Help With Translation

[Heringsdorf]

I need some help with a text. This is glued on the inside of the cover of a Fuchi Kashira box.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Maximillian,

 

I've had a bit of a go with mixed success. There is a reference in the text to menuki (目貫) but not F&K so perhaps the box was used for something else in the past. 

 

義宗

Yoshimune

 

津久井氏. 市兵衛という. 小野義寿の門人.

Tsukui uji. Ichibei to iu.Yoshihisa Ono no monjin. Tsukui family.Ichibei (being).Disciple of Ono Yoshihisa.

 

鶴仙斎 I can't make anything of these three kanji together. Singly: crane (bird), legendary/ ortherworldly (as in Sen'in) and cleanse or purify - perhaps connected to the theme of the contents (or former contents) but...that's guesswork.

 

義宗謹作と銘し: Yoshimune respectfully made and signed. 

 

慶応元乙丑: Keiou moto kinoto-ushi - at the beginning of Keiou and kinoto-ushi is the Chinese sexegenary calendar year for 1865. 

 

帥走日の年紀を添えた目貫がある - can't help with this part other than "menuki".

 

Then (sorry saving a bit of time here by not reproducing the kanji) lived until the 25th year of Meiji (1892).

 

巧手 - literally "dextrous hands" - I wonder whether this is some kind of rating along the lines of Jo saku for swords.

 

Followed by: Edo 芝新網町住: Lived in Edo "new grass net" town. Sorry can't make anything sensible from that - perhaps a place name that no longer exists or at least one that doesn't currently show up on a Google search.

 

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鶴仙斎 - These kanji are repeated. 

 

Kind regards,

John

[SteveM]

Well done. Allow me to burnish the rough edges. 

 

This is an excerpt from a tōsōgu reference book: Wakayama's Tōsō Kinkō Jiten. It is the entry for (presumably) the artist who made the works contained in the box - Yoshimune. 

 

"Last name of Tsukui. Known as "Ichibei" (in other words, his first name). Apprenticed to Ono Yoshitoshi. Signed as Tsurusensai Yoshimune Kinsaku. 

There exist a set of his menuki with the accompanying date of December, Keiō 1 (1865) kinoto-ushi.

 

Lived until (at least) 1892. Skilled/Expert.

 

Tokyo, Shiba, Shin'ami-cho (nb. Present day Shimbashi. Kind of in-between Shimbashi and Hamamatsu-cho stations. Shinbashi is the train station you are likely to use if you go to the DTI). 

 

Artist's name: Tsurusensai

[Heringsdorf]

Thank you both for the translation.

Very helpful.