Made by the Dozen-Kazuuchimono

[ancientnoob]

I would love to see some photos of swords deemed Kazuuchimono.

 

There are very few pictures of swords with this attribution. They belong to a group of Muromachi period mass produced swords around the time of the Onin War. Onin 1. These swords were made on an assembly line process of low grade workmanship and minimal tamahgane. The nihonto collector elite (based on what I have read) frown upon such swords, and are not considered art objects. During there hey-day they were considered disposable swords. Swords ment only for battle and not for prestige. They would have been the utility of the grunt of the day. I would image such a piece would have an amazing story to tell if it could speak.

 

Does anyone have a source couple of pictures of Kazuuchimono? Google yeilds little.

 

I have also read that there are various grades of Kazuuchimono. From what I have read these swords have tremendous faults and can often be brittle and have a great deal shingane. Metal blisters and a lack of activity. These were made mostly by the Bizen and Mino schools in the mid to late Muromachi before the Shinto renaissance, in which the old styles were revived.

 

I am eager to see what the other collectors feel about these swords?

[echizento]

Over the years I've had several of these swords. The ones that I had seem to have held up pretty well. While not all that nice to look at they were still tempered blades with nice hamon and hada. Some of the Bizen blades even had some nice nioi and nie visible.

[Derek]

Not sure about his source, but Adrian wrote an interesting post on Kazuuchimono swords.

 

http://samuraiantiques.com/new-page-12.htm

 

 

 

 

Derek

[ancientnoob]

Not sure about his source, but Adrian wrote an interesting post on Kazuuchimono swords.

 

http://samuraiantiques.com/new-page-12.htm

 

 

 

 

Derek

 

Intertesting lead.

I am surprised that there are not alot of photos of these swords and all their faults. I wonder if they did not survive to the present in such great number or if they are not appreciated as much as the art swords. I wonder how many survived and were remounted in Ming China? I have looked at antique Chinese swords and seen nothing resembling a traditional curved nihonto and almost nothing earler than the 18-19th century.(With the exception of museum collections and the usual production swords)

[Brian]

Why would there be a lot of info and pics of them specifically? They are not high art swords, and since Nihonto is highly valued nowdays specifically because they are art and not weapon, it shouldntt be surprising they are not revered.

You will find hundreds of pics of them online. But not labelled as kazuuchimono. Just as cheap katana and wakizashi from that period. Usually out of polish and moderately priced, with the usual flaws.

It's not like we need a book written on them. They were made fast at a time when weapon was more important than art. They have hamon and hada, but not refined. Good for the artifact collectors, bad for the Nihonto collectors.

Not very complicated.

 

Brian

[sanjuro]

I am eager to see what the other collectors feel about these swords?

 

From a strictly collecting point of view, there is nothing to set them apart artistically as being of interest. As Brian has said there are no books dealing with them for this very good reason.

I have seen a few examples over the years and apart from being cheap they were decidedly dull examples. What is alarming about them is they are sometimes peddled off cheaply to would be collectors as collectable nihonto. They therefore confuse the isue for the newbies and collectively they have a negative impact upon the perception people have of the artistic aspect of nihonto.