Masaoki tosogu

[Ron STL]

After much digging through tosogu mei, I am at a loss to translate these signatures. They are part of a koshira for a shinshinto wakizashi Masaoki. All matching silver fittings depicting waves and dragone, but made by different smiths. Masaoki is not a well known smith, so there is little about him. So, I suspect the fitting makers were shinshinto, local and again, not well known tosogu-ko. The tsuba mei appears to be MOTOSHIGE (kao) but I could not find anything on such a maker. The fuchi (kashira matches) totally stumped me and I could not find anything matching it. The kozuka was thought to be NORISADA (kao) or maybe TOSHISADA...but again, I found nothing convincing using those names. Maybe somebody will correctly translate these mei and, if I'm lucky, be able to say something about these fittings. The overall koshirae is quite nice albeit a little shinshito flashy, but what the owner ordered. This is a special order inscribed blade.

Ron STL

[John A Stuart]

The fuchi is signed 乘知 Jochi. It pixilates badly when I expand it and can't read the right more complex kanji. John

There was a Noritomo using these kanji, student of Sugiura Joi, late Edo.

[Ludolf Richter]

Your Motoshige is not recorded in Haynes,Kokubo,Wakayama,Sesko and my Tosogu-Database.I believe,it's not Gimei but a hitherto no recorded Go of an otherwise known artist.The Kao is not to be found in Joly's.The use of the Omori-Teruhide-waves is common for the 19th Century.Ludolf

[Ron STL]

Thanks Ludolf, I do think that is the case, unrecorded fittings makers likely from a local area. Their work is quite nice and well carved. I'll record this information in the file for the Masaoki and who knows, perhaps more examples of these carvers will turn up one day. By the way, the kowakizashi smith, Masaoki, appears to be Echigo smith who later studied with Masahide, Hawley MAS-366 and 1207. The name is also listed as Masatomo (Oki and Tomo, same kanji). Attached is a photo showing the overall blade and koshirae.

Ron STL