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Sayagaki on Koto Blade

Submitted by petersan on Sat, 2015-01-03 18:04

Hello all,

I have a blade in old shirasaya with writing on it but difficult to translate, something about Koto era or so.
I would be thankful for any help,
regards
Peter G.

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#1Submitted by saipan59 on Sun, 2015-01-04 22:50.

red lacquer

It says "KOTOu, HONZAYA SHUNURI", which means roughly "KOTOu, this SAYA is red-lacquered".
So, it doesn't say anything about the blade except that it is a KOTOu (old sword).

Pete
#2Submitted by saipan59 on Mon, 2015-01-05 01:59.

shunuri

Thinking again, I suspect that what the sayagaki is saying may be: "The original saya for this koto blade is red-lacquered". Perhaps as a way to identify the correct koshirae for this blade, which is currently being stored in a shirasaya (which is what you have). Since a freshly-polished blade generally gets a new shirasaya for protection, this sayagaki may have been written by the polisher to identify which original saya goes with it.

Pete