kozuka inscription

[Guest nickn]

please could some one translate the inscription on this kozuka

[Nobody]

金華山麓 – The foot of Mt. Kinka

於濃州長良川邊藤原兼長 – On the riverside of Nagara River in Noshu, Fujiwara Kanenaga

[Guest nickn]

thank you moriyama-san

any chance the mei is sho-shin?

nick

[firebee1976]

Well... I'm relatively new to nihonto and I absolutely hate to dissapoint people, but this is probably Showa-To period. Most of the smiths on record from the Gifu province, which is the only place a Kozuka could be made at the base of Mt. Kinka and on the banks of the Nagara River, are smiths from the Showa-To period. Mind you... I'm extremely new to Nihonto, so I could be wrong, but from what I've seen and what I understand, this kozuka is probably from the Showa-To period.

[Guest nickn]

thanks brian but you are wrong gifu or noshu = mino an important area for sword production from from an early age in fact one of the original 5 gokaden

[Nobody]

thank you moriyama-san

any chance the mei is sho-shin?

nick

FYI; There is a kogatana whose mei writing is similar to the mei of yours, though the last smith name is different.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5184&hilit=kiyonaga

[firebee1976]

Oops... I was looking at all the wrong things all the wrong ways. Like I said... I'm still pretty new to this.

 

However... I'm still guessing it's not shin-shinto because I can't find a Fujiwara Kanenaga that would do shin shinto work. However, there was a smith named Fujiwara Kanenaga from the mino province in the Kanbun period during the mid-late 1600s, which I believe is shinto period. The only other Fujiwara Kanenaga from that area I can find was a showa period smith, but he was a seki smith, so it doesn't make much sense for him to make a kozuka, unless it was just a hobby piece or something. Hope all of this helps you out.

[Brian]

Ko-gatana folks...not kozuka.

 

Remember that most kogatana mei are gimei or dedication signatures. Not to say this one is...but most are.

 

Brian