An Echizen katana | Signed Echizen Yasutsugu kore o tsukuru, nanban tetsu (made by Yasutsugu from Echizen, with foreign steel) and with aoi mon [leaves of wild ginger crest] | Edo period, 17th century

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Lot Closed

November 2, 02:49 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collector in Los Angeles

An Echizen katana

Signed Echizen Yasutsugu kore otsukuru, nanban tetsu (made by Yasutsugu from Echizen, with foreign steel) and with aoi mon [leaves of wild ginger crest]

Edo period, 17^th century

Sugata [configuration]: Shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, tori-zori, chu-kissaki

Kitae [forging pattern]: Ko-mokume hada, becoming itame in places

Hamon [tempering pattern]: Ko-midare hamon, wider to the monouchi, in ko-nie deki and also nioi, ending with a yakidashi

Boshi [tip]: Suguha with very short kaeri

Nakago [tang]: Kengyo nakago-jiri, signed Echizen Yasutsugu kore o tsukuru, nanban tetsu (made by Yasutsugu from Echizen, with foreign steel) and with aoi mon [leaves of wild ginger crest]

Habaki [collar]: Copper-gilt clad

In shirasaya [plain wood scabbard] with sayagaki by Dr. Kanzan Sato and with kao

Nagasa [length from kissaki to machi]: 54.6 cm., 21⅛ in.

Saki-haba [width at the yokote]: 2.1 cm., ¾ in.

Moto-haba [width at the machi]: 2.9 cm., 1⅛ in.

Originating from a family line of swordsmiths in Omi Province, the first Yasutsugu established himself in Echizen as a retainer of Matsudaira Hideyasu (1574-1607), son of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616). Yasutsugu’s efforts garnered him the privilege to use the character derived from the shogun’s name, yasu, as the first character for his own name. His evident favour with his lords further extended to the right to engrave the tang of his blades with the shogunate’s leaves of wild ginger crest (aoi mon). The later generations of the school alternately worked both in Echizen and Edo. Inscribed on the blade is nanban tetsu [lit. southern barbarian steel], referring to the metal brought over by European merchants in the sixteenth century, and later by the Dutch who held exclusive trade rights with Japan during the Edo period.