Rusty Find In An Attic - Opinions On Sword & Mei

[FletchSan]

Hi All,

 

I picked up this neglected wakizashi that was rusting away in an attic of a ww2 veteran.

 

The blade was covered in rust and dirt and I gave it a good wipe with oil and also cleaned it with 99% isopropyl alcohol which revealed a very nice hamon.

 

What struck me is how well made the blade is, very light and delicate in hand and the mei on the nakago seems to be well cut. There is a small chip near the kissaki however.

The mei reads Dewa Daijo Fujiwara Kunimichi which is obviously a very well known Shinto smith and I'm sure 99% of the time turns out to be gimei !

 

I have compared it to a few examples I have in my Shinto Kantei book and there are a lot of similarities and I have a pretty good feeling about it.

 

The fittings are pretty much gone and there was no tsuba though they seem to have been decent quality. I have included a picture of the fuchi which seems nice.

 

Nagasa is 47cm long.

 

Over to the board to let me down gently

 

thanks,

 

Ben

[Shugyosha]

Hi Ben,

 

You jammy so and so.   

 

Signature is Dewa dai jo Fujiwara Kunimichi. If it's good, it's one of these guys and given that the sugata doesn't look like a kanbun shape and that I can see what looks like a fairly flamboyant hamon, I'd bet on the earlier one. 

 

KUNIMICHI (国路), Genna (元和, 1615-1624), Yamashiro – “Heianjō-jū Kunimichi” (平安城住国道), “Dewa no Daijō Fujiwara Kunimichi” (出羽大掾藤原国道), “Dewa no Daijō Fujiwara Rai Kunimichi” (出羽大掾藤原来国路), “Dewa no Daijō Kunimichi” (出羽大掾十一辻). He was first a student of Iga no Kami Kinmichi (伊賀守金道) but studied later also under Horikawa Kunihiro (堀川国広). He signed his name in his early years with the characters (国道). Another one of his early signature variants, (十一辻) for Kunimichi, is a wordplay: “Kuni” can also be written with the characters “nine” (ku, 九) and “two” (ni, 二), added-up “eleven” (十一). The character (辻) is read tsuji and has the meaning “road,” but road can also be written with michi (道・路). Sources that do not know this wordplay quote the reading of the characters (十一辻) for “Kunimichi” therefore incorrectly as “Jūichitsuji.” After his studies under Kunihiro, and at the latest from the 14th year of Keichō (1609) onwards, he signed his name Kunimichi with the characters (国路). The name change is probably not connected with the receiving of the honorary title Dewa no Daijō because he signed this title also in combination with the variant (国道) for Kunimichi. Kunimichi was active over a very long period of time. We know dated signatures from the 13th year of Keichō (慶長, 1608) to the second year of Kanbun (寛文, 1662) which makes at least 55 years. But regardless of this long artistic period, Kunimichi is also considered as one of the most productive smiths of the Horikawa school. His year of death is unknown but there exists a date signature of the fifth year of Keian (慶安, 1652) with the information “made at the age of 77” which calculates his year of birth as Tenshō four (天正, 1576), And the latest extant date signature is from the ninth month of Meireki three (明暦, 1657) and is combined with the information “made at the age of 82.” This signature is finely chiselled and it is therefore assumed that the blade is one of his latest works. The exact date when he received his honorary title Dewa no Daijō is not known. The earliest blade signed that way is dated with the eighth month Keichō 20 (1615). Therefore it is assumed that he received the title around Keichō 19 or 20. His use of the character “Rai” (来) in some of his signatures alludes to a connection to the Mishina school as certain Mishina smiths signed with Rai too. Another support for this theory is that he signed his name during his early years with the Mishina-michi (道). Kunimichi was active over a very long period of time. We know dated signatures from the 13th year of Keichō (慶長, 1608) to the second year of Kanbun (寛文, 1662) which makes at least 55 years. But regardless of this long artistic period, Kunimichi is also considered as one of the most productive – and also best – smiths of the Horikawa school. Thus we find blades with a Keichō-shintō-sugata and such with a foretaste of a Kanbun-shintō-sugata. We know works in the Keichō-shintō style of Kunihiro but his strong point was a flamboyant hamon with variation in the height and depth of the yakihaba and excellent nie and nioi-based hataraki. When working in the shintō style he forged a dense ko-mokume and the hamon is here an ō-gunome-midare that bases on an ō-notare, but also an ō-gunome-midare or gunome-midare is seen. Partially the gunome elments are densely arranged and look like single midare elements. The bōshi is a ko-maru agari that tends to midare-komi. When he worked in the Yamatotradition he forged a mokume mixed with a noticeable amount masame. The hamon is in this case a chū-suguha in ko-nie-deki with uchinoke and the bōshi is ko-maru or ko-maru agari. jōjō-saku ◎

 

KUNIMICHI (国路), Kanbun (寛文, 1661-1673), Yamashiro – “Dewa no Daijō Fujiwara Kunimichi” (出羽大掾 藤原国路), due to the long active period of Kunimichi, a second generation came into play who is listed somewhat later than Kunimichi whose last known blade is from Meireki three (明暦, 1657)

 

Best,

John

[Shugyosha]

Ben, sorry. I got all excited over the mei and didn't read your post properly.

[FletchSan]

Thanks John - that's great information. Very hard to tell much from the blade given the condition, though here is a comparison of the mei to one in my Kantei book of the first Kunimichi mentioned in your post.

 

What do you think?

[Shugyosha]

Hi Ben,

 

If that were my sword, I think I would at least invest in having a window done. I like what I can see of the hamon in the close up picture, that part at least seems like a pretty good match for the examples in Markus Sesko's shinto kantei book so we can say that there is some similarity in the workmanship before we get down to looking at the signature. 

 

The kiri shaped nakago jiri matches one in Markus's book and, whilst other examples are more rounded, I don't see that as a problem. Also, the mekugi ana placement is about right - a number of examples in Fujishiro and Sesko have the mekugi ana through the 羽 character. 

 

Other similarities:

 

The last stroke bottom right of the 出 character matches yours in that it joins the horizontal stroke in the middle rather than at its base.

 

I find the 大 a very good match both in terms of the angle of the strokes and the chisel work. 

 

With the 藤 kanji, in both cases in the top part of the kanji, rather than cutting through the horizontal line, the horizontal line is done in two halves with the vertical lines in the middle. 

 

In both cases the 国 character has a rounded top right hand corner. 

 

原 - I think this kanji is a pretty good match though the angles of the strokes differ a little from the example in some cases.

 

The bits I don't like:

 

In the Fuji kanji 藤, the bottom right element has an overly heavy double vertical stroke as if trying to cover off a mistake. 

 

Also the left hand vertical stroke of the left part of 路 has wandered off outside the line of the top part.

 

That said, I think there is far more to like about the signature than dislike and the discrepancies could be accounted for as natural variation and/ or human error due to age, illness, a hard day, a hard night etc rather than fakery (for me anyway).

 

This is a sword I would be taking it quite seriously, but no doubt other people will point out stuff that I have missed.

 

Best,

John

[seattle1]

Hello:

 Looks pretty good to me for a Kunimichi around Sho-o 2 (1653). There is quite bit of variation in Kunimichi's mei over his long working life (there is a debate over one or two generations), and he did have collaborative deshi towards his later years. I believe this is probably his own mei. The first four kanji have his characteristic straight order, with wandering to the left thereafter. A drilled "wa" in Dewa is common.

 Kunimichi was very prolific and skilled, though there was quality variation. He is rated Jo Jo saku in Fujishiro and considered by many to be the best student in the Horikawa Kunihiro group.

 On the down side any nakago suriage on a shinto is a significant demerit.

 Arnold F.

[FletchSan]

Thanks Arnold. Pretty exciting find if it is legit. I'll definatley be getting a window done and sharing the results here.

 

re: the nakago. Do you think this one is suriage or could it be possible that the nakago-jiri was intentional / original? i.e. ichimonji vs. kiri?

 

cheers,

 

Ben