Kunihiro in Busan Museum

[Yumso]

Hello NMB members,

 

Few days ago, I come to find an old news article written in 2006 sayingㅡ

"우메다씨는 일본도 고도(固刀) 시기의 장인 쿠니히로가 1614년 게이쵸 시대에 만든 78㎝ 길이의 일본도 한 점도 부산박물관에 기증했다."

which can be translated to "Mr. Umeda also donated a 78cm-long nihonto made in 1614(Keichō) by Kunihiro, a craftsman from the Koto period to the Busan Museum." According to the news, Mr. Umeda(Kōtetsu? Umeda) donated the blade at May, 2004 with about 400 copies of Korean translated <The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords>.

I assumed that it means one of Horikawa Kunihiro's blade is in Korea now(at least that is what the news argued so...), so I've done some research.

 

 

The blade is covered with red rust, and nakago looks like suriage. Almost no sori. I assume 78cm means the whole length(including nakago) since the blade looks bit... short?

There is 國廣 mei, but don't know where "made in 1614" came out.

For better photos I've called the museum if I could get some but they told me that don't have any plans to take shots of the blade nearby. So, these two photos are all I can get right now.

 

I'm no expert of Kunihiro, so I wanted to ask NMB members how everyone thinks about this blade. What do you think? Gimei?

 

[Bugyotsuji]

I like a good mystery!

[Brian]

Looks like someone started a polish and then abandoned it. More than a window it seems. I wonder if they found a hagire or other fatal flaw?