Possible Funada Ikkin Fuchi/Kashira to add to the catalogue

[FriskyFritos]

First post here! I’ve inherited an old gimei wakizashi and been learning all I can about everything. Namely Funada Ikkin who I believe made the fuchi and kashira. From a couple different sources they are dated 1852.

 

I haven’t been able to find too many examples of his work but I had a fun discussion with Ray Singer and he gave me some great insights and believes it is likely the shodai which was a fun discovery considering it seems like he has less known works. Well if I’m right here’s a couple more! This whole process has been fascinating, and any extra resources would be great to have! 
 

Also, I had a friend of mine who enjoys studying old kanji and he wasn’t able to decipher everything but said something about a father/son when reading the left side. And he knew nothing about the fact there were two generations of artist so I’d be curious if someone could shed some light on that as I’ve noticed the mei on the left differs from others I’ve seen with a couple extra characters.

 

Thanks,

Cole

 

Edited Saturday at 03:37 AM by FriskyFritos
Adding date which I forgot

[Ray Singer]

This is what I provided for the date. 

 

嘉永五壬子年 - Kaei 5, mizunoe-ne (zodiac date for 1852)

[FriskyFritos]

Thanks again Ray! 

[Curran]

Hi Cole,

 

Good to have another collector here in Georgia.

[FriskyFritos]

Curran,

Awesome! I love networking. My grandpa’s old wakizashi just gave me the bug after I found out some more about it.  Already browsing for something else to display with it! If you have any advice as to where to get the handle fixed up let me know!

-Cole

[Curran]

Kogai looks good. I cannot tell much detail from that one photo, but I can guess it is probably Yasuda, Yoshioka, or Waki Goto stuff.

 

The tsuba looks promising with plovers on it?

A signature at all?

Feel free to post more pics of it.

 

Some of the vets mixed and matched the bits n bobs of the WWII bringbacks. Sometimes you get great tsuba on ho-hum swords.

 

[FriskyFritos]

Sadly no signature on the tsuba, but it’s very pretty. Doesn’t seem to be a matching set with the fuchi/kashira but that’s ok. From the story I was told the whole set was as is from the pile pop grabbed it from.
 

He actually sliced his hand by accident as it slipped from the saya and he instinctually grabbed it and caught the blade. Had a scar on his palm from it till the day he died at 92. I used to make the joke that it was the swords revenge from being kidnapped

Edited Saturday at 06:56 PM by FriskyFritos