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 September 25 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 September 28 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.

[Rivkin]

Not the image I am particularly proud of, but shows the general gist.

AOI's Tametsugu definitely has this Go widening and Ichimai, but very tired, jigane is gone, nie is rough... But a very rare type of "Tametsugu" with Go features, indeed.

 

 

Edited September 28 by Rivkin

[Hoshi]

Hi, 

 

It is a trait most often associated with Go Yoshihiro, as other have said. 

 

However, it extends to the broader Soshu movement, all the way to the Muromachi. Then into Edo, with smiths who were striving to emulate Go and Norishige. 

 

It is not frequently encountered, and if you see it - you can rule out traditions, schools, and makers. It's a "negative trait" in the sense that it's presence allows you to eliminate rather than pin-point. It is less discriminant than for instance, the san-saku boshi of the early Osafune school. 

 

Quote

 

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, with hakkikake it covers 85% of kissaki area, but there are some "empty spaces" left out.

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

 

 

I wish it was that easy, but it is not. For blades without Ko-Kiwame (This is very important to control for, as a Ko-Kiwame automatically removes the "Den"), the presence of the Ichimai Boshi (~25% of all Go) is spread between the "Den Go" and the "Go" rather equally.

 

For Go, it is not the Ichimai boshi per se that is determinant (all else equal, supreme quality of nie, clarity of the Jiba, etc) - but the tendency of the Yakiba to be both high to begin with without much higher-frequency variation in height, and to rise gently over the entire course of the blade, culminating in a higher yakiba at the crossing of the yokote compared to the average height of the lower section of the blade). With this trait present, even if the boshi is not rendered fully in ichimai, the blade will tend to be placed with Go, unless contradicted by a Ko-Kiwame, rather than say, to Masamune. From a deki perspective, the quality expected from Go is on par with Masamune. 

 

Besides Go, the other maker from the Soshu-Joko line that occasionally rendered an Ichimai Boshi is Norishige, and these tend to be exquisite Tokuju. Outside the Soshu Joko, we see it also with blades attributed to Tametsugu, Naotsuna, Ujifusa, Uda Kunifusa, Sanekage, and Muramasa, and and very rarely with the Sa Ichimon. What we can tell from this pattern is that there is a rather clean lineage of praxis that begins with Norishige and Go (who, according to tradition, worked together at some point in their career), up to the Northern provinces with Tametsugu, Sanekage, and the Uda line. 

 

There is also a bit of inconsistency in the nomenclature between widely hardened boshi and Ichimai boshi - the line between both can be thin. 

 

Edo-period makers that were following into Go's footstep tend also to exhibit an ichimai boshi. Prime examples are Hankei (emulating Norishige), Inouie Shinkai, Nagasone Kotetsu, and Nanki Shigekuni (all three had phases emulating Go). 

 

Hope this helps, 

 

Hoshi

 

Go illustration: 

 

 

 

Edited September 28 by Hoshi

[Lewis B]

41 minutes ago, Rivkin said:

 

 very tired, jigane is gone, nie is rough... But a very rare type of "Tametsugu" with Go features, indeed.

 

 

 

I will give you that. But this one appears to be an early Etchu period blade and there are clear differences between his forging style there and later Mino output. The Etchu blades are far more appealing to me. There is clear a connection to the work of Go and Norishige in this blade with that more emphatic Midare hamon, a tighter forging style and the fully hardened kissaki. 

[Rivkin]

Most Go that I've seen that "widened" hamon, noticably did so within 10 inches below kissaki.

The width variation exists,  though noticably less pronounced compared to say Kaneuji, and it occurs differently compared to other schools - with particularly long "wide" areas.

Hope this helps.

 

Edited September 28 by Rivkin

[ROKUJURO]

Unfortunately, I am unable to capture the HAMON in a cell phone photo. I will probably need a special set-up for it as there is almost no HADORI.   

The SUGUHA HAMON (very slightly MIDARE) widens from 5 mm at the HAMACHI to 14 mm just below the YOKOTE. SAKIHABA is 19 mm there, so the HAMON covers the JI completely. NAGASA is 470 mm.

A bit special: The KAERI has a 70 mm long turn-back on the MUNE.

Edited September 28 by ROKUJURO

[Rivkin]

Looks like a particularly nice one... They have some sexy plastic sword stands for sale for the exhibit as well...

[ROKUJURO]

Kirill,

what about that blade? Does it have an ICHIMAI BOSHI? 

Where is the exhibition or salesroom?

[Rivkin]

7 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Kirill,

what about that blade? Does it have an ICHIMAI BOSHI? 

Where is the exhibition or salesroom?

I would prefer higher res photo to see whats hadori and whats not, otherwise it might end up being Ichimonji or something [embarassing].

But it does have  considerable "Go feel". I did not study many of his blades but there is this reocurring type widening above nakago, widening next to kissaki, ichimai.

Exhibit is in matsumoto, probably Japanese based members know more, it has some nice items.

Edited October 1 by Rivkin