Help with mei on tsuba please

[Chishiki]

Hi, I have a tsuba which is by Sunagawa Masanori. On the other side of the ana is another inscription which starts YOSHI MICHI.......... Ater the yoshimichi I cannot work out the kanji. Is this a special order? The date is Kansei .... year? 11th month?. Any help on the mei would be appreciated. As a side note. I 1st saw this tsuba maybe 7 years ago and it had a lovely chocolate patina. It recently came to me in an over cleaned condition like someone had taken a scour pad to it. Shame!! Mark

[Nobody]

Ans.

 

吉道地鉄鍛 – Yoshimichi forged base iron

砂川正矩造之 – Sunagawa Masanori made this

 

寛政二二年 – Kansei 4th year,

十一月日 – a day in 11th month

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Doesn't that say Yoshimichi

Jitetsu Kitae?

 

 

PS Nobody beat me to it!

 

PPS Your unusual Tsuba has a fairly strong resemblance to mine

@

[Chishiki]

Hi, thanks everyone. Could this be an inference to one of the swordsmith Yoshimichi? Sunagawa were in Edo but Yoshimichi Osaka? Any ideas? Mark

[John A Stuart]

There are two Yoshimichi noted for making iron plate tsuba at this time. Both ended up in Edo. 1) Isotani Tatsuji student of Hosokawa Masayoshi or Iwama Masayoshi , d. 1850 or Aug 1853 2) Iwai Seiryusai- Nobuie style, d. c. 1800-50

 

There was Sunagawa Masanori d. 1788, which is interesting as there is a tsuba dated Kansei 5, May 5 1793 w/ Hironaga.

Maybe one of the iron plate specialist Yoshimichi's made the plate for Masanori who did work in soft metal and iron. This was quite common. Again, it may have been forged by a swordsmith. ????? I would investigate the plate more. John

[Chishiki]

thanks everyone for your help. Mark