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Kogatana mei interpretation


Janrudolph

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Good day friends. I am blessed/cursed with an analythical mind or way of thinking. After 75 years I am still not able to shake it off! This way of looking at things has prompted me to approach my kogatana mei (see pics) in detail and with perseverance. I'm sure many of you will say: Don't go there! or You're making too much fuss over it! or Rather spend your energy on a kogatana of value or of better quality! And that would perhaps be the more sensible thing to do. But...ah yes, I have this curse of forever wanting to analyse things... have I said that already? I've spent hours on the kanjis I think I see in this mei, and I have looked at pictures of other mei which seemed similar or even identical. Now before I bore you all with what I'm guessing what the mei reads, please rather do me the gigantic favour of telling what YOU see. I will be very grateful! (The two pics each highlight half of the mei, on which the light has been directed for best clarity: right - top half, left - bottom half.) Johan     

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1 hour ago, Janrudolph said:

I must mention that the first thing I myself noticed was that the person who did the signature did not use a chisel, but hammered in the kanji strokes with a punch in the form of a wedge. Johan

No, this is the usual way of signing kogatana and is done using a chisel.

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Dear Johan.

 

Just to amplify Brian's point, when we use the term chisel we assume that the cut will remove metal leaving a channel in the surface.  In fact swords are signed in a manner resembling chasing, a shaped chisel deforms the metal leaving a channel but with raised metal on either side.  In Japanese these are referred to as tagane makura, or chisel pillows.  One way of observing the age of a signature is to note whether these are still present or have been rubbed down over time.  They also feature when a mei is properly removed. As no metal has been lost when the mei was cut a skilled smith can move the metal back, effectively restoring the nakago to an unsigned state.  

 

The triangular shaped marks that you have observed  are left by the point of the chisel which is held at an angle to the work and tapped gently.  In the very thin metal and with the very small kanji these are easy to see.  The characteristic line left by the tagane is one of the indicators that a blade is Japanese as most fakers tend to engrave the mei, cutting metal away and leaving a smooth sided groove.

 

All the best

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Moriyama, Geraint & Brian, I have taken note of what you've written and will reread it to understand it fully. MANY THANKS! In the meantime I have arrived at the following, thanks to many references as well as forumites' helpful comments:

 

Kanji analysis:

金華山 Mt. Kinka, Kinka-zan

Foot

???

濃州 Noshu Province

長良川 Nagara River, Nagara-gawa

Edge

藤原 Fujiwara clan name

清長 Kiyonaga, first name

 

Meaning of the mei: "Fujiwara Kiyonaga, from the Nagara-gawa region of the Province of Noshu near Mount Kinka, forged this."

 

Mt. Kinka, also known as Kinkazan, is located in the heart of the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and rises to a height of 329 m. It has long served as the representative symbol of Gifu. It stands along the Nagara River. Much of the city lies on the river's alluvial plain and is part of an environmental conservation district.

 

Nōshū Province, one of the old provinces of Japan, encompassed the southern part of modern-day Gifu Prefecture. It was mostly known as Mino.

 

Fujiwara Kiyonaga worked at Gifu in the Mino Province, at about the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867), in the Genroku era (1688-1704).

 

Please help me to figure out what role the kanji  plays in the mei???? Johan

 

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Thank you, Uwe & Jean L. Wonderful extra information! I therefor need to retract what I wrote above: "Fujiwara Kiyonaga worked at Gifu in the Mino Province, at about the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867), in the Genroku era (1688-1704)." That was an earlier Kiyonaga.

What indications are there that a smith like this Bunsei era Kiyonaga favoured certain kozuka to fit his blades to? I'm assuming he never made kozuka himself, but stuck to kogatana making. The kozuka my Kiyonaga blade is fitted into is the one showing Tawara Toda defeating the monstrous centipede. Is there any evidence that my kozuka and my kogatana might have been together from the beginning? Johan

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Friends, this I have gleaned from the kind responses to this thread so far: There are no indications that a smith like this Bunsei era Kiyonaga favoured certain kozuka to fit his blades to. He probably never made kozukas himself. The fact that the kozuka my blade is fitted to, shows the mythical Tawara Toda defeating the monstrous centipede is just coincidence. They might have been put together ever since my wakizashi was made and have been together ever since, or someone might have swapped them around afterwards. 

My last few questions are about the arrangement of the kanjis on my kogatana blade (post #2). Looking at other examples by this smith, it seems to me that the kanjis 金華 (Kinka-zan) occupy the first two (top) positions on the mei. There is probably one kanji 麓 (foot/foothills) at the bottom. Then in the two columns of kanji between them I assume (because I really can't make out the shape of the characters due to the type of script used) that the left-hand column reads: 藤原清長 Fujiwara Kyonaga, and the right-hand column reads 於濃州長良川邊  Oite Noshu Nagaragawa-hotori. That's 14 kanji altogether. While trying to compile this, I have repeatedly gone back to your post #4, Moriyama San, where I see that you have 15 kanji. I'm thinking that your kanji 山 (mountain) is the one missing, because it does not seem to be included in the mei, whereas one would think it should be easy to spot. Perhaps my smith found it unnecessary to include that kanji in the mei, because Kinka-zan is the name of the mountain, and to call it "Mt. Kinka Mountain" would be strange?!

I'm either starting to get it here, or losing it altogether! Please help me out patiently and put me on the right track so we can close this thread. :laughing: Johan

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Moriyama san, I thank you very much for helping out. It's great to be able to talk with knowledgeable people world-wide on these matters of our common interest! I thank you others too, who have come into this thread. I must say, concerning this mei, I found it strange that the kanji seem so unintelligible and (dare I say it:) poorly formed! I can only assume the smith gave the work of inscribing the signature characters to an assistant or apprentice, who perhaps was not a great calligrapher! Once again, this is my assumption.

Please allow me to explain why I make so many assumptions - you will see, this thread is full of them. It is not that I do not accept the word of you forumites and rather make up my own mind about translation matters. That would be stupid of me. It is rather my way of demonstrating that I am willing to go about my own research and not sit back idle, waiting for forumites to answer my questions without me doing my bit. Up till now most of my assumptions have not been challenged. The one or two that have been doubted, I have learned from and I have corrected my thinking. I firmly believe that you forumites will not remain silent if I write nonsense about any Japanese sword matter! I would want you to pull out your big guns and send flak in my direction. And it would not be good for younger or novice collectors to read my assumptions, see them go unchallenged, and believe that they are sound.

In post #9 above Jean L has posted an image which I would very much to know what the source is. That must be an wonderful book/article to have access to! I myself have tons of books, but they are about many and varied edged weapons and none about Japanese swords. I have borrowed only two books from an iaido sensei in my city about bladesmithing in Japan. So my assumptions are not likely to be 100% sound in every case! Do you guys have thoughts on this matter? Johan       

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Johan,

 

this is a must have book/ebook written by Markus Sesko: e Index of Japanese Swordsmiths.

 

Btw, as soon as late 17th century, there were swordsmiths in Mino specialized in kogatana forging.

 

I have 3 kogatana like yours in shirasaya.

 

here is a sayagaki of one of them

 

DD350AE9-BFD6-428D-85BE-84A35F097CC1.jpeg

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That's very interesting, Jean, and thank you.

1. Please tell me, of the three kogatana you have like mine, are they 100% identical in the wording of the mei?

2. The kanji  於 that we spoke about higher up in this thread, which is "at" or "on", seems also to be "on the bank of", "by the side of",  "in the neighbourhood", or "nearby". This is hotori, if I am not mistaken?

3. The kanji  麓 seems to be sanroku, which I believe means "foothills".

Jean, do you (or others) think I am correct here? Regards, Johan

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於 = "oite" or "okeru". Okeru is a verb, or, more properly, a word that serves as a verb linker (in English grammar I think we call it a "collocation").              It means in or at. It is just an auxiliary word that indicates where the action is taking place. 

辺 = "hotori" or "atari". In this context, it means "by" or "near". In the tang, it is written using the more complicated, older form of the kanji: 邉. 

麓 = "roku". Usually combined with 山 (san) to form the compound word 山麓 (foothills, foot of the mountain). 

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Steve M & Jean L, thank you again for coming in. I'm very grateful that you volunteered all this detail, and to be sure I'll study what you have written and shown. Jean, one thing that stands out regarding your 3 very neat examples of the mei plus mine plus another I've seen a picture of: they appear clearly to be different "handwriting" in all cases - meaning (if I am correct) kogatana smiths use apprentices to sign the tangs. Perhaps not all - one of yours, Jean, perhaps the "nicest" one, might well be the smith' Kiyonaga's, but they can't all have been signed by the same hand. Or so it looks to me.

Then again, from what I've read about gimei, some collectors would immediately say the signatures might not have been the work of Kiyonaga's apprentices, but lesser smiths who imitated Kiyonaga? Johan

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One of these kogatana was made by a Mino smith around 1680. From all these signed blades, it is seems that there was a Mino tradition in kogatana forging (a school of kogatana forging) and this based on the way to cut the mei.

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Very interesting, Jean! Do I understand it correctly that these "schools" are groups much like guilds? These schools are each founded, if I have read correctly in other threads, by an individual and then they grow as smiths/learner smiths attend. I should think they might also physically work together in a group? I have read about the famous Rai school. Perhaps I need to get more info on these "schools" and how they were conducted. Do you or anyone else perhaps have a good link for me?   Johan

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Johan, what is very interesting is that any swordsmith would concentrate on Katana, wakizashi, tanto, naginata, yari forging. To specialize in Kogatana forging is not necessary glorious (often smiths forging a kogatana would inscribed a fantasy name - and generally a big name). Here the smiths were proud of their work to such extent that they chiselled their signature in a very special way. Can we speak of a lineage of kogatana smiths or a real school? I know there is a Japanese book on kogatana. But I don’t know if this aspect is developped. Mino school seems to take the lead.

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