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Hamon : Nie deki midare with togari and some gunome mixed in. The hamon is brilliantly full of hataraki. There are thick bright inazuma, fine kinsuji and a great deal of sunagashi. Ko nie can be seen everywere and there is a sprinkling of ara nie.
Boshi : Togari with kaen at the tip and a long kaeri. Sunagashi and ko-nie are abundant.
Kitae : Masame hada in the text book style of this smith. It is hada tachi in style and has more of the free spirit of Koto than the strict masame of later times. There is strong chikei in the ji following the masame grain as well as areas that are streaked with yubashiri.
Koshirae : This fine blade is accompanied by nice late Edo mounts. The fuchi kashira are Higo in style as well as the kojiri. These three components are showing some use. The menuki are nice kinko of boars. The original tsuka ito is well intact and the quality of the same is excellent. The lacquer on the saya is in wonderful condition. However, there is a minor crack near the kozuka opening. A nice Kozuka with a floral motif is also included. The tsuba is very charming and is signed "Yamashiro no kuni Fushimi ju Kaneiye"
Functionality: The political climate in Aizu was often very martial even in peaceful times. For example, the samurai of Aizu has the responsibility of patrolling the coasts to provide defense against attack after the Russians invaded Hokkaido in 1806. Matsudaira Katamori of the Aizu clan was appointed protector of Kyoto in 1862. Being responsible for the security of an entire city, his samurai were ready for battle and the sword was alot more than a status symbol. There was the Aizu campaign in this same period in which Sendai sent 3000 troops to attack Aizu and also the famous White Tiger incident. The point of my brief history lesson is that Kanesada made swords for actual battle in harsh times. He had an reputation for making blades that performed very well on the battle field and his works were highly sought after. In fact, many of the leading generals of the Aizu clan used swords by him. We can see that there is an abundance of nie hataraki in the ji-ba of this blade. The hard nie partials "stand up" and therefore reduce friction and drag in the cut. The blade is thick and strong and was made for the serious business of warfare. For those who may be new to Nihonto, let me lake an important note about judging the function of the sword. The functionality of an antique blade must be judged with aesthetics. In other words, empirically, by the properties we can see in the sword. They should never be used or tested for cutting ability.
This is a wonderful opportunity to own a top quality work complete with period koshirae and papered by Kentaro Yoshikawa. It is important to study blades that are typical for a given group in terms of their ji-ha. The blade at hand can be highly recommended in this regard.
$3950
nihontocraft@bellsouth.net
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