Beautiful example of an Oei style Bizen blade. Bizen swords from this period are very sought after for their quality and gorgeous temperlines. This blade shows all of those traits, the excellent gunome choji midare is very well done. The addition of the midare utsuri almost makes one think this blade is much older. The basic characteristics really resemble that of a middle Kamakura Bizen sword. This shows how talented Norimitsu was at making the mainline Bizen tradition. If it wasn’t for the classic Oei shape, this blade would be very difficult in a kantei contest. The strong presence of the midare utsuri shows the quality of this blade. The jigane is also well mixed Bizen mokume that is totally textbook! The boshi is a notare komi and very healthy. A very well cut bohi is cut into the blade and is original as one can see the end in the tang. For those that want a very classic Bizen blade, in a original 1800’s mounting, this is the piece! The mounts are very nice, very dignified and in good condition. The tsuka is an old green wrap with shibuichi fuchi kashira of waterfowl and plants. The kaeritsuno and soritsuno also match with the same design and material. The menuki are a nice set of gold dragons, not sure if they are solid gold or not, but the carving is done very well and they look to be of high quality. The tsuba is a mokume iron plate most likely from the Myochin School. The scabbard is really nice, with the original lacquer done in a reddish black mottled pattern. A large shibuichi kojiri completes the package. One very interesting aspect of this blade, is the addition of the signature done in the style known as “gaku mei” or inlaid signature. Sometimes when a sword has been greatly shortened, the person who did the shortening will go to great lengths to inlay the signature in the new tang to preserve the information. Unfortunately along with the honest ones, there are many faked gakumei. This blade has a NTHK paper that was issued by the Yoshikawa group in Japan, not the states. |
