gordpete

It looks like a mistake. The smith tried to do a ko-maru and ended up with two tobiyaki in the middle of his bôshi. From the looks of the blade, jigane and hamon, possibly late Kotô. Given the way they were pounding out swords to meet demand during that period, mistakes happened.

In addition, the signature is not fake, but typical of a Fujiwara smith's signature. Also, the blade does not have naginata-hi, but bôhi on both sides of the blade.

Regarding the Fujiwara jû Nagayuki, the shape of this sword is typical of Sue-Kotô with koshi-zori and saki-zori with an extended chû-kaissaki. The yokote is present under the rust, which appears to be on the surface. This blade is indeed in need of professional restoration. Please do not give to any of the "so-called" polishers in Brazil. I have seen their work and they are not restorers but destroyers. This smith is not in the Takada School, but as the Meikan clearly states, circa Tenbun, Yamato. As I wrote regarding the Fujiwara jû Yasumitsu, the Fujiwara School smiths are separate from the Sue-Tegai School, but closely related to the Kanabô School. I am in the final stages of my book on Sue-Yamato smiths and would love to include this blade, but as it is out of polish and in Brazil, that does not seem possible. The same goes for the Fujiwara jû Yasumitsu. I would love to have this join my entry on Fujiwara Yasutomo. Nonetheless, I have added Yasumitsu to my Sue-Yamato Meikan at the end of my book. I am expecting the book to be in print either sometime this year or early next year. The text is in English and Japanese and has 100s of example oshigata.

Hi Rokujuro, Not a Sue-Tegai smith. SueTegai smiths typically used Kane [包] as the first character in their signatures. Your smith is from the small group of smiths known as the Fujiwara School.

Just some information on the Fujiwara area of Nara. The place name still exists and it is located in front of Kasuga-taisha grand shrine. These smiths supplied arms for the warriors attached to the shrine. As Ray has provided, some of these smiths are from the Sue-Tegai School, some are Fujiwara School smiths and a few are pre-Kanabô smiths. The Kanabô School began in Fujiwara before moving to the Kanabô area of Nara.

I have a Fujiwara jû Yasutomo oshigata and the signatures are very similar, although the nakago-jiri are different. This is certainly a Yamato Fujiwara smith that is unlisted in the Meikan.

Your reading is correct; however, the only reference I can found for this tea house is the one in the Kenroku-en garden in Kanazawa. However, that tea house dates to the Meiji period so the relationship to Fujiwara no Teika is probably the correct one.

This is a feature typical of the Nambokuchô period. And it is indeed done in case the kissaki is broken and then reshaped.

OK, the Kunisada in this signature is 国定 and not 国貞. There is a listing in the Meikan for an Izumi no Kami Kunisada [和泉守国定]; however, the entry says "period and province unknown." Thus, while this might not be a mistaken writing of the wrong "sada" character, there seems to be no information on this smith.

It's also a Mino sword that is signed Sadamune, which is clearly fake.

The reading is Kanetsune and there are many generations of this smith. Without a picture of the whole sword and some close ups of the workmanship, providing a general period of workmanship is not possible. From the shape of the characters and the higaki yasuri, this should be a Kotô smith.

It is indeed. When I get back to Japan in October, I will check my references there and see it you are in luck.

David, allow me to add my two cents worth. As noted, there are a lot of smiths signing the Tomoshige name. Fujishiro has oshigata for the Ôei Tomoshige (3rd gen.) and the Meiô Tomoshige (5th gen.) Although the Meikan gives dates for some of the other Kotô smiths, there are very few published oshigata with these dates. This makes it very difficult to pin down exactly which Tomoshige you have. Also, your Tomoshige does not have the classic Kaga nakago-jiri, which adds another problem for dating. I am presently in the States and do not have access to my library in Japan where I have the Kashû Kotô Taikan, which has a lot of Tomoshige oshigata. Nonetheless, I would suspect that dating this sword will be very difficult.

Hi Paul, yes it does and as a result we are changing the points to 75. This is also based on the rareness of this signature. Gordon

Paul, I would expect that the rating would remain the same, but I will check. It is still very early in the morning in Japan so it will take some time to get an answer back.