Tsunagi Nakago

[Kanenaga]

This is the nakago of a copper tsunagi in a wakizashi koshirae. It doesn't look to me like a normal mei. I'd appreciate some translation help.

 

[John C]

Les:

Sorry it's not much help, however the first kanji below the ana is Mune and the third is a kao but I can't get the second.

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

The kakihan looks like a cut test kao.

[SteveM]

雪斎書 = Sessaisho (presumably the art name of the person who made the tsunagi)

 

宗雨 = Muneame  I would imagine this is the professional name of the maker. 

 

I haven't seen a copper tsunagi before. It would be an unusual extravagance. The name is also kind of unusual. Mune is common, but 雨 (ame) isn't a character you would typically expect to see in a name.

 

 

[John C]

11 hours ago, SteveM said:

雨 (ame)

Steve:

I had originally come up with ame (rain) as well, however I didn't think it made sense. Could the two words mune (chest, heart, or spine in the context of swords) and ame (rain) have something to do with the sword itself?

 

John C.

[eternal_newbie]

11 hours ago, SteveM said:

I haven't seen a copper tsunagi before. It would be an unusual extravagance.

 

Interestingly, another one was discussed here not too long ago: 

 

[SteveM]

39 minutes ago, John C said:

Could the two words mune (chest, heart, or spine in the context of swords) and ame (rain) have something to do with the sword itself?

 

No, I think the craftsman who made this would have received these two characters from his mentors. Perhaps the ame character comes from a mentor in the copper crafts. I say this because the kao at the end of the name tells me that this person used this name/signature on other works in his career, so it probably wasn't specific to this item. 

 

Just wildly speculating; maybe the person who made this was once a swordsmith, but gave it up due to the decline in sword production, and moved into copper crafts. 

[SteveM]

1 hour ago, eternal_newbie said:

Interestingly, another one was discussed here not too long ago: 

 

Yes, I saw that one, too, and was equally intrigued by it. What a coincidence to have two copper tsunagi show up in just a couple of weeks. I would think copper would be an unlikely choice for tsunagi material, because it's going to corrode and play havoc with the insides of the saya. Maybe its alloyed version doesn't corrode so easily.

 

By the way, I liked and agreed with the translation that @xiayang gave. There is an additional aspect of it that may be relevant. The Japanized version of the saying on that sword, "一心定めて、万物服す" was a slogan of Former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi (1957-1960), meaning basically "If one acts with intention, one can conquer anything". No doubt he borrowed it from the Zhuangzi.

[PNSSHOGUN]

We would all love to see the entire Tsunagi and Koshirae someone thought worthy enough to make it for. 

[Curran]

Interesting one Les.

I came here to post something I thought unusual, but a copper tsunagi is also a new one to me.

[Ian B3HR2UH]

Christies sold one in 1994 with a copper blade signed Kano Natsuo , Funada Ikkin , Tsuchiya Yasuchika and Yokoya Tenmin ! 

[eternal_newbie]

38 minutes ago, Ian B3HR2UH said:

Christies sold one in 1994 with a copper blade signed Kano Natsuo , Funada Ikkin , Tsuchiya Yasuchika and Yokoya Tenmin !

 

Now that's a tsunagi!

[Scogg]

On 3/8/2026 at 7:57 AM, eternal_newbie said:

 

Interestingly, another one was discussed here not too long ago: 

 

From the same member too,

@Kanenaga, are these two separate posts about two different copper-alloy tsunagi, or is it the same one? 

Would love to see the whole thing
-Sam

 

[Kanenaga]

Apologies, Curran and everyone, I did not mean to mislead. It's the same copper tsunagi. I suspect it's a copper alloy because there is none of the usual copper oxidation. The color in the photos is pretty close to the real thing.

 

The previous post was about kanji on the blade portion, and I got some very helpful info from Jan. This now is about the nakago portion, and thanks to SteveM for the translation, which seems to make sense even though it is not in the "standard" form of a mei on a sword. Regrettable that there's no Natsuo, Ikkin, Yasuchika, etc, Ian.  I have no idea what the original blade was, or if there was one. The shape of the tsunagi (hira-zukuri with sori) suggests to me not earlier than Nanbokucho. I'll post a photo when I return from travel.

 

Les

[John C]

36 minutes ago, Kanenaga said:

Regrettable that there's no Natsuo, Ikkin, Yasuchika, etc

Indeed. I looked in the "Japanese Art Names" book under metalworkers for Kaneame and he wasn't listed, unfortunately.

 

John C.