Help with Nengo for Hidekage Wakizashi

[tbonesullivan]

Another one from the vaults I suppose.  Going back and translating past swords I've seen for translation practice. Back then I figured I would never be able to translate Japanese on tangs.

 

Anyway, this wakizashi is signed 備州 長船 秀景 - BISHU OSAFUNE HIDEKAGE. I'm fairly confident on that. 

 

The other side, as far as I can tell, reads 享 徳 二 年 二 月 for the Kyou-toku era. However that first character doesn't look quite how it should. I also looked at all the other era names with 徳 as the second character, and it doesn't quite match those either.  I have even considered it might be the "Northern Court" nengo  至徳 SHI-TOKU - 1384.

[ChrisW]

The patination doesn't look correct for a Muromachi era sword.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I think you are very close, to me it seems like Hōtoku (宝徳) 2 - 1450.

[tbonesullivan]

8 minutes ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I think you are very close, to me it seems like Hōtoku (宝徳) 2 - 1450.

AH!!!! I was going by this chart from Japanese sword index, which has a totally different looking character. That may explain why I was so confused. Thank you so much.

[tbonesullivan]

18 minutes ago, ChrisW said:

The patination doesn't look correct for a Muromachi era sword.

I recall it looking to have been oiled top to bottom. Unfortunately I can find no other examples from this smith to compare it to.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Here is a verified example by this smith dated to same year 1450, from Jūyō 34 session. Now what is interesting that in this he is signing with the form 寳徳 that is alternative way of signing the era (it was featured in Japaneseswordindex). Historically both styles were used however I am not sure if the smith would sign the year in different form in his career? Unfortunately I only have this one Hōtoku era signature from Hidekage in my records.

 

https://www.aoijapan.net/tachi-bishu-osafune-hidekage-34th-nbthk-juyo-paper/

[tbonesullivan]

3 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

Here is a verified example by this smith dated to same year 1450, from Jūyō 34 session. Now what is interesting that in this he is signing with the form 寳徳 that is alternative way of signing the era (it was featured in Japaneseswordindex). Historically both styles were used however I am not sure if the smith would sign the year in different form in his career? Unfortunately I only have this one Hōtoku era signature from Hidekage in my records.

 

https://www.aoijapan.net/tachi-bishu-osafune-hidekage-34th-nbthk-juyo-paper/

 

That is interesting definitely. The style of the Mei on both examples does look relatively similar, as well as the shape of the tang, including the profile of the Nakago-jiri. I do recall it having a nice Hamon. It sold quite some time ago, back when I was just starting to be able to read Nengo, due to a year of Japanese in college. Sadly we didn't get any pictures of the full blade, and with flash photography getting the hamon is difficult. We did get this picture however:

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

The placement of the Mei seems a little odd for Bizen Wakizashi of this period, this placement is seen more on Tanto.