UNSIGNED, TRADITIONALLY ATTRIBUTED TO YUKIMITSU, LATE KAMAKURA PERIOD (14TH CENTURY)

Details

A SOSHU KATANA
REGISTERED AS A JUYO BIJUTSUHIN [IMPORTANT ART OBJECT]
Unsigned, Traditionally Attributed to Yukimitsu, Late Kamakura Period (14th Century)
Sugata [configuration]: shinogi-zukuri [longitudinal ridge], ko-kissaki [small point], iori-mune [shallow peaked back]

Kitae [forging pattern]: undulating itame [wood grain] with jinie [hard metal granules over the surface of the blade] and chikei [short lines of nie]

Hamon [tempering pattern]: notare [undulating line] and passages of gunome [small pointed curves] with deep nie [hard metal granules] and nioi[mist-like crystalline areas], and with sunagashi [thick lines of nie] and kinsuji [bright curved threadlike areas]

Boshi [tip]: komaru togari [temper line with a pointed turnback]

Horimono [carvings]: a single bohi [groove] on each side

Nakago [tang]: osuriage [substantially shortened] with shallow katte sagari yasurime [diagonal file marks sloping towards the back of the tang], two mekugi-ana [holes for retaining pegs], kurijiri [rounded heel]

Fitted with a two-tier gold habaki [collar]

Shirasaya [plain wood scabbard] with unsigned attestation

The cover of the storage box inscribed Sendai no taishu Date Masamune ko on sashiryo no on judai kore hitotsu nari. Date Yukimitsu. Shirasagi koshirae, mitokoromono Goto Eijo saku. Kojiri fuchi Ishiguro Masatsune saijosaku kore o kenjo, shitajishi Tanabe Tomomasa saku [Lord Date Masamune of Sendai owned this and handed it down to his descendants. Known as Date Yukimitsu. The scabbard decorated with egrets, the mitokoromono made by Goto Eijo. The kojiri and fuchi masterpieces presented [made] by Ishiguro Masatsune; Tanabe Tomomasa made the groundwork.]

Black-lacquered katana koshirae [set of mounts] comprising: black-lacquered saya [scabbard]; tsuka [hilt] covered in white sharkskin and wrapped in black silk forming a lozenge pattern; two shibuichi [copper-silver alloy] menuki [hilt decorations] in the form of mandarin ducks; black-lacquered horn kashira [fitting at the end of the hilt], koikuchi [scabbard mouth], kurikata [cord fitting] and kojiri [scabbard butt]; shakudo nanako [copper-gold alloy worked with a granulated ground] and gilt fuchi [hilt collar] worked in relief with geese in flight, inscribed Ishiguro Masatsune; and Tanabe Tomomasa oval shakudo nanako tsuba [hand guard] with a gilt rim worked in relief iroe [soft-metal decoration] with a flock of geese, inscribed as the fuchi, diameter 3 1/16in. (7.8cm.); and shakudo nanako kozuka [knife] and kogai [skewer] worked in relief iroe with egrets nesting in trees, with black silk hilt binding, Edo period (17th/19th century)
Overall length of blade: 33 3/16in. (84.3cm.)
Nagasa [length from tip to beginning of tang]: 26 9/16in. (67.2cm.)
Sori [curvature]: 1in. (2.6cm.)
Motohaba [width at start of tempered edge]: 1 1/16in. (2.7cm.)
Sakihaba [width before tip]: 13/16in. (2.0cm.) (2)

Provenance

Formerly in the possession of the Date family of daimyo [feudal lords] in Sendai

Literature

Honma Junji and Hiroi Yuichi, Nihonto juyo bijutsuhin zenshu [A complete collection of Japanese swords registered as Important Art Objects], vol. 2, (Tokyo, Seishosha, 1985), cat. no. 205
Manno Art Museum, Manno korekushon senshu [Selected Masterpieces of the Manno Collection] (Osaka, Manno Kinen Bunka Zaidan, 1988), cat. no. 182

Exhibited

With original certificate of registration as a Juyo bijutsuhin [Important Art Object] on 13 April 1949

Special notice

Prospective buyers of this lot should be aware that as an 'Important Art Object' this Lot cannot, as matters presently stand, leave Japan. Successful buyers are themselves responsible for registering their acquisition of the lot with the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Japanese Government within 14 days of the date of the sale. This lot is subject to Japanese consumption tax at 5% on the hammer price and is zero rated for United Kingdom VAT.

Further details

Prospective buyers of this Lot should be aware that as an 'Important Art Object' this Lot cannot, as matters presently stand, leave Japan. Successful buyers are themselves responsible for registering their acquisition of the Lot with the the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Japanese Government within 14 days of the date of the sale. This Lot is subject to Japanese consumption tax at 5 on the hammer price and is zero rated for United Kingdom VAT

Lot Essay

Although this sword was substantially shortened at some time after its manufacture, resulting in the loss of the signature, it is universally accepted as the work of Yukimitsu, whose surviving reliably signed works are all tanto [dirks]. Yukimitsu was an important pupil of Shintogo Kunimitsu, founder of the celebrated Soshu tradition of blade manufacture which originated in Sagami province, the location of the new military capital established at Kamakura in 1185, under the enthusiastic patronage of the Hojo regents, the effective rulers of Japan. The style was further developed by Masamune, sometimes said to have been Yukimitsu's son and perhaps the most famous of all Japanese swordsmiths, but even at this early stage in the development of Soshu blades we see such highly distinctive features as chikei, passages of crystalline structure in the polished side of the blade due to the careful combination of softer and harder grades of steel, as well as very fine jinie. The outline of the hamon [tempered pattern] shows great skill in the production of minute nie and also exhibits such other dynamic effects as kinsuji and inazuma ['lightning'; lines of nie]; the overall effect, however, is quiet and restrained, unlike later fourteenth-century Soshu blades.

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