Ippei Yasuyo 一平安代 Wakizashi

[noneed2hate]

Greetings all, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Holiday.

Just wanted to share a recently acquired piece, a WW2 bringback a family had decided to sell recently, signed Shume no Kami Ippei Yasuyo 主馬首一平安代 of Satsuma.
 

From what I can tell the Mon seems a bit different from other examples of this smith, the veins of the hollyhock in this instance seem shorter compared to other examples such as those in Markus Seskos books otherwise the mei seems consistent to my novice eyes.

 

Tsuka seems to be wrapped by some sort of skin or perhaps leaves covered in lacquer which is quite fascinating. Saya is a bit rough and is missing a few components it seems. 

 

A few basic characteristics noted thus far: Nice and wide Mihaba, Sugaha Hamon, Higaki Yasurime, bulbous Kurijiri, Nagasa of about 19".

 

Overall, there seems to be no fatal kizu that I can see and the blade itself aside from the rust seems to be in good shape. 

 

Looking forward to further studying this piece and likely having it professionally restored as it seems to be a good prospect to invest in.

If you have any thoughts or observations about it, I'm all ears.

 

Thanks!

 

-George

 

 

 

 

You can just barely make out the Higaki Yasurime, as it is quite worn but rest assured it is present and consistent with this smith. 

 

 

[Toryu2020]

George -

I am afraid this signature, mon and yasuri do not compare well to the examples in Fujishiro. What activity/features are you seeing in the blade besides a sugu-ha hamon?

 

-t

[Bruce Pennington]

So that's a mon at the top!  How interesting!

[Franco D]

7 hours ago, noneed2hate said:

Just wanted to share a recently acquired piece, a WW2 bringback a family had decided to sell recently, signed Shume no Kami Ippei Yasuyo 主馬首一平安代 of Satsuma.

 

40 minutes ago, Toryu2020 said:

I am afraid this signature, mon and yasuri do not compare well to the examples in Fujishiro.

 

 

Fyi, https://markussesko.com/2015/11/09/shogunal-support-program/

[noneed2hate]

13 hours ago, Toryu2020 said:

George -

I am afraid this signature, mon and yasuri do not compare well to the examples in Fujishiro. What activity/features are you seeing in the blade besides a sugu-ha hamon?

 

-t

I appreciate all the replies. 

A few more observations/notes after some more studying of this blade, it should be noted that due to my lack of experience and the current condition of the blade I am probably incorrect in my assessment:

Sori: Tori-sori at ~6.45mm

Motokasane and Sakikasane are quite similar and relatively thick at ~7.75mm and ~7.55mm respectively

Motohaba quite wide compared to the Sakihaba at ~31.25mm and ~23.55mm respectively

Very shallow/low iori mune and a low Shinogi.

Hada: Appears to be a tight ko-itame

Chu-sugaha hamon with a wide nioiguchi with nie present

O-kissaki (or perhaps extended Chu-kissaki?) with what appears to be sugu o-maru boshi fairly close to the yokote/ko-shinogi junction.

Signature itself after comparing a bit further seems to have different emphasis on certain strokes and also appears slightly off angle compared to given examples. I do wonder if the above is perhaps a side effect of the bohi running through that signature space but based on the last character and it's vast differences I believe this is quite likely not the case.

So while it does retain some characteristics of Yasuyos work it seems, perhaps it is best and safe to say this is Gimei? 

Below are some photos to hopefully better illustrate the hada and hamon present. 

 

-George

[Jussi Ekholm]

Here are 3 Jūyō swords for reference mei. Unfortunately I don't know the smith well enough to say anything for certain.

[Sunny]

very cool blade 

thanks for sharing 

[noneed2hate]

Thank you for those signature examples Jussi, and very much appreciate the kind words Sunny.

After staring at various examples of Yasuyo signatures for hours, I've the notated the following inconsistencies as far as I can tell on my blade. A lot of the signature/aoi mon examples seems to be also somewhat inconsistent among each other.

Sadly I was unable to find any examples of his signature with the Shinogi Hi (I incorrectly called it Bohi earlier) running through the signature space. 

I've circled each point of inconsistency in red with a brief explanation of the difference in this blades signature/aoi mon compared to Yasuyos works as presented in Seskos books, Fujishiros books, and the ones Jussi provided. 

I did point it out in the picture but the Aoi-mon does seem not quite as bulbous/circular with the upsweep of the outer portion of the hollyhock happening almost immediately compared to confirmed examples . 

I did briefly look at the possibility of it being a Daimei by one of his students, but looking at Yasuari (Yasuyos primary student) signatures, to include a Daimei for Yasuyo, I confirmed this is not the case as his strokes are much more squared off/uniform as far as I can tell.

Any other input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SteveM]

Hello George, 

I think the points you identified above are indeed suspicious enough to deeply discount the possibility of this mei being an authentic Ippei Yasuyo inscription.

Note that its always tricky trying to make a definitive judgment based on photos, and its almost always a mistake to make a judgment without looking closely at the actual sword itself. This is because it is infinitely harder to copy a swordmith's style, than it is to copy his name. So if the sword itself looks like a Yasuyo sword, then you would look at the mei to validate what you see in the sword. From the pictures, its hard to see much of the hamon, and its impossible to see much in the hada, and these are two of the biggest things you will want to examine when looking at and judging a sword. So look at the sword first, then look at the mei. If the sword is precisely what a Yasuyo sword should look like, you can then make some accomodations for slight variations in the mei. Conversely, even if the mei is a stroke-for-stroke exact copy of a famous smith, but the sword itself looks nothing like the swordsmith's work, the authentication team will send the sword back with a humiliating pink slip that says "fake" on it. 

In this case, I think there are too many discrepancies in the mei to plausibly be considered an authentic Yasuyo blade. But don't despair. Your blade is still an authentic Japanese blade. It is not some cheap, fake blade made in a warehouse somewhere. Take care of it and read up on the pros and cons of getting a blade like this professionally polished. (And of course keep it away from all would-be amateur polishers, or anyone with power tools). 

 

Also; bōhi is fine. I think all of us here would call it a bōhi (or bōbi).  

[noneed2hate]

1 hour ago, SteveM said:

Hello George, 

I think the points you identified above are indeed suspicious enough to deeply discount the possibility of this mei being an authentic Ippei Yasuyo inscription.

Note that its always tricky trying to make a definitive judgment based on photos, and its almost always a mistake to make a judgment without looking closely at the actual sword itself. This is because it is infinitely harder to copy a swordmith's style, than it is to copy his name. So if the sword itself looks like a Yasuyo sword, then you would look at the mei to validate what you see in the sword. From the pictures, its hard to see much of the hamon, and its impossible to see much in the hada, and these are two of the biggest things you will want to examine when looking at and judging a sword. So look at the sword first, then look at the mei. If the sword is precisely what a Yasuyo sword should look like, you can then make some accomodations for slight variations in the mei. Conversely, even if the mei is a stroke-for-stroke exact copy of a famous smith, but the sword itself looks nothing like the swordsmith's work, the authentication team will send the sword back with a humiliating pink slip that says "fake" on it. 

In this case, I think there are too many discrepancies in the mei to plausibly be considered an authentic Yasuyo blade. But don't despair. Your blade is still an authentic Japanese blade. It is not some cheap, fake blade made in a warehouse somewhere. Take care of it and read up on the pros and cons of getting a blade like this professionally polished. (And of course keep it away from all would-be amateur polishers, or anyone with power tools). 

 

Also; bōhi is fine. I think all of us here would call it a bōhi (or bōbi).  

Hello Steve,

 

Thank you very much for your input. I've since bought a microscope so hopefully that will yield me more accurate observations on my part (as much as possible given the current state/polish) than the magnifying glass I currently use.

In any case I do really like the blade as a whole and it seems like a good candidate to pursue professional polishing/restoration and I suppose that's the most important thing.

By the way, does anyone have ideas on what the tsuka could be wrapped in? Seems to be some sort of lacquered fish skin perhaps as it's slightly coppery/silvery, but I'm uncertain. 

Thanks

-George
 

[noneed2hate]

Small update regarding this sword, I have sent it over to Woody Hall for a window polish. Definitely looking forward to what will possibly be revealed. I'll keep everyone posted. 

[Prewar70]

That nakago looks suspicious almost looks tempered like the sword is suriage. 

[noneed2hate]

On 2/11/2022 at 8:24 PM, Prewar70 said:

That nakago looks suspicious almost looks tempered like the sword is suriage. 

I appreciate the observation, what characteristics about the nakago are you observing that would indicate this?

[noneed2hate]

Window polish is complete as of right now, these are the pictures I received from Woody. He and Mike Y. conferred a bit and do believe it to be an O-suriage shinshinto blade with a fake signature

 

I do rather like the blade and now even more so, I'll be pursuing a full polish through Woody and a shirasaya through Mike Virgadamo.

Pictures below for your viewing pleasure though they are quite compressed.

[Toryu2020]

Many times they do not put fake signatures on crap swords - looks great!

-t

[SteveM]

I agree, it looks like a well-made sword. 

[Brian]

That is a heck of a nice hada for a Shinshinto.

[Baba Yaga]

14 hours ago, Toryu2020 said:

Many times they do not put fake signatures on crap swords - looks great!

-t

 

It doesn't look right in a good way, not a bad way. That hada "almost" looks like Koto. 

Maybe another mystery? I refer back to Tom professional judgement. 

[sabiji]

It has been quite a while since I held a Yasuyo in my hands. That was a Nie-monster!

 

This is also a Nie-Monster! For my taste a little too much Ara-Nie - but stylistically the Deki already comes damn close to Yasuyo...