emead

My wife has a silver thing. I have been looking into period fine silver menuki and other silver and mixed metal (shakudo, mokume, Shibuichi) koshirae -- for martial -- um, marital -- harmony. She has a piece which looks to be a bit of Yokohama silver (Meiji) which gained some good reputation for export serving ware. It occurred to me that this maker was likely earlier a maker of period koshirae fittings before the sword ban. So I wanted to chase down the maker(s). We have a mark, (likely the exporter's/importer's mark, but it's a start) : And for those interested in the workmanship, here are examples (you'll see why I want to find info on the source.) (It is sugar tongs, so this is technically OT): Thanks in advance. (Look at the gold worked into the center of the blossom and the bird's eye's)

Thanks for the comments. I suspect it cannot be judged as shoshin or gimei before it is polished to better reveal some more of its internal structure, so I'll just have to tuck some pennies away. I have a background in Chinese and have done some calligraphy -- so the example of the attested mei and this one seemed to me very close in certain characters, particularly the rather idiosyncratic hayashi æž—, but a chisel and a brush are two different animals to try to compare from. I practice aikido and am dabbling more and more in iai-jutsu so I probably will see about a polish. Any recommendations on a prospective polisher, the level of polish I should look to get and likely cost? And any thoughts on the attribution on the kamon ?

I know just enough to be dangerous here. Is this smith's mei known to have any significant appeal for gimei makers?

And lastly the attested mei of Ise no kami Kuniteru from Toko Taikan:

In follow up, here are the koshirae: ... and the closeup of the kamon:

So is this worth having polished? Would it manage another polishing ? This wakizashi blade was inherited from my great uncle who was a naval officer in the Pacific theater WWII. Particulars are below but it is signed as above (å°æž—伊勢守国è¼) The same signature is attested in Toko Taikan. The blade came to me stuck in (not fitted at all) a daito saya, and tsuka (good, intact same, but without any wrap). I'll detail those in a follow up. It could be a chiisagatana, I suppose -- but I think the fittings are all unrelated to the blade. I include a photo of the mei There is one small cut nicked in the mune, which suggests having seen action (as do the numerous but all quite minor nicks in the ha). Nagasa: 19.0 in./ 48.3 cm / 1.59 shaku Nagako: 5.6 in. / 14.3 cm / 4.7 sun Torii Sori: 0.44 in / 1.1 cm / 0.37 sun Shobu-zukuri O-kissaki Ihori-Mune Masame-hada (poss. mixed itame) Hamon indistinct (poss. Hitatsura or, less likely Choji) Yakizume-boshi Haagari nakago-jiri Sujikai yasurime According to the database Ise no kami Kuniteru was Shinto (Manji:1673)