Details
A HYUGA TANTO
MUROMACHI PERIOD (CIRCA 1570)
Configuration (sugata): ohira-zukuri with tri-bevelled back (mitsu-mune); length (nagasa): 1 shaku, 2 sun, 4 bu (37.6cm.); curvature (sori): koshi-zori of 0.7cm.
Forging pattern (jihada): mokume.
Tempering pattern (hamon): shallow pointed undulations (notare) in nioi and nie, the nie becoming more profuse and active towards the monouchi.
Point (boshi): hakikake.
Tang (nakago). Shape (keitai): slender funagata; file marks (yasurime): sujikai; end (nakagojiri): rounded (kurijiri); holes (mekugi-ana): one; signature (mei): none (mumei).
Shirasaya.
Tanto koshirae in Tetsugendo school mounts, mid and late Edo periods (18th and 19th centuries), the tsuba dated 1779, comprising: a ribbed saya in black lacquer; applied with a shakudo kurikata decorated in relief and inlaid in gold and silver, signed Kazutsura; the tsuka mounted with a pair of iron, copper, shakudo and gold Tetsugendo (Okamoto) school menuki formed as Tekkai Sennin exhaling his spirit and a reclining figure of Gama Sennin; a shakudo fuchi-kashira decorated with inlaid gold; a shakudo tsuba carved in high relief and inlaid in gold and silver with cats and peony, signed Tetsugendo Naoshige with kao and dated the first month of Anei 8 (1779); an iron kozuka molded with a shishi and peony, signed Okamoto Naoshige and with a gold seal.-- Length of koshirae 58.5cm.; length of tsuka 14.5cm.; tsuba height 6.8cm., width 6.7cm., thickness 8mm.; length of kozuka 9.8cm.
Brocade and silk storage bags.
Accompanied by a tokubetsu kicho token certificate issued by the N.B.T.H.K., no. 234610, dated Showa 47 (1972), attributing the blade to Fujiwara Hirozane; and a tokubetsu kicho koshirae certificate issued by the N.B.T.H.K., no. 96, dated Showa 43 (1968).
