One of these finds... what's the story behind?

[Roland]

Dear Nihonto MB members,

 

Before I start telling a story, loading up some pics and trying to initiate a kind of kantei please let me involve myself...

 

Being a new member of this fascinating board I am not exaktly new to the Nihonto virus. Could be that my personal fascination for Nihonto goes a little bit further than the usual technical and esthetical considerations and the mere admiration of the perfection of the mastery of forging. I love it to investigate the history behind a blade! And I like it when some of this history has left it's marks on the steel (though: no hagire please!)

 

Since several weeks I'm looking for some new objects of my desire (sorry, Larry, please have a little bit patience, I'm considering your blade too Recently I came across a quite interesting Shin-gunto blade, not in best condition perhaps. Especially the tsuka has to be restored. Several sandpaper marks show a lack of respect for the blade's history. What from the beginning on sparked my interest in it was the very elegant sugata and a small silver mon on the kabuto-gane. Yes, it seemed to be one of these quite rare ancestral blades put into service for WWII. So this long ancestral Koto (?) Tachi in Shin-gunto mounting of type 94 or 98, with family-crest on the kabuto-gane will be my first thread on this board. Please forgive me, when my considerations and observations about this blade are completely "off the mark". I am a newbie and just in an eternal learning mode...

 

The blades characteristics:

 

Blade type: Katana (suriage or o-suriage Tachi?)

Length over all: 89.2 cm / 35-1/8 inches

Blade length (nagasa): 71,4 cm / 28-1/8 inches

Blade shape (sugata): (slim) Shinogi-zukuri

Thickness mune-machi: 0.6 cm / 0.24 inches

Width mune-machi: 2.9 cm / 1.14 inches

Thickness yokote: 0.4 cm / 0.16 inches

Width yokote: 1.6 cm / 0.63 inches

Curvature (sori): Torii-sori 1.4 cm / 0.55 inches

Mune type: Ihori (gentle oroshi)

Grain structure (jihada): Masame-itame

Temper line (hamon): Ko-midare / Ko-midare based on suguha

Kissaki type: (longish) Chu-Kissaki

Kissaki length: 2.7 cm / 1.06 inches

Yokote: 1,0 cm / 0.39 inches

Boshi type: Ichimonji kaeri or Jizo or Notare komi or kaeri-yoru

Activities (hataraki): Sunagashi, Ko-nie, Ji-nie, a lot of fine chikei

Tang type (nakago): futsu; ubu (possibly suriage or even o-suriage re-shaped, looks like blade-steel)

Nakago length: 17,8 cm / 7 inches

Nakago-jiri: Haagari

Yasurime: Katte-sagari (not exactly, reshaped?)

Mekugi-ana #: 3 (2 punched, 1 drilled)

Mei: SUKENAGA (Gimei!?)

Period: late Nanbukocho ?

Koshirae: Shin-gunto 39 Pattern (?), Atagi-Mon on Kabuto-gane

[Roland]

Because of the special and quite individual features of the Katana/Tachi – length, family crest on kabuto-gane, Shin-gunto spacers rivited (!) to old iron tsuba, two characters gimei/mei – I try to approach the history behind from three directions…

 

 

Based on Sugata…

 

The long, elegant and slim blade with shallow sori, thin mune and not much Hiraniku, the longish chu-kissaki and a nakago which follows the sori of the nagasa reminds me of a koto tachi from the late Nanbukocho or early to mid Muromachi, which possibly has been shortened without loosing its torii-sori.

[Roland]

Based on family crest (Mon)…

 

Two possibilities:

 

1.) After some research in f.e. the SamuraiWiki it seems to be the Mon of the Atagi samurai clan, during the 16th century Miyoshi and later Oda retainers, living on Awaji-shima – the biggest island of the Seto sea. May be the Nihonto has been handed down from generation to generation until WWII, when a son of the Atagi family went to war, and the blade was therefore mounted in a Shin-gunto and marked with the Atagi mon on the kabuto-gane. By the way: Because the mon is still on its place the owner of the blade has never officially surrendered (In this case he would have removed the family crest!). So he isn't alive.

 

2.) The Nihon Moncho of 1906 lists a quite similar family crest as the mon of the Hayashi family. The Hayashi clan has been a cadet branch of the Kono clan and served as important advisors to the Tokugawa shoguns. Over the centuries there have been lots of notable clan members from Hayashi Hachirozaemon to Count Hayashi Tadasu (1850-1913), a famous diplomat and statesman in Meiji period Japan who became resident minister to Great Britain in London, brought about the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 and found his final resting place in Tokyo's Aoyama Cemetery. Has the last owner of the blade been a grandson of Hayashi Tadasu?

[Roland]

Based on Mei…

 

Though I assume that the mei which I identified as SUKENAGA is gimei – for my amateur's eye it looks quite sketchy and too "new" to be true – it may be interesting to have a look for swordsmiths wearing this name. Mainly because it is not one of the "big guns" which normally are preferred for later falsifications. After investigating afuresearch, Sho Shin, the Nihonto Knowlege Base etc., I was able to identify several SUKENAGA as possible candidates:

 

SUKENAGA KO-AN 1278

Bizen no kuni (Koan), Fukuoka ichi, SUK330, working in the style of the Ichimonji school, Bizen, mid Kamakura. BUT: the blade's sugata doesn't fit his style!

SUKENAGA RYAKU-O 1338:

Working in the style of the Amato-Shikkage Noriaga school of Yamato Den: early to late Nanbukocho. BETTER, BUT: the blade's sugata doesn't completely fit this style.

 

SUKENAGA O-EI 1394:

Also working in the style of the Amato-Shikkage Noriaga school of Yamato Den: late Nanbukocho. BETTER: the blade's sugata does fit this style!

 

SUKENAGA SHO-CHO 1428 (f: NAGAIYE) [sUK1032]:

CHIKUGO province; worked to BUN-AN. Running ITAME. KO-NIE SUGU, KO-NOTARE or GUNOME-MIDARE with SUNAGASHI. Some in HITATSURA. HORIMONO are seen: early to mid Muromachi: BETTER: the blade's sugata does fit this style!

SUKENAGA CHO-KYO 1487 (= MEI-O 1492?):

OMI province, SUK347, working in the style of OMI - RAI MITSUKANE school of Yamashiro Den; ISHIDO Founder at GAMO-GORI ISHIDO-JI Temple. ICHIMONJI SUKEMUNE descendant from BIZEN. He followed ASHIKAGA YOSHIHISA for the siege of SASAKI ROKKAKU TAKAYORI with SAKYOnoSHIN MUNEMITSU students. One was KATSUMITSU of AKAMATSU MASANORI's HARIMA. SUKENAGA aided BIZEN influence in OMI with drawn MOKUME HADA and KO-CHOJI MIDARE BA, ICHIMONJI-style. Result: OMI offers BIZEN style to the SENGOKU; MEI: GOSHU GAMO JU SUKENAGA SAKU; late Muromachi: BUT: the blade's sugata doesn't fit this style!

SUKENAGA TEN-MON 1532 (br: IYENAGA):

working in the style of the Oishi-Sa school

Running SHIRA-KE "White" ITAME with MASAME has JI-NIE. GUNOME-MIDARE or SUGUHA with ASHI. Some HITATSURA. HORIMONO seen: late Muromachi: BUT: the blade's sugata doesn't fit this style!

[Roland]

Well. At this point I am not able to make further conclusions. The next step would be to study hamon, hada, boshi etc. to come to a theory which school or even which swordsmith as made this blade. I have to clean the blade the traditional way and try to shoot some better lighted photos Sorry by the way for the poor quality yet :-) Will there be a solution which includes all insights from the research of sugata, mon, mei and the story the steel itself is able to tell?

 

I now add some detail shots of the blade...

 

I feel a little bit like Sherlock Holmes without Dr. Watson in my investigations, trying to use deductive logics And with each and every new detail I am finding I question what I have observed. I'm still learning. So, what do You guys think? What's the true story behind this Tachi/Katana? Is it really a Koto blade, mounted in a Shion-gunto? Has it a o-suriake nakago? Does the nakago look like blade-steel? Lots of questions. If You like to do a kantei, just comment my amateurish investigations.

 

Thanks in advance, I welcome Your presumptions.

[Mark Green]

Is that a crack 'Hagire' in the last pic???

Mark G

[Roland]

No hagire, Mark!

 

Just bad lighting. There were several marks from sandpaper, and also some kitae-ware. But no fatal flaws. It took some time to inspect both sides of the blade. A hagire, even one which may have been a result of a battle, not of a bad forging, would have been obvious for my old eyes. Well, I hope so :-)

[waynes]

Hi, I am more then a beginner so my observations may be way off ,and I'm sure some of the more knowledgeable members will help correct me . That being said, the mei does look off. Of the Sukenaga's I found most signed with a different version of naga. The one I found who used this one is suk347 who's style, as you already stated, doesn't match. Also I didn't see any examples of these smiths signing so high (above mekugi-ana). The sugata does match the late nambokucho period. Also from what could be seen and what you stated such as the masame and the activity in the hamon I believe it could be Yamato influenced. All in all to me it looks like it has some serious potential. Definitely wouldn't mind adding it to my collection. Best of luck with it.

[Brian]

Roland,

 

A nice looking blade with a long nagasa and pleasant sugata.

To me the nakago looks too new to be a Koto though? Even if o-suriage (doesn't look greatly shortened to me though) the nakago still has yasurime that are pretty vivid and the overall patina doesn't look Koto to me.

Just my novice opinion though. How about a close-up of that mei showing vertically? I don't see all the strokes for Suke there, although it may be the light.

 

Brian

[remzy]

Upped the contrast a bit along with rotation and mild coloration, in case this can help

[Roland]

Well, the patina thing. I have thought about the possibility if the blade could be a Shinshinto copy of a late Nanbokucho sukata. On the other hand the steel of the blade looks really old.

 

Hm, Yamoto influence is indeed a possibility too.

 

The best will be to take some more pictures especially of the nakago and the mei. Close-ups perhaps. The colors and contrasts of the pics above is really sub-par...

 

Thanx a lot for sharing Your ideas and insights. I'm curious about further comments!

[nagamaki - Franco]

Your time period kantei seems to be on target, late nambokucho - early muramachi. If your activities description is accurate, then it falls along the lines of Yamashiro, but probably not mainline. Yamato . A refinished nakago jiri is an indication that it was shortened last in the koto period according to Mr. Tanobe. It is interesting that the nakago jiri was given a Bizen-ish shape, hmm?

The mei doesn't mean much unless it matches the sword.

[Roland]

Thanx a lot, guys, You are really helpful! For Yamato the shinogi should be higher than that what I can see here... Bizen? Hm, that's a point... May be a Kozori smith would fit quite well the style of the blade... shallow sori, a sugata which is thinner and smaller, with temper lower... I will have to investigate this!

 

Well, and here are some better, sharper photos of the nakago plus a close-up of the mei/gimei...

[Jacques D.]

hi,

 

There is also a Sukenaga in shinshinto who works in Bizen Style.

[takakage]

Hello,

this sukenaga is koto of course, i have never seen an shin shinto sukenaga like this one.........morever shin shinto bizen yokohama sukenaga uses others kanji.

[Roland]

Some more photos... One of the Nakakojiri and one contrast-optimized photo of hamon, jihada and hataraki. Quite tricky to shoot. This time I used a digital Olympus E-330 with adapted manual Leica Macro-Elmarit R for the details. Only the lighting still isn't perfect Still learning here too... And one further photo of the whole blade, both sides, without the mounting. I hope one can see the hamon...

[nagamaki - Franco]

The bottom mekugiana looks to be the original, last pic of hamon/hada speaks Bizen. There is a Bizen Sukenaga listed SUK753 working in 1532, shinsa would be able to determine this.

[Nobody]

SUKENAGA CHO-KYO 1487 (= MEI-O 1492?):

OMI province, SUK347, working in the style of OMI - RAI MITSUKANE school of Yamashiro Den; ISHIDO Founder at GAMO-GORI ISHIDO-JI Temple. ICHIMONJI SUKEMUNE descendant from BIZEN. He followed ASHIKAGA YOSHIHISA for the siege of SASAKI ROKKAKU TAKAYORI with SAKYOnoSHIN MUNEMITSU students. One was KATSUMITSU of AKAMATSU MASANORI's HARIMA. SUKENAGA aided BIZEN influence in OMI with drawn MOKUME HADA and KO-CHOJI MIDARE BA, ICHIMONJI-style. Result: OMI offers BIZEN style to the SENGOKU; MEI: GOSHU GAMO JU SUKENAGA SAKU; late Muromachi: BUT: the blade's sugata doesn't fit this style!

Hi,

Although I have not seen oshigata of other Sukenaga, one Sukenaga of Goshu looks similar to your Sukenaga. The oshigata on the right shows a mei of Goshu Gamo ju Sukenaga (江州蒲生住助長) in Meio (明応) period.

[Brian]

Nice one Moriyama san,

 

Although there are differences, I do note some similarities in the way the Suke is carved and a few other similarities. But the different directions of the diagonal strokes on the Suke kanji seem to possibly rule it out?

 

Brian

[Roland]

Very interesting findings indeed! Because of the just two kanji signature I was not sure about the Goshu Gamo ju Sukenaga but he is quite interesting because he was one of the smiths who imported Bizen-style to the provinve of Omi... I won't over emphazise the mei though. Nevertheless Moriyama sans and Brians observations sound quite logical. Another question: Sounds as a polish could be useful? I'm also thinking about a matching koshirae. Would it be worth the trouble?

[Ronin 47]

Does the blade have utsuri?

[Roland]

I'm not sure about it. I'll have a look for utsuri later this day.

[Roland]

I'm not absolutely sure, but there seems to be one line of Suji-utsuri along the hamon???

[Henry Wilson]

Nice blade but I think it is gimei. The signature has too many inconsistencies and it is placed above what is probably the original mekugiana.

 

Just my two yens worth...

[Roland]

Hi Henry,

 

I have this gimei-feeling too, quite instinctively. But I have no problems with the positioning above the lowest Mekugi ana if it is a slightly shortened Tachi?

[Roland]

Before I hit the road for a short trip to Piedmont here one close-up shot of hamon and jihada. The sun was shining and the structures became better visible...

 

Puh! Though I'm a semi-professional photographer I'm amazed how difficult a nihonto-shooting is!

[pcfarrar]

It looks like a Mino blade especially the masame in the shinogi-ji.

 

I think its worthy of a polish and you should get the tsuka re-wrapped and restored.

[Roland]

Hi Peter,

 

thanks a lot for your advise! Hm, Your hint according Mino is really interesting. I again inspected hamon and hada, And I realized that you are right about the masame in shinogi-ji! The hamon moreover could indeed be an o-midare or a notare-midare in nie-deki, the hada o-mokume with some masame, chi-kei. Hm, and my last photo even seems to show some Shirake-utsuri. And though I never had seen it in natural possibly the hada is clear-colored, not whitish? Puh, again lots to learn. Even the boshi would fit an early mino style... it seems to be midare-komi with a hint of jizo. So the blade could be Shizu-Kaneuji or Naoe-Shizu school.

 

On the other hand I just had a look at Robert Benson's and Darcy Brockbank's fabulous book 'Japanese Swords of the Bizen Tradition' and found on page 44 to 47 a Fukuoka Ichimonji attributed mumei katana which has nearly the same dimensions like the blade i'm just studying. If after the polishing the hamon offers some o-choji midare, who knows? The SUKENAGA mei, though possibly faked (but who should fake a swordsmith's name who is not wellknown enough to "upgrade" the blade???) then suddenly would fit... there is one SUKENAGA (SUK330) who worked in the Fukuoka Ichimonji style (and two are documented by http://www.sho-shin.com/fuk.htm) – later than the "big guns" of this school but therefore with a more narrow hamon, less amount of martensitic steel and less hardening for less risk of breakage? Call it wishful thinking, but I think there is a chance that a family heirloom like this with the kamon of a samurai family won't "accept" a fake mei...?

 

We'll see... And for the moment I just have to thank each and every member of this board who tried to help me in investigating and verifying the ancestral "Atagi-sword". Thanks guys, you are a great community!

[Roland]

just to give an update...

 

In Malcolm E. Cox' supplement to "Mino-to" – based on Koto Mei Tsukushi Daizen and Kisei Koto Meikan – I indeed found a Sukenaga (1444-1504) who could fit the Blade. Associated with the Yakuoji school he worked in the Mikawa province. Token Bijutsu No. 599 notes that the founder (?) of this school Seki Kaneharu moved to Yakuoji of Mikawa Province. Followed by his son Yakuoji Suketsugu who possibly was the teacher of Sukenaga. The dates nevertheless are not so distinct – as often with these smaller schools...

[Guest reinhard]

Judging a blade you should start from its basic features and then go on to the more subtle details.

The blade has obvious fumbari (i.e. widening towards the nakago for an inch or so) and therefore was never shortened, though its nakago with additional mekugi-ana pretends to be so. This should make you feel uncomfortable for a start. As a consequence of this the niji-mei is set too far down on the nakago. By the way, it's a katana mei on the sashi-omote, therefore you don't need to investigate too far back in time, even if it was genuine. No need to speculate over the few exceptions which do exist. Telling from the images, the yasurime look somewhat irregular and, as Brian has already noticed, the patina looks somewhat weak and superficial. Again, the edges seem to be slightly scoured. The mei looks somewhat clumsy and unbalanced.

There's no need to go any further from here. No need to search for utsuri or any other subtle details.