The power of a good polish...

[MassiveMoonHeh]

Here we have an outstanding example of how many years of excessive wiping can lead to a rather dull looking blade... This is the Kikko Sadamune - Sadamune's most brilliant work photographed in 1948. You would not tell this is his most beautiful sword.

 

 

And here we have a photo in 1967 after it has been beautifully polished - boy does a polish make a difference - it is like a completely difference sword. Bright and clear. Not dull and boring.

 

 

The Kikko Sadamune is the Sadamune sword that is most praised for it's beauty. Ironically, this is a very a-typical Sadamune sword as it moves away from his more typical Mokume-hada and adopts Gō Yoshihiro's "modern style". Like a typical Gō blade it has a shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune and well forged itame grain with, with thick ji-nie and well-defined ji-kei (patterns in the ji). The hamon (temper line) is a shallow large notare mixed with small gunome (irregular wave-like patterns), with small ashi (short lines extending from the base), generally well-defined nie with occasional coarse nie, frequent kinsuji (golden lines), and sunagashi (sand-like patterns). 

 

I hesitate to say this but if the Kikko Sadamune was not Meibutso and papered by Hon'Ami in the past as a Sadamune - if it appeared on the market today as a mumei blade I suspect it would be designated a Tokubetsu Juyo by Gō as it has almost all of the trademarks.

 

Regardless, it is an exquisite blade and shows the power of a polish.

[Bruce Pennington]

Excellent presentation, Brett, love it!

On a side note, can you tell if that is a kamon near the nakagojiri?

[eternal_newbie]

While you are absolutely correct on the dangers of uchiko overuse, I do think a couple of other factors played a part here.

 

For starters, improvements in technology and technique in photography - take a look at how much more well-defined and sharp the nakago (which was not re-polished) looks in the second picture, as well as how much more visibility the steel texture has.

 

In addition, the polishing style appears to have changed; the original appears to have been interpreted by the polisher as a slightly undulating suguha-based hamon, while the new polisher has interpreted it as a somewhat dynamic but shallow notare.

[eternal_newbie]

7 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

can you tell if that is a kamon near the nakagojiri?

 

That is indeed a mon - the kikkō (tortoise-shell) mon, from which its name derives.

[eternal_newbie]

I managed to find this picture on the Wayback Machine from Darcy's old blog, showcasing the damage even a little bit of improper uchiko use can do to a polish – in this case a Norishige tanto (view the full-sized image for maximum effect):

 

[MassiveMoonHeh]

Uchiko be damned! 

 

A little oil and a microfibre cloth appears to be the new advice slowly becoming more popular - even seeing this advice coming from museums who are probably the foremost authority due to the number of blades they need to care for. 

 

But these things are slow to take root. Honma and Suzuki both mentioned the dangers of Uchiko all the way back in the 70s and yet it is still overwhelmingly the most popular choice to care for a blade.

[eternal_newbie]

27 minutes ago, MassiveMoonHeh said:

But these things are slow to take root. Honma and Suzuki both mentioned the dangers of Uchiko all the way back in the 70s and yet it is still overwhelmingly the most popular choice to care for a blade.

 

Unfortunately this is complicated by having many modern sources (mostly non-Japanese) of inferior uchiko; instead of powdered deer horn or burnt rice husks or whatever, most of it is both too hard and either too fine (builds up in openings or horimono and then gets inadvertently dragged out in clumps, causing those big gouges you see in the Norishige), or too coarse (creates a grid of hairline scratches that eventually obscures hada and activity, especially when viewing with an angled light source).

 

Uchiko as the default was, if not ideal, at least workable when it was always produced by togishi and curated by dealers; now, if you're not buying from a reputable shop in Japan, you're probably going to get some mystery powder that might just leave your TokuJu blade looking like you took a buffing wheel to it.

[ROKUJURO]

For my eyes, the strong HADORI is concealing the features in the photo, but it may be different in-hand.

[Brano]

My choice would be the original condition without a second thought
Here are better photos from 1961

[eternal_newbie]

6 minutes ago, Brano said:

Here are better photos from 1961

 

Much, much better, thanks for that.

[klee]

I know I ll be in the overwhelming minority 

 

But while the new polish gives a stunning contrast, I just prefer and love the look of the original. Beautiful, honest and calm.

 

And while modern polishing has it s beauty, I notice that much of the ko hada is inevitably subdued when the steel is darkened and the hadori becomes harsh in the background 

[eternal_newbie]

Just now, klee said:

I know I ll be in the overwhelming minority 

 

I suspect things are much more even on this site, perhaps even tilted in favour of the original. And as @MassiveMoonHeh pointed out, the calmer look of the original polish is more in keeping with Sadamune, whereas the increased contrast of the notare hadori with the darkened steel makes it seem more like a Go or Shizu from a distance.

 

That said, I do perhaps wonder if the 1961 version of the blade would look perhaps a bit too subdued or washed out in typical exhibition lighting compared to the post-1967 hadori (which is, as we know, a modern polishing style that came into vogue with the introduction of electric lighting). The post-1967 photography isn't quite as good as the 1961 images that @Brano posted, so it's hard to do a like-for-like comparison.

[Brano]

4 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

That said, I do perhaps wonder if the 1961 version of the blade would look perhaps a bit too subdued or washed out in typical exhibition lighting compared to the post-1967 hadori (which is, as we know, a modern polishing style that came into vogue with the introduction of electric lighting). 

I have several blades in my collection that have been polished in the Takeya Sashikomi shiage style (traditional Sashikomi).

I assure you that the reflection of the martensitic structures is unmatched.

 

[Rivkin]

Unfortunately I can't really see much in Sadamune's photographs, either date. Jigane is probably tight, bright and consistent but we see what amounts to a glimpse of that.

 

Edited 16 hours ago by Rivkin

[Jussi Ekholm]

Does someone have pictures of the sword in its current state? It looks absolutely spectacular. I saw this one at Tokyo National Museum in 2024, can't deny it is splendid sword just in overall not to my liking. I can understand why it is highly praised even though it doesn't click for me.

[Brano]

38 minutes ago, Rivkin said:

Unfortunately I can't really see much in Sadamune's photographs, either date. Jigane is probably tight, bright and consistent but we see what amounts to a glimpse of that.

 

Just for you Kirill
NBM has a limit for image size
Despite the fact that I resize it under 1MB, the uploaded image is compressed
Here you can find Kikko Sadamune in HiRes scans

https://eu.zonerama.com/Nihonto/Album/15049121?secret=1W37te8is5MJ7Ai7XC0x8c4w5#check-duplicates

 

@Jussi Ekholm I saw this blade at TNM during the Kokuho 150th anniversary exhibition and I have to say that it looked humdrum through the glass for me

 

[eternal_newbie]

@Rivkin You can also get a good view of the entire blade (unfortunately, only in its current state, not pre-1967) here: https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langId=en&webView=&content_base_id=100193&content_part_id=0&content_pict_id=0

[PNSSHOGUN]

Both are fine polishes, it's always difficult to say whether one is better than the other from photos. The second polish is perhaps better for a museum situation, whereas the original polish style can be enjoyed more in hand. 

[Bruce Pennington]

11 hours ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

That is indeed a mon - the kikkō (tortoise-shell) mon, from which its name derives.

Thank you, Rohan, and please bear another question - photographed in 1948, but the blade is much older, right?  Age approximation?

[PNSSHOGUN]

https://www.sho-shin.com/sag5.html 

 

Late Kamakura to Nanbokucho period.

[eternal_newbie]

3 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Late Kamakura to Nanbokucho period.

 

Yep. Based on the somewhat slender profile and relatively small kissaki (2.7cm according to https://www.tsuruginoya.net/stories/kikkousadamune/) likely the earlier part of that working range.