(Token Bijutsu No.547)

 

Nihon Koto Shi

(History of Koto)

 

By Dr. Honma Junji (Kunzan)

 

 

(1)

(P.4)

Preface

 

This book is a thesis that I wrote in 1952 and submitted to my alma mater Kokugakuin University, the first edition was published in 1958. I took the subject of this book, as the history of Japanese swords made from the Heian to the Muromachi Period. The main point of the book was to systematise each period and school in koto times and also to refer to the workmanship of each swordsmith.　In addition, I wanted to present for the first time, the workmanship of swords that have been conserved in the Shoso-in Depository. This kind of report by a professional sword researcher has never been done before in the long history of the Shoso-in Depository.

 

I obtained most documents and information that I used to write this book whilst working for the research section of the National Treasures at the Ministry of Education and the historical investigation section of temples and shrines at the Home Office　between 1928 and 1945. The documents of the Shoso-in Depository and the Shitenno Temple were bought as a result of the researches that I had undertaken after the last war. I used typical examples of sword photos and oshigata, many of them of famous smiths.

 

I remember that I worked hard to move important documents into the countryside in order to protect them from the Allied air raids during the war and also made every effort to save Japanese swords from ‘Katana-gari’ (sword hunting or the policy of the Allied Forces to destroy all Japanese swords just after the last war). I was unexpectedly appointed as an administrator of the Agency for Cultural Affairs after the war and it became very difficult for me to concentrate on sword research. My senior researchers and friends enthusiastically recommended that I write about the history of the Japanese Sword but at that time I had no time to sort out the documents. I had to write most parts of the book relying on my memories. I do hope, therefore, that younger researchers will modify the contents and accomplish a definitive edition of the history of koto swords, sometime in the future.

 

(November 1963 / Honma Junji)

 

 

1. Ancient and the Nara Periods

 

Foreword

 

Since olden days, sword lovers and researchers of Japan have recognised the Japanese swords, which were finally perfected in the Heian Period, as the subject of appreciation and research. This excludes both Chinese and Korean originated swords. In the meantime, Japanese archaeologists only study swords that were excavated from the ruins of the ancient period. It is almost impossible to examine the workmanship of those archaeological finds, therefore their research has inevitably been made only from the point of external form. I fortunately had opportunities to research jokoto (ancient swords) that had been conserved in the Shoso-in Depository and the Shitenno Temple after the war. Here, I would like to introduce the workmanship of these swords and examine the differences between the Japanese, Chinese and Korean swords.

 

(P.5)

(1) Swords of the Shoso-in Depository

 

There are three storages (Hoku-so or a storage located in the northern part of the Shoso-in Depository, Chu-so or a storage located in the middle part, and Nan-so or a storage located in the southern part) in the Shoso-in Depository and 55 tachi, 5 te-hoko and 33 hoko have been conserved in good condition, and they were polished in the Meiji Era. There is no doubt that they are ideal examples to research jokoto. Amongst them, ‘Kin-gin-denso-kara-dachi’, ‘Kure-take-jo-to’ and ‘Urushi-saya-jo-to’, which are kept in the Hoku-so and listed in the present catalogue of the Shoso-in Depository, coincide with the three swords listed in ‘Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho’ or ‘Kokuho Chinpo Cho’ (Rare National Treasures listed on the 21st of June in 757 ) as well as their mountings. Also ‘Bu-o-dachi’ and two ‘Hajin-raku-dachi’ were used on the occasion of the dance festival of the Todai Temple held on the 9th of April in 753 and information of the event is inscribed (carved) on the mune-machi and the mune of the swords. A total numbers of 49 swords are conserved in the Chu-so. Twenty-six of them are mounted and the others have no mounting. After close examination of their workmanship and mountings, most of the swords conserved in the Shoso-in are thought to have been made in the Nara Period.

 

Notice : Long swords of the Ancient Period (before the Heian Period) are also called ‘Tachi’ even if they have no sori (choku-to or straight sword). They are normally also worn in the tachi style of the Japanese Sword.

 

(Reference photo)

‘Kin-gin denso-tachi’

 

(P.6)

There are two different inscriptions of ‘Kara-dachi’ and ‘Kara-yo-dachi’ in ‘Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho’ and it is speculated that the former is a sword made in China and the latter is a copy made in Japan. This subject will be mentioned later. Anyway, there is no doubt that these swords had a significant influence on the appearance of the Japanese Sword. I will try to explain the workmanship of the swords in detail, in the next paragraph.

 

Speaking about their tsukuri-komi, there are 31 swords in kiri-ha-zukuri. 7 swords have no yokote line, 5 swords are in shinogi-zukuri, 19 swords in hira-zukuri and a few swords in kiri-ha-zukuri. Swords in kiri-ha-zukuri were in fashion in the Nara Period, followed by kin-gin-denso-tachi and two jo-to listed in the Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho that have kiri-ha-zukuri. The width of kiri-ha is normally wider than copies made in later years and look like shinogi-zukuri at a glance. There are 5 swords in shinogi-zukuri in the depository, but their shinogi is not as high as that of normal Japanese swords. Considering the above fact, it is speculated that the shinogi-zukuri of the Japanese Sword evolved from kiri-ha-zukuri of jokoto.

 

There are inscriptions of ‘Kissaki-mono-kata-ba’ and ‘Kissaki-mono-moro-ha’ in the Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho. The former means the sword is completely in kata-kiri-ba and the latter means a sword of which the kissaki area is in kiri-ha-zukuri. 6 tachi in the latter tsukuri-komi exist in the Shoso-in collections. One of them has a shinogi line in the centre of the blade and its sugata has a close resemblance to a tachi so-called ‘Kogarasu-maru’. 16 swords in kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri has been confirmed amongst the 100 swords listed in the Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho, as well as 5 swords that are in kara-dachi style, 5 swords in kara-yo-dachi style and one in Korai-yo-dachi style. The style of these swords in kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri was introduced from the continent and appears to have been very fashionable in the Nara Period, along with kiri-ha-zukuri.

 

19 tachi in hira-zukuri are conserved in the Shoso-in Depository at present including muso-to (tachi without mounting). 14 muso-to are around 45 cm. in length and have wide mi-haba. They look like long wakizashi or o-dabira in hira-zukuri that was in fashion between the Nambokucho and the early Muromachi Periods. In addition, there is an o-dabira in kiri-ha-zukuri. These 23 swords have no mounting and are called ‘Muso-to’.

 

There are 5 extant tachi conserved in the Shoso-in Depository and one of them (muso-tachi with 105.44 cm. in length) has conspicuous sori (0.92 cm.). Apart from the muso-tachi, there are about 30 swords that have just a little sori, also several swords have uchi-zori (less than 0.61 cm.). It is speculated that the sori (including uchi-zori) of these old tachi was mostly caused accidentally. However, inferring from the shape of kissaki in moro-ha-zukuri and the line of the shinogi, the kin-gin-denso-kara-dachi conserved in the Hoku-so storage, has a shallow sori that was intentionally curved. There is a kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri listed in the Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho but it no longer exists today. The explanation of the list suggests that the sword is in kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri and has conspicuous saki-zori. This inscription suggests an indication of the early appearance of the Japanese Sword.

 

(P.7)

Let me refer to ha-watari, mi-haba and kasane of the swords conserved in the Shoso-in Depository. Most of these swords are over 60 cm. ha-watari and there is a sword that has over 90 cm. ha-watari. The longest ha-watari is 105.44 cm. and the shortest one is 34.54 cm. Their average ha-watari is between 60 and 70 cm. On the other hand, there are 24 swords that have ha-watari between 79 and 90 cm. amongst the 100 swords listed in the Todaiji Kenbutsu Cho.　The nakago of the swords conserved in the Shoso-in Depository is relatively shorter than that of ordinary Japanese swords in general, but their mi-haba is much wider than tachi of the Heian and the Kamakura Periods, except for two jo-to conserved in the Hoku-so storage. Nine of them have wider mi-haba than O-Kanehira (3.70 cm. in moto-haba) but eight of the nine swords have shorter ha-watari than O-Kanehira (89.08 cm.). Incidentally, all muso-to in o-dabira style have mi-haba between 4.8 and 5.15 cm. Considering the various mi-haba of the swords in the Shoso-in Depository, there should have been Japanese swords with not only narrow mi-haba but also wide mi-haba. The sugata of O-Kanehira and O-Denta Mitsuyo are widely recognized as exceptional, but this theory appears to be unreasonable and has yet to be studied. Excluding the muso-to in o-dabira style, these tachi have tapering sugata or considerable difference between the width between moto-haba and saki-haba, which is seen in the normal tachi-sugata of the Kamakura Period. Therefore, I would like to make a suggestion that the term of ‘Funbari’, often used for the tachi-sugata of the Kamakura Period, could also be used for the tachi of the Shoso-in Depository. It then becomes clear that tachi-sugata with funbari is not simply a peculiar shape of the Japanese Sword. The kasane of most tachi conserved in the Shoso-in Depository is between 0.61 and 0.91 cm. and there are some tachi with thin kasane also, tachi in o-dabira style have thicker kasane between 091- 1.21 cm.

 

(Reference photo)

Kokuho (National Treasure)

Mei : “BIZEN (NO) KUNI KANEHIRA SAKU” (Meibutsu ‘O-Kanehira)

 

(P.8)

There are other interesting points in tsukuri-komi. There is a theory that has been accepted as a universal truth, that old Japanese swords of the Heian and the Kamakura Periods had originally kamasu-kissaki with scarce fukura. Then the kissaki came to have the fukura that we see today, after sword polishers reshaped kissaki to remove chips and rust. Taking a look at the extant swords of the Shoso-in Depository, swords with yokote line in kiri-ha-zukuri have kissaki with scarce fukura, meanwhile swords with no yokote line in kiri-ha-zukuri have fukura. Swords in kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri and muso-to in o-dabira style, also have kissaki with fukura (the kissaki of the muso-to in o-dabira have plenty of fukura).

 

The sword collection of the Shoso-in Depository includes 5 te-boko (hand spears) of unusual shape. One of them is a yari in kissaki-moro-ha-zukuri, two are in hira-zukuri (only the part of the kissaki is in kiri-ha-zukuri). Many swords in kiri-ha-zukuri are seen in tachi and it may be said that kiri-ha-zukuri was the fashion of that period. It is speculated that te-boko were used in a way similar to later naginata, but it is very difficult to say that naginata was a direct development from te-boko. The same thing can be said of the lineage of the development between kiri-ha-zukuri and shinogi-zukuri.

 

Hoko (including te-boko) is a kind of yari and has a bag-shaped nakago (later fukuro-yari). There are various shapes amongst the 33 hoko. 13 hoko have a hook or a branch in ryo-shinogi or round surface. Also there are 12 hoko in ryo-shinogi without a hook and some of them have very high shinogi and the section of the hook looks almost square.

 

I have seen a very old and short ken with no signature in the same tsukuri-komi. Its hamon is nie-kuzure on the whole and has no clear border between the ji and ha. I was not sure of the production times and school, but I have come to realise that the ken may be one example from the Nara Period. There are 5 hoko that have a triangular section, also some hoko in sasafo-gata and kabura-gata shapes. The sugata and niku-oki of all hoko are more refined than later examples.

 

(Reference photo)

Hoko in ryo-shinogi-zukuri without a hook