Seeking info about Kanehiro Saku ( 兼廣作 )

[Harry]

Another humiliating attempt at photographing a Japanese blade. And I like this one. It’s a good blade. I almost feel like I should apologize to it!

 

I wish I knew more about it and am hoping someone here can help. It’s a Yaroi Doshi. Here are the dimensions:

Nagasa: 18.8 cm

Nakago: 10.5 cm

Sori: 1 mm

Motohaba: 2.1 cm

Motokasane: 1 cm

 

No papers, but you have to take the training wheels off sometime. The seller thought it dates to ca. 1715 and the signature that of Kanehiro Saku ( 兼廣作 ). No exact matches on the sword smith index site, but two potential hits:

https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/list?id_op=%3D&id=KAN928&name_op=word&name=&kanji_op=%3D&kanji=&province=All&start_era=All&school_nid=All

and

https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/list?id_op=%3D&id=KAN950&name_op=word&name=&kanji_op=%3D&kanji=&province=All&start_era=All&school_nid=All

 

Anything info anyone else can provide will be appreciated. TIA!

 

Harry

 

 

 

[Harry]

Surely someone here has a copy of Hawley or Fujishiro? This blade has merit, despite my crappy photos. Someone throw me a bone - please!

 

harry

[Geraint]

Dear Harry.

 

Well it's a sweet little tanto.  Anything with a three kanji mei is hard to narrow down but from the sugata and nakago I would say that Shinshinto is a good starting point.  Hawley doesn't get you very far, he lists several Kanehiro working in the Shinto and Shinshinto period but there are no clues to narrow this one down, without province or title you can take your pick.  

 

Hopefully one of us has a papered tanto whose mei matches exactly and then you will know.

 

All the best.

[Brian]

It looks well forged, with a nice shape. Can't tell more to narrow it down though. Can you rotate the mei, trying to verify the kanji.

 

[Harry]

Many thanks Geraint and Brian. Here are a couple of better photos of the nakago using the baby powder trick. Hopefully these will help.