? Mei: Hizen no Kuni Omi Daijo Fujiwara Tadahiro

[Marius]

Dear All,

 

a friend of mine has acquired a katana, the tachi mei reads: Hizen no Kuni Omi Daijo Fujiwara Tadahiro. It has a shallow sori, a wide yakiba with a gunome midare hamon (albeit very flat gunome, almost suguha) and a very tight nioguchi. Seems to be nioi-deki, but the light was bad when I have habdled it and I had no magnifying glass... Very tight hada, looks indeed like konkuka-hada.

 

I know his pictures of the nakago/mei are terrible, but maybe the Hizen specialists here could tell me if the mei stands any chance of being genuine? If it does, I promise to post pictures of the blade. If not, sorry for bothering you with another gimei

 

Thank you for your help, it will be highly valued

[Eric H]

Mariusz,

 

The yasurime in the upper pic is quite irritating and does not correspond to Omi Daijo Tadahiro as well a very tight nioguchi...his hamon is usually niedeki with deep nioguchi.

 

Eric

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

 

Clearly gimei

 

 

Eric,

 

Nidai Tadahiro made some copies of Sue Tegai blades, in this case hamon is hoso-suguha with a tight nioiguchi.

[Marius]

Mariusz,

 

The yasurime in the upper pic is quite irritating and does not correspond to Omi Daijo Tadahiro as well a very tight nioguchi...his hamon is usually niedeki with deep nioguchi.

 

Eric

 

Eric,

 

many thanks - the upper pic does not show yasurime, these are lines generated by a crappy scanner.

Thanks for posting examples of the mei - could you tell the source?

[Marius]

Hi,

 

 

Clearly gimei

 

 

Jacques,

 

thanks,

 

not that I am surprised Thanks for the oshigata :-)

[micha]

Hi,

 

It's a gimei. I've attached some pics of nakago's of my Omi Daijo blades. Katana is probably a dai-saku dai-mei by Mutsu no kami.

 

Greetings Micha

[paulb]

Dear Micha,

These are good looking examples. what leads you to the conclusion that the katana is daimei? is it the workmanship in the blade, the yasurimei or differences in the signature, or is it a combination of all of these?

Thanks

paul

[micha]

Hi,

I bought this blade a long time ago from Darcy. This is the part that he wrote about the dai-mei, dai-saku.

 

Greetings

 

Tokubetsu Hozon Omi no Daijo Tadayoshi Katana

This is a sword that I personally find very exciting. Right away, it is clear that there is something special about this piece as it is flawless and with a flamboyant Ichimonji-inspired hamon. The kitae being extremely fine and the high quality of the piece brings to mind the work of the third generation, and in this situation it is my opinion that this is daisaku work done by Mutsu no Kami Tadayoshi for his father.

Beyond the tight jihada filled with fine ji nie, one can look to the yasurime which are an indicator in Tadayoshi school blades to the generation. In the case of Omi Daijo, his yasurime are a very straight kiri, while those of Mutsu no Kami are ever so slightly sloped. Consider this comparison image with this sword on the left, Mutsu no Kami in the middle, and Omi Daijo on the right. The second hint is in the nakagojiri, which indicates a late work at minimum by Omi Daijo, but rules out early work and rules in daisaku. The sugata agrees, as it is the type that comes after the Kanbun period, so falls into the prime period for work of the third generation. I tend to think that the flamboyant choji midare is also more typical for Mutsu no Kami than to be found in his father's more standard repertoire of suguba.

[micha]

In this picture you can see it clearly.

 

Micha

[paulb]

Thank you Micha,

From Darcy's description of hada and Nakago I can understand why he and you would consider this a daimai. sounds like a beautiful sword. enjoy it.

Best regards

Paul