1615: Hon'Ami Kōho and the three Meibutsu

[MassiveMoonHeh]

After the Winter Siege of Osaka, Toyotomi Hideyori had the Kai no Kuni Gō resharpened in by Hon’Ami Kōho the following spring in Genna 1(1615) and presented it to Ieyasu.

 

What makes this sentence interesting is that Kōho was only 14 years old when he was assigned this task. Hideyori also had him sharpen the Atsushi Toshiro the same year.

 

Either Hidetada was preventing any of the older Hon’Ami from working on Hideyori's swords or Hideyori was seriously trusting a 14 year old to polish two of his most important swords.

 

Or at 14 Kōho was a polishing prodigy.

 

What did you do at 14?

 

Would you trust a 14 year old to polish your prized sword?

 

I did say, three and yes, he also polished the Karasumaru Toshiro.

[Schneeds]

I had a paper route.  

[eternal_newbie]

20 minutes ago, MassiveMoonHeh said:

What makes this sentence interesting is that Kōho was only 14 years old when he was assigned this task. Hideyori also had him sharpen the Atsushi Toshiro the same year.

 

Immediately brought to mind this thread:

 

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/56700-tsuba-made-by-a-drunk

 

If you were born into a lineage of this kind of craftsmanship, evidently you started in the family business *very* early. No doubt a combination of innate (inherited?) talent, plus having that talent nurtured from a very young age while growing up alongside others with that talent as mentors and role models.

[YourBabyBjornBorg]

 

 

This is a Sukehiro from a friend of mine, polished by a then high school student. 

 

I think he's mostly self-taught, though......

 

This is quite lucky because originally this sword was going to another "polisher" who's known for acid treating and other shenanigans (I think a poor guy even sent a Kotetsu for him to "repair"), and I convinced this friend to change his mind.

 

I have been calling this guy out for some time, but most people here lack the basic skill to spot the most obvious and poorly done acid treating, and it doesn't help with the fact that most brokers here work with this guy or at least stay quiet about his acid treating. "Blocking people from making money is like killing their parents" as the saying goes here.