cju777

16 minutes ago, ROKUJURO said:

Chris,

is it really Bizen Osafune jū Yokoyama Sukesaka, or more likely SUKESADA ?

All the typos! My eyes might be going. 

22 minutes ago, David Flynn said:

Australian Dawn Service,  not Austrian.

Always a typo - thank you Dave! I meant no insult to the Aussies - they were my best friends over there. My kids even went to the Australian School.

Topic adjacent, but the trip that built my own connection to this particular blade. Hellfire pass in the early morning darkness, a memorial to the POW units, and the Bridge on the River Kwai.

 

 

 

 

The mei and date - On my computer they are the correct orientation, I don't know why they keep turning here on the board... I turned, re-saved a couple times. I'll keep working at it...

 

 

 

 

I recently had a blade return from Woody Hall. There is a bit of a wait, like all togishi, but his communication and work were fantastic and I would highly recommend him to those in the US. Now that it is back, sharing with the NMB.

 

The blade has a history on NMB… it was first posted by a newcomer who stirred things up and to save Brian’s stress levels I won’t link to the old posts. Despite that... I was interested in the blade’s connection to the Burma-Thailand railway and how was taken back as a “war trophy” by a Dutch POW who worked on the rail. I spent a tour in Thailand and was fortunate enough to visit the Australian hosted dawn ceremony at a museum they have on the Thai side. The blade showed some promise, and was signed and dated, and had a good chance (IMHO) of being shoshin. So, I took a gamble on it.

I reached out to Woody, and about a year later now have it back in hand! And to head off any concerns – I liked the old shirasaya’s character so I had the interior refurbished so that it could be reused, rather than a whole new shirasaya made—so no, it is not back in the “old” interior after a fresh polish.

 

Without further ado- a wakizashi

Bizen Osafune jū Yokoyama Sukesada-saku

Tomonari 58 Daimago Ansei 7th Year (1860) 2 Month (February) Day

備前長船住横山祐包作

友成五十八代孫 安政七年二月日

 

Before…

 

 

And after…

 

 

 

For the militaria folks here – the current owner provided a copy of the original POW’s memoir of his time in captivity, with some hand drawings and a service ribbon from the Dutch military.

Alright - still not perfect, but gets me what I need for my own studies. Much appreciation to @SteveM and @Nobody to get me here.

 

光遜先師ノ 鞘書ニ 曽テ薩摩ノ本阿弥忠信ノ左国廣ノ金粉銘アリシ ト云フ 然レドモ 私見デハ 南北朝最末乃至應永ノ石州出羽住貞綱 ト鑒シ候

菖蒲造 而 大板目ニ鍛へ 互乃目ガ盛ンニ乱レル刃文ヲ焼キ 処々連レ厚ク沸ヅキ砂流湯走カゝリ[かかり] 出来宜矣

刃長壱尺参寸六分 干时癸卯暦睦月

探山識了

 

Kōson sensei sayagaki notes a Kinpunmei written at the time by Hon’ami Tadanobu of Satsuma to Sa Kunihiro. Even so, in my personal opinion it is end of Nanbokuchō to Oei appraised to Sekishu Dewa Ju Sadatsuna. Kitae is shobu zukuri with large itame. Hamon is togari midare gunome and there is complex activity. It has thick nie and sunagashi yubashiri and all together is an excellent work.

Blade length 1 shaku 3 sun 6 bu

Dated 2023 January

Tanzan +Kao

 

Kōson sensei Sayagaki xxxx Satsuma,  Hon’ami Tadanobu Sa Kunihiro Kinpun mei Arisitounfu  Xxxx Shiken deha Nanbokuchō sai-sue naishi ōei no Sekishu Dewa Ju Sadatsuna

Shobu Zukuri a Ō-itame ni kitaee

  togari gunome gamorinni midareru hamon o-yaki  xxx has atsu ku nie tsuki sunagashi yubashiri kari deki yoroshii

nagasa ichi shaku san sun roku bu

Jizai Ureki Mutsuki

Tanzan +Kao

 

On the scale of Tanobe sensei platitudes, this one has 出来宜矣 (deki yoroshii) -- "excellent work," which I've seen on a number of his sayagaki. On the scale of his terms, I don’t think that is quite yuhin, or certainly chin-choo. Granted, as Darcy noted those aren’t always explicit indicators. But now I am getting into quality and away from translation, I’ll drop this on the blade’s post in the nihonto forum.

Can’t help on the tsuba.
 

On the blade, the kanji do look like Ujinobu, 氏信. There are a couple out there but you’ll need to find Mei references:

This is a papered Ujinobu (last two towards the bottom), early Shinto, but the Mei style looks very different:

 

 

I’m not sure if Tanobe Sensei is not willing to do a contradictory sayagaki.

 

I had one done in 2023 that contradicted the previous Koson sayagaki and NBTHK paper (both different at opposite ends of quality), of which both he was aware of and even noted the other sayagaki and an illegible kinpunmei in his own sayagaki opinion. 
 

This is a higher level blade so maybe why he is less willing to do it. Could also be a mis-translation somewhere between him, AOI, and you?

 

I personally wouldn’t want to remove the old kinpunmei. 

Thanks Jussi! Almost there. Kids and now work had me busy. I’ll have something to post by the weekend. Steve’s line breaks helped me out for sure. 

Thank you @SteveM! I did not get time last evening. I’ll report my final result tonight maybe. Some eye candy while we wait:

 

 

And the kinpunmei I never really noticed thought twice about. I just thought it was an old blemish. 

Some would even say his sayagaki is more valuable than the NBTHK assessment, go for it.

 

For others, while Ray is getting it after a good TH shinsa result, it may be worthwhile to get the sayagaki done first. While the shinsa should offer their own assessment, I know of a recent example where the shinsa result differed greatly from Tanobe sensei's assessment... and to re-shinsa means de-registering and spending all that to submit again. With Tanobe sensei on there, it's harder for the shinsa team to just take a cursory look and move on. They do have a lot to go through. Just something to consider...

Quick attempt, I know some syntax (and where I'm breaking the lines) is off and some of the characters might be off as well. I'll take another crack at it this evening. the Kipun mei section tripped me up.

 

光遜 先師 ノ

Kōson sensei

 

鞘書 ニ曽テ薩摩 ノ

Sayagaki xxxx Satsuma

 

本阿 弥忠信 ノ

Hon’ami Tadanobu

 

左 国廣 ノ

Sa Kunihiro

 

金粉銘 アリシト云フ然レドモ私見デハ

Kinpun mei xxxx xxxx xxxx

Gold inlaid mei XXXX in my opinion

 

南北朝最末乃至應永ノ

Nanbokuchō sai-sue naishi ōei

End of Nanbokuchō to Oei

 

石州出羽住貞綱ト鑒シ

Sekishu Dewa Sadatsuna xxx

 

候菖蒲造而大板目ニ鍛

Shobu Zukuri o itame ni  kitae    

Kitae (forging) is shobu zukuri  with large itame,  

                        

へ互乃目ガ盛ンニ乱レル刃文ヲ焼キ処々連レ厚ク沸ヅキ

Gunome midare hamon x-yaki  x-Nie -tsuki

Gunome midare hamon, x-yaki, x-nie appear                                    

 

砂流湯走カ匂い出来宜矣

Sunagashi yubashiri nioi deki

 

刃長壱尺参寸六分

nagasa ichi shaku san sun roku bu

Blade length 1 shaku 3 sun 6 bu

 

干时癸卯暦睦月

Jizai Kibo Shimotsuki

Dated 2023 January

 

探山識了

Tanzan +Kao

Thank you as always Moriyama-san! 

 

For those following along at home... I am getting better. Some of these were only a stroke or two off (which meaning-wise means a ton, but makes me feel better).

 

green=correct. blue=correction.

光遜先師ノ鞘書ニ曽テ薩摩ノ本阿弥忠信ノ左国廣ノ金

粉銘アリシト云フ然レドモ私見デハ南北朝最末乃至應永ノ石刕      

出羽住貞綱ト鑒シ候菖蒲造而大板目ニ鍛へ互乃目ガ盛ンニ乱レル刃文

ヲ焼キ処々連レ厚ク沸ヅキ砂流湯走カゝリ出来宜矣

刃長壱尺参寸六分

干时癸卯暦睦月

探山識了

Good morning all,

 

I'm working on another Tanobe Sensei sayagaki I have. I would welcome any help on how I did with the transliteration. I'm getting better at picking out his katakana (maybe?) and some of his style on the various radicals, but a couple spots I just got lost or couldn't remember the kanji. I know some are wrong. I'm coming at this from a Mandarin background, which probably messes me up in a few spots too.

And since I usually get asked in these posts... yes I will post a translation attempt once I get it all together correctly.

 

Thank you!

无遜先師鞘書マ曾テ隡摩ノ本阿ユフXレヽ怎信テュ国廣ノ金粉XアリョソトヽフハフXレドモX見デハ南北朝最末乃至應永ノ石忍出羽X真碙トXシ侯菖蒲造而大板目ニ鍛ハ互乃同ガ盛ンニXレル刃XヲXキX連レXワXショXXX走XXX宜矣刃長壱尺参寸六分干时癸卯暦睦月探山識了

Search this sub-forum. A couple threads already on people’s experiences. 

While in theory I’m supposed to get them out on the table to play, you could say I “collect” the old school hex and counter war games. You’d be shocked by what some of the monster out of print games go for on the secondary market. There’s another bookcase in the left with some more and a couple of the more gamey Axis and Allies types. 
 

Bonus nihonto connection is Sekigahara and a couple Pacific Theater focused games. 

21 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:  

Nice collection Bruce! I only have this set of two I usually have out when my gunto are on the kake. 
 

 

My papered example-

 

 

On 12/11/2023 at 5:21 AM, Jacques D. said:

There are two generations of Kunimichi. 

A lot of the literature mentions that especially some of the older books, but I do want to note in some of the Japanese journals and such there is debate if there was actually two generations or just his long working life and variety. 
 

I gathered a lot of info when my Kunimichi was papered. Once I dig it out I can share a thread on it. I’m not convinced on the one vs. two generations myself, until I read up again. But a good academic discussion for sure. 

Just,

 

As a comparison for you to compare against. Below is a photo of a signed Naminohira tachi attributed to late Kamakura, Bunpo era. Just to see how things change from early to late in shape. 
 

Sadly I have a small sample size and live mostly through internet photos. 

 

In hand, a pretty healthy ubu signed tachi by Naminohira Yasutsuna. 

Looks great Stephen! I have something with Woody too. Can’t wait to see the result. 

6 hours ago, Bruno said:

Thanks Chris. 

 

Do you know who is who on the photo?

Alas, no I don't. I think one of the previous posts or fliers about the show named the shinsa team. If I find it I'll put it here.

Courtesy of Mr. Chris Bowen in one of the FB groups:

 

And not just a contact within the NBTHK organization, many of those offering shinsa services or dealers know and visit him or know of a proxy to get a blade to him to request a sayagaki.