Signed & Dated Koto Tanto In Koshirae With 2 Sets Of Papers

[Nickupero]

Hi Guys, have this pretty little set for sale. Both blade and koshirae marry well together. Blade is signed and dated, Mei reads Nobukuni and dated 1421AD 8th month. The workmanship is stunning and the fittings are elegant and have a strong presence. The Nagasa measures 23.9cm/ 9.41 inches. Blade has Fujishiro's papers and koshirae has NTHK papers.

 

If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me, price for members is $7,850US. Donation will be honored if sold here. Thx

 

[Nickupero]

And now of the beautiful blade...

 

[drbvac]

This Nihonto porn has got to stop unless I sell a car or two - summer is for outside and cars and fishing - winter - all 11 months of it is for Nihonto appreciation.  Thanks for the post though Nick - very nice indeed.

[lonely panet]

yes, I agree.

 

   

[Kronos]

Very nice Nick, do the papers place it to a specific Nobukuni?

[Geraint]

Hi James

 

The blade is dated and Nick gives it as 1421...................?  However it seems that the dating of generations is not entirely clear.  This example might help.  http://swordsofjapan.com/project/joshu-nobukuni/

[Kronos]

Yeah, the Nobukuni generations are a bit unclear although some are attributed to specific smiths like Shikibu-no-jo Nobukuni etc

 

I was just wondering out of interest more than anything.

[Geraint]

From Nohon To Koza, " ..for the time being, those of Enbun (1356 - 1361) and Joji (1362 - 1368) are considered to be the shodai, those later until Oei (1394 - 1428) are considered to  be the nidai and those from Oei (1394 - 1428) to Eikyo (1428 - 1441) are considered to be the sandai, and I would like to study this further".  Leaves some wiggle room between nidai and shodai for this date.

 

In either case this is a very nice tanto and koshirae, must do some more saving.

 

All the best.

[Grey Doffin]

Not to contribute to the hijacking of a thread, but as long as Nick doesn't mind the slight detour, my understanding is that there are 2 schools of thought about the early generations of Nobukuni.  One is as stated by Geraint above, from Nihonto Koza: 2 generations in Nambokucho and the third, who signed with a leftward slanting center stroke in his Kuni Kanji, at the beginning of the Muromachi.

The other school posits that there was only 1 generation in Nambokucho, the shodai, and that the smith who signed with the leftward slant was the nidai, who worked either in the very last of Nambokucho into Muromachi or only in early Muromachi.  I once owned a tachi signed Nobukuni with the leftward slant, that had been papered by the NBTHK to "Nobukuni, Nambokucho."  I found this interesting if not surprising: almost as if they were taking a side in the discussion.

Also interesting is that in the last month there have been a katana, an o-suriage wakizashi, and this tanto, all either signed by or attributed to Nobukuni, listed for sale here on NMB.  The early generations work of Nobukuni is wonderful stuff; someone should grab this tanto.

Grey

[Jamie]

 

Also a very nice Nobukuni Tanto was on display at the nbthk lecture in Chicago.

[Nickupero]

This Nihonto porn has got to stop unless I sell a car or two - summer is for outside and cars and fishing - winter - all 11 months of it is for Nihonto appreciation.  Thanks for the post though Nick - very nice indeed.

After seeing pictures of your recent restoration I too would hold off on Nihonto collecting, being a vintage car enthusiast myself I'm the jealous one, what a beauty!!!

 

Thank you Hamish and James for the support, unfortunately the papers don't mention which generation.

A big thanks to Geraint and Grey for your input, Grey no worries as I appreciate you taking the time to give your input. I am always for education and if it means an item is discussed for these reasons you have my support 100%. So lets safely say its either Nobukuni Nidai or Sandai, feel free to post examples of Mei, little to busy lately to go through any reference books.

[drbvac]

Thanks Nick and not to hi-jack the thread but - here's a pic for all new paint and back together again

[Nickupero]

Thanks for posting Brian, no hijacking there at all, just a small appreciated detour

Driving around in that beauty means you'll be getting plenty of attention, maybe even from some bad people and what better way to protect yourself in style then with this tanto! Maybe I watch to many movies, I saw those suicide doors and my mind started to wonder!