kyushukairu

Michael, Kyushu is a wonderful place. There’s so much European-Japanese history here. I also forgot to add that de Liefde, the ship which William Adams was aboard, washed ashore at Kuroshima, which is an island just off Usuki in Oita. I’ll try to get a couple of cheeky photos for you. Jussi, I’ve attached the lists for the two displays. I agree, koto Bungo-to can be very elegant indeed. A few months back, I was fortunate enough to be permitted to view several early Bungo tachi in a local shrine which were owned by the Otomo clan.

I remember visiting the original 'store' some years ago, which was located in the middle of Chiba prefecture, in a small town called Shimizu. The business was run from the family home, and all of the tosogu was placed in a glass case to your immediate left as soon as you enter the genkan. Stepping up to a tatami room was were all the swords were located and was were business was conducted. I remember thinking it was all very provincial, so it's good to see they are doing well for themselevs and have established a more professional store.

If any members are in Japan, and close to Kyushu, a special exhibition has been organised on the swords of Bungo province (modern-day Oita prefecture), by the NBTHK Oita branch. The exhibition is being held in Usuki History Museum, in Usuki city. The exhibition will run until 20th December, though, there are effectively two exhibitions with a second set of swords on display from the 15th of November. If interested, I can also send a list of the swords on display, which was discussed and arranged at the Oita NBTHK meeting. Usuki is also a lovely place for sightseeing - it's famous for its stone buddhas, which are a national treasure, and there is also a wonderful castle ruin, which was the main castle of Otomo Sorin, the daimyo of Bungo province, in later life. I would also be happy to meet up with anyone who wishes to attend the exhibition.

Thanks for letting us know, Robert. Coincidently, I was intending to write a post to see if any other members who were attending would like to meet up at the show. Maybe next year...

Didier, I would say that the location is Bishū rather than Bichū, and would hazard a guess at the smith being Sukemune (備州長船祐宗)

The smith is ‘Hosokawa Yoshinori’ (細川義規作）- the place of residence is a little difficult with the current pictures. And it is dated ‘A day in February, Keio 2’ [1866] (慶応二年二月)

The first is a katana signed ‘Munetsugu’, and attributed to the Muromachi era [兼次　(時代室町)], the nagasa is given as 2 shaku, 2 sun (approximately 66.6cm) [二尺二寸] The second is a mumei wakizashi attributed to ‘Kaneharu’ [兼春], the nagasa is 1 shaku, 4 sun, 4 bu (approximately 46.6cm) [一尺四寸四分]

It is signed ‘Yoshiharu’ (義治)

Looks like Myōchin Ōsumi (no) kami ki Nobuie (明珍大隅守紀信家)

Shoami tsuba now sold. Bushu Kamon tsuba withdrawn (I’e decided to keep it) Open to offers on the Akasaka and ko-Kinko tsuba

Owari tsuba now sold. Open to offers on the two Ko-Shoami /Kyo-Shoami tsuba

You’re very welcome, Dirk. That’s very kind of you - I’m sure Brian will greatly appreciate it!

Good work so far, Dirk! 六花形 赤銅 魚子地 (Rikka-gata shakudo nanako-ji) *六花 is another term for snowflake (they supposedly have six points) 昭和丗九年初冬 (Showa sanju-kyu nen hatsufuyu) The first winter of 1964

High tsuba now sold.

You are very welcome, Bob. Just to bring together the parts of the translation (adding Steve’s contribution) and presenting it line-by-line as on the hakogaki (just in case you want to print it out and include in the box): Asai Ryōun, master of fish prints (浅井良云魚拓名人也) Student of Ryōkan, resident of Yotsuya in Edo (良寛門人江戸四谷住) A person of the year of Kyōwa [1801] (享和年問人) Please do post the other side of the tsuba. I have seen a couple of tsuba which have been made with two separate plates, both of which were Gotō Ichijō (one of was signed, the other in the Ichijō hot-stamp style), and were made of shakudo and copper, and shakudo and shibuichi respectively. I can post pictures, if you are interested. However, I’ve never seen a soft metal and iron together.

Ben, don’t give up hope just yet. I had a similar experience with a fairly valuable tanto in silver issaku koshirae which was being returned from the US to the UK after polish. It was sent by USPS express post, which should have taken 3-5 days. The tanto was posted on the 24th April and did not arrive until the 18th June. On the website, it was tracked leaving LA, arrived in Brazil and then disappeared for a couple of weeks. It then reappeared in LA, went to Salt Lake City, Chicago, and New York, before finally leaving America and disappearing again. After almost a month of travelling across international waters, it finally arrived in the UK. It’s quite a stressful experience, so I can sympathise with you, but try not to give up on it, and hopefully it will appear again.

Steve, I agree with your reading of the nengō, it also makes sense as that was the era when Konkan died. However, the sentence itself seems strange, as it would suggest that Konkan was a person of that era, rather than that he lived until that time. As for your query about 魚拓 (fish-print), an alternative could be 魚形 (fish-like).

Hello Barrett, Yes it is still available. Please pm me if you are interested Kind regards, Kyle

Bob, when I opened the page I first looked at the image, saw the fish theme, and thought ‘Iwamoto work’. I had not heard of Asai before, and looked him up. It seems that Asai Ryōun was the early name of Iwamoto Konkan… With regards to the hakogaki, it should be read from left to right. So what you have would be read as ‘Asai Ryōun gyotaku meijin Ryōkan monjin Edo Yotsuya jū’ (浅井良云魚拓名人良寛門人江戸四谷住) In terms of translation, it should be interpreted as ‘Asai Ryōun (浅井良云), master of fish prints (魚拓名人), student of Ryōkan (良寛門人), resident of Yotsuya, Edo (江戸四谷住)’ .

The first is signed ‘Senshū jū Minamoto Kunimitsu‘‘ (泉州住源国光） The second is Sukemitsu Nobumitsu (佐光信光), and the third is Nobumitsu (信光) - it’s highly like that the later two are gimei/ non-Japanese

You’re very welcome, Brian

Gethin, the ‘kamon’ on koshirae E is the Japanese surname ‘Endō’ (遠藤)

It’s signed ‘Kashu Fujiwara Ietsugu saku’ (加州藤原家次作).

Axel, I too have reservations about the practicality of the snake wrapped around the tsuka. I suspect that it is a later embellishment (alongside the snake and sparrow on the saya) made to make the sword standout and appeal to Europeans in Japan during the Meiji era. As for the tsuba, whilst the design isn’t particularly inspiring, I actually find it quite interesting as it seems to be formed from two separate plates. The omote looks to be shakudo, whilst the ura seems to be silver, or shibuichi. I once saw something similar on a Goto Ichijo tsuba (with shakudo and copper) and always wondered how it was achieved.

Those Natsuo mirror menuki are incredible. Do you know much were they sold for?