Important Japanese Swords and Armour from the Paul L. Davidson Collection
Important Japanese Swords and Armour from the Paul L. Davidson Collection
A tachi | Signed Bizen Osafune ju Kage… (Kage… a resident of Osafune in Bizen Province) | Kamakura period, dated Shochu ninen kinoto ushi sangatsu (3rd month of the Wood Ox year 1325)
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March 25, 03:03 PM GMT
Estimate
14,000 - 18,000 USD
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Description
A tachi
Signed Bizen Osafune ju Kage… (Kage… a resident of Osafune in Bizen Province)
Kamakura period, dated Shochu ninen kinoto ushi sangatsu (3rd month of the Wood Ox year 1325)
Sugata [configuration]: slender shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, deep koshi-zori, chu-kissaki
Kitae [forging pattern]: tightly packed itame with some mokume mixed in, ji-nie attached
Hamon [tempering pattern]: ko-choji hamon, plenty ashi and yo, some tobiyaki, the narrow nioguchi is subdued
Boshi [tip]: rounded maru-boshi with turnback
Horimono [carvings]: the omote with gomabashi, the ura with deep groove and parallel narrow groove
Habaki [collar]: single clad, gold on copper, chased and engraved
Nakago [tang]: o-suriage, machi-okuri, three mekugi-ana
In shirasaya [plain wood scabbard]
Koshirae [mount]: the later itomaki no tachi koshirae decorated in gold hiramaki-e, takamaki-e and keuchi with paulownia crests (kiri mon), on a densely sprinkled aogai ground, shakudo nanako fittings carved and engraved with further paulownia, Edo period (19th century)
Nagasa [length from kissaki to machi]: 72.7 cm., 28⅝ in.
Saki-haba [width at the yokote]: 2.1 cm., ¾ in.
Moto-haba [width at the machi]: 2.7 cm., 1 in.
The province of Bizen has been known since antiquity as an iron producing region. In the Heian period (794-1185) anthology of poems, the Collection of Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin wakashu, circa 920), the province is already associated with iron smelting:
Furnaces form a sash
around Nakayama of Kibi
the clarity of sound
rivers in the narrow valleys
Maganefuku Kibi no
Nakayama tai ni seru
hoso tanikawa no
oto no sayakesa
Kibi is the ancient name for the provinces of Bizen, Bitchu and Bingo.