I’M New At This

[Worfieldlg]

Hello I am a new member are collector of Japanese antiques. I have recently picked up a wakizashi and would hope that the many experienced members on here could help me. The blade is signed with two characters that read kunisuke but the second character is different to the normal character used by the maker kami kunisuke. The characters are 助and佐 but both read suke . Can anybody tell me anything they might know about this or if I’m completely wrong?

 

Thank you and I appreciate your help and time.

 

Luke

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Luke,

You are correct; both characters can be read Suke.  Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke, with the other suke, is the famous smith you refer to.  According to Hawley, there were 7 smiths working in Edo period who signed with these Kanji.  As none of them have made it into any of the references in the Japanese Sword Literature Index, I am unable to guess which of the 7 this might be.

Grey

[Worfieldlg]

Thank you that’s very useful to me grey.

 

Luke

[Geraint]

Dear Luke.

 

Welcome to the forum and down the rabbit hole!  There are several variations of the Kunisuke mei and the one you have might be one of about ten.  There were several in Aki and others in other places.  It is not the mei of Kawachi no kami Kunisuke which is the obvious first port of call.

 

Pretty sword and nice koshirae so a good start.

 

Enjoy!

 

All the best.

 

(That Grey is hot of the start line!)

[Ken-Hawaii]

Here's another source for you, Luke: https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/KUN1198. You can search for other Kunisuke smiths there, too.

 

Welcome to the forum.

[Worfieldlg]

That’s really great thank you for all your help.

 

Regards

Luke