Signed Sadamune?

[MassiveMoonHeh]

The Tokugawa Art Museum apparently has a signed Sadamune. Is the blade legit or gimei?

 

The signature appears on a Kowakizashi recovered from the excavated tomb of Tokugawa Mitsutomo (2nd lord of Owari.)

 

It has a rather long inscription: "By Sadamune of Sagami, New Year's day of the 2nd month of Kenmu, 42 years old."

 

Would a forger go out his way to make a long inscription and even include an age - very unusual.

 

I don't know if this is real but it certainly very interesting. Tokugawa Mitsutomo obviously felt it must have been real else why would he want it buried with himself?

 

Has anyone seen this blade or know more about it?

[Bugyotsuji]

Another signed Sadamune!!!???!!!

[Lewis B]

Keisuke Nakamura gave an interesting treatise on the subject of these 2 blades exhumed from Mitsutomo's tomb. By comparing horimono carving styles with other Sadamune attributed blades and historical oshigata he is a little skeptical and reserves judgement. 

 

https://note.com/katana_case_shi/n/ne850e4972025

[Rivkin]

There are Masamune and Sadamune signature in oshigata, but at least some of these blades would certainly be flagged as gimei. Ken is great, even in such horrible photos. The tanto is unpleasant enough. It would provide a link to Masamune's hocho, but...

Edited Monday at 06:07 PM by Rivkin

[Jussi Ekholm]

I remember chatting with Markus about this maybe few years ago when it was displayed first time? I can't say about the legitimacy of the item, I just accept it as genuine piece as Tokugawa Art Museum seems to accept it.

 

Now what is interesting about this item that it is maybe not intended as a weapon in my eyes. Markus would be the best one to write his view but I think there could have been some perhaps ritualistic purpose for these extremely wide wakizashi that few shrines have. The historical Masamune (NBTHK demoted it to Tomomitsu) that currently resides at Yasukuni Jinja is another example of these, and there should be few more such wakizashi if I remember correctly. This is of course my personal view but I cannot see any actual advantage in usability when the short swords are extremely wide.

[Lukrez]

I once read that most surviving oshigata attributed to Sadamune carry no mei at all, or alternatively the longer naga-mei style signature “Sagami no Kuni-jūnin Sadamune”  often together with a date. Whether that really aligns with this example, I’ll gladly leave to the more experienced trail-hunters here  (especially since oshigata themselves are not always beyond question).

 

In any case, it does have horimono :D, - and the presence of horimono is often mentioned as one of the conditions supporting an attribution to Sadamune - even if what we can still vaguely make out today is just a shadow, or perhaps something that was intentionally removed later because the workmanship originally did not live up to the exceptionally high standard one would expect.

 

Like Brett, I’d also be very interested to hear the impressions of those who have actually seen the blade in person, or from the Sadamune aficionados here on the forum.

 

After all, Sadamune is said to have produced the finest hada in the entire history of Japanese swordsmithing, both in beauty and technical quality.

And since the mei itself can hardly ever be authenticated anyway, the real question ultimately becomes whether the deki truly supports that level of workmanship. If it does, then the mei abecomes the icing on the cake, doesn’t it? Or am I oversimplifying things a bit?

Edited Tuesday at 11:40 AM by Lukrez

[SteveM]

18 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

maybe not intended as a weapon

 

Yes, the Japanese information card mentions it was most likely a sword intended for dedication to a shrine (hōnō). Edit: just noticed this is also mentioned on the actual sword inscription, too. 

[Mushin]

I was talking to Ray Singer about this yesterday. The problem here, as we discussed, is the connection with the Tokugawa. That association is such that few are going to ever say it is a fake, even to this day. Cultural respect, etc. But the fact that sword has no official status -- not Kokuho,Jubi, JuBun or any flavor of Juyo -- is telling. So it appears to be exactly as labeled: a sword signed Sadamune that was owned by powerful member of the Tokugawa family. No more. No less.