Ed Posted March 5 Report Posted March 5 IESADA, BUNGO TAKADA NAGINATA NTHK X 2 c. TENMON 1532 (NTHK) / KEICHO c. 1596 (NTHK-NPO) SUGATA: NAGINATA MEI: IESADA (BUNGO TAKADA) DATE: NONE MUROMACHI c. 1532 NAGASA: 31.5cm (20.25") OVERALL: 103.7cm (40.75") MIHABA: 3.016cm (1.1875") KASANE: 0.794cm (0.3125") SORI: 1.4375 NAKAGO: UBU MEKUGI ANA: ONE YASURIME: YOKOYASURI OR KIRI MUNE: IORI HADA: ITAME HAMON: GUNOME MIDARE with ASHI, YO, ETC. BOSHI: CHOJI MIDARE KOMI HORIMONO OMOTE: NAGINATA HI with MYOGO HORIMONO URA: NAGINATA HI with MYOGO HABAKI: 2 PC. GOLD FOIL by BRIAN TSCHERNEGA SHIRASAYA Outstanding signed, and papered ubu naginata by Takada Iesada, signed niji mei (two character). It is so nice to find naginata which have not been cut down. This flawless naginata is in excellent condition and polish. The hada is Itame with chikei. The hamon is an extremely active gunome midare with tons of hataraki guaranteed to provide endless study pleasures. There are clouds of nio with nie, ashi, yo, inazuma, yubashiri etc., etc. Myogo are inscribed bilateraly. Myogo (名号): names of Buddhist deities engraved on blades. Hachiman Daibosatsu (Great Buddha to be), known as the God of War or the Tutelary God Warriors is inscribed on the left side. During the age of the samurai, descendants of both samurai clans, Seiwa Genji (清和源氏 Seiwa Gen-ji, a line of the Minamoto clan descended from Emperor Seiwa) and Kanmu Taira (桓武平氏 Kanmu Taira'u-ji/ Hei-shi/ Hei-ji, a line of the Taira clan descended from Emperor Kanmu) honored Hachiman, from which the tradition is derived nationwide in which samurai clans (武家 "buke" in Japanese) honor Hachiman as the deity sacred to them. His other roles include determining a samurai's fate—i.e., whether they are a success or failure in battle; controlling and protecting the martial arts; and proclaiming the victory of an army. Kasuga Daimyojin which is reference to both the Kasuga-taisha or shrine as well as the collective deities (Kami) associated with the shrine is inscribed on the right side. The birth of the Kasuga-taisha shrine, according to legend, began when the first kami of Kasuga-taisha, Takemikazuchi, rode on the back of a white deer to the top of Mount Mikasa in 768 BC. This kami is said to have traveled from the Kashima Jingu Shrine in order to protect Nara. The shrine location first received favor from the Imperial government in the Heian period as a result of the power from the Fujiwara family as well as Empress Shōtoku. The four main kami enshrined here are Ame no koyane, Himegami, Futsunushi no mikoto, and Takemikazuchi no mikoto. Though these are the primary divine beings of Kasuga taisha, they are often grouped together as a syncretic, combined deity known as Kasuga Daimyōjin. Kasuga Daimyōjin is composed of five divine beings and each consists of a Buddhist deity and Shinto kami counterpart. The fifth deity, Ame-no-Oshikumone, was added much later and is said to be the divine child of Ame no koyane and Himegami. The importance of the multifaceted kami was that it became a template for future worshipers who wanted to combine several deities to pray to at once.1 Courtesy of Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasuga-taisha Forged in a period steeped in war prior to the unification of Japan by Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokagawa Ieyasu. While a beautiful work of art, make no mistake this blade was made for battle and carried prayers of victory and protection for whoever wielded it. Courtesy of; Nihon Koto Shi. The Takada school of which founder is Tomoyuki of the previous period lived in Bungo Province as well and demonstrated more powerful and characteristic workmanship than that of the Bungo-Ryokai school. The school thrived through to shinto times. There are three groups in the school, one is the smiths who use a character of ‘Yuki’ for their smith names and others are the ones who use characters of ‘Mori’ or ‘Shizu’ for their smith names. Incidentally, almost shinto smiths of this school use ‘Yuki’ for their smith names. Shigeyuki is a student of Tomoyuki and Nagamori is a student of Shigeyuki. Shigeyuki and the smiths of his lineage use the clan’s name of ‘Taira’ in their mei and then all smiths of this school came to use the clan name of ‘Taira’. Therefore, the smiths belong to the lineage of Nagamori is called ‘Taira-Takada’. Swordsmith directories say that there are two generations of Nagamori, the first generation was active in the Oei or Choroku Era and the second generation in the Eisho Era. Though, we can see their extant works with production years of the Eisho and Daiei Eras, these correspond to the second generation. It seems that the main lineage of the Takada school was not very active in this period, but the smiths who used ‘Mori’ and ‘Shizu’ for their smith names, left many extant works. The first and the second generations of Nagamori were skilful smiths, but Shizumori and Shizunori are only mediocre smiths. As a whole, the Takada school tempered gunome-midare, ko-notare and sugu-ha and forged jigane with chikei and a kind of chafe, particularly the hataraki of the ji is emphasized in the jigane of Shizumori and the smiths of his lineage. Nagamori tempered hoso-sugu-ha, gunome mixed with choji and hitatsura and occasionaly forged dense ko-itame-hada (sometimes nashiji-hada) and carved koshi-bi and elaborate kurikara in relief. The horimono was one of their traditions started by Yukihira. They tempered hoso-sugu-ha on tanto and forged nashiji-hada and in this case therefore, the tanto (from the book) looks like one of the Kamakura Period at a glance. There is an extant work of Shizumori with a production year of the Tenbun Era. Shizunori appears to have been active a little later than Shizumori. There is an extant tanto of Shizumori with wide mi-haba and the hamon is gentle o-notare. Shizunori was the maker of famous ‘Gondo no Naginata’, which looks like Yosozaemon no Jo Sukesada at a glance, and it is no exaggeration to say that the naginata is the best work of the school. The nickname of Gondo’ comes from a retainer, one Gondo of Kuroda Josui who is said to have killed a tiger with the naginata during the expedition against Korea. *NOTE: This naginata comes with not one, but two (2) sets of papers. Both NTHK & NTHK-NPO authenticated this mei as shoshin. The NTHK-NPO gave this naginata an outstanding 77 pts., which is equivalent to the NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon. An added benefit is the outstanding two-piece gold habaki made by Brian Tschernega. $16,000 plus S/H and any additional associated fees (pp, wire, etc.) Limited time 1/2 off sale: At this price the sale is final! The only exception being if you were to find a fatal flaw which was inadvertently overlooked within 48 hrs. There isn't! You won’t! Sale Price: $8000 plus S/H and any additional associated fees (pp, wire, etc.) I have provided all the information I have on this exceptional Naginata Feel free to contact me if you are ready to purchase. For purchase/payment information contact me at: Yakiba.com@gmail.com 1 1 Quote
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