Daimyo family attributions

[nihon]

Occasionally I seen some of honami nisshu with a daimyo family provence attached to the sword in his sayagaki. I would like to know how accurate are this attributions

 

Example: https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-shirasaya-with-koshirae-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-tokenmenuki-and-kozuka-nbthk-hozon-tosogu/

Attributed to the tosa yamanouchi family.

 

 

Jed

 

[Rawa]

I would say that old papers have name of owner who submitted item for evaluation. Maybe same situation apply with sayagaki made by togishi. 

[Toryu2020]

The collections of many of the great houses were well documented in the Meiji period - you might just find your sword detailed in one of these books...

 

B518. Koshitsu. Shogunke. Daimyoke Token Mokuroku - Japanese sword books and tsuba

[Bugyotsuji]

The answer cannot be absolute, but generally there will be a story whether faint or strong behind such annotations. 

 

I have two or three objects tied to different *Daimyo. It’s always a nice extra background aspect to have, but how solid is such provenance? Luckily there are works such as Thomas links above, giving you the opportunity to check out or cross-check the story for yourself.

 

*For example a Yama-no-Uchi (Yamauchi) pistol from c.1825. When the family storehouses were opened up a certain local dealer was able to buy up and pass out many objects into the general market becoming rich in the process.)