Mito School Waves Compared To Omori School Waves

[b.hennick]

Are there key kantei points that allow one to distinguish between Mito waves and Omori waves? I have seen a good koshriae that is signed Omori Teruhide that I was told was Mito work. I'm at a loss to distinguish between these. All help would be appreciated.

[Pete Klein]

Barry -- the main thing to visualize on Omori Teruhide work is the depth and quality of carving in the waves.  Other work simply doesn't have the same attention to detail or deep 3-D craftsmanship.  Here is a fuchi kashira which was recently but no longer available on www.nihonto.ca:

 

 

There is also a great tsuba on www.nihonto.com (I cannot capture that image).

 

One characteristic you will see is at least one undercut wave.  The kashira above has several.  I've never seen any other work which comes up to this level.

 

Pete

 

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hello Barry,

 

see ......... http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/12947-omori-teruhide/

 

What is consistent (kantei) in Omori Teruhide's wave work is the shape of the very end of the waves breaking, the shape and style of the swells, the size and material of the 'drops', and usually made with shibuichi. What differs mostly within his own work is the amount of refining/finishing/undercutting. The difficulty comes in that some of the copy work can be quite good, but invariably something differs giving it away. In the end if you've seen Omori Teruhide's best wave work it is unmatched, it's even a clear step above most of his own work that we see. As with swords, and as Pete points out, it becomes a matter of viewing/visualizing enough examples in order to train the eye to notice the small differences in detail.

 

Is there any chance of seeing an image of this 'Mito' work?

[TETSUGENDO]

Barry,

 

Two cents worth--

A competant craftsmen can reproduce the technique, he can emulate the form of the individual elements.  The difficult part is acheiving Teruhide's non repetitive "CHAOS"--- order is easy, abandon takes real talent.  One must be a master of the the rules in order to successfully break them.

 

Steven K

[b.hennick]

Thanks for the information. I appreciate what you wrote. Can you offer specific information that could lead to a Mito call?

[TETSUGENDO]

Barry,

 

Not Mito in particular, unfortunately Mito has become the Kodogu equivalant of "THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK".  An easy scapegoat, too often the first attribution that rolls from the mouth when some work is suspect.  Mito is hard to pin down, it can be anything and everything, so no. Sorry.

 

Steven K