Lot 21
21
A Bizen Katana
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
A Bizen Katana

SIGNED BIZEN KUNI YOSHII SHIN, NANBOKUCHO PERIOD (14TH CENTURY)

Details
A Bizen Katana
Signed Bizen kuni Yoshii Shin, Nanbokucho Period (14th Century)
Sugata [configuration]: honzukuri, iori-mune, chu-kissaki, shallow curve

Kitae [forging pattern]: tight ko-itame, midare-utsuri

Hamon [tempering pattern]: ko-gunome and midare of nioi

Boshi [tip]: ko-maru with hakikake

Nakago [tang]: suriage, two holes

Habaki [collar]: double, silvered copper

In shirasaya [plain wood scabbard]: with sayagaki attributing it to ko-yoshii, late Kamakura, Showa 29-nen 3-gatsu by Honma Kunzan (1954)

Nagasa [length from tip to beginning of tang]: 67cm.

Sori [curvature]: 1.9cm.

Motohaba [width at start of tempered edge]: 3cm.

Sakihaba [width before tip]: 1.9cm.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

This is an early example of Yoshii Bizen work with typical regular kogunome and utsuri which looks like elongated reflections of the gunome. The remainder of the unrecorded personal name commencing with the character 'Shin' has been cut away, but it has been conjectured that the smith might have been either Tamenori or Kagenori, who were father and son, active around the Eitoku era (1381-1383).1

1 Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai, English Edition, vol. 29 (Summer 1985), p. 18

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