Nihonto Club

Biography and lineage

Emperor Go-Toba (後鳥羽天皇 Go-Toba-tennō) (August 6, 1180 – March 28, 1239) was the 82nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1183 through 1198. Among the emperor's numerous interests there was his passion for making swords. Following his abdication in 1198 Gotoba has summoned 13 leading swordsmiths to Kyoto for his personal instruction and perfection of Nihonto. These smiths were then called Goban Kaji. It is said Gotoba's skills were equal and in some cases better than his teachers'. The majority of the smiths came from Awataguchi school of Yamashiro and Ichimonji school of Bizen. As a result, Go-Toba's sword seem to be influenced by the styles of these two schools, with Bizen influence being more prominent.

Workmanship and style [1]

Shape and construction

Shape is of the early Kamakura period. The sori is high but made a little firmer than those of the Heian period and the width of the blade is slightly wider than those of the Heian period.

Hamon

There are two types, narrow and wide. Those worked in the wide pattern are in the nioi style with slight nie worked into the nioi and the overall pattern of the nioi is o-choji midare with juka-choji. The nioi is very deep and the nie within the pattern are clustered together around the nioi forming ashi, inazuma and kunsuji.

The hada in the ha tends to be a little coarse.

Those worked in the narrow pattern are suguba-choji or ko-choji midare in nie. The nie is especially deep or has depth with such workings in nie as kinsuji and inazuma showing profusely. Within the nie, the nioi clusters together forming ashi as well as inazuma and kunsuji.

Boshi

The pattern of the boshi is a continuation of the hamon ending in a slight kaeri. Other types are in yakizume, nie-kuzure or kaen.

Jitetsu and hada

The steel having been very carefully worked, the hada is extremely fine with ō-hada showing in places. Ji-utsuri effect shows and there are chikei resulting from the ji-utsuri.

Nakago

If the sword has not been shortened then in all such cases the nakago is long and has sori with the tip having a more pronounced sori. There will be kijimomo occasionally. At the edge of the rusted area of the nakago there is a 16 petal chrysanthemum seal (kiku) carved in place of his signature. The dimension of the kiku is little under 1.5cm [2]. However, it should be noted that although the chrysanthemum is very crudely carved, it is very characteristic of his style.

It is said that there are 24 and even 32 petal chrysanthemum and also a chrysanthemum on a branch are sometimes carved, but none of the latter seems to have survived. There are around 15 swords in existence signed Kiku saku, but only two are considered to be true works of Gotoba [1].

When being in exile on Oki Island, Gotoba was using a secret mei Sukehide 助秀 with a 17 petal chrysanthemum [3]. There are no extant examples of this signature [1].

References