Count Ito Miyoji 1937 Auction

[Takezo]

In 1937 an auction was held by The Tokyo Art Club containing most of Count Ito Miyoji's sword collection. Recently, I was able to purchase an Ichimonji katana that came from this auction and as part of my due diligence before purchasing, I obtained an original physical copy of the auction book from 1937. I went through and photographed all of the relevant pages and wanted to share them here, for anyone interested in the provenance and blades that were sold. I have already tracked a few of them down across the web, being on the open market at one point or another. I did not see this posted anywhere so hopefully it's not duplicated. I had my friend host the images on google drive. @Jussi Ekholm I was hoping this may help inform some of your Koto database as I only saw 1 or 2 Ito Miyoji denrai listings the last I checked. Anyway, enjoy and I hope it helps anyone interested.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Pkkx8QewayhjQnrPRAfXbVMO2TcUpgZP?usp=sharing

 

[Ian B3HR2UH]

You are really fortunate to have a sword with that provenance . Does the koshirae that was sold with it in 1937 still exist ?

Count Ito's collection must have been huge . I have a catalogue from another of his sales in 1937 . This sale amongst other pieces contained one of the Hocho Masamune that is now a National Treasure as well as a Mitsutada and a Bitchu Tsugunao which are Juyo Bunkazai . There is a write up on a couple of Count Ito's swords in the NBTHK English edition Vol 37

 

[Lewis B]

He certainly liked his daisho

[Takezo]

3 hours ago, Ian B3HR2UH said:

You are really fortunate to have a sword with that provenance . Does the koshirae that was sold with it in 1937 still exist ?

Count Ito's collection must have been huge . I have a catalogue from another of his sales in 1937 . This sale amongst other pieces had one of the Honcho Masamune that is now a National Treasure as well as a Mitsutada and a Bitchu Tsugunao which are Juyo Bunkazai . There is a write up on a couple of Count Ito's swords in the NBTHK English edition Vol 37

That is awesome, I haven't seen that one. Lot 1 from the book I have is a Ko-Bizen Tomonari from Oda Nobunaga, National Treasure (I think?):

"Item 1 – National Treasure:
A Ko-Bizen Tomonari tachi, measuring 2 shaku 3 sun 5 bu (approximately 71.2 cm). It is fitted with an Owari openwork tsuba and mounted as a silver kenuki-gata tachi with gold-powder lacquer and paulownia-crested raden decoration. According to its provenance, it was received from Lord Oda Nobunaga and was preserved in the Sō Count family's collection. The sword is accompanied by a period uchigatana mounting."

 

And yes, koshirae is still fully intact and well kept! Attached, and seems to have a full Umetada set of fittings.

Edited Tuesday at 02:30 PM by Sukaira

[Jussi Ekholm]

This is amazing info @Sukaira 🤩 And what a wonderful sword you have.

 

I am unfortunately very backlogged with denrai for my data and info is currently very incomplete. There is so much more info in books that I am still missing on this field. Like these Count Ito swords are wonderful addition. I think Ian is correct and the collection was huge.

[MassiveMoonHeh]

What an amazing catalogue of swords - thank you so much for sharing. My mouth just sat ajar as I went through every page. Those koshirae were magnificent. What an amazing collection. 

 

Some information on the man:

 

Count Itō Miyoji 伊東 巳代治 was born on May 7, 1857 in Nagasaki, Hizen Province to a Samurai administration family. He excelled in languages, specialising in English. The Emperor sent him to Europe in 1882 with the future Prime Minister Itō Hirofumi to study European Constitutions and was instrumental in the drafting of the Meiji Constitution.

 

He serverd in the Japanese cabinet and was later elevated to the House of Peers where he served in various Cabinet roles from 1890-1898. From 1899 he was selected to serve as a member of the Privy Council which he did through to his death.

 

Even though he remained a member of parliament when opportunity arose he purchased the newspaper the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun (the predecessor of the current Mainichi Shimbun). This gave him a platform to trumpet his causes.

 

He was made a Baron in 1907 and a Count in 1922. 

 

He died February 19, 1934.

 

A great lover of swords he amassed a sizeable collection of over 500 from inheritance as well as purchases from the various Samurai families who after the Meiji Restoration became desperate for cash. He was a very proud man and took pride in his Samurai past which is why he was so moved to help so many Samurai who came knocking at his door. In this regard he tried to ensure all his swords were well dressed. This collection was as much a labour of love as it was a patriotic act! 

 

Among the swords he owned were the "Tachi Mei Sadatsugu" (sword inscription: Sadatsugu), which was owned by the lord of the Tsushima Fuchu Domain (present-day Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture) during the Edo period, as well as the famous "Daihannya Nagamitsu" (Great Hannya Nagamitsu) that belonged to the Ashikaga Shogunate, Oda Nobunaga & Tokugawa Ieyasu.

 

Both are now designated as national treasures and are housed in the Tokyo National Museum.

 

Whilst he became a large land owner over the course of his life, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 saw him stripped of a lot of his lands by the Japanese government who expropriated them for the rebuild - this is obviously something he bitterly opposed. After this he became very conservative in his views and became a strong critic of the government.

 

Due to financial constraints after his death his family was forced to sell his the majority of his collection of swords which they did through various auctions and private sales including the two major auctions in 1937.

 

[Takezo]

In the book Honma Talks by @Markus on page 193 there is a section where Junji speaks about visiting Count Ito's home. Apparently he had a very specific cataloging system, consisting of sayagaki paired with wooden tags where he would write super compact characters that Junji describes as "needing a magnifying glass to see". The sword I posted above still has those tags intact, and I was also able to find some other swords from the auction as I mentioned earlier. 

 

Linked below just a few

https://www.nihonto-museum.com/collection/exhibit/hojoji-kunimitsu - lot 11 from the album I linked on google drive

 

https://www.giuseppepiva.com/en/works/oei-bizen-tachi-yasunaga/ - must have come from a different auction of his collection, maybe its in your book @Ian B3HR2UH?

 

http://www.japansword.co.jp/fine-soworde.html - (Norimitsu) not in the catalogue either

 

https://www.connoisseurarms.com/swords-gallery.html - Sunnobi Tanto and you can see the wooden tags here as well (also not in my auction book)

 

Wooden tags on the Ichimonji attached

 

[Ian B3HR2UH]

I had a quick look through my catalogue and found the Norimitsu.

As Lewis said he liked his daisho . Attached is a daisho from the catalogue which has both blades by Hankei .

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

That is a very good addition, congratulations. Rather fortunate that the original Koshirae and inventory tags remain, and heartening to see other pieces have been kept together after all these years. 

[Takezo]

found another good one: https://iidakoendo.com/9405/

 

@Ian B3HR2UH oh wow it was in your catalogue after all, nice 👍

@MassiveMoonHeh truly a diverse set of koshirae. Makes me wonder if he had to design them all or if there was some help. I’m sure some of them came along with the blades when he acquired them.

Edited yesterday at 04:13 AM by Sukaira

[MassiveMoonHeh]

7 hours ago, Sukaira said:

@MassiveMoonHeh truly a diverse set of koshirae. Makes me wonder if he had to design them all or if there was some help. I’m sure some of them came along with the blades when he acquired them.

Edited 7 hours ago by Sukaira

I suspect you are right - he would have looked to keep those Koshirae that came with the blades and being a meticulous individual, would have wanted to ensure they were kept in tip top condition and replaced or repaired those needing some attention. I would not be surprised if he went out of his way to ensure that if a new one was needed he would want to keep in as close to the appearance of the old one. He had a very keen eye and is certainly said to have engaged the best artisans to do any necessary work to repair, polish or replace parts - ensuring that even back then that these artisans were kept employed and busy. 

 

Dr Honma Junji spoke very highly of him and certainly admired him, admitting that whilst he was not taught by Count Itō he showed him many things that certainly became a major influence in shaping his character.

[MassiveMoonHeh]

Honma makes comment in his appraisal of a Katana, mei: Bishū Osafune Morimitsu:

 

"The katana was once owned by the big collector Count Itō ‘Shintei’ Miyoji (伊東「晨亭」⺒代治, 1857–1934) and bears his detailed sayagaki, which mentions that it was mounted with a splendid koshirae, which was typical for Miyoji (sayagaki written for Tōkyō member Yoshimoto Nobuo, 吉元信夫)."

[MassiveMoonHeh]

With regard to the some information around the sale of the Daihannya Nagamitsu in the 1937 auctions.

 

The buyer of the sword was the Imperial Museum (today the Tokyo National Museum) who paid the princely sum of ¥50,000.

 

To put the price into perspective, the average price of a family home in 1937 Japan was ¥5,000. That is they paid 10x that for this sword.

 

Today the average price of a house in Japan is ¥40 million.

 

As such in today's money the Tokyo Museum would have spent somewhere around ¥400 million or $2.5 million USD.

 

Of course there was a lot of talk in 1937 about the price the museum paid and ironically it is for this exact reason that the sword got the nickname "Daihannya“ or "Perfect Wisdom".

 

When the sword was originally appraised by the Hon'ami it appeared in the 1591 Shokoku-kaji-daizuke no koto (諸国鍛冶代付の事, "Assessment of Swordsmith from the Various Provinces“)

 

In the book many big name swords received a value but they hovered around 30-100 kan. This Nagamitsu however was valued at an astronomical 600 kan making it the most expensive blade ever appraised. Back then people also spoke about this astronomical price and joked that the number 600 referred to the 600 volumes of the "Sutra of Perfection of Wisdom" or the Daihannya-kei, 大般若経. The name stuck.

 

Kind of funny how history repeats.

 

Now you know.

[MassiveMoonHeh]

We also know for certain that the nashiji-lacquered aikuchi-koshirae of the Hōchō-Masamune (Kokuhō, tantō, mumei) was commissioned by Itō Miyoji himself.

 

It is mounted with a kozuka and menuki by Yokoya Sōmin ( ). The kozuka, signed “Sōmin + kaō,” is of shakudō with nanako ground, and shows horses in takabori and gold and silver iroe. The menuki are of the same motif, in katachibori, and are also colored in gold and silver iroe. This splendid futatokoromono set by Sōmin was owned by the Arima family ( ), the former daimyō of the Kurume fief ( ) of Chikugo province, from whom Itō got them to mount on this tantō.

 

(From Masamune by Markus Sesko)

 

 

 

 

[eternal_newbie]

Another one from Ito Miyoji's collection over at the archive of Darcy Brockbank's website: https://web.archive.org/web/20210922001642/https://yuhindo.com/awataguchi-kuniyoshi/

 

Most of the images are lost to the ether but I managed to find one by digging around in the wayback machine's cache.

 

[Takezo]

@eternal_newbie nice, that one is probably in @Ian B3HR2UH's catalogue, as I do not see it in mine. Darcy mentioned that blade and Count Ito here: 

Also, great info @MassiveMoonHeh

Edited 22 hours ago by Sukaira

[tom]

Here the link to these sword.

Tom

 

https://www.kusanaginosya.com/SHOP/176.html

[Takezo]

Yes, I did purchase it from Sudo-san

[MassiveMoonHeh]

6 hours ago, tom said:

Here the link to these sword.

Tom

 

https://www.kusanaginosya.com/SHOP/176.html

I agree with Sudo-san's description this is a fantastic sword with incredible provenance. It is definitely deserving of a status higher than Tokubetsu Hozon and would take pride of place in any museum collection. You did very well here. Well done.

[Takezo]

It has actually never been submitted for Juyo. I discussed this with Sudo-san and I will quote his response:

 

"こちらの一文字については正直ならない方がおかしいなと考えております。
ただ、無銘を除けば由来、出来全てが揃っている刀と思っておりますので、
是非にも目録原本、拵えも添えて審査に出して欲しいなとも考えております。
須藤"

 

However, I chose not to submit it . I know what it is and I don't need the paper to solidify that. I will leave that for some other caretaker down the line if they want to.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Certainly a candidate, especially with all of the Count Ito documents and tags remaining. Perhaps just submitting the Koshirae for papers would be a nice addition to the provenance.