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One for the bookworms.


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Dear All.

 

In this post Christmas lull I thought some of you might appreciate this.  In 1905 The Japan Society in London organised an exhibition of Japanese arms and armour.  Contributors include both Siegfried Bing and Lasenby Liberty, both key figures in the Art Nouveau movement, as well as some of the great names in early collecting; Behrens, Dobree, Huish, Garbutt and Church to name but a few.  The collection is a snapshot of what was considered at the time to be the best, we might wish to see a different emphasis.  There are quite a few blades with horimono and the plates are really too small to make progress with these.  A lot of the koshirae are very late and flashy but tsuba fair better both in terms of the plates and the quality.  Scholarship was in its infancy and some of the captions to the plates raise an eyebrow here and there.  In short it is probably not on everyone's wish list.  Just as well, copies are hard to come by.

 

So when one turned up in an unexpected place and for a very reasonable sum I was very happy to get it.  Even more so as of the limited number produced, 250 copies, this one is no. 24 and bears a book plate which shows that it came form the library of H Seymour Trower, another early collector and a significant contributor to the exhibition.  As I have interests in fin de siècle art and design and the history of collecting this one really ticks a lot of boxes.

 

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All the best.

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Thank, Geraint. Care to show us the index/some plates?

Indeed, there used to be big and affluent collectors in the UK in the 19/ early 20 century. Some of their items were donated to museums but some were sold in auctions. I have noticed that various items had ambitious attributions and were frankly not legitimate but many others seemed OK. 

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It's a bit of a mixed bag but here are a few.  A selection of the items was made for the photographs in the catalogue so someone picked what they thought were interesting.  It includes armours, swords, fittings and just for the sake of completeness a contemporary Japanese Army uniform!

 

Here are some of the plates. 

 

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The layout is a little idiosyncratic, being arranged by reference to the museum cases in the display.  So for example, Case M contained 418 kozuka,  Case Q held 126 tsuba, Case R a further 87 and Case S 141.  A range of Ukiyoe relevant to the subject covered the walls as did some 50 items including armour, helmets, pole arms, bows, quivers and so forth.  It seems to have filled quite a large room very much in the museum format of the time, cases along the walls and large vitrines in the centre of the room, all stacked out with as much material as could be crammed in.  It really is one of those moments when a time machine would be lovely.  I can't find a reference to the location of the gallery.

 

All the best.

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I confess I included the matchlocks with you in mind, Piers.

And just a last one, a page from the catalogue with some of Seymour Trower's annotations of his own tsuba.

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As Michael points out some of the attributions are to be taken with a large pinch of salt, indeed some of the translations leave a lot to be desired.  I get the impression that the subject of forgery was little considered, if it says Masamune on the tang then it's a Masamune.  Indeed there is this entry in Case J, "Complete sword.  Tachi.  Gold clouds on black lacquered ground, silver guard (s. SHUGUIKEN Goto Kizoaki). s. Masamune. 14c."   

Nevertheless some of the descriptions are mouth watering and if these were indeed the cream of the crop in London at the time then there must have been some beauties.

 

Ah well.

 

 

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Earlier on the internet I found a Nobuié dōmaru set of armour lent for this exhibition by the Royal Galleries.

Church’s lavishly illustrated black and white tsuba book was (also) produced in Japanese. I have a copy on my bookshelf here.

Your book looks interesting, Geraint. Thank you for sharing it.

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Delighted it was of some interest.

 

JP the spider tsuba is in sentoku with an Umetada mei.

 

I did a trawl and there are no less than 6 Masamune blades, one with Honami kinzogan mei, as well as quite a few Kunihiro, Muramasa, Umetada Myoju, Kunimitsu etc, etc.  None of the illustrations are anywhere near good enough to even guess about the authenticity of these. 

It would be lovely to know where some of the items are now but a so few are illustrated it would be a long shot.  Guess we will just have to keep collecting!

 

All the best.

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Michael, I wish I could!  They did not see fit to even include that one in the photographs.  Even if they had the size of the plates is about 75mm x 100mms and each on includes from seven to twelve swords.  Given the quality of the reproductions in what were still fairly early days for printed photographs.............

 

Sorry!

 

 

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Ah!  I wondered if any of the pieces might have made it into the V & A collection.  Clearly the ones leant by the Royal Family ought still to be around as Piers pointed out.  The one referenced was listed as leant by A Dobree, another well known name in early collecting.  I wonder if the V&A accession information includes that name?  The entry gives no dimensions, simply stating that it is an unmounted blade with Masamune inlaid on one side of the nakago and the Honami kinzogan on the other.  Sound about right?   If so then we have a complete story.  Would love to see the video.

 

All the best.

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The majority of the Church collection is in the Ashmolean. we were fortunate to be able to see pieces from it at our first Token of GB study day there in 2016. Hopefully we will see more if our planned visit in October next year goes ahead.

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Geraint

During one of the small-circle visits we organised for our members at the ToKen Society, 10-12 of us had the opportunity to study that Masamune at length. 
 

Below are description and oshigata by Clive Sinclaire and photos by me. 

 

 

Nagasa:         72.0 cm         Moto-haba: 3.1 cm      Saki-haba: 2.0 cm

Sugata:           Hon-zukuri, a graceful tori-zori, chu-kissaki, mitsu-mune.

Jihada:            A prominent and flowing itame-hada with mokume and abundant ji-nie forming chikei.

Hamon:           Fine nie-deki, notare-midare with some gunome like inclusions, profuse sunagaeshi which spills over into the ji in places and kinsuji. The boshi is slightly midare-komi with very little kaeri.

Horimono      A bo-hi on both sides that finishes in the nakago between the two mekugi-ana.

Nakago:          Suriage by probably 3 or 4 cm and machi-okuri, 2 mekugi-ana. Kiri-jiri, faint kiri yasurime are just visible and the bo-hi finishes in a pointed end. There is kin-zogan mei on the sashi-omote MASAMUNE and on the sashi-ura HON-A with kao.

 

 

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Wow!  Thank you for these Michael.  It seems like this is the one in the original exhibition from the description though I can't find accession information online for it.

I don't want to ask you to put your neck on the block as it were, but would you care to talk us through why you think it is genuine?   If Clive's description is his usual accurate assessment then the small amount of shortening would seem to leave enough nakago to contain the original mei.  

 

Well that's the most distinctive of the six listed in the catalogue, just need to find five more.  Wasn't there a tanto in the Festing collection?  Perhaps that was oneof them.

 

All the best.

 

 

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Hi Geraint

 

So, the kinzogan Masamune in your book could be one of two blades which circulated in the UK, which I know a bit more of:

 

a) the V&A blade above, which to me seems like a Masamune due to the vivid nie and plentiful chikei in the blade. It has the chikei, sunagashi and kinsuji combined with fine hada typical of a top Soshu work. Also, the Honami who adorned the nakago with his kao is the highly respected 12th Honami head, Honami Kojo (1643-1710). He is deeply trusted and his judgements are upheld by the NBTHK;

 

b) potentially the blade which Darcy bought, but despite all the paperwork and reputed Inaba/Tokugawa provenance, is not likely a Masamune. More likely a later replica. You can find it here and it was indeed in the Festing collection

https://yuhindo.com/masamune/

I think the tanto you mention is believed to, possibly, be by Sadamune (I seem to remember that Tanobe sensei thought as much). 

 

 

Clive’s fuller description of the V&A sword is included in our UK to-ken register, which Clive maintained prior to his retirement and I include it herewith: 

UK Sword Register.

No.  56

 TYPE:            Koto katana

Nagasa:         72.0 cm         Moto-haba: 3.1 cm       Saki-haba: 2.0 cm

Sugata:           Hon-zukuri, a graceful tori-zori, chu-kissaki, mitsu-mune.

Jihada:            A prominent and flowing itame-hada with mokume and abundant ji-nie forming chikei.

Hamon:           Fine nie-deki, notare-midare with some gunome like inclusions, profuse sunagaeshi which spills over into the ji in places and kinsuji. The boshi is slightly midare-komi with very little kaeri.

Horimono      A bo-hi on both sides that finishes in the nakago between the two mekugi-ana.

Nakago:          Suriage by probably 3 or 4 cm and machi-okuri, 2 mekugi-ana. Kiri-jiri, faint kiri yasurime are just visible and the bo-hi finishes in a pointed end. There is kin-zogan mei on the sashi-omote MASAMUNE and on the sashi-ura HON-A with kao.

This sword has a robust sugata that retains its elegance in spite of the suriage. Both the hamon and the jihada reflect the nie dominant hataraki, which together with the large itame-mokume-hada and mitsu-mune, associate the sword with old Soshu-den. The shape is both graceful and strong whilst the bo-hi provide the sword with a balance that makes it very easy to handle. It is in fine condition and all details are easy to see.

The nakago has a Honami kinzogan mei (gold inlay inscription) which attributes the sword to the famous Masamune of the late Kamakura period. (the inscription may be by Honami Koson Tadayoshi, the 12th master working between 1662 and 1679). As the sword has no modern Japanese authentication, it is impossible to say whether the attribution is correct or not. However, it does appear to be fine old Soshu-den workmanship, but as we know, swords such as this were heavily faked throughout sword history. It is also difficult to believe that it could have been taken out of Japan in the Meiji period by a non-Japanese. (it was the property of Alfred Dobree, an active collector in the early 20th century, who donated it to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London).

It is well known that Masamune is considered to be the most famous of all Japanese swordsmiths and is usually thought of as being the founder of the Soshu-den style of swordmaking in the late Kamakura period. This style was greatly influenced by both Yamashiro-den and Bizen-den but is quite distinct from them.

As Japan was under threat from a third Mongol invasion (two had already taken place in 1274 and 1281) the Kamakura shogunate encouraged the production of sturdier swords to combat this potential threat. Based at the capital city of Kamakura in Sagami province (Soshu) the swordsmiths fulfilled this need and Soshu-den was founded. It is considered that Masamune’s teacher (possibly his father)  Shintogo Kunimitsu produced the first blades that could be called Soshu-den, but this was further developed and refined by Masamune who attracted many students from all over Japan. The ten most famous are known as the Masamune Jutetsu.

 

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Thank you Michael, Clive's description confirms the connection with Dobree so that closes the loop.  I hope that handling it was a thrill, one of the joys of life is that we sometimes get to handle masterpieces, something almost impossible for collectors in so many fields.

 

All the best.

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Hi Geraint

 

Some more pics of the Masamune. I did not take too many but recorded a couple of short clips, which are much better for study as I could angle the blade. The shots are rather poor but you get an idea of the acitive jiba. 

I cannot share the clips as I have recorded some of the people, who might not want to be shown, and also are around 300MB each. 

 

But as you are in the UK, and if you are a ToKen member, may be one day you could see the blade yourself. 

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