A Shin-Shinto Katana in Mounts

LATE EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY), SIGNED KURIHARA KENJI NOBUHIDE AND DATED BUNKYU NINEN JUNIGATSU HI (1862.12)

Details

A Shin-Shinto Katana in Mounts
Late Edo period (19th century), signed Kurihara Kenji Nobuhide and dated Bunkyu ninen junigatsu hi (1862.12)
Sugata [configuration]: shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, extended kissaki, torii-zori
Kitae [forging pattern]: itame with mokume in ji-nie and chikei
Hamon [tempering pattern]: gunome-midare combined with togari with nie, ashi, tobi-yaki, sunagashi and kinsuji
Boshi [tip]: togari, haki-kake
Horimono [carving]: omote: crisply carved dragon chasing a jewel contained within a bo-hi; ura: ken and futasu-bi separated by a bonji
Nakago [tang]: ubu with katte-sagari file marks and one hole
Nagasa [length from tip to beginning of tang]: 28¾in. (73cm.)
Motohaba [width at start of tempered edge]: 1 3/8in. (3.5cm.)
Sakihaba [width before tip]: 1in. (2.5cm.)
Habaki [collar]: single, gilt-copper

Koshirae [set of mounts]: brown-lacquer ribbed saya fitted with a silver and copper kojiri carved with swirling clouds, the tsuka wrapped in white hemp around black-lacquered ray-skin and fitted with iron and gold fuchi-gashira carved with insects in grasses, signed ......., and with a shakudo taka-zogan stag beetle on the kashira, gold menuki carved as mantis, and a rounded-rectangular iron tsuchime-ji tsuba pierced with a whorl and two udenuki-ana and inlaid with gold dots

Provenance

Ittosai Yoshimune, Kyoto, 1948.6.9

Lot Essay

Nobuhide was born in 1815 in Echigo province and moved to Kyoto in 1829 to be a kagami-shi [mirror craftsman]. He became a pupil of the master smith Kiyomaro in Edo in 1850. He later moved to Osaka and took the name Chikuzen no kami in 1865. He continued making swords in Osaka until 1867. He then moved back to Echigo via Edo in 1874 and died in Tokyo in 1880. Nobuhide was one of the best pupils of Kiyomaro and was famous for his horimono

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