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THE TOSOGU BIJUTSUKAN COLLECTION This sale of important swords from the Tosogu Bijutsukan Collection, Tokyo, was mainly formed by the late Mr Aoyama Kokichi, who acquired them in the aftermath of World War II, when hardship forced many families to dispose of their treasures. This was at the time of the formation of the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai in 1948, and the establishment of the right of the individual to buy and sell swords which had been registered as having artistic merit, or being of personal or cultural significance. The registration committee in those early days was chaired by the late Dr Junji Homma, and consisted of recognised sword specialists. Interestingly, those early registration documents often have handwritten attributions and notes relating to the provenance of the swords, and are therefore important records in their own right. These were early days before the kanteisho system was fully established. Mr Aoyama was evidently close to Dr Homma, since some swords in the collection have sayagaki [authentication inscriptions] written by Dr Homma at his request. He would have needed the highest level of introduction to enable him to have collected so many fine blades. Other swords have earlier sayagaki, of the Edo and Meiji period. Seven swords in the Museum's collection are designated Important Cultural Properties and a further seven National Treasures (four of which were recorded as being in the Aoyama Collection at the time of the original re-designation of the pre-war list in 1951). The swords in this sale are largely representative pieces of the schools of the koto [Old Swords] era, dating from the Heian (794-1185) and early Kamakura (1185-1333) period up to the beginning of the Edo period (1600-1868) and the shinto [New Swords] era, with signed and unsigned pieces of the finest quality and importance by some of the greatest Japanese sword smiths.

A Mino School Katana

SIGNED KANEMOTO, MUROMACHI PERIOD (16TH CENTURY)

細節

A Mino School Katana
Signed Kanemoto, Muromachi Period (16th Century)
Sugata [configuration]: honzukuri, iori-mune, toriizori, chu-kissaki

Kitae [forging pattern]: itame with jinie

Hamon [tempering pattern]: sanbon-sugi of nie with ashi, inazuma, kinsuji

Boshi [tip]: midare with yakizume

Nakago [tang]: ubu, one hole

In shirasaya [plain wood scabbard]

Nagasa [length from tip to beginning of tang]: 65cm.

Sori [curvature]: 2.1cm.

Motohaba [width at start of tempered edge]: 3.1cm.

Sakihaba [width before tip]: 1.9cm.

出版

The Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Mino no Meito to Tosogu (Tokyo, 1998), cat. no.6, p.6
Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai, Token Bijutsu, English Edition, vol. 37 (Summer 1988), p. 28

展覽

Mino no Meito to Tosogu [Masterpieces of Swords and Fittings of Mino], The Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Tokyo, October 1998

注意事項

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

拍品專文

The smith is the second generation, known as 'Magoroku', the best-known of several generations of smiths of the Magoroku family from Seki in Mino Province who signed Kanemoto. His work is recognizable by the distinctive hamon known as sambon sugi [triple cryptomeria], resembling a forest profile with groups of three tree-tops having one higher than the two immediately surrounding. The sambon sugi hamon and the name Kanemoto continued from around the 1520s, when the second generation was in his prime, into the Edo Period, but the hamon of later generations is more regular and contrived than that of this smith. His swords are acknowledged as saijo owaza mono, the highest of several grades of cutting efficacy.