A Bushu shinshinto wakizashi | Signed Sakuyo Bakkashi Hosokawa Masayoshi | Edo period, dated 1851

Property from an Important Private American Collection

A Bushu shinshinto wakizashi

Signed Sakuyo Bakkashi Hosokawa Masayoshi (Hosokawa Masayoshi, a government retainer of Sakushu province) and kokuin [impressed seal]

Edo period, dated Kaei yon kanotoi nen chushu oju Tominaga Hanko kore wo tsukuru (By special request, made for Tominaga Hanko in mid-autumn 1851)

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

Kitae [forging pattern]: Ko itame-hada, masame hada

Hamon [tempering pattern]: broad midare chōji rich in nioi and nie

Boshi [tip]: Midarekomi

Nakago [tang]: ubu, one mekugi-ana, flat kuri-jiri

Habaki [collar]: Silver, single clad

In shirasaya [plain wood scabbard]

Koshirae [mount]: the ribbed lacquer koshirae decorated with bands of black lacquer and nashiji, the menuki in the form of a bird perched on a bowl beside a ladle

Nagasa [length from kissaki to machi]: 51.8 cm., 20⅜ in.

Sori [curvature]: 1.8 cm., ¾ in.

Saki-haba [width at the yokote]: 1.9 cm., ¾ in.

Moto-haba [width at the machi]: 2.7 cm., 1 in.

Accompanied by a certificate of registration as Hozon Token [Sword Worthy of Preservation], no. 3012867 issued by the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai [Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Art Sword], dated Heisei 28 (2016).