Yasukunito

[Stephen]

who would you rate top smith down?

[george trotter]

That's a hard one Stephen. Probably Chris is the man for this one.

I have had in hand:

Kajiyama Yasunori (several - also his pre-Yasukuni work as Geishu ju (Hiroshima) Ujimasa)

Kotani Yasunori (several)

Shimazaki Yasuoki (one).

 

This is only three smiths but I would put Kajiyama Yasunori at the head of these.

Hope this helps,

[Stephen]

Was wondering about Yasumitsu, if someone could show me the down load for Kanji id be very greatful.

[SwordGuyJoe]

I'll preface that Yasukunito aren't my favorite, though I do agree that the quality are usually quite fine. My top five would be as follows:

1. Kajiyama Yasunori

2/3. Miyaguchi Yasuhiro

2/3. Ikeda Yasumitsu

4. Kotani Yasunori

5. Masuda Yasuaki

 

As far as Yasuoki, I highly prefer his post war efforts along with Yasutake.

[Brian]

Was wondering about Yasumitsu, if someone could show me the down load for Kanji id be very greatful.

池田 靖光

[Stephen]

Thank you both, I was wondering Brian how to add the program so I can post kanji, but that helps for some searching

[cabowen]

I have seen many Yasukuni-to, and owned quite a few; enough to form an opinion I suppose but I think it can down to a matter of taste ultimately.

 

My favorite smiths are Kajiyama Yasunori and his nephew Kotani Yasunori. There were very skilled and made high quality work. I have seen a few Kotani blades that were a rank behind his usual work, and some that may be better than his uncle.... I think there was probably a bit more variation quality-wise in his output. One should keep in mind though that this seems to be seen more in the later war blades as they were really rushed to produce as many blades as possible. We see choji quite often in Kajiyama's work, while Kotani does more of a Rai style on occasion.

 

Ikeda Yasumitsu was also very skilled. It seems however that he made mostly suguba; skilled as it is, I find I am more attracted to the more active styles of the two Yasunori.

 

Miyaguchi Yasuhiro gets high marks but almost every blade I have seen of his has been a bit of a let down with kizu frequently seen. I do have a tanto by him that is absolutley wonderful; I have no doubt he had skill and made some nice swords, I just haven't been fortunate enough to have seen one yet that really impresses me.

 

Kajiyama Yasutoshi, the son of Kajiyama Yasunori, was also very skilled. His work is rare as he died young, but of the few I have seen, they were excellent.

 

The second generation smiths all seem about the same to me. None of their war period work stands out. It is all good, but not on the level of the those above, in my opinion, in general.

 

Post war, Yasutake seems to have won most of the NBTHK awards of those who former Yasukuni smiths who entered. Yasumune and Yasuaki were talented. I have seen many post war blades by them...

 

I recall Fujishiro Okisato san telling me when I brought a Kajiyama Yasunori blade to his studio for photographing for Kishida san's Yasukuni-to book that he had though Ikeda Yasumitsu made the best jigane up till then, but changes his mind when he saw the Yasunori blade.

[Stephen]

Chris san ,hai domo!

[w.y.chan]

Is work signed "Takenori" on average better than those made at the shrine that were signed "Yasunori"?

 

Wah

[seattle1]

Hello:

Interesting thread indeed. At one time or another I've owned a number of them, certainly all the major ones, and of the Minatogawa Jinja smiths too. They have come and they have gone, and it has not been until recent years, when with the help of the JSS/US, Tom Kishida's book, The Yasukuni Swords: Rare Weapons of Japan 1933-1945, was published by Kodansha International in 2004. The same can be said of the attention brought to Minatogawa blades by the monograph on same written by the late Herman Wallinga and published by the JSS/US in 2000.

I would certainly agree with Chris Bowen that the uniformity of quality of the major Yasukuni men exceeds that of the lesser, mostly but not exclusively because of their individual forge oversight responsibilities. Blades by all those men are still out there, and by comparison with some of the shinsakuto, they are not so expensive. I would suggest that if one wanted a target and didn't have a bottomless pit of money, one each of the two "founders" Miyaguchi Yasuhiro and Kajiyama Yasunori (in older writings sometimes called "Yasutoku,") would be the way to go. Both of them took over the first two forges on July 8, 1933. There has to be something special for being first off the mark and both were really good, though Yasuhiro made far fewer blades and should be a little more expensive.

Actually the primary reason for posting is to caution new collectors about the danger of reworked gendaito and even gunto that parade as Yasukuni-to. Do not assume that a paper is full safety against such fakes. I have seen and handled one undoubted example which actually had a paper from a now closed but highly respected institution. It is worth remembering that only recently have the Japanese acquired a sort of "social permission" to treat these blades as okay to own and cherish, and the possibility of mistakes being made by honest and normally reliable folks can't be entirely discounted. If you encounter a Yasukuni-to be sure that it has a real nioi-guchi line and examine the area where a stamp might have been removed with a gimlet-eye. The blade should display a very pleasing early koto shape (usually), the quality of the kitae should be excellent and if it has grooves I think it is virtually certain to be wrong. I don't know where the recent versions of these fakes come from, but the usual suspects are out there.

Finally, I'd be interested in reading some comment from Board Membvers about the comparative quality of Minatogawa blades. They are much (!) scarcer but are they better, the same, or worse than Yasukuni-to? Remember there was a lot of teaching and technology exchange between the earlier founded Yasukuni Jinja folks and Minatogawa smiths. If you come across a Minatogawa remember the Kikusui-mon is engraved and 100% certainly not a stamp unless it is a fake. I believe that the presence of the mon is a sine qua non of the real article irrespective of what a seller might say. Again, like so many of these situations, the would be seller himself might not know.

Arnold F.

[Stephen]

intersting

http://cb1100f.b10.coreserver.jp/collection_1z_13.html

[Stephen]

could handle the subdue suguha with jihada like this

http://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/img/a00129_c_01.jpg

[cabowen]

Is work signed "Takenori" on average better than those made at the shrine that were signed "Yasunori"?

 

Wah

 

Kotani san made relatively few blades outside the Jinja with the Takenori mei and thus they are quite rare. I have seen several and they have all been first rate. I have one, done as a Rai utsushi, that is unlike any other gendai-to I have seen. When I showed it to him, he got a big smile on his face and said it was like meeting an old friend after 60 years. He said he only made a few blades like it; he couldn't spend the time at the Jinja that this type of blade required. Better? Surely they are better than the late war work from what I have seen, but I think they are comparable to the early war work. The main difference is he had time and the freedom to make them as he wanted, rather than have to conform to the style requirements of the Jinja.

[cabowen]

Finally, I'd be interested in reading some comment from Board Membvers about the comparative quality of Minatogawa blades. They are much (!) scarcer but are they better, the same, or worse than Yasukuni-to?

 

They are indeed much scarcer so it is hard to make a fair comparison but the best Minatogawa blades I have seen were certainly on par with the better Yasukuni blades. I haven't seen a Minatogawa blade that is the equal of the best Yasukuni blades, but that may be due to a small sample size. The two head smiths at the MInatogawa Jinja were very good smiths. In particular, I have always been a fan of Moriwaki Masataka. In the Kobe area, there are many sword collectors who covet Minatogawa blades.