interesting tanto

[Darcy]

I picked up an interesting tanto that had been abused somewhat. It was jammed into the tsuka and had to be removed carefully with the use of a vise. When I got it out I found out why...

 

Someone had taken BOLT CUTTERS to the nakago for some reason argh. They cut off about 3/4 of an inch of it, I can see the crystalline fracture lines where the steel finally broke under the pressure. The person then put it back into the tsuka, and it of course slid in further so that the mekugiana did not match up, so they jammed it in but deep and good until the tsuka held it in place.

 

Why people do these things is beyond me.

 

Anyway, the piece is actually very interesting. It is healthy but with standard el-whackjob state of scratches and looks to be a gunome midare hamon. Camera is elsewhere (again sorry keep forgetting it), and it has the typical shape of these pieces from the very end of the Momoyama period.

 

It has a date of Keicho 15 which agrees (1610) and on the flip side is a Bizen signature. Unusual I would think because of the flooding that happened before this, these had to be in the last group of holdouts who kept things going after most of the production failed.

 

Signature reads Bishu Osafune then gets cut off when interesting . But just enough was left to make for a satisfactory mystery. On the left is Haru and on the right seems to be Yoshi. Looks like a joint work, the left would be pretty certainly one of the Harumitsu line, and the one on the right I can only guess at and think maybe Yoshinaga.

 

Any opinions, theories or discussion welcome. I'd like to pass it on too to someone who will polish it / paper it and let me photograph it in the future for my books if anyone is interested, it won't be expensive. Also has some fittings of no high quality... contact me via email (not PM! I am always late with them).

 

[Darcy]

Well after about 16 hours of cleaning rust and rubbing it down, this little tanto has some surprises to show.... when I got it nothing was visible on either side and I had been worried that there was no hamon or the hamon was chipped through. Way way wrong.

 

It is definitely a joint work because the two sides of the tanto are completely different work in the tempering. I haven't seen anything like this before and I actually didn't believe it to be possible.

 

One side is done in nioi and the other is in nie.

 

The nioi side is a copy of Fukoka Ichimonji. It is choji midare in a middle size, with a few of the choji jumping up like flames halfway to the top, and 3/4 of the way to the top. Some break free of the hamon and reside in the ji as tobiyaki. There are nice ko-ashi and yo in the hamon. It is really surprisingly lovely and I'm surprised at the level of skill it shows.

 

The other side has the bigger surprise because it is Soshu den in the style of Norishige. I didn't think you'd be able to do both in the same piece and have no idea how these two smiths pulled this stunt off.

 

There is matsukawa hada visible with both black chikei and frosted ji nie. Through the yakiba there are inazuma and kinsuji especially in the boshi, so far not much down below the yakiba, but there is still visible marks from rust and stuff, this is not really polished just has been rubbed and rubbed and rubbed with uchiko paste until activities and the hamon came out. There is a lot of yubashiri in the ji, so it is like a cloudy day with blue sky and sprinkled fine nie.

 

The kaeri on this side turns all the way down the blade.

 

I think this Yoshi smith whomever he was was not a Bizen den smith at all.

 

My theory on the nakago is that the dummy cut the end off to force it into a tsuka he had. Sad day for nihonto.

[Darcy]

Some scans.... camera not on hand. These really suck for quality but it's all I have right now. It's a really weak scanner. But the general difference is pretty clear and the ichimonji side you can get an idea of.

 

The activities do not come out because the scanner uses a fluorescent light, this makes all activities kind of blurry, so all you see is the difference in the color of the steel. One place where the matsukawa patterns stand out very clear barely shows up on scanning, I've got it in a cutout below.

 

[Brian]

Darn Darcy, nice looking piece

 

I wanted to jump at it the first time you posted, but with the finances I was unable to commit to your request to have it polished and papered in the near future.

I think this one is lovely, even with the nakago as is. A real pity about that though. Still like it though. Would love to see this as it progresses.

 

Regards,

Brian

[Darcy]

I think it is going to be nice, a real shame about the nakago, I figured the guy cut off about $8,000 to $10,000 worth of steel. :-).