Markus

Hi Tyler, FYI: the other side of the tang starts with "makari-mochi Hosoi ...", the rest is unfortunately illegible. "Makari" is a prefix which emphasizes the following verb, therefore the fragments of the beginning could be translated as "proudly owned by [a certain] Hosoi ...", or "the proud owner Hosoi ...", followed by the illegible part. The left column is a date, namely "Meireki gannen hachigatsu-kichijitsu", "a lucky day in the eighth month of the first year of Meireki (1655)".

Hello Dirk, Although the third character on the right is nearly lost through the mekugi-ana, my reading would be:

This is a dating: Shôwa tsuchinoe-tora fuyu (昭和戊寅冬, Shôwa, year of the tiger [1938], winter)

Well, those who tried to participate did, and so I will solve this kantei. The artist ist Imai Nagatake, and the piece is signed: Imai Nagatake (今井永武) [kaô] - Ansei kinoto´u chûshû (安政乙卯仲秋, "Ansei, year of the hare [1855], eighth month") Yes, he was a student of Gotô Ichijô, a passionate waka poet, lived and worked in Kyôto, born 1818 and died 1882. As it is hard to pin it down to a certain artist with more techniques shown, I will give atari to Ford, Jean, and Curran. Now, how does one come to this artist. First, the raw material: iron, shakudô, suaka, shibuichi, yamagane, brass ... (I´ve tried to get the blueish-black shakudô, so that it is dinstinguishable from iron) I think everyone got the shakudô, and this precludes before (nearly) all tankô artists. What remains is (in a chronological manner) Ko-Kinkô (as John said), Gotô and sidelines, followed by the kinkô artists of the Edo period, the machibori group, and the metalworkers of the late Edo/bakumatsu period. Second, the interpretation: sukashi-tsuba or ita-tsuba Third, the shape: It shows a hardly accentuated mokkô-gata, with a very slight tendency towards aori. This in combination with the thinness and the ubu nakago-ana pins it relative quickly down to one of the late Edo/bakumatsu kinkô artists, especially to Gotô Ichijô who was (among others) renowned for such a shape. As Reinhard pointed out, such pieces were made at the beginning with old Momoyama works in mind, and so is the interpretation of the surface. Hawley mentions an interesting note, namely that "this artist kept more to the classical style and designs of the early Gotô Ichijô school". This tsuba is such a piece right out of the textbook. What was at the back of my mind with this kantei was, to present for a change once more a softmetal tsuba, because we already had some iron and sukashi works in the past. I think it was not that hard to vote for Ichijô or his school, and I must admit that I am very fond of the shape he and his school (and of course other contemporary artists) applied. As a comparison, I would like to add a picture which was shot under different lightning, with the result that it could be very easily mixed-up with iron. FYI: I´ve bought this one on the following site: http://japanesesword.de/ Fortunately, I recently had the chance to look at it hands-on, but there is more nice and reasonable prices stuff there so please take a look. for your interest.

At the moment, (of course ) Ford is right on, but not atari. Well, I must confess that with a certain motif showing more techniques, it is quite hard to pin it down to a certain artist. As my fellow countryman used to say, "I´ll be back".

I think I missed some simleys at your first reply.

Hi Pete, How´s that quick bid coming?

Hi folks, As its quite a time since the last kantei, I would fill the gap and provide you with a new one. At first, I would just like to give you the pictures, allowing you to soak in the workmanship and execution of the piece. I am sure there are some out there which could pin this one down to at least the school at once, so I suggest to withhold or to use the spoiler function. It measures 8,0 cm in the width, and 8,5 cm in the length. The thickness at the rim is 0,35 cm.

Hi Joe, The two characters read "magoi" (眞鯉), which means "black koi carp". However, "Makoi" (another reading) is a city on Hokkaidô. I am not sure what those characters mean in combination with your shirasaya.

Hi Shan, Although I can´t contribute anything particular to the/your sword in question, I would like to add that there are a lot of hamon compositions which do not have a determined nomenclature. It is then just expressed through a enumeration of all of the features seen along the form of hamon which makes so to speak the "main topic". Such a mix as on your drawing for example would be described just as "gunome which shows some togari-gunome-like elements" (gunome ni shosho togari-gunome-gokoro majiri, 互の目に所々尖り互の目ごころ交じり).

Hi Ted, I think its a writing variation of "tsuna" (綱), namely basically with this one as basis (網).

Regardless the price or if its a "bargain" or not, it is interesting that it got Tokubetsu-Juyo papers for the blade AND the koshirae as a set.

Hi Shan. Don´t worry, probably I saw too much Chinese fakes recently, that´s why I am seeing things...

Hi folks, Maybe it´s just too late her in central Europe (just returned from the pub ) but the weakly cut bôhi, the uniform hamon, the hardly existing yokote (if there was once a yokote which got just worn, the areas before and after the place where it was wouldn´t look that uniform), and the two huge identically sized mekugi-ana let ring my warning bell! However, let´s wait for the polishing.

Probably an unrecorded gô. I was not able to find any entries for my (suggested) reading of "Yûshûken" or "Ushûken" (友州軒).

Hi John, Although I am (at the moment) uncertain about the signature, I do know about the motif of the tsuba. Namely the inscriptions reads "Seiki no uta" (正気歌) which is a collection of poems by Wén Tianxíang (文天祥, jap. Bun Tenshô; 1236-1282) he wrote whilst he was in prison. The poems were popular among patriots of the bakumatsu period and frequently reprinted at that time.

The signature reads "Echigo no Kuni Mitsuoki". He was a gendai swordsmith living in Nuttari (present-day Niigata Prefecture). His family name was "Endô".

Hi Grey, The smith´s name or rather signature reads: 高崎御民渡部因 Takasaki Mitami Watanabe In His real name was "Hamabe Toshinori" (浜部寿格), also found as Hawley TOS 349. He was a student of Gassan Sadayoshi.

My interpretation of the (already deciphered) characters would be: shi hôgen no zu (師法眼圖) Based on a picture/drawing of master [who bears the title] hôgen. Hôgen was a honorary title of painters, poets, physicians and the like during. Such an addressing from where the artist did a copy or got inspired is not that uncommon for kinkô metalworkers of the late Edo, bakumatsu period.

Hi John, A lake dwelling with wild geese above is usually associated with one of the "Eight Views of Omi". http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... a_lake.jpg There was an interesting discussion about this subject (as well as on a very beautiful tsuba) some time ago: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4704&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=eight+views

Hi Brian, I think you got the right one (H 10050.0), IMHO just some inconsistencies in the artistic period.

According to Fukushi Shigeo, he was the eighth generation of the Chôshû-Kawaji family. He succeeded as head of the family in Tenmei 4 (1784), and retired in Kansei 9 (1797).

Yes, I was also not able to find a reference to any of the combinations respectively readings. Just for explaining my approach to this name, I felt it not that common to use on-yomi for both names. On-yomi (Seikei) for the given name and kun-yomi (Motoaki) for the family name sounded mostly plausible to me.

My (although wild) guess would be Seikei Motoaki (清畦根明).