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Narrowing down study


WillFalstaff

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Need some opinions. 

 

Since I am woefully under-educated on smiths, nevermind their styles (Masamune was famous, right? :laughing:), I want to narrow my study down to about 5 popular smiths. I am of the opinion that going by the blade that best strikes you is the best way to buy a blade, but in the quest to have a deeper understanding of nihonto and the culture around it, I think I need to really get to know at least a few smiths, their work, and their lives. 

 

I had the idea while thinking about how some people prefer to study only certain painters and sculptors to get a good idea of the stylistic changes throughout their careers (or seasons), then branch out with a foundational knowledge. I know that when I'm studying any part of history, I focus on one period and one person/event/family, then follow from there to peripheral study that are related. 

 

The caveat is I want to focus on smiths who's work a starting collector can actually acquire and posses as a first nihonto. (Sub-$10K, I think.) This idea follows Brian's preaching about not buying 10 "meh" blades and saving up for one "YAY!" blade. I am guilty of buying cheap stuff, though there is something to be said of at least owning a couple of "meh" blades that are in decent polish and trying to reveal something about them through study, as opposed to staring at pictures and museum displays only for months/years.

 

 

So, all you veterans out there, five approachable smiths to own and study deeply?

(And if this has been asked before, then :sorry: and a link would be appreciated)    

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Hi Gabe,

If you do for yourself what you're asking us to do for you, not only will the answer be closer to your tastes but you'll learn a bunch in the process. Come up with 5 smiths you think you'll like and are approachable with your wallet; then run them past us here to see what we think.

Grey

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1 hour ago, WillFalstaff said:

Need some opinions. 

 

Since I am woefully under-educated on smiths, nevermind their styles (Masamune was famous, right? :laughing:), I want to narrow my study down to about 5 popular smiths. I am of the opinion that going by the blade that best strikes you is the best way to buy a blade, but in the quest to have a deeper understanding of nihonto and the culture around it, I think I need to really get to know at least a few smiths, their work, and their lives. 

 

I had the idea while thinking about how some people prefer to study only certain painters and sculptors to get a good idea of the stylistic changes throughout their careers (or seasons), then branch out with a foundational knowledge. I know that when I'm studying any part of history, I focus on one period and one person/event/family, then follow from there to peripheral study that are related. 

 

The caveat is I want to focus on smiths who's work a starting collector can actually acquire and posses as a first nihonto. (Sub-$10K, I think.) This idea follows Brian's preaching about not buying 10 "meh" blades and saving up for one "YAY!" blade. I am guilty of buying cheap stuff, though there is something to be said of at least owning a couple of "meh" blades that are in decent polish and trying to reveal something about them through study, as opposed to staring at pictures and museum displays only for months/years.

 

 

So, all you veterans out there, five approachable smiths to own and study deeply?

(And if this has been asked before, then :sorry: and a link would be appreciated)    

 

This is where you want to be and below $10K, it's local. Nanbokucho and way better price and quality than others for sale. 

 

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Go for a school, rather than a smith.
Something like Hizento or Yoshimitsu etc etc.
A collection can be built, great education gotten, and a lot of satisfaction gained. Plus you can sometimes get examples in various eras, to compare school work.

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2 hours ago, Grey Doffin said:

Hi Gabe,

If you do for yourself what you're asking us to do for you, not only will the answer be closer to your tastes but you'll learn a bunch in the process. Come up with 5 smiths you think you'll like and are approachable with your wallet; then run them past us here to see what we think.

Grey

 

That is also an approach for me. Thanks Grey!

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2 hours ago, Brian said:

Go for a school, rather than a smith.
Something like Hizento or Yoshimitsu etc etc.
A collection can be built, great education gotten, and a lot of satisfaction gained. Plus you can sometimes get examples in various eras, to compare school work.

 

That was a toss of the coin for me, when I was thinking about this--should I start with a smith or a school? I'm still considering school also, but what studying a smith(s) would do better is reduce the variables to; a time period, a certain school, and the life of the smith and his works. I think aiming small, will miss small. Once I've gotten to know a smith or two comprehensively, I think I'll entertain studying wider like a school at their height of artistry. 

 

Now I need to go through and pick a few smiths and throw them up for all ya's consideration.  

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Either a school or a period or both school+period focus preferably. As suggested above, Hizento are plentiful and very good blades with a range of styles and workmanship. Mino is also a safe place to start. If you want something earlier, Yamato or Bizento (even though the latter will span multiple periods). Once you focus on either school or period, then you might find focusing on specific smiths will come more easily. 

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19 hours ago, Gakusee said:

Either a school or a period or both school+period focus preferably. As suggested above, Hizento are plentiful and very good blades with a range of styles and workmanship. Mino is also a safe place to start. If you want something earlier, Yamato or Bizento (even though the latter will span multiple periods). Once you focus on either school or period, then you might find focusing on specific smiths will come more easily. 

 

I am definitely interested in Yamato. Bizen is just too huge for a focused study. Haven't looked into Hizento, but now is great time. So, throwing the smiths idea to the side, I think I'll start with Yamato and Hizento. I gotta make a decision on the period now. 

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If you choose either or both of those two you have already decided on the period. Yamato flourished through the Kamakura period until the end of the Nambokucho so koto

Hizen came to prominence in The late Momoyama through to the end of the Edo period so Shinto and shin-shinto. Both Schools (Yamato is really a tradition encompassing five schools) produced some incredible work but also some less so. Both offer excellent opportunity to study.

Which ever way you choose to go enjoy the journey.

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I think its kind of those cases which turn out to be deeper than expected.

In tosogu narrow specialists are common, plenty of early iron or Goto folks out there.

In swords they are rare and they tend to be more experienced and quite wealthy.

With hizento you'll be dealing essentially with the subject where almost everything is known and can be determined from signature alone. Plenty of information. Not too great a variety even if you include Munetsugu and sideline followers of Masahiro, both standing a bit aside from the "mainstream".

 

Yamato on the other hand is a huge topix where much is unknown and many attributions are uncertain. They have a poor rep thanks to huge quantities supposedly churned out by Tegai around 1350s, but both Senjuin and Hosho are first rate schools. They are not 10k swords, more often than not at least. Senjuin in particular is a matter of convention, since it sort of attributed in a negative fashion - its something Yamato related that is Kamakura (except when its Nambokucho... or Muromachi but then its best to be signed) and lacks features specific to ko-hoki for example. So you get any jigane from tight itame to full masame, you get almost any hamon... There are Senjuin blades in ko choji or even weird creatures that have Ichimonji like choji with wide stripes of nie. You can have midare utsuri in Senjuin. Even excluding Ryumon who is a kind of stand alone person(s) in Senjuin, but his case is not that atypical for this school.

 

So Senjuin alone (and the rest frankly are quite narrow and well defined kantei-wise) is a tremendous subject where not much is certain.

I would argue the rest of Yamato is sort of very predictable. Shikkake can be upper grade work but is seldom first class, was active for like 40 years, a few smiths, definee as Tegai with some gunome but not Shizu... Tegai, Taima are both narrowly defined, Hosho is great but even more so presents a very consistent work by a small, determined school.

So 95% of "study" per se would be Senjuin.

But can one be a narrow Senjuin specialist? A tad difficult. A negative attribution presumes one has to know why its not Hoki or Hokke or Kyushu or Houju (and surprisingly it tends to be more refined! Not something one often says about Yamato).

 

 

 

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Thanks Paul and Kirill! 

 

Hizen it is, then wonder into maybe Hosho. If only Roger Robertshaw's print book didn't cost an arm and a leg. The PDF on his website is $39.99, but I prefer physical books. 

 

I wonder if anyone has created a step-by-step process for studying schools for beginners. What I keep running into is a mass of information and if there is no Token Kai or any sword club around, it's intimidating trying to sift through the wealth of information. Interacting here on the website is priceless, so it's a good place to start.

I think I'll brainstorm a little about my journey into studying nihonto and develop an system of information organization that can be adapted to beginners who want to go deeper.    

homer calculating.jpg

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Hi Gabe,

You could maybe start by examining the work of those that influenced the school, that of Hizen Tadayoshi's teacher Umetada Myoju and then the Rai school that they tried to emulate. If you are going to go for this I think you need Roger Robertshaw's book in one for or another as it's the definitive western text on the school. There are cheaper Japanese texts available but they probably won't be as useful to you, at first anyway.

 

Good hunting - it's a worthy endeavour!

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Your idea is not bad in principle.

However, specializing in something requires solid knowledge of the whole subject. Especially the history of Nihonto is characterized by complex influences and connections of styles and schools.

One should have exact ideas when focusing on something, and especially why. Otherwise, there is the danger that one simply starts to collect pieces of an area of interest - just because it is a piece of xy or from yz.


Your request to concentrate on Yamato and Hizen would be for me a dancing on far too big weddings. 
Of course, you can do that and try to collect a sword from every Yamato school, or from certain representatives of Hizen-To. Or you can collect various examples of the different generations of Tadayoshis.

 

But since you're asking for opinions, and let's stay with Hizen for example: you could focus on a particular smith, for example Yukihiro. He had his early daijo phase, his kami phase, later his ichi phase with Nanban-Tetsu in Nagasaki and Nagase. One could create a great documentation about his creative phases. The advantage is that Yukihiro as a Hizen representative is quite affordable and you can always find interesting swords. Hizen Masahiro is also very interesting, if only because he should become a successor of the main line. His work is one of the most versatile of all Hizen swordsmiths in my opinion. However, Masahiro can be a bit more price intensive.

 

I also find interesting schools that otherwise receive little attention. An example would be the Shitahara school. This school had broken away from the Odawara soshu in the 16th century and forged in Hachioji on the edge of the Musashi plain. The idea of the Odawara-Hojo was to have a sword forge as close as possible to the arch enemy of the Uesugi. Very beautiful swords were made there, and Chikashige was not called Musashi-Masamune for nothing. Here you can collect beautiful examples with the typical Shitahara-Utsumaki. Some O-Suriage Shitahara blades are also often misinterpreted as Naoe-Shizu. Odawara and Hachioji are also easy to reach from Tokyo, and if you are allowed to travel to Japan again, you are welcome to come and see for yourself.

 

You see, there are extremely many possibilities. But take your time to develop your idea. Otherwise, you'll just start randomly collecting blades of a certain area. And then when you have a goal you want to pursue, choose your blades very carefully. It must be very important to you why exactly this blade, and not one of the 5 other blades of this school or this swordsmith. You must be able to justify this choice. Then you are on the right way to build a very interesting and specialized collection.

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Great advice, Thomas! I definitley need to read up first on Hizen, like John said, then start looking at specific Hizento and see which work is the most tantalizing to focus on. I need to look through my books to see if there are examples of Hizento. 

 

Anybody have suggestions on other books with high-res pictures of Hizento? Outside of the the aforementioned authority book on Hizen, off the top of my head Markus Sessko pops up, but I haven't bought any of his books yet and don't know how they are formatted with pictures.

 

Thanks all!

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Just bumped into Unique Japan website when I did a plain ole' Hizen google search. I had been here before a while ago, but Pablo's website is crisp and full of information with high-res pictures. The PDF catalogues are incredible! 

 

https://new.uniquejapan.com/currently-available-swords-at-unique-Japan/

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As much as I love and collect books I feel modern technology is your friend when looking for high-res pictures in easy access form. Many of the respected dealers have very nice photographs on their websites for easy access. Also in this forum NMB you have an astonisihing resource, if you ever decide to venture the Hizen route Roger himself @omidaijo is on the forum too. And plenty of other folks that know a lot about Hizen swords too.

 

While I agree that having focus and direction is a good thing, I just feel it will eventually come naturally over time as you will learn what kind of items you are liking. I know in modern world the trend in things nowdays seem to be getting everything by snapping fingers but that is often almost impossible in a field such as this. I believe it is important to just enjoying the studying and researching you are doing, then over the years your goals will evolve and you will notice what draws you in. I think you are on a good road as you are thinking what you might like to collect.

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Thanks, Jussi! Always good to have your input. 

I think my problem is what you said, but I have a, um, slow mind :freak: when it comes to doing research, so I really need to pare down the wealth of information surrounding me at the click of a button.

Now that I'm committing to Hizento, I think I can grab my scalpel and tweezers and start digging in much more precisely. 

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