Hi I have recently bought three katana's from a Japanese sword seller. A Munetsugu that is a straight sword signed Bizen No Suke Munetsugu. A Nio Mitsukiyo dated 1550 with NBTHK Hozon papers. And a Yoshimori katana? The seller gave me some info about the sword. I have my doubts about the date, early edo period 1640.And about the name. Can someone tell me what the signature says about this? Thanks in advance! Greetings, Ed
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Mori?
Which kanji is the "Mori" supposed to be?
Pete
Kanji
The characters on the bottom, the first of them is Yoshi the second I dont know, maybe you can tell me?
Greetings Ed
Yoshi-something
I thought that your original post said that it was "Yoshimori".
But I don't see the "Mori". There's not enough visible (at least in the pictures) to tell what it is.
The first kanji looks like seki/ishi, as in "Sekishuu".
Pete
Kanji
Hi Pete
Thank you for helping me.
I attached a new picture in which I wrote the kanji that I see in the tang.
I can't find any swordsmith on this index with this kanji.
Maybe you can tell me more?
Greetings Ed
Yoshimori? Yoshimura?
Hi Ed,
The first 2 characters read 'Sekishū' 石州 (Iwami province) reasonably clearly.
The seller must have had 林 as MORI in mind when reading the signature. This character in the name is very hard to read using photos. Maybe it is 林 indeed or maybe not. If so, the only smith called Yoshimori who signed like that is this one. There is almost nothing known about him. Nihonto Meikan lists him as 'era and province unknown' [1].
I also think that the sword looks older than early Edo. Shinogi line is very high and nakago looks older too. My guess would be early 1500s.
There is another reading though. Maybe it's not MORI 林 but MURA 村. And in this case there is also just one smith with this name known, from Bitchu province. There is no mention of times when he was active, but being from Aoe group means Koto period.
Regards,
Stan
References
New picture
Hi Stan
Thank you for helping me.
I attached a new picture in which I wrote the kanji that I see in the tang.
Picture name is yoshi.jpg
Regards,
Ed
Yoshimori? Yoshimura?
Hi Stan,
Maybe a wild guess!
Maybe it is a sword of the Yoshii school.吉井
There is a photo of the certificate of the sword.
Am searching now for weeks. If you have the time can you help me.
Best regards,
Ed
Yoshimori
Hi Ed,
The cert seems to have Yoshimori 吉林 in the signature. No, I don't think it has anything to do with Yoshii school.
Regards,
Stan
not Sekishuu
I finally had my wife look at the pictures.
She agrees that the name is "Yoshi" and "Hayashi", which could be read as Yoshimori or perhaps Yoshibayashi.
However, the first two are almost certainly NOT Sekishuu.
The kanji appear to be MIGI and SEKI. This is confirmed by the hand-written paper - the 2nd kanji is a hand-written form of SEKI (a simplification, because the real SEKI has a lot of strokes and is a bit tedious).
The writing on the kantei paper should be taken seriously, because it was written by someone who (presumably) has a lot of kantei experience, and (presumably) they were holding the blade in their hands when they studied it, so they could have a chance to see subtle details that don't show up in photos. So, that person's interpretation of the kanji is worth a lot more than most folks, and what he wrote appears to be "Migi Seki".
We couldn't find any explanation for what "MIGI SEKI" means. Googling (in Japanese) didn't turn up anything likely. It is possible that it is an old place-name near the famous Seki location (just guessing)...
Pete
Re
Thanks! Stan.
Regards,
Ed
Re
Thanks Pete and thank your wife for helping me!
I will use your info to search further.
Regards,
Ed