Another Yasuhiro sword

[chris covington]

Hello all,

 

Hoanh just posted a really lovely Bitchu no Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro blade in full polish here http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17310. Great looking sword.

 

I have a wakizashi signed Bitchu (no) Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro as well but I am unsure of the mei and it is nowhere near as nice as Hoanh's. I got it a while back from someone on the old nihonto email list but i cannot remember who it was. Maybe they are here? Does anyone remember this sword? Anyway, it has been suggested that mine is the 3rd or 4th gen. smith. It has the kiku mon but it is on the omote side with the mei which I thought was odd. The blade also has a few flaws, one fatal. It looks like during yakire some of the clay did not stick right on the blade (either that or it is shingane poking through). It is difficult for me to tell because of the old polish. There are a few open welds; small but there. The real killer though is that there is a hagiri from the ha to the shinogiji. I picked this sword up cheap to study a little about Osaka shinto and just never got rid of it. The koshirae is some mix and match late war gunto mash-up. The tsuba is very poorly cast and the saya is leather covered. The tsuka is either an unfinished tsuka that never got same' or a shirasaya tsuka that got a little rattan wrapped around it and two cast menuki tacked on. The habaki is an old copper one with shakudo foil. No other fittings. The menuki ana has bone eyelets though. Now I hate to pass old rumors as fact but I had always heard if a sword has shakudo habaki it has a fatal flaw of some sort. This is true of this sword. It also has a cloth surrender tag that i keep separate from the sword most of the time so it doesn't get damaged.

 

I don't know if this mei is shoshin or not. It does not look like the ones shown and linked in this post http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13572&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15 but if it is a later generation who knows? I'm open to any thoughts.

 

I've decided (at least for now) to use this sword for budo. Unless someone can suggest a polisher who can cover up some of these flaws I think it will stay as is. Even if the flaws are covered by a skilled polisher I would still know I had a flawed sword and I couldn't sell it without disclosure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, thank you for looking.

Chris

[Stephen]

On my phone so this is short.. you will get called out on using a cracked sword for kata

[cabowen]

Not sure what you mean by "use it for budo" but a sword with a large hagire like this is a potential danger. Flying razor blades can be trouble.

[chris covington]

Hi guys,

 

I had a feeling I'd get called out for saying I'd use it for budo . In Jikishinkage-ryu the last set of kata called Marubashi uses shinken vs kodachi shinken. The movements are done very slowly with very deep controlled breathing. There are no cutting movements and there is no blade on blade contact. It is a rather cryptic set of kata. If anyone here saw these kata I'm sure they'd be very confused . There won't be much chance for flying metal. I understand everyones concerns though.

 

Cheers!

Chris

[kusunokimasahige]

I have looked on youtube at Marubashi kata and the ones I see (aikido) do have wood on wood contact.

 

Any video of your Kata set available ?

 

I agree that your sword should most certainly not be used for any kind of budo, slow as well as fast.

 

KM

[J Reid]

A crack from the ha to the shinogi-ji means that this sword is literally a hairline away from breaking in 2 and will most likely happen just by drawing quickly.

[chris covington]

Hello all,

 

As far as I know there is no video of Marubashi no kata online. I will try to post some when I get home. If you saw something that was wood on wood contact then that isn't it. It is a very strange kata done very slowly which is why I considered this sword for it. The size is just right too. I guess I can find another old wakizashi to use. I'm sorry I didn't mean to turn this into a budo thread.

 

Best regards,

Chris

[Stephen]

Its not a treasure... maybe have the cracked welded

[chris covington]

So I can't seem to figure out how to transfer a section of a DVD to youtube. I guess there won't be any Marubashi tonight. Sorry.

 

I like the idea of welding the crack if that is possible? Any suggestions on who to talk to about that?

 

I know it is too late for this sword as an art sword but does anyone have any thoughts on the mei? Does it seem like it could be shoshin or does it look gimei?

 

Cheers,

Chris

[hxv]

Chris,

 

It's definitely not by the shodai. Although there are 4 generations of Ishido Yasuhiro, Nihonto Koza and Fujishiro only has mei for the first two generations. Let me have a little time to take pictures of a page from Fujishiro and post it for you. In the mean time, below is a mei compilation for the shodai, all swords shown are papered. The sword with '?????' is my sword, which has just been papered.

 

Your sword could be by the nidai (since I have no mei examples for the 3rd and 4th generations), but there are some significant differences in the kanji. So, it's hard to say - can't say for sure one way or another.

 

EDIT: Just from a gross observation, the placement of the first kanji relative to the mekugi ana in all of the papered examples and in Fujishiro is very consistent. In your sword, this placement is quite a bit off. If you look carefully, you can see that the proportions of some of the kanji are off, too.

 

Regards,

Hoanh

[hxv]

A page from Fujishiro: left nakago is nidai and right nakago is shodai.

 

Hoanh

[chris covington]

Hoanh,

 

Thank you for the great photos. Yeah mine looks very different. When I get off duty I'll have to really study mine against the shoshin examples. I'll see if I can get some better photos of the mei when I get home.

 

Best regards,

Chris

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

A page from Fujishiro: left nakago is nidai and right nakago is shodai.

 

Both are shodai. A Japanese book is read from right to left.

[hxv]

Interesting! Reading the AFU translation, I distinctly understand that Plates I (right) and II (left) on page 298 (the page I posted) refer to the shodai and nidai, respectively. Perhap, I misread the translation?

 

For those with Fujishiro, I would appreciate your thoughts regarding my interpretation of the translation on page 298 of the Shinto volume.

 

Hoanh

[george trotter]

Checks Fujishiro Shinto hen p.298...reading correctly (right to left) the first heading says Yasuhiro Bitchu no Kami Shodai (2 oshigata)...next heading is Yasuhiro Bitchu no Kami Nidai (no oshigata shown).

 

Regards,

[hxv]

Thank you George and Jacques for the correction. I didn't read it the translation carefully enough, then.

 

Regards,

Hoanh