SIGNED NORISHIGE, KAMAKURA/NANBOKUCHO PERIOD (14TH CENTURY)

Details

An Etchu Tanto
Signed Norishige, Kamakura/Nanbokucho Period (14th Century)
Sugata [configuration]: hira-zukuri [with flat sides], takenoko-zori [bamboo-shoot curve], iori-mune [shallow peaked back]

Kitae [forging pattern]: itame [wood grain]

Hamon [tempering pattern]: ko-notare [with small undulations] and gunome [small pointed curves], made up of nie [hard metal granules], kinsuji [bright curved threadlike areas] and sunagashi [thick lines of nie]

Boshi [tip]: midare [irregular temper line], slightly divided in two on the outside

Nakago [tang]: ubu [unaltered], furisode [slightly upswept] katte sagari yasurime [diagonal file marks sloping towards the back of the tang], two mekugi-ana [holes for retaining pegs], one of them double, kuri-jiri [rounded heel], signed Norishige

Accompanied by a shirasaya [plain wood scabbard] with inscription by Sato Kanzan

Nagasa [length from tip to beginning of tang]: 9 3/8in.(23.8cm.)

Wakasa-nuri scabbard with a black-lacquered sharkskin hilt wrapped with leather bindings, a pair of menuki [hilt-fittings] each formed as a Buddhist wheel over a bar, shakudo [copper-gold alloy] fuchi-kashira [collar and pommel] edged with gilt bars, small katchushi [armourer's] tsuba [hand-guard], shakudo nanakoji kozuka [small knife with granulated copper-gold alloy handle] with ivy crest in gilt, slight crack to lacquer; with fitted wood box

Provenance

Dr. Walter A. Compton
The Sanke branch of the Tokugawa family, daimyo of Mito

Literature

Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai [Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Art Sword], Juyo token to zufu [Albums of important swords], vol. 23; Sebastian Izzard (ed.), One Hundred Masterpieces from the Collection of Dr. Walter A. Compton: Japanese Sword-Fittings and Accoutrements (New York, 1992), cat. no. 30

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Famous as one of the Masamune juttetsu [Ten Great Pupils of Masamune], Norishige is credited with taking the Soshu style of blade manufacture to new heights, producing principally tanto. One characteristic of the steel surface on his blades is the matsukawa hada grain, said to resemble pine-bark. This tanto displays the slight uchizori [reverse curvature near the point] typical of certain Soshu smiths and Norishige in particular, together with a long kissaki [point], producing a shape known as takenoko-zori from its resemblance the curve of a bamboo shoot. A National Treasure tanto by Norishige, a prized blade of Marquis Hosokawa now in the Eisei Bunko Foundation, is extremely similar to this blade in its shape, forging and tempering.

More from JAPANESE ART AND DESIGN

View All