POLISHING and PRESERVATION
Until fifty or sixty years ago the
samurai would every morning … dust his weapons and keep them polished and free
from rust.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo - Hagakure
Swords come to
collectors in many varied and often distressed conditions and it is beholden on
the new owner to preserve and restore the sword, to the best of his ability,
although sometimes it may be considered that restoring the sword is not a viable
option. In my recent experience, I have received swords into my collection which
are “right-offs” to all intents and purposes. One that particularly springs
to mind was a sword that I was given that had been in a veteran’s loft for
fifty years. This blade, minus its tsuka was in a wooded saya with a rather
bulky leather foul-weather cover and had come from the Burma campaign in 1945. I
suspected that under the leather outer cover might be a lacquered saya of some
interest and I decided to remove the leather. To my surprise under the first
leather cover was a second one. However, about mid way down it were two strips
of bamboo (each about 6 inches long), which were bound to the second leather
cover with thread. It looked like a splint and I immediately expected to find a
broken saya underneath all this. On removing the splint and the second leather
cover, I encountered a thin linen or muslin bandage, which I unwrapped to expose
a beautiful black-lacquered saya that was ribbed in the inro style. As expected,
however, it was broken in two and further, the bottom 25% was of plain wood that
was also wrapped in linen and held securely in place by wire bounding.
The blade of this
sword had been badly abused and had lost much of its monouchi whilst the hamon
and jihada were not visible. The mekugi-ana, had been enlarged and a nut and
bolt put through it, but an indistinct 2-character inscription on the rusted
nakago, read Norimitsu. To top it all there were at least two ha-giri in the
ha-saki!
Obviously a sword
such as described above, is a relic and has little collectible or commercial
value and it is hard to justify spending money on restoration. However, it
occurred to me that I was probably the first to see the lacquered saya in 60
years and the deceased Japanese owner may have been the previous one.
There is no doubt that the sword had had a tough life. I thought it was
highly probable that the original Japanese owner, had taken an old family sword
onto the battlefield and that the extensive saya repairs were probably field
repairs, maybe even done by him. It seemed that this owner had highly rated the
sword and saya and had gone to a lot of trouble to preserve it under what must
have been extreme conditions. Obviously, it was not expected that it would fall
into the enemy’s hands and the Allied soldier who ended up with it may have
done much of the damage to the blade. However, I felt that if only out of
respect for the Japanese owner, the sword certainly deserved to be cared for and
preserved. After repairing the break in the saya with a modern glue, I resolved
to keep it in my care for these rather “sentimental” reasons.
Fortunately most
swords are not such extreme cases and the main problem may be the condition of
the blade. If the sword has any problems such as flaws or chips for instance, it
may be advisable for the less experienced collector to gain a more informed
opinion of polishing potential before dispatching the sword to the other side of
the world. Professional polishers may often be able to restore blades in
relatively bad condition and it is amazing the transformation a good polisher
can make to what may appear to be a badly distressed sword. Usually this will
mean sending the sword to Japan although there are a growing number of qualified
polishers now living outside of that country, both Japanese and Westerners. A
polish in Japan will usually mean that the sword will have a new shira-saya
(storage mount) made to accommodate the new polish, even when the sword is sent
out with mounts. This is to protect the polish, which would not be possible by
putting the blade back into the original saya with a dirty interior. To keep the
koshirae together a wooden blade called a tsunagi is made.
Of course, when
the sword is sent to Japan for a polish, it will have to go through the proper
registration procedures to be legal. Either an agent or polisher usually takes
care of this, presenting the blade for Toroku-shinsa. This is not the same as a
shinsa conducted by the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai or one of the other
organisations, as no quality judgements are made, it is merely a permit to keep
the sword. Toroku shinsa will not give a permit to mass produced Showa-to, which
remain illegal in Japan. If Showa-to are submitted they will be confiscated and
destroyed and it would be risky to try and argue that even a Hosho-kokouin
(star-stamped) blade is a properly forged and traditionally made blade. Whilst
it is possible to carry a sword into Japan as part of personal baggage, this is
difficult and time consuming. Personally I find it far more simple and
convenient to pay a little extra and have the polisher oversee all the
bureaucratic procedures (see essay Bringing Swords into Japan for more
detail on this).
It is the
polisher’s job to bring out the beauty of the steel itself and to expose all
the sword’s characteristics that the swordmaker himself intended as well as
make any repairs possible. This means that the polisher must understand the
intentions of swordsmiths through the ages so that he can initially restore
sugata or form, as was intended in any given era. The steel itself must be
persuaded to show all the characteristics of certain schools or regions and as
well as the skill to do this, the polisher must have a wide range of knowledge
and be expert at kantei or sword judging.
If the sword has
horimono this will make the polish more difficult and the more complicated the
horimono the more difficult the polishing job. Depending on the condition of the
horimono, different options become available to the owner. As is often the case,
the horimono may have been polished over in a previous polish and now be
flattened or detail may have been lost. In this case it is sometimes possible
for it to be re-cut in which case the polisher would probably employ a
professional horimono cutter to do the job. One must be convinced of the quality
and importance of the horimono to go this route as it may well cost as much as
the polish itself! Usually, if you require the horimono to be preserved as it
is, then it will be enough to tell this to the polisher. He will then avoid
polishing right over it by employing a somewhat different technique in this area
and only charge you another 10% for the privilege. If you say nothing regarding
the horimono, the chances are it will be polished over. The necessity for having
a good dialogue with your polisher may be easily appreciated and this is not
always possible unless you know him personally. Speaking only for myself, I
would find it difficult to send a sword to Japan and not know which polisher was
going to work on my sword and that somebody else (an agent) was going to make
that decision.
Once the sword is
returned to you after polishing, the preservation and care is really only
maintaining the polish. Certainly this needs to be done, as it is possible that
initially the sword may “sweat” somewhat. This is because water is an
integral part of the polishing process and some may actually be retained in the
folds of the steel and it will gradually come to the surface. This needs to be
cleaned before it turns to rust and this is done by the application of uchiko,
wiping it off and re-oiling the blade which must be checked on a weekly for the
first couple of months after polishing.
In Japan, blades
are usually kept in an oiled condition. The oil is called Choji-abura or clove
oil, which has a distinctive smell, but it may not be necessary to keep them
with an oil coating in other countries, depending on the humidity. However, if
swords are kept oiled, and most people prefer this, the blade should be
regularly checked and if it is drying then it needs to be cleaned off (with
uchiko applications) and re-oiled.
It
is recommended that blades that are kept in this oiled condition are not stored
in a vertical position, such as leant against a wall. In such a situation, oil
will accumulate at the bottom of the saya and possibly attract dirt. Better to
have the blade either lying flat, such as in a draw or sitting on a sword rack.
To protect the outer surfaces of the shira-saya, it is customary to wrap it in a
specially made bag, sometimes of silk and often purple in colour. It is
necessary that the bag be tied firmly onto the shira-saya, thus preventing any
movement between the tsuka (handle0 and saya (scabbard) which might cause damage
to the blade.
It may be that
swords are lent for exhibition or shown to others at various times, also you
will want to look at your own blades, of course. Especially in the former case,
one should make sure that a blade is thoroughly cleaned before being put back
into storage as often-undetectable marks may be left on the otherwise perfect
surface of the blade, which will only get worse.
We have discussed
using uchiko above and this may require some clarification. Uchiko ideally is a
white powder that is the slip filtered and drained from a polisher’s water.
Thus it is mildly abrasive and should be used with care. The powder is usually
wrapped in silk to form a soft ball. To apply it, the blade must be stripped of
all fittings including the habaki and the ball of uchiko is tapped along the
blade leaving the powder on the surface. It should be evenly distributed along
both sides and also the mune or back edge. Then with soft paper, ideally
Japanese paper made for the purpose and known as nugui-game (wiping paper)
lightly dust the uchiko. This light dusting will hopefully remove any coarse
particles, which might scratch the polish. Then holding the blade by the nakago,
and gripping the surface lightly but firmly with the paper, wipe off the first 6
inches or so of uchiko, in the direction of the nakago. To do it in the other
direction risks drawing dirt from the nakago onto the polished surface. The same
applies when horimono are present. It is then safe to wipe the rest of the blade
in the direction of the kissaki or point. Use only single and continuous strokes
rather than a back and forth action that may cause faint but unsightly
scratching and be sure not to grip the paper toot tightly. The blade is then
ready for an even coating of oil if required.
It goes without
saying that a polished blade should never be touched with the naked hand as
sweat will cause immediate rusting to the surface. Many techniques in Iai-do do
involve the hand touching the blade and most Iai practitioners are meticulous in
cleaning their swords after practice.
The question of
koshirae restoration is somewhat complex and we may cross into arguments about
how far restoration goes before it becomes replacement and the desirability of
this. For instance, I have a sword where the lacquer on the saya is flaking away
so do I have the saya relacquered anew or do I stabilise the situation and keep
it as it is? Of a conservative nature, I prefer the latter and I may be at
variance with modern thinking in this respect. My preference is to the minimum
required of safety and taste. This might include tsuka-maki (hilt re-wrapping,
minor saya repairs and the like.
Similarly I prefer
not to have a complete modern koshirae made for a blade as this seems
inappropriate to me, but there are others that feel differently. There are those
that may put together koshirae by bringing various parts such as tsuba, menuki
and fuchi-kashira together. I have seldom seen this done successfully or
convincingly and the value of such an exercise is questionable. However, there
are artisans even in the West capable of such work although the best are still
to be found in Japan.
In a similar vein, I would decry the removal of the various parts of a koshirae for commercial purposes. By this I mean the removal of a tsuba or the cutting of a hilt wrap in order to secure the menuki. Whilst all these constituent parts may individually all add up to greater monetary value than the whole, nevertheless an original koshirae may be ruined and lost forever. Such actions may be described as the unacceptable face of Japanese sword dealership.
Clive
Sinclaire 2008