Munetsugu

Description

Katana by Koyama Munetsugu, one of the leading swordsmiths of the late Edo period. According to the original seller, he was born in Shirakawa (Mutsu Province), the third son of Koyama Munehira, served the Matsudaira family of Shirakawa and in 1845 received the honorary title Bizen no Suke. The blade has a nagasa of 71.2 cm and a sori of 1.67 cm, with a slender form and a long kissaki; the jigane is mokume with ō-itame and pronounced chikei, which the seller compares to Norishige and considers unusual in this smith's work, and the hamon is a ko-gunome midare in ko-nie with ko-ashi, yō and kinsuji. The seller ranks it as jōjō-saku within Munetsugu's output and states that it shows no forging flaws. The nakago is ubu, with one mekugi-ana, signed Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu and dated to the first month of Kaei 2 (1849), as the photographs show. It has a gilt habaki. The koshirae, described but not dated by the seller, has an iron tsuba with chrysanthemums, a shakudō nanako fuchi-kashira with chrysanthemums and menuki of the same motif; the photographs show a textured dark green lacquered saya and a green-wrapped tsuka. The seller also mentions a shirasaya that does not appear in the photographs. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate, legible in the photograph of the origami.