Strong wide wakizashi done in the Soshu style of swordmaking. This wide blade has a very thick nie deki soshu den notare hamon., done in the Satsuma Soshu den. Large nie with kinsuji make up the hamon with some gunome ashi. The boshi is an extended chu with kinsuji visible that is very nicely done. The jigane is a tight ko itame with lots of ji nie in places. The sword is signed by Motohira, avery prominent Satsuma smith, but the signature is obscured by rust pitting in places, so it is very hard to determine if the signature is good or not. Our feeling is the signature is suspicious, but cannot be ruled out completely until it has been to Japan.
The mounting is very attractive; the black wrapped handle has a nice set of shibuichi fuchi kashira with finely done katakiribori that is famous from the Ichinomiya school. The fuchi kashira are signed Heianjo Ju Ichinomiya Kenryushi Nagayoshi (Kao). The menuki are very nice high quality shakudo and gold kiri mons done in the Goto style. The tsuba is a nice solid silver plate with fine katakiribori of a prancing horse signed Furukawa Shi (Furukawa school) they were very famous for fine katakiribori as well. Design is well cut and very professional. The scabbard is outstanding, with a beautiful dragon done in high relief lacquer. The finely subtle cloud background is also impressive as well. This is a style that was seen in the Bakumatsu period as a type of high end fashion statement. The iron kojiri adds a nice finishing touch to the mount. |
