Teruhiro Wakiz ashi
S0218
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
A massive, well mounted, ubu, katakiriba wakizashi signed, Harima no Kami Teruhiro. Katakiriba (hirazukure on one side a chisel edge on the other), iroi mune. Hawatare: 1 shaku 3 sun 6 bu 6 rin (41.4 cm or 16.3"). Motohaba: 3.63 cm. Kasane: 6.8 mm. Gunome midare, togare, tobiyaki, fine ha nie, kisuji, nado. The polisher chose to not accentuate the tobiyaki leave it subdued. Itame nagare with mokume and masa mixed in, ji nie, chikei, nado. Boshi is a slightly pointed ko maru, with a long kaeri. There is a futatsuhi and mitsubi. The nakago is ubu with three mekugiana. The blade is in good polish, with the exception of a few small scratches in one area from being carelessly handled (see image). There are no kanteisho.
The Edo koshirae is in very good condition. The saya is black with red stippling. The pocket for the rarely seen Okozuka is in reddish brown lacquer with a pattern of wavy lines. The Okozuka is unfortunately missing. The koiguchi and kojiri are patterned copper. The hamadashi tsuba is plain iron with a small mimi and shakudo sekigane, slight damage as shown. The deeply waisted tsuka is wrapped in lacquered three string ito. The fine shakudo and gold utorii menuki are wrapped to be displayed. The shakudo is a much richer and deeper black than in the pictures. The massive fuchi and kashira are iron, carved and inlaid, with gold and copper. An iron fudog and her copper pup, steam and tree on the fuchi, and a full face fudog on the kashira. As per Robert Haynes: a wonderful tsuka. The menuki are very old, probably Muromachi, Tachibana mon, which is rarely seen. The fuchi-kashira are very early Hamono, and has both male and female fudogs. This was a very expensive mount, and was likely worn by someone with a great deal of power.
The first generation Teruhiro came from Mino and was a descendant of Seki Kanetsune. He initially signed Kanetomo, using two different tomo kanji. The entered the Myoju mon, and later served Fukushima Masanori, changing his name to Teruhiro. There were several generations after the third, but their work is scarce. The first generation worked around Keicho (1596 - 1615), the second Kenei (1624-1644 ), and the third around Kambun (1661 - 1673). While all three were important smiths, their craftsmanship declined with successive generations. One of the key kantei points for the first three generations is how the 作 kanji is written, which is unfortunately not included in this signature. References do not show the shodai signing this way, while the second and third did. Nihon Toko Jiten - Shinto-Hen, Fujishiro Yoshiro & Matsuo, rates the second generation jo saku, and the third chujo saku. Toko Taikan rate the second at seven million yen, and the third at three million, five hundred thousand yen. Nihonto Taikan rates each with a double triangle, especially artistic shinto smiths.
Nidai Sandai
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