Japanese Sword Izumi no Kami Kane???

[paulj]

I have this military mounted old katana with an aluminum scabbard in my collection for decades and have been stumped by the signature. The tang has been shortened and the last characters of the signature are gone. I'm reading "Izumi no Kami Kane" and then possibly the top bit of "Nosada." Any thoughts? Blade is about 68.5 cm from notch to tip.

[paulj]

Mei and hamon detail

[GHP]

Was there one named Kanenao? The left-over portion looks like "nao" would fit.

和泉守兼直

[paulj]

From what I can find, there are Kanenao smiths but none with a Izumi no Kami title.

[Bob Coleman]

possibly Izumi no Kami Minamoto Kanesada

[GHP]

possibly Izumi no Kami Minamoto Kanesada

Maybe! Wish the bottom of the kanji was still there. This is what it would look like in kanji:

和泉守兼貞

Izumi no Kami Minamoto Kanesada
See here



--Guy

[Bob Coleman]

Guy-
You missed the Minamoto kanji.
The blade appears to have a course jigane, which is a feature of smiths working in Musashi(Edo).

[GHP]

Guy-
You missed the Minamoto kanji.
The blade appears to have a course jigane, which is a feature of smiths working in Musashi(Edo).

Hi Bob,

I intentionally left out the Minamoto kanji because it is not engraved on the tang example Paul posted. If one opens the linked page in my previous post (Index of Japanese Swordsmiths A~M), he'll see that our kanji sample is attributed to the 3rd generation Kanesada; the "Minamoto Kanesada" signature is done by the 4th generation. [That is, *IF* that last kanji was ~sada.]

I'm not well-versed in these arcane sciences -- did I make a boo-boo?

--Guy

[Brian Robinson]

Correct Guy, no Minamoto in the given mei.
If one looks on page 94 of Markus's free Nihonto Compendium here: https://markussesko.files.wordpress....pendium-e1.pdf you can get a list of all the smiths with titles.
Btw, everyone with an interest in Nihonto should have this great resource at hand.

Izumi no Kami gives the following possibilities:

Kanefuji (兼藤), Eiroku (永禄, 1558-1570), Mino
Kanehisa (兼久), Tenshō (天正, 1573-1592), Mino
Kanemichi (兼陸), Kyōhō (享保, 1716-1736), Mino/Yamashiro
Kanesada (兼定), 2nd gen , Eishō (永正, 1504-1521), Mino
Kanesada (兼定), 11st gen , Bunkyū (文久, 1861-1864), Ōshū
Kanesada (兼定), Genna (元和, 1615-1624), Mino
Kanesada (兼定), Kan´ei (寛永, 1624-1644), Settsu
Kanesada (兼定), Kanbun (寛文, 1661-1673), Musashi
Kanesada (兼貞), 3rd gen , Eishō (永正, 1504-1521), Mino
Kanesada (兼貞), 4th gen , Daiei (大永, 1521-1528), Mino
Kaneshige (兼重), 1st gen , Shōhō (正保, 1644-1648), Musashi
Kanetomo (兼友), Tenbun (天文, 1532-1555), Mino
Kaneyoshi (兼吉), 4th gen , Eishō (永正, 1504-1521), Mino

Kanetomo (KAN2567) or Kaneyoshi looks like a strong possibility based on the left over strokes, with Kanetomo looking the more likely choice since Kaneyoshi signed Nōshū Izumi no Kami Kaneyoshi.

Kanetomo (兼友), Tenbun (天文, 1532-1555), Mino – „Kanetomo“ (兼友), „Izumi no Kami Kanetomo“ (和泉守兼友), San´ami school,
like the Kanetomo mentioned above, he too made a Nanbokuchō-like sugata with an ō-kissaki, the jigane is a standing-out itame mixed with
masame, the hamon is a ko-midare or gunome in nioi- or ko-nie-deki, the yakiba becomes broader at the monouchi

Something to at least narrow it down a bit...

Brian

[paulj]

Thanks for the research and input! I found the Izumi no Kami list and was about to work through it and Brian beat me. His Kanetomo attribution seems plausible given the remaining visible strokes

[GHP]

Correct Guy, no Minamoto in the given mei.
If one looks on page 94 of Markus's free Nihonto Compendium here:

Brian,

Thanks for that pdf -- I didn't have it.

Kanetomo (KAN2567) ... looks like a strong possibility based on the left over strokes, with Kanetomo looking the more likely choice...

I think your assumption regarding Kanetomo is sound -- the residual strokes look to me like the first two stroke of 友 tomo now that you mention it.


--Guy