Tsuguhira Oshigata

[Jussi Ekholm]

Well as there was some discussion about Tsuguhira oshigata in another thread, I got sidetracked from other sword stuff I was planning to do and browsed through the book.

 

If I understood correctly swordsmith Tsuguhira (継平) got to see swords from the Imperial Collection and Shōgun Collection in 1717, and the book in National Diet Library is the 1928 compiled edition.

The book can be accessed through NDL, and can be viewed and also downloaded through this link: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1190999

Also I got help from here in identifying some named swords (however I skipped few as I couldn't verify the info with my resources at this moment): https://meitou.info/継平押形

 

There are 243 swords recorded in this book, and I crossreferenced all of them to my own data. Unfortunately I was able to find only 26 swords that are matches for current items in my data. And for some items there are minor things like extra ana added on after 1717. There are also some named swords that are not matching to another named sword of the same name I have in data. However many named swords are matching exactly to named swords in the data, so it is bit complicated. There could have been several swords having the same name. There are few potential matches but as info on them is so limited I didn't match them as I am not certain.

 

Is this really anything useful, well maybe not really but there are some quite interesting items in there. Most interesting to me personally would be the Kanemitsu naginata, unfortunately this is the only record I have seen it so far. The items are mostly by top smiths, there should be for example 25 Masamune and 38 Awataguchi blades in there.

 

Tsuguhira Oshigata.docx

[MassiveMoonHeh]

@Jussi Ekholm

 

You are on the money, in Kyōhō 2 (1717), during the reign of the 8th Tokugawa shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, second generation swordsmith Tsuguhira (近江守継平, also known as Fujita Ōmi-no-kami Fujiwara Tsuguhira) received permission to view swords from the shogunal collection (御物). He then requested and was given permission to make oshigata of the blades in the collection. He produced the work in 10 scrolls, made in two sets. One set was presented to Yoshimune, and Tsuguhira received three sets of formal clothing (時服) as a reward. 

 

Unfortunately neither set of the original 1717 scrolls exist today in complete form; surviving knowledge comes mainly from later copies and the 1928 published edition.

 

The 1928 version is now the most referenced copy and it is a photographic reprint by Hazawa Bunko that includes the oshigata of;

 

Hon’Ami Kōtoku (本阿弥光徳)  1554-1619

Hon’Ami Kōon (本阿弥光温) 1603-1667

 

This makes sense as there are blades in the 1928 version that were lost some 60 years before 1717 in the in the Great Fire of Meireki of 1657. The 1928 version appears to be an attempt to capture most of the blades that once existed in the collection of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Although even then not all blades are recorded.

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thank you for adding great information as usual Brett