
Jeff Olson
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US$30,000 - US$40,000
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Provenance
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), by repute, and thence by descent
The Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Tokyo, sold Christie's, New York, Important Swords from the Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Part II, 29 March 2005, lot 5 (sold after sale)
Exhibited
The Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Tokyo, "Kaikan sanshūnen kinen tokubetsu ten, meimon kinkō Gotō-ke ishizue" (Exhibition Commemorating the Third Anniversary of the Museum's Opening, Important Works from Famous Metalworkers of the Goto Family), September 1997
Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, Tokyo, "Tokubetsu ten, kotō meisaku ten, tōsōgu meihin ten" (Special Exhibition of Masterpieces of Early Swords and Sword Fittings), September 1999
Published
Nihontō Shibata, ed. Meitō kanshō in Tōwa 3, no. 277, 2006.3.1, p.7.
______________. Tokubetsu ten, Kotō meisaku ten, Tōsōgu meihin ten (Special Exhibition of Masterpieces of Early Swords and Sword Fittings), exh. cat., (Tokyo: Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, 1999), no.14.
Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, ed. "Kaikan sanshūnen kinen tokubetsu ten, meimon kinkō Gotō-ke ishizue" (Exhibition Commemorating the Third Anniversary of the Museum's Opening, Important Works from Famous Metalworkers of the Goto Family), exh. cat., (Tokyo: Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings, 1997), no. 26.
There is little biographical information on the swordsmith Yukihira. Only one dated sword by him is known to exist, a tachi dated 1205 in the collection of Tōji temple in Kyoto. It is recorded in the kanchiin-bon, the temple's fourteenth-century archive. Yukihira's swords are slender and elegant, with a gentle curve in classical Heian-period court taste. The steel bears a soft white sheen and the hamon features a great number of hataraki (crystalline formations) in a bright nioguchi. It is thought that Yukihira produced swords for Emperor Go-Toba (1180-1239).
The origami describing this sword was written by Hon'ami Mitsutada, a respected polisher and sword connoisseur who compiled the Kyohō meibutsuchō (Genealogy of Famous Things of the Kyohō Era) in 1719 at the behest of Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), the eighth Tokugawa shogun.
In Tōken bijutsu 579, Dr. Honma Junji states that Yukihira was connected to a swordsmith monk named Sō Sadahide (Teishū). He goes on to say that Yukihira's unique horimono such as the kurikara seen on this sword, and chrysanthemum florets, are among the earliest examples he had ever seen.
Please note the dating of this lot should read Kamakura period (1185-1333), early 13th century