Easter Kantei

[Gakusee]

On 4/29/2022 at 10:08 PM, Jussi Ekholm said:

I was not aware of that tantō at MET. I was looking it and then at various signatures of Kunimitsu and I thought it would be gimei. However when looking at all of the Uda Kunimitsu signatures I have in books, it seems to me they are all maybe bit different from each other...

 

Then I thought I had Jon Snow moment when I found out that Tanobe-sensei talked about this tanto in his Gokaden book. I will attach the Japanese text I typed from book and my rough translation.

 

 

16 years ago sunnobi tantō came to repair to Japan from a museum in USA, it was signed Uda Kunimitsu and dated to 1333. I expected it to be signature of Konyūdō. Omote signature is genuine but it is timeless? (I can't read it well but I suppose he means it is difficult to date but it is not that old as it pretends to be). Ura date is gimei and added to disguise the blade as Konyūdō.

 

Hopefully I got at least the basic idea correctly, and better translation would be of assistance. So to me it seems that Tanobe thought that tanto is genuine Uda work by some Uda Kunimitsu later in line but the date was added to fool people.

I think by “timeless” Tanobe sensei meant that originally there was no date inscribed on the tanto. In that sense, it was made “date-less” in its original state. 
Thereafter someone else chiselled a nengo. 
 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I am just rewatching the series and the character gets belittled few times, "You know nothing, Jon Snow". That was my original thought when I realized that this MET tanto was discussed in the Gokaden book and I started typing the text and thought it was genuine item. However I am puzzled by it a lot.

 

As I unfortunately can't read difficult phrases like that above I have tried running it through Google translator & DeepL. "Timeless, descent of times, era falling off etc." are translations when I try it in small part. I think this was the "best"  (not sure if most correct one) result by DeepL "I had hoped that this would be the standard name for Ko-Irudo, but although the front name was authentic, it was dated to a later period, and the back date was a fake name added later to make it look Ko-Irudo" Ko-Irudo = Konyūdō.

 

Still as the passage of the item is featured in the book, I don't think it is just an average gimei item and there must be more to it.

[SteveM]

時代が降る　じだいがくだる　(jidai ga kudaru) Basically it's an expression indicating the mei was from a more recent time that of Ko-nyūdō (Uda Kunimitsu). 

 

So the sword was introduced as a sword with a mei from Kunimitsu dated 1333, and Tanobe-sensei was hoping it would be genuine so that Uda Kunimitsu could finally be connected with a real signature AND a real date. He was hoping it would serve as the standard/definitive Kunimitsu signature. Unfortunately, the Kunimitsu signature was real, but it was from a more recent Kunimitsu (he doesn't say which one), and someone had put a false date on the other side to make it appear as if it were frome the time of Ko-nyūdō Kunimitsu.

 

So correct mei on the one side (but a later Kunimitsu), and a false date on the other side.

[Bugyotsuji]

While we are on the subject it is worth noting that history to the Japanese psyche generally descends as a stream or river from the past, down to the present.

 

And whilst Steve's 'kudaru' is probably better educated (more 'correct') Japanese, you will often hear people saying Jidai ga 'sagaru', which is virtually the same thing, indicating that an object or happening is younger, not quite so old.

 

Conversely, 時代が上がる"Jidai ga agaru" is a statement of higher age, thus older, which can also be expressed in other ways such as as sakanoboru, or climbing (back) up the slope, against the flow of time, thus descending from a more ancient age.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thanks Steve and Piers for proper translation and education.

[DoTanuki yokai]

The blade papered as Wakizashi implies it is a shortned Tachi rather then a Naginata Naoshi.
Jussi was wondering about this and my lack in photograph of Nihonto did not show any Kaeri what made it understandable. 
Some months ago I tried to make a video of the Jinie and it clearly shows the long Kaeri and why it is so hard to judge from pictures. 
 

 

 

Hope my clumsy content creator skills are OK