gimei signature?

[boydie4207]

can anyone tell me if this signature is gimei it reads wakasa no kami ujifusa its a late mouramachi uchigatana

 

 

 

many thanks Robert .boydietyt@hotmail.co.uk

[Brian]

All I can say is that online (and in real life too I think) it is a heck of a lot easier to find differences in a signature than similarities :lol:

So 90% of the time, you will get a gimei call. If you only get an 80% gimei call...then it is a good indication to seek another opinion and get it checked out. :D

Better to look at the work, and see if it matches what the smith did. If so....then the signature is looked at to see if it is close.

 

Brian

[boydie4207]

thanks Brian

 

i posted this in the wrong thread and listing didnt notice till it was too late lol

 

i have done some research on the sword it matches and it doesn't if that makes sense all the books i have seen say the same as kanefusa for blade details surely there would have been some difference in tempering from sword to sword the hamon and hada kind of match the the ujifusa line but it varies from kanefusa midare i'am stumped with it it's a lovely sword in goto mounts and nice tsuba and koshirae

[cabowen]

Neither the mei nor the workmanship match well with the early generation but maybe one of the later...

[boydie4207]

i have been looking at later generations but i believe the blade may be older than the signature which led me to believe it gimei which school would you say its from if any or area

[cabowen]

With the togari it would seem a Seki or Seki derivative would be a good starting place to look....

[boydie4207]

thanks chris i have had a look at sue-seki school in the past but will go back to the looking in the areas you have mentioned wakasa no kami ujifusa only used this title for a small time as he changed his smith name to ujifusa and later generations varied there names with ujifusa in it some where sue-seki smiths some were from mino-seki schools the other side of the blade has a slightly diffrent hamon i will take some pictures and add them it hasn't got as high a togari at the start off the hamon

[cabowen]

It would seem that the early Ujifusa worked in a shimari-gokoro (締まりごころ、meaning tight or compacted) Kanefusa-choji (also called hako-midare or sometimes fukuro-choji) as well as a more organic, nie lined style of hamon. Your sword is done in the shimari style but with more of a Seki-esque togari. Here are some examples of Ujifusa that show what I mean:

 

Juyo Token:

 

 

Kanefusa Choji:

[boydie4207]

i see what you mean chris the workmanship is different are the two examples katana's or uchigatana?

[cabowen]

long one is a katana and the short one a tanto.

[george trotter]

Hi Chris, I was gonna crack a joke about hadori polish but the mods might hurt me...oops haha

regards,

[cabowen]

Trouble maker!!!!