smith in the Kenmu era. Hamon is Suguha and Syogunome with deep and thick Nie. Also, Hamon has many Niju-ha and Yubashiri. This sword has a lot of characteristics of Aritoshi and is excellent.” Best regards, John

By the way, a picture of the set. best regards, John

Thanks Matt, interesting, I will check it. It came with papers that stated Gassan Sadayoshi. The issuing org is quite unknown so not sure. best regards, John

thanks for all the help. The first part still is a bit strange to me. I was also looking in the sayagaki for the attribution (both blades are mumei but attributed to Gassan Sadayoshi) which I had expected to be on the top. Mumei Jidai Keio I could find. 信州松代　兼虎 Shinshu Matsudai Kanetora: would this be the writer of the sayagaki (Matsudai Kanetora from Shinano province?) 大互目乱れ　出来良し O gunome midare, good work best regards, john

Thank you Moriyama san. Clearly a couple of kanji that were off in my transcription. With this new info I will continue to do the translation. Best regards, John

Pictures attached, best regards, John

Struggling with the first part of the sayagaki: Shinshuu (Shinano) 信州. 松代兼虎 and then a name or else? And then 大上目乱加出来这 . Maybe my transcription of the handwriting into the kanji is wrong? Best regards, John

Thank you Tom, much appreciated. the quaility of the sayagaki (ink) is quite low, polish by the way is quite good. i am still working on kanji and working on the sayagaki translation. Much more difficult than the papers…. Best regards, john

I hope this is better.

Dear NMB members, I have been trying to find out whether the kao on this sayagaki can be identified but I have not been able to find it. As a last resort I decided to post it here hoping. Otherwise it is a kao that will stay unidentified. Obviously it is not a kao from the usual appraisers and it might be insignificant but I am just curious. thanks for all the help you can provide, best regards, John

Thanks Mark, Yes, I love the combined design of the straight planked bridge components and curved irises. I found the tsuba you referred to https://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/store/p399/G%234_Ko_Akasaka_iron_Tsuba_with_Iris_and_bridge.html best regards, John Lapre

Hi Yurie, I also enjoy reading it and would certainly buy the book. In your shinshinto/bakumatsu part you recently posted, please have a look at subscript of your picture with the Gassan Sadakazu katana. It does say Kiyomaro like in the picture above that one instead of Gassan Sadakazu. Best regards and keep up posting the updates! John

Hi all, And here my favourite tsuba: Akasaka signed . Akasaka – Hikojūrō saku 4th generation/shodai Tadatoki with traditional eight planked bridge design. Hozon tosogu papers. best regards, John L.

Hello all, I was not sure whether there is continued interest to post here, but I thought I’d share my favourite kozuka. Hirata shippo Mt Fuji with Tokubetsu Hozon. Very colorful as you can see. best regards, John L.

Hi all, Mon on my Naval kyu gunto. Maru ni katabami crest I believe. The kyu gunto contains a papered dated Eiroku 5 Bizen no kuni ju osafune Tadamitsu blade. Best regards, John L.

Dear all, Still following the discussions with interest. If there were a way to have it go through shinsa without having to remove the (gi)mei, then maybe yes. If in the current state with the (gi)mei NBTHK or NTHK would simply declare it gimei unless the mei is removed, then we all need to have our own thoughts and hopefully pleasure in discussing what it might be, because then I will not send it for shinsa. I will not remove the mei, at least that is my current state of mind. Regards John Lapre

Dear all, I hope this will work out. I am not a photo expert but tried some pictures with more detail. Not close to the quality usually posted over here. I hope the links will work Regards John Lapre Detail hataraki http://imageshack.com/a/img540/1573/ESrooz.jpg Detail hataraki http://imageshack.com/a/img673/3277/aPoNIW.jpg Mei detail http://imageshack.com/a/img905/4160/JxjgBM.jpg Ha machi, is it machi okuri? Maybe not? http://imageshack.com/a/img540/750/wCk1G2.jpg

Dear all, This is my very first post. As a short intro, my name is John Lapre and I have been a "silent" nihonto collector for many years. Silent meaning that I for instance did not post here, but followed the many interesting discussions. I thought I now needed to reply in this thread: Thanks to Kunitaro-san I am the owner of this nice tanto. I own a number of signed Soshu blades (Hiromasa, Masahiro, Chikahiro (this latter is an interesting one by the way) from different periods and if I compare this tanto in hand with these, then the quality of the hataraki and the ji-nie is excellent. My Soshu Masahiro has some similar traits. For this tanto, I was triggered by the quality and not by the mei. For as long as I will own this tanto I will not have the mei removed, but enjoy the workmanship and maybe gain more knowledge. In hand the tanto looks great and is very healthy, and it looks really Soshu-den looking at the quality of the nie. I am lucky to own a juyo Senjuin Yoshimitsu and the nie-utsuri on that tanto has similarities as well. So, in hand it is still not crystal-clear what the tanto really represents (Sa school seems different though), but Soshu-den prior to Muromachi represents a good possibility based on the deki of the blade and my (non-expert) comparisons with other blades in hand. I am interested to learn more from the members on the board and hear their thoughts, not so much whether the mei should stay on (as I said I will keep it on), but more thoughts about the school etc. Regards, John Lapre