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Hamon : Nie-deki gunome choji midare. The hamon is wide. The nioi-guchi is bright and thick. There are sunagashi and ashi.
Boshi : Active midare-komi with a medium kaeri.
Kitae : Hada-tachi itame hada with ji-nie and chikei. There are tobiyaki and yubashiri.
About this sword : This is an ubu wakizashi by the first generation Yamashiro no Daijo Fujiwara Kunitsugu. The shodai Kunitsugu was active around Genwa (1615-1624). He was the younger brother or the oldest son of Yamato no Daijo Masanori. He was born in the eighth year of Eiroku (1565). He was promoted to the Buddhist priest rank of a hokkyo in 1628 and used the Go of Kotetsu from that time. He passed away one year later in 1629. One theory says that he also studied under the 3rd generation Echizen Kanenori. He is a well regarded smith. He is given the rank of Chu Jo Saku by Fujishiro, vauled at 3.5 million yen in the Tokotaikan and ranked as Wazamono by the Yamada family for the cutting ability of his swords.
This sword was recently polished in Japan by Mr Matsumura. It is a wonderful sashikomi polish that compliments the ambitious and highly active jiba perfectly. It also has a saya-gaki by Tanobe Michihiro. It reads as follows:
"Yamashiro Daijo Fujiwara Kunitsugu
8 kanji zaimei, he is a representative smith of Echizen. Kitae is excellet work as that of Yamato Daijo Masanori and son. He died on the 6th year of Kanei (1629). This blade has the muscular Keisho shinto sugata, high yaki with Gunome mixed, choji, tobiyaki and midare showing the true characteristics of the smith excellently."
This wide and powerful Kunitsugu was from the collection of Dr Walther A. Compton. It was included in the 1992 Christie's auction of the Compton estate. This sword was in part 2 of the sale and was lot 269 on page 174 and 175. Please see photos below of the auction catalog and its pages. The estimate for this sword was listed at $10,000-$15,000. Dr Comptom acquired this blade from the Donnin Arms museum in Miami Florida. The 1968 Tokubetsu Kicho paper shows Dr. Compton's name in Japanese as the person who submitted this blade for shinsa. It was later submitted again to the NBTHK for modern papers and received Tokubetsu Hozon rank. Also, this Kunitsugu was published in the book, “Japanese Swords from American Collections Volume I”. It is featured on pg 70 and 71 of. Please see the photo of the pages below. Lastly, it is accompanied by a silk storage bag from the Compton sale. An ubu, zaimei, early shinto wakizashi by a well regarded maker, in full polish with Tokubetsu Kicho papers, Tokubetsu Hozon papers, sayagaki by Tanobe Michihiro and an impressive provenance.
$11,200
