Daisaku Tsuba signature ~Missing the Obvious?

[Curran]

Translation practice and also an example of what we debated as a fox, squirrel, or other (looks a squirrel here posed with the reaching monkey):

 

http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w75309512

 

Front: Yoshiharu ?

Back: Shoharu, Soharu, Motoharu?

 

I am finding neither in the Haynes Index, which is surprising....

but possible for a very late Edo tsuba. However, the skill level is such that I think I am just not reading these correctly.

 

Correct read? Haynes Reference?

I save pictures of tsuba like this one with the Haynes reference. Maybe some day we as a community generate a Haynes Index database with a catalog of reference tsuba as examples (good project for my retirement, as the Haynes Index was for Haynes-san in his retirement).

[k morita]

Hi,

[Curran]

Ah.... That 'Haru'.... not as part of a name.

 

Thank you for the translation. I should have undertsood this is Meiji period work.

So...

 

"Meiji"

"Kii (shu?)" ~I have seen it written like this before on another tsuba of a Goto artist moved to Kiishu.

"Early Spring"

"made this"

 

 

Most Kiishu work seems very unsophisticated, but several artisans existed there in the last few years of Edo and produced some decent work.

In the Haynes Index: this Yoshiharu is barely recognized and a slightly different kao is given, but it is the same artist.

[Nobody]

..................

"Meiji"

"Kii (shu?)" ~I have seen it written like this before on another tsuba of a Goto artist moved to Kiishu.

"Early Spring"

"made this"

 

...............................................

I think that "明治記巳初春" means "Eary spring (初春) in the year of Mi (巳) of Meiji period (明治記)". And the year seems to be the 2nd year of Meiji (1869).

[Ron STL]

Attached shows an iron sukashi tsuba that I've owned for decades...signed: Nakagawa Yoshiharu (kao). In my notes I have this ~ identified as the work of H.11516.0 Yoshiharu who worked in Soten style. I also make mention of another Yoshiharu with a "similar" kao that Haynes listed so worked in late Edo; I would guess this would be the Meiji Yoshiharu of this topic.

 

Interesting...I thought he name "rang a bell" when reading this topic. Totally different workmanship as you can see.

 

Ron H.

[Curran]

Moriyama-san,

Interesting. I am not very good with dates. He is listed in Haynes as working in Kishu, so I would have translated it that way.

 

Ron,

If okay, I will save down an image of the example you provided for the other Yoshiharu (different Haru). Nice to see an example with the Kao.

[Ron STL]

No problem saving this example for future reference...what it's all about. It is a different "haru" as you can see, but the kao is surprisingly similar, yet different.

 

This tsuba was saved off of a very nice mumei wakizashi that I found perhaps 30+ years ago, not far from my home. I recall the sword because it has strong "mizukage" on it and figuring it was a retempered sword, saved the tsuba and sold the sword. It went quickly at a show to a Japanese dealer who obviously knew more than I did about the sword. I've never forgotten the sword and often wished I had researched it more before laying out on my table. In those days, knowledge was hard to come by in those pre-internet days! So many "stories" remembered after so many years!

 

Ron H.

[Curran]

Ron,

 

Yes, I'd noted in Haynes how the Kao of several Yoshiharu didn't seem that different to me.

 

Mizukage was, is, and always will be a difficult topic. Sometimes the mizukage is hard and obvious and the jigane shows all the signs of retemper. Very rarely you get a straight edge mizukage right up and over the mune, and yet it seems to have had no impact on temper.... leaving one to wonder if it was one of the smiths where it is a trait in their forging.

 

Then there are those with questionable partial 'mizukage' where many non-Japanese and significant number of Japanese argue it was a retemper. One list member here had a Bizen that Cary Condell and others swore was a retemper. I remember looking at the jigane and thinking, "hmm, the jigane is exactly as I would expect for (that particular smith)". The blade NBTHK papered (Toku Hozon?) easily, and I regret not having purchased it. I've seen quite a barrelful of these partial 'mizukage' over the years, and most I remember have gone on to paper. Not all. Discussion of it brings out quite a heated debate, with both sides rather stubborn about their opinions.