less well known schools

[paulb]

I am not sure if this is in the right place as it refers to a couple of swords I have listed in the "for sale" section. If it is misplaced I am sure the moderators will re-position it. I thought it would be inteteresting to re-awaken a pet subject of mine which is the quality that exists in the lesser known schools and which is too readily dismissed by those who slavishly follow the various bible references.

In the the list I had two O-suriage blades, one papered to Echizen Seki the other to Kaga Katsuiye. The Katsuiye also has a sayagaki which attributes it to Yoshioka Ichimonji.

Both of these swords were purchased by previous owners when out of polish and both believed there was a strong possibility they were Ichimonji. Once polished and papered they were considered by the NBTHK to be something else. When asked why the answers given were:

1. The Katsuiye has an ishimei boshi and the steel was dark

2. The Echizen blade had masame in the shinogi-ji.

Interestingly the quality of neither was questioned. As a result of these attributions I was able to buy two beautiful swords and both have been the subject of various talks and papers I have given over the years to the Northern Token Soceity.

The point of this ramble is that I strongly believe there are some seriously underated and undervalued swords in the market which we too readily dismiss because of the standard mantras coming out of Japan and amongst the older western collectors ( I think I might be one now!!) about northern province swords, rural schools etc etc. In all of these schools there were some very average work produced, however there were also some very fine work as well. I think it is a major mistake to dismiss such work just because someone did not rate it in the past. There are of course many parallels in other fields of art where work was dismissed out of hand only to achieve great recognition and value later on.

These swords have been in my collection for some years and I have enjoyed them greatly. I have attached a couple of images, some not too good photos and an oshigata which i hope shows some of the activity that illustrates the quality of the work.

regards

Paul

[Bugyotsuji]

Thanks for that Paul. I enjoyed hearing about your lovely swords, and your write-up gave me needed food for thought!