hilt;
fuchi-kashira;
menuki
- Museum number
- 1958,0730.41.d
- Description
-
Hilt; fuchi-kashira; menuki. Part of mounting for tanto. Hilt: silver fittings sculpted roundly with wisteriabound with whale's beard; made of wood, skin (ray), braided baleen. Menuki: peonies on stylized tweezers. Fuchi-kashira: signed.
- Production date
- 1860s
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Harris 2005
This blade is 'hira zukuri' and has a thick 'kasane'. The tang has one hole and 'osujigai' file marks and has been slightly cut down and re-shaped into 'kiri' style. The grain is closely packed 'koitame'. The 'hamon' is medium-width 'suguha' in 'nie', with a 'komaru boshi', which returns into a long section of 'muneyaki'.
The smith Hisakuni (d. 1741) worked in Tosa Province. He used the title 'Kozuke no kami' and subsequently received the title 'Kozuke daijo' sometime during the Hoei era (1704-11). He studied under Omi no kami Kinshiro Hisamichi (d. 1711, aged eighty-five), who had been a pupil of Kimmichi of the Sampin school in Yamashiro Province (modern-day Kyoto) (cf. no. 19 by Etchu no kami Masatoshi, also of the Sampin school).
The scabbard is lacquered black and lightly sprinkled with gold 'makie', depicting sparrows in gold 'takamakie'. The hilt is bound with 'whale's beard'. The main silver fittings are all sculpted roundly with wisteria, including the 'kozuka' and 'wari-kogai', and the 'menuki' are peonies on stylized tweezers. The 'fuchi' and the 'kozuka' are both signed 'Kosai Yoshinobu', a pupil of Toryusai Kiyotoshi who was active from the 1860s through the Meiji era, when this mounting was probably made in Tokyo.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1958,0730.41.d