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tachi fittings


shibeni

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Hi all,

the fittings belongs to my unrestored shinshinto tachi. The pattern on one side of fuchi and kabuto-gane looks like a "snake or rope" form (dificoult to see on pix.), but on other side of fuchi (on picture) is a diferentstrange looking pattern which (gold or copper filler).

Massive iron tsuba looks old and have a signature. On both sides are thiny rays which goes from the center to the edge.

 

I kindly ask you for any opinion on fuchi and tsuba mei translation,

Regards,

Bojan

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post-382-14196755754145_thumb.jpg

post-382-14196755755759_thumb.jpg

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That's because it is not a tachi tsuba, but a katana tsuba Barry :-) It is a gimei Yamakichibei. The tsuba would be from the 1600's though I think, the fuchi and kashira do not match so I suspect this was all put together at some time by someone and may in fact not have much to do with the sword at all ???.

 

I would hazard a guess at the kashira being a late Higo piece, and the fuchi, well not sure, could be Shoami work.

 

Cheers

 

Rich

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Jean, I agree, a beautiful sword; like you, I suspect, I would prefer it to have an aoie-gata tsuba. Bojan’s sword appears to have a katana saya that has been modified by the attachment of removable rings for wear as a military tachi. As a matter of rather esoteric interest, would you consider such a sword to be a true tachi, or to be a handachi modified for wear as a military tachi?

 

Regards, John L.

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John,

 

IMHO, I think it was a handachi modified for wear as a military tachi.

 

Seldom do we find real tachi koshirae for this kind of sword, too rich to be brought to war. In fact, I have never seen a common tachi mounting, only elaborate ones

 

http://www.aoi-art.com/sword/wakizashi/ ... shirae.jpg

 

Even this one is elaborated (not mentionning Efu, Itomaki no tachi much more refined)

 

In fact, my first katana was in handachi mounting and when you said : I would prefer it to have an aoi-gata tsuba, I was thinking to myself John is reading my mind

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Finally, Jean, what about the Naval Officer's sword, with its o-seppa and gilt metal, tachi fittings on a black lacquered saya; or the Non-Commissioned Officer's sword, with its full tachi fittings integral to a metal saya - are these, then, full tachi?

 

John L.

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I don't know why people thing that a Handachi should be a Tachi without Obitori, and a Kurigata instead - and all Kanagu en suite. One has only to look at the book published by the Tokyo National Museum "Sword Mountings" (東京国立博物館 - 刀装篇) to see many example of Koshirae that don't fulfill those "requirements". There are even pics of swords with Handachi Tsuka and "regular" Saya, owned by the Tokugawa, no less! From a collector's point of view it might be desirable to have matching Kodôgu, but in the old days fittings were often chosen for their individual merit, not because they followed a common theme.

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Interesting Guido,

 

How would you define Handachi then?

A Koshirae with an element of a tachi?

Could you post some pictures of the examples mentionned in the Tokyo National Museum "Sword Mountings" (東京国立博物館 - 刀装篇) (unless forbidden by copyright)?

 

Now referring to this koshirae, does the kabuto-gane alone justify the term Handachi (forget about the saya), in the same way if the saya had a saya-jiri as the kabuto-gane mentionned above, would it be qualified as a handachi?

 

In a handachi, can we talk about kabuto-gane and saya-jiri or kashira/kojiri?

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I don't think that there's a water-proof definition of "Handachi", and it isn't a topic the Japanese experts seem to loose sleep over. One person's Handachi is the other's Uchigatana. Rose is a rose ... Anyhow, if Tachi-esque fittings are used, I would apply the terminology for Tachi Kanagu.

 

Below are two scans of the style I mentioned above.

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Doesn't the method of wear (along with time periods) also dictate a bit of the differences in terminology?

 

Within the terminologies; A tachi is tachimei, a katana is katanamei. Mumei O-suriage is katana by default. Put a Mumei O-suriage in an Efu no Dachi...and it's a tachi. A Hizen Katana is signed Tachimei but not a tachi. An Aoe Tachi is singed Katanamei but not a katana.

 

So Put a zaimei Aoe in Bukezukuri mounts and it's a Bukezukuri Katana mounted Tachi with reverse signature.

 

All wine is liquor but not all liquor is wine. Just pour me something to drink though, it's been a looonnng week. :phew:

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