{"product_id":"antique-japanese-katana-gunome-hamon-higo-iron-fittings-leather-tsukamaki","title":"Antique Japanese Katana Sword with Regular Gunome Hamon, Higo Iron Fittings and Black Leather Tsukamaki","description":"\u003c!-- Katana 101 - mumei o-suriage - regular gunome - Higo iron fittings - no shinsa paper - torokusho Kanagawa 51646 - Tokyo Nihonto --\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"product\"\u003e\u003cheader\u003e\u003c\/header\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"specs\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSignature (Mei):\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eMumei\u003c\/em\u003e, unsigned\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNakago:\u003c\/strong\u003e Unshortened, tapering naturally to a \u003cem\u003eha-agari kuri-jiri\u003c\/em\u003e, thick reddish-brown patina, a single \u003cem\u003emekugi-ana\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSwordsmith:\u003c\/strong\u003e Unknown. The blade carries no shinsa paper\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSchool \/ Tradition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Not attributed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePeriod:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eLate Edo\u003c\/strong\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/em\u003e era of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRegistration:\u003c\/strong\u003e Japanese \u003cem\u003etorokusho\u003c\/em\u003e Kanagawa no. 51646, issued 19 January 1972\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCertificate:\u003c\/strong\u003e None supplied with the sword\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMounting:\u003c\/strong\u003e Complete \u003cem\u003ekatana koshirae\u003c\/em\u003e in Higo taste, iron \u003cem\u003efuchi-kashira\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ekojiri\u003c\/em\u003e with silver inlay, black leather \u003cem\u003etsukamaki\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBlade Length (Nagasa):\u003c\/strong\u003e 74.4 cm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCurvature (Sori):\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.4 cm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMekugi-ana:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShape (Sugata):\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eShinogi-zukuri\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eiori-mune\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003echu-kissaki\u003c\/em\u003e, shallow \u003cem\u003etorii-zori\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJihada:\u003c\/strong\u003e Tight \u003cem\u003eitame\u003c\/em\u003e mixed with \u003cem\u003emokume\u003c\/em\u003e, compact and well knit\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHamon:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eGunome-midare\u003c\/em\u003e, strikingly regular and repeating, moderate width, \u003cem\u003enioi-deki\u003c\/em\u003e with a tight controlled \u003cem\u003enioiguchi\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBoshi:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eMidare-komi\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003egunome\u003c\/em\u003e carrying into the point and turning in a \u003cem\u003eko-maru\u003c\/em\u003e, healthy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHabaki:\u003c\/strong\u003e Single-piece copper, filed in \u003cem\u003eneko-gaki\u003c\/em\u003e cat-scratch style\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePolish:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good. No \u003cem\u003ehagire\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003efukure\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eware\u003c\/em\u003e or significant \u003cem\u003ekizu\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt \u003cstrong\u003e74.4 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e this is a long \u003cem\u003ekatana\u003c\/em\u003e, six or seven centimetres longer than the Edo-period norm, and it still has its original tang: unshortened, tapering naturally to a \u003cem\u003eha-agari kuri-jiri\u003c\/em\u003e, pierced by a \u003cstrong\u003esingle \u003cem\u003emekugi-ana\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e. It is registered in Japan under \u003cem\u003etorokusho\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eKanagawa no. 51646\u003c\/strong\u003e of \u003cstrong\u003e19 January 1972\u003c\/strong\u003e and dated to the \u003cstrong\u003elate Edo period\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA blade this long, made this late, is not an accident of taste. It is a statement, and to read it you have to know what had happened to Japanese swords by the time it was forged.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor most of the Edo period swords had been getting shorter, straighter and more decorative, because nobody was fighting with them. Then, in the last decades of the eighteenth century, a smith named \u003cstrong\u003eSuishinshi Masahide\u003c\/strong\u003e published an argument that the craft had gone soft: that smiths had learned to make blades that looked magnificent and would fail under a real blow, and that the only cure was to go back to the forging methods of the fourteenth century. He trained a generation on that principle. The swords they produced are called \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, new-new swords, and they are long, broad, heavy in the hand and built to be used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey were also built just in time. The men buying them in the 1850s and 1860s were living through the collapse of the Tokugawa order, in a decade when political argument in Kyoto was genuinely settled with steel. A seventy-four centimetre blade worn in that climate was a working expectation, not an ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe temper is the other half of the story. It is a \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003egunome-midare\u003c\/em\u003e of almost mechanical regularity\u003c\/strong\u003e, the same rounded head repeating at an even interval down the whole length of the blade, moderate in width, in \u003cem\u003enioi-deki\u003c\/em\u003e with a tight, controlled \u003cem\u003enioiguchi\u003c\/em\u003e. That disciplined repeating \u003cem\u003egunome\u003c\/em\u003e is the Mino manner, and reviving the old provincial traditions is exactly what \u003cem\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/em\u003e smiths set out to do. Underneath it the forging is a tight \u003cem\u003eitame\u003c\/em\u003e mixed with \u003cem\u003emokume\u003c\/em\u003e, compact and well knit. The \u003cem\u003ehamon\u003c\/em\u003e carries into the point as \u003cem\u003emidare-komi\u003c\/em\u003e and turns back in a \u003cem\u003eko-maru\u003c\/em\u003e, with the hardened edge in the \u003cem\u003ekissaki\u003c\/em\u003e still healthy. The blade is unsigned and has no paper, so no smith or school is attributed to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe condition is better than on most antique blades. \u003cstrong\u003eThe polish is good\u003c\/strong\u003e, the steel does not look tired, no core steel is showing, and there is no \u003cem\u003ehagire\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003efukure\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eware\u003c\/em\u003e or meaningful \u003cem\u003ekizu\u003c\/em\u003e. This sword does not need work before it can be appreciated, and it could go to shinsa exactly as it stands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"koshirae\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the most coherent mounting of the group, and the taste running through it is unmistakably \u003cstrong\u003eHigo\u003c\/strong\u003e: iron rather than soft metal, restraint rather than display, and a set of fittings that were clearly chosen to live together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003efuchi\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ekashira\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ekojiri\u003c\/em\u003e are all iron, inlaid in \u003cstrong\u003esilver and gold \u003cem\u003enunome-zogan\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e with stylised cursive characters, and they match as a suite. The \u003cem\u003ekashira\u003c\/em\u003e is the rounded hornless type. The \u003cem\u003ekojiri\u003c\/em\u003e carries scrolling tendrils in silver overlay in the same hand as the rest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003etsuba\u003c\/em\u003e is iron with a dark mature patina, carved in \u003cem\u003etakabori\u003c\/em\u003e and highlighted in gold \u003cem\u003enunome-zogan\u003c\/em\u003e with a \u003cem\u003esansui\u003c\/em\u003e landscape: mountains, pines, a bridge, a dwelling, birds in the sky. The \u003cem\u003ekozuka-hitsu-ana\u003c\/em\u003e is plugged with dark metal, the \u003cem\u003ekogai-hitsu-ana\u003c\/em\u003e is open, and copper \u003cem\u003esekigane\u003c\/em\u003e sit at both ends of the \u003cem\u003enakago-ana\u003c\/em\u003e. Unsigned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003etsuka\u003c\/em\u003e is wrapped in \u003cstrong\u003eblack leather\u003c\/strong\u003e rather than silk, over \u003cem\u003esamegawa\u003c\/em\u003e stained a deep tea brown, in \u003cem\u003ehineri-maki\u003c\/em\u003e. Leather was the practical man's choice: it grips when wet and it does not fray. It is intact and tight, but genuinely old, dry in places and finely cracked at the surface, . The \u003cem\u003emenuki\u003c\/em\u003e under the wrap are dark alloy with traces of gilding, and what shows through the openings is a coiled scaled body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003esaya\u003c\/em\u003e is lacquered in a dark brown-black \u003cem\u003eishime\u003c\/em\u003e texture, in good condition, and its upper section carries a \u003cstrong\u003ebrown suede sleeve\u003c\/strong\u003e, the protective cover a sword wears in daily use. The \u003cem\u003ehabaki\u003c\/em\u003e is solid copper with deep diagonal \u003cem\u003eneko-gaki\u003c\/em\u003e filing and a natural dark patina. The \u003cem\u003eseppa\u003c\/em\u003e are a copper-alloy pair with coin-edge filing and have taken on verdigris.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe iron fittings, the \u003cem\u003etsuba\u003c\/em\u003e, the leather wrap and the \u003cem\u003ehabaki\u003c\/em\u003e are all genuine period work. The suede sleeve and the brown \u003cem\u003esageo\u003c\/em\u003e are later additions meant to protect and complete the mounting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"smith-background\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blade is unsigned, so there is no smith to name. What it does carry is a date and a set of intentions, and both are legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \u003cem\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/em\u003e smith was, by definition, someone working against the fashion of his own century. The argument Masahide made and his students inherited was that the Japanese sword had reached its peak four hundred years earlier and had been declining ever since, and that the job of a modern smith was not to invent but to recover. So they studied Kamakura and Nanbokucho blades, copied Mino and Bizen tempers, rebuilt their forging around what they believed the old masters had done, and made swords that were longer and heavier than anything their customers' fathers had carried.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result divides collectors to this day. The blades are superbly healthy, because they are only one or two centuries old and have rarely been polished thin. They are powerful in the hand. What some connoisseurs hold against them is precisely their competence: a revival is a revival, and the \u003cem\u003ehataraki\u003c\/em\u003e in a \u003cem\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/em\u003e temper can be more controlled and less surprising than in the blades it is imitating. This sword shows both sides of that argument. Its \u003cem\u003egunome\u003c\/em\u003e is beautifully even, and its evenness is the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a buyer, the practical consequence is the good one. This is an antique Japanese sword in sound polish with a healthy \u003cem\u003eboshi\u003c\/em\u003e, plenty of steel left in it, and no restoration required, which is not true of most unpapered blades. It can go to the NBTHK as it stands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"school-history\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Higo style of sword furniture comes out of Kumamoto in Kyushu, and it is the most quietly disciplined of the major traditions. Where Kyoto makers reached for \u003cem\u003eshakudo\u003c\/em\u003e, gold and \u003cem\u003enanako\u003c\/em\u003e grounds, Higo workers used iron, inlaid it sparingly with silver or gold wire, favoured rounded hornless \u003cem\u003ekashira\u003c\/em\u003e, and preferred leather to silk on the handle. The result reads as equipment rather than jewellery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat aesthetic was cultivated under the Hosokawa lords, whose household had a deep tea-ceremony culture, and the values are the ones tea taught: restraint, natural material, nothing added that does not earn its place. A Higo mounting was meant to be handled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also the right dress for this blade. A long \u003cem\u003eshinshinto\u003c\/em\u003e sword in black leather and plain iron is what a serious man carried in the final years of the shogunate, when swords had stopped being costume again. Everything on this mounting is chosen for grip, for durability and for silence, and the suede sleeve over the scabbard exists for one reason: to protect a sword that was being carried, not displayed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is offered here is a long antique Japanese \u003cem\u003ekatana\u003c\/em\u003e of the late Edo period in good polish, with an untouched tang and a bold, highly regular \u003cem\u003egunome\u003c\/em\u003e temper, registered in Japan since 1972, dressed in a coherent set of period iron fittings in the Higo manner. It carries no attribution, and it is ready for shinsa exactly as it stands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e","brand":"Tokyo Nihonto","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57282752348484,"sku":"KATANA101","price":4200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/4080\/8516\/files\/Katana101_330K_0039_GenerativeFill3.jpg?v=1789569025","url":"https:\/\/tokyo-nihonto.com\/de\/products\/antique-japanese-katana-gunome-hamon-higo-iron-fittings-leather-tsukamaki","provider":"Tokyo Nihonto","version":"1.0","type":"link"}