KOKAJI 's sword studying diary
page 1 ('93)
 
'93 Dec. at a polisher's shop
Yari "Higo-daijo Fujiwara Shimosaka"
It is a short spear.
It is a fine steel of a tight small wood grain layer pattern.
A suguha hamon pattern is naturally irregular and is made of konie.
On the reverse side, mizukage spouts powerfully from the start of hamon and is interesting.
Under it, near the bottom of the neck, a white misty utsuri appears like cloud.
It shows the steps of tempering effect and is more interesting.
The steel colour above the mizukage is a fine blue and below the mizukage is a deeper blue. In other words, above is sky and below is marine.
There is one groove on the centre of the reverse side.

 
'93 Aug. 23rd at the Tokorozawa kantei club
1) Tachi "Tametoshi" (Kobizen), suriage, 2 characters at the end of the tang.
A little large width and a little high shinogi, large curvature of koshi-zori, strong shape.
Fine steel with a little large layer pattern.
The hamon pattern is large suguha outline of komidare and kochoji, made of full of nie and it is bright.
Jifu-utsuri appears as an irregular pattern near the shinogi. It is a little hard to see because of full of jinie on the steel but the border of jifu is very clear.
There are some cutting marks on the back.

 
2) Katana o-suriage mumei attributed to "Rai Kunimitsu" handed down from the Yanagisawa family.
Large width and a little high shinogi, koshi-zori. A wood grain layer pattern seems visible.
The hamon pattern is large suguha outline of kochoji and komidare, well irregular near the tang.
In the middle length of it the hamon becomes silent toward the kissaki.
It is full of konie but not so bright as Tametoshi's. The hamon at the middle length has much nie and uchinoke appears.
The hamon in the kissaki settled sharp as komaru and looks elegant.
The utsuri is a straight pattern along the hamon and a large irregular pattern near the shinogi. Both are not so clear as the Osafune school.

'93 Aug. 8th at the Bushu kantei club
1) Katana o-suriage mumei attributed to "Ichimonji" handed down from the Hachisuka family.
The hamon pattern is large suguha combined with komidare and kochoji, made of calm konie. One large gunome appears on the tachi-omote side.
An irregular patterned utsuri appears well but the area between hamon and utsuri is not so clear because of jinie.
In the hamon area, a layer pattern appears more irregularly than Osafune Kagemitsu.

 
2) Katana "Kanenaga" Mino province, Muromachi period.
The hamon is togari-gunome pattern as arranged sanbon-sugi, made of konie and nie.
The layer pattern becomes straight near the hamon, and sunagashi kinsuji appears on the hamon along the layer.
On the whole, the steel is rough but it is a unique blade.
Grooves are put on the both side with a square end.
  

 
'93 June 26th in a collection of my friend
Katana o-suriage mumei attributed to "Taema" in the Nambokucho period.
It has a little curvature and a high shinogi. It seems to be in Yamato tradition.
The steel is a flowing wood grain layer pattern.
The hamon is suguha and komidare made of nie.
There is a big cutting mark on the back and it has biting enemy's blade edge in it.
This blade is more honest and better than the blade of Norinaga below.
 
'93 June 26th at a kantei game
Katana o-suriage mumei "Norinaga (in the Shikkake school)"  with gold inlay. It is rated to the juyo-bijutsu-hin.
It has a deep curvature and a steady shape.
Steel has a flowing wood grain layer pattern but a different colour steel appears like spots. Therefore the hamon moves very much. A gunome hamon made with nie moves very irregularly and so is in the kissaki.
This blade is very attractive to the eyes but I have a little doubt about its quality. It may be attractive because of its uneven quality of steel and hamon.
 

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