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Hamon : Nie deki suguha. The nioi guchi is soft. There is abundant sunagashi inside the hamon. In some areas the hamon is completely filled with sunagashi all the way to edge of the blade.
Kitae : Itame nagareu that is clear and prominent hadamono jigane. There is masame-hada near the ha. The jigane is dark and chikei as well as ji-nie can be seen.
Boshi : Swept form and ko-maru with abundant nie. There is prominent sunagashi creating a strong hakikake boshi.
About this sword : This is a wonderful old tachi of the Ko-Uda tradition. Ko-Uda is the term used by shinsa teams to specify works of the Uda school made between late Kamakura (Bunpo 1317-1319) - Nanbokucho (1333-1394) times. This blade exhibits the distinctive Hokkoku-mono hada of the school as well as the dark jigane color that Ko Uda are known for. Early works of this school show strong Yamato characteristics and that is the case with this example. We can observe Yamato kantei points of a high shinogi, a wide shinogi-ji, the boshi that has so much sunagashi that it reminds of Shikkake's "old man's beard" style and masame hada near the ha. The highly active sunagashi of this blade and well tempered jigane are especially enjoyable. Overall this sword can be recommended as being idealy representative of the Ko-Uda school. This can be further stressed by the fact that it received the same attribution of "Ko Uda" in both 2007 as well as 1976. An old folded-over mei is missing from the nakago. The patina of the nakago is quite wonderful and it appears to be a Tensho suriage. It is very difficult to find a Tokubetsu Hozon katana from the 1300's available and even more-so in this price range. It is in nice old polish and accompanied by a gold foil habaki, shira saya, 1972 Tokubetsu Kicho paper and a 2007 Tokubetsu Hozon paper.
Please reference the article : "Ura Nihon no Toko" by Yoshikawa Kentaro to learn more about the Ko Uda school.
Price: $6500
nihontocraft@bellsouth.net
