Archived Nihonto.ca (Yuhindo.com): Norishige Tanto

Etchu Norishige

This tanto has a registration document tracing it to the 1951 registration year. This was the first year that swords were registered, and the method was that the daimyo and noble families were given the right in this first year to register swords in order to set an example for all Japan. This sword was registered #416 of all swords registered in Japan, which is very early… in one of the first few collections it would seem.

With the antique box, antique bag (something almost never seen), and high class koshirae, there is also evidence that the tanto was revered and cared for well in a good collection and handed down in a very complete state having lost none of its associated items. Since the mon on the bag matches those on the koshirae, they can be seen to be a matched set.

The mon featured is a variation of the Wisteria mon, known as Fuji. This mon is associated with the Fujiwara, who are the primary noble family and had 97 branch families mentioned in the Hawley mon reference. In partcular, this mon was in use by the Kuge (Royal family) Uratsuji, and the Shinjo family.

A single mon by itself is not usually enough information to determine the historical provenance of a blade, but in this case with a 1951 registration document indicating a prestigious collection and a mon in use by two high profile families, this may be enough data to begin to triangulate the provenance. The last item that needs to be added is to translate the registration to find which office it was registered in. Should this coincide with the residence of either of these families, it may be enough to form a solid basis for an argument to place the tanto within one of those collections.

For more on Norishige himself, check the listing here: Norishige

Fujishiro has written:

He is in the Saeki Uji, and lived in Nei-gun, Mifuku. He is called Kurosaburo, and is said to have at first been in the Yoshihiro Mon of this same kuni, and to have later moved to Soshu and become a pupil of Masamune. There is a theory that faith cannot be placed in either one of these. Even when viewed from the point of the era, Norishige appeared before Yoshihiro, and contrary to questions one may have regarding the works of Masamune and Yoshihiro, those of Norishige are superb. Many of his blades have the nengo entered, and the era is accurately known. Namely, it is the twenty year period of Enkyo, Showa, Bunpo, Gen’o, Genko, Shochu and Karyaku. There are many takenokozori or musori tanto, jitetsu is o-itame with a remarkable hada. Hamon is ko-midare, gonome midare or suguba with dense nie. The reason the basic style is not the so-called Soshu Den style of sakizori tanto is that his time was before that of Masamune.The reason that tanto are predominant in Norishige is that this was the trend of the times, and it was the same with Rai Kuniyoshi, Shintogo Kunimitsu, Taima, and the Yasumasa Ha nado.

As for the jitetsu of Norishige, the hamon appeared in the hada and was entwined by the hada with sunanagashi majiri. This is not the sunanagashi which flows like that of the Shinto, and there are many in which the sunanagashi accompanies the itame hada and dances. The swordsmiths of the Koto period tempered blades with a dense nioi and nie, and there is an appraisal of a jitetsu made by Norishige in the Kanto Zuiroku which says, “It can be assumed that this was made with the forging done a relatively few number of times”, and I feel the same way.

Generally, in the event the forging was done a small number of times it becomes a large hada, and in the event the forging is done a large number of times it becomes a small hada. I think that ohara Yasutsuna, and the early period of Ko-Bizen nado coincides with those in which the number of times of forging was fewer, and (the number of forgings) was numerous in the shinto period.