Request for Kozuka Assistance

[MasahigeDen]

Hello all, longtime reader, first time poster! 

I have here a kozuka I recently acquired with some shinshinto koshirae accompanying a pair of tanto. I am inexperienced with kozuka/kogatana, and any insight and/or translation assistance for this one would be greatly appreciated. 

[SteveM]

粟田口一竿子忠綱

 

Awataguchi Ikkanshi Tadatsuna

[MasahigeDen]

14 hours ago, SteveM said:

粟田口一竿子忠綱

 

Awataguchi Ikkanshi Tadatsuna

 

Much appreciated! I gather the early Ikkanshi Tadatsuna made some excellent blades, that focus seems to have been on a more mercantile clientele later in the Edo period, and that the brand still makes kitchen knives today. Do you know if there is a good way of dating a kozuka like this to a particular generation of the name? 

[SteveM]

1 hour ago, MasahigeDen said:

Do you know if there is a good way of dating a kozuka like this to a particular generation of the name? 

 

Not that I know of. We usually caution people not to take too much stock in the names written on kogatana. It was common to engrave them with the names of well-known smiths, even if they had no connection to those smiths.  

[Surfson]

The general belief is that most of these were not made by the often famous sword maker whose name is on the blade.   I do wonder the how it came to pass that kogatana are so often signed with famous maker names.