Help With Sayagaki Translation

[thiswake]

Hello!

 

I'm a fairly new collector, I have done a ton of research but am still quite a novice. Earlier this year I purchased a late Kamakura/ early Nambokucho mumei nihonto from aoijapan. 

 

I was wondering If I could have help in translating the sayagaki or at least confirming what I was told.

 

NBTHK attributed blade to Ko-uda, but I was told that the sayagaki was done by an unknown judge and attributed it to "Highest ranking Sosyu Yukimitsu"

 

a couple questions I had:

 

1. Are there reasons why a judge would not sign their name for the sayagaki, possibly a false evaluation? 

 

2. I noticed the side of the shirasaya that this sayagaki is written on seems to be the opposite side that most sayagakis are written on. Is that common or possibly just an inexperienced judge? 

 

3. I was told Kouda and Sosyu Yukimitsu are very similar, is it possible the NBTHK attributing to Kouda is incorrect or is there more chance the sayagaki is wrong?

 

I've attached photos, I can take more pictures if needed. Apologies if any of these questions are dumb, i'm learning as I go. Thank you very much for the help!

 

Link to hi-res of blade: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vw74sqt54utwebk/Blade%20Detail.jpg?dl=0

 

Best,

Mitch

 

 

 

[Guido]

Sayagaki were originally done for inventory purposes, so to speak, often by the owner. Signed sayagaki with comments and attributions are a relatively new "invention" and no substitute for proper shinsa anyhow, with a very few exceptions.

[DirkO]

 

NBTHK attributed blade to Ko-uda, but I was told that the sayagaki was done by an unknown judge and attributed it to "Highest ranking Sosyu Yukimitsu"

 

 

Hi Mitch,

 

Logically speaking you have the NBTHK paper to Ko-Uda (which I personally think is a card they pull out too often) - on the other hand you have an anonymous sayagaki saying Yukimitsu.

 

Seeing the sayagaki is anonymous, it is likely that the person who wrote it either did it for his own record keeping or, if it was for 'public purposes' - didn't sign it, because he didn't want to put his name on the line.

Any of these 2 options fail against NBTHK Shinsa. Like Guido said, shinsa is a very learned opinion and the organisation stands by its conclusion (there will always be sparse exceptions). Only in very rare cases can a sayagaki or hakogaki trump shinsa, usually only if done by a person who has really specialised in a certain area, whereas the shinsapanel is expected to know a lot about everything. But it's the collector/owner who should assess the weight and value of this. There's no hard and fast rule.

[Brian]

All I can say is that if there was the slightest chance it was really done by Yukimitsu...Aoi would not have sold it as Ko-Uda. It would have been checked out properly first.

 

Brian