UK
Sword Register No. 102
Type:
Shinsakuto – wakizashi
Nagasa: 43.9 cm
Moto-haba: 2.9 cm
Saki-haba: 2.1 cm
Sugata:
Quite a broad hira-zukuri,
saki-zori and iori-mune, bo-hi on
both sides.
Jihada:
A very tight ko-mokume hada,
appearing almost muji-hada.
Hamon: A complex
choji-gunome-midare in nioi-deki, some ashi and yo. The boshi is somewhat
pointed but ko-maru with slight midare-komi and kaeri.
Nakago: Ubu with a single mekugi-ana, large sujikai yasurime with kesho finish. Signed on the omote BIZEN KUNI OSAFUNE TAKAMITSU and on the ura SHOWA GOJUSHISHI NEN HACHIGATSU HI (Showa 57th year, 1982). Both inscriptions are placed immediately below the mekugi-ana. The jiri is ha-agari kuri-jiri. There are straight yasurime on the nakago-mune.
Signed:
Bizen Kuni Osafune Takamitsu and
dated Showa Gojushishi Nen Hachigatsu Hi
The
overall good sugata of the blade appears quite robust and the saki-zori conveys
the impression of a blade from the Muromachi period. However, the comparatively
thick kasane, the brightness of the jigane together with the almost muji ji-hada
and the absence of any type of utsuri in the ji, indicate a much later period of
manufacture. There are few hataraki and some untidy patches in the centre on the
omote side of the blade. Were it not for the nakago and details inscribed
thereon, one might be forgiven for thinking that it was a shinshinto work.
However, unusually for the UK Sword Register, it is a shinsakuto made in 1982.
It may be that the intention was to replicate the work of Morimitsu or Yasumitsu
from the Oei Bizen group of swordsmiths who were active in the early Muromachi
period (early 1400’s).
This
swordsmith, whose real name is Yokoi Takashi, is still alive and one of those
artisans keeping the tradition of swordmaking alive in Bizen province (modern
day Okayama-ken). Swords were made at Osafune since the early Heian period, as
the supply of sand-iron and water were very good for sword production.
Throughout the koto period (up to about 1600) Osafune appears to have been
almost entirely populated by swordsmiths and with Seki in Mino, produced the
majority of swords to arm the participants in the Sengoku period. It seems that
they were less successful during the shinto and shinshinto periods although
there was the Yokoyama Bizen school that acknowledged Osafune as their
“spiritual and inspirational” home with the inscriptions on their nakago. On
entering modern times, Osafune was eclipsed by Seki in the manufacture of gunto
for the officer corps up to 1945. Nowadays, the Osafune tradition is kept alive
by smiths in Osafune as well as sword making demonstrations at Okayama Museum.
Clive Sinclaire
Bexley
September 2009