Mihara Masanobu

[klee]

Good Afternoon

 

I wanted to get some thougths from someone more knowledgable on the Mihara school

 

Mihara ( specifically Ko Mihara ) and their off shoot Hokke have been one of my favorite schools for a while and been potentially looking to get one soon.

 

One thing I noted was that I see them come up as Ko Mihara or Mihara Masanobu - Nanbokucho to Oei . Never with another smith.

 

I know Masanobu is calssified as one of if not the last Ko Mihara smith but is this bc Masanobu is a generic safe attriution for Ko Mihara that looks like it can be Oei or was he a prolific well established smith with a definitive work style ?

 

And in addition, is there a defining difference in workmanship/ features between Ko Mihara and Hokke. I often cant tell the difference maybe for Hokke having a more stout sugata than Mihara.

 

Thank you kindly

-Kevin

[Rivkin]

I am a bit surprised someone quotes Masanobu as synonymous with ko Mihara since the two big names are Masaie and Masanobu (80% of signatures), both multi-generations, but Masaie starting earlier and dominating Nambokucho while Masanobu tends to begin during the very end of Nambokucho and has a strong tail into Muromachi (?) though meikan emphasizes Nambokucho specifically and single Masanobu generation at its very end. So ko Mihara is more likely to be Masaie by default among the two.

Hokke has darker jigane, utsuri expected, can have a bit large featured/rougher jigane and can be a bit more midare than the pure suguha, while high end ko Mihara will have a very nice tight itame jigane with more greyish hue. Mihara will have longer kaeri and it has very specific, though period-dependent hamon width.

Muromachi Mihara jigane will shift towards more standing out mokume, masame etc., wider hamon.

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Rivkin

[klee]

Thank you @Rivkin as always for the insight.

 

it s just that I ve never personally seen  a Ko Mihara with a Masaie attribution or any other Ko Mihara smith. But Masanobu seems to come up fairly often by comparison so I wasnt sure if he just made a lot of swords or if it was an NBTHK tendancy.

 

Same with Hokke with a nanbokucho smith attribution. I ve seen a few Ichijo but I believe he s more Muromachi.

 

I ve also seen Sukekuni who s supposedly the founder but no mention of Hokke connection.

 

As much as I love Hokke blades, their timeline and lineage has always confused me. With sources saying they came about in the Muromachi and NBTHK attributions saying Hokke - Nanbokucho 

Edited 22 hours ago by klee

[Hokke]

8 minutes ago, klee said:

Same with Hokke with a nanbokucho smith attribution. I ve seen a few Ichijo but I believe he s more Muromachi.

The vast majority of Hokke blades from the Nanbokucho period were Kaneyasu. 

[Rivkin]

Sukekuni is quite a different smith compared to other Hokke, his choji are sometimes interpreted later by others, but he carries strong Bizen influence unlike any others. His work can be quite good. Hokke Ichijo is sort of synonymous to Hokke, you seldom find mumei blades attributed to other Hokke names except Sukekuni and Ichijo. Yes, he can be borderline between Nambokucho and Muromachi.

I've seen Masaie attribution of Mihara when they wanted to send a message its the founder. Masanobu I think is a common attribution for mumei blades of a specific period. There are some kantei differences between the two, but I am not sure they are actually often observed.

[eternal_newbie]

4 hours ago, Rivkin said:

I am a bit surprised someone quotes Masanobu as synonymous with ko Mihara since the two big names are Masaie and Masanobu (80% of signatures)

 

Masahiro is another representative smith of Ko-Mihara, check out this particularly impressive example (ubu, zaimei and with yubashiri that resembles nijuba and sanjuba): https://www.toukentakarado.com/item-tk019-juyo-token-mihara

[klee]

@eternal_newbie

 

That Masahiro is magnificent indeed. I also know it s massively out of my price range 🤣. I do have that saved and its always great to see what the original sugata from aome of these old schools look like

 

These were the 2 I was considering potentially 

 

https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_ja_tachi&katanaA070425.html

 

https://world-seiyudo.com/product/ska-030126/

[Rivkin]

48 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

Masahiro is another representative smith of Ko-Mihara, check out this particularly impressive example (ubu, zaimei and with yubashiri that resembles nijuba and sanjuba): https://www.toukentakarado.com/item-tk019-juyo-token-mihara

Yes, I forgot about Masahiro, three smith names rather than two.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Unfortunately I am not that skilled in kantei that I could tell the differences. However as I am slightly obsessive about data collecting I can provide that. I might have slightly controverisial view that I see only signed swords and attributed swords. I know many people might view kinzōgan, shumei etc. differently but to me it is just one form of attribution. Also over the years I have been starting to me much more relaxed about the attributions thinking it is just the best guess the organization (NBTHK or NTHK) giving as it is having in a fast paced shinsa session. With high level items and museum pieces for example I think the attribution will be much more researched.

 

Here are some numbers for the Mihara smiths I will just have signed / attributed works

 

Masaie : 16 signed / 18 attributed

Masahiro : 32 signed / 16 attributed

Masanobu : 4 signed / 25 attributed

Other Ko-Mihara smiths 11 signed

Ko-Mihara attributed mumei swords found so far 223