ICHIMAI BOSHI

[ROKUJURO]

I have a WAKIZASHI with solid ICHIMAI BOSHI, and I wonder if this feature could be related to a specific school or tradition? Or is it frequently encountered here and there?

[Rivkin]

Usually it is, like Go, but it does not determines the school all by itself.

[David Flynn]

May be seen on some Mino blades.

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you!

Could one say if it is found more in KOTO than in SHINTO times?

[Lewis B]

And Darcy stated that only a small proportion (~25%?) of blades attributed to Go have the iconic ichimai boshi, so its not a reliable kantei feature. 

[Rivkin]

5 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Thank you!

Could one say if it is found more in KOTO than in SHINTO times?

 

To an extent yes, you do see some Soshu imitations in shinto which used it, but not a typical choice. It is also seldom though a bit more often used in shinshinto, also Soshu imitations.

Edited Thursday at 02:03 PM by Rivkin

[Benjamin]

According to Darcy Brockbank, It is also sometime seen on Ko-Hoki blades, and would have inspired Go

https://onihonto.com/archived-nihonto-ca-yuhindo-com-ko-hoki/

[Lewis B]

1 hour ago, Benjamin said:

According to Darcy Brockbank, It is also sometime seen on Ko-Hoki blades, and would have inspired Go

https://onihonto.com/archived-nihonto-ca-yuhindo-com-ko-hoki/

He actually says it's the only example from Ko-Hoki that he was able to find with a fully hardened kissaki and suggests it was "a wild experiment or an accident."

[lonely panet]

8 hours ago, David Flynn said:

May be seen on some Mino blades.

have seen some pleasing sue mino tanto with this kissaki

[ROKUJURO]

Hamish,

that is interesting!

How does an ICHIMAI BOSHI look on a HIRAZUKURI blade?

[Jacques]

Ichimai boshi = Soshu den and end of Muromachi (sue Seki, sue Bizen etc.). 

Seen on blade by Horikawa Kuniyasu (Shinto).

[waljamada]

Just had a blade polished that ended up having an ichimai boshi on only one side.  It's a shin shinto blade signed by Ashu Ju Michimasa from either the 1716 or 1804 generations.  Couldn't find really anything about the smith though.  Never took post polish pics but here are some befores.

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you gentlemen,

for your comments. I gather from it that ICHIMAI BÔSHI is not so specific for a school or tradition. If I succeed in taking good photos for a KANTEI, I might try again with this specific blade. 

[Rivkin]

It is sort of Soshu, but first and foremost what is Ichimai boshi and what is "attributed" are not perfectly defined terms.

In textbook pictures you see fully and uniformly hardened kissaki with nioi-guchi located outside yokote. This is rare.

And if you see Go where hamon starts to widen before kissaki and then the entire kissaki is hardened - its ichimai, and the papers typically say simply "Go". Sayagai might say "kiwame Go".

Then there are pieces where it widens or not before the kissaki, but within the kissaki the hamon is simply very wide, nie+nioiguchi covers 85% of kissaki area, but there is certainly some "empty space" left out.

Then the papers might as well say "Den Go".

The percentage of Ichimai boshi for Go strongly depends on whether you include "Den Go".

 

But then a dealer also can describe the wide hamon as ichimai, it happens all the time.

 

Edited 30 minutes ago by Rivkin

[eternal_newbie]

31 minutes ago, Rivkin said:

In textbook pictures you see fully and uniformly hardened kissaki with nioi-guchi located outside yokote. This is rare.

Example where the nioiguchi is more than an entire kissaki-length outside the yokote: https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-mumei-tametsugu/

[Lewis B]

11 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

Example where the nioiguchi is more than an entire kissaki-length outside the yokote: https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-mumei-tametsugu/

950,000JPY for a particularly nice 70+cm TH example of a Tametsugu.... those were the days.