Blade inscribed by Naotane Taikei | Blade and Mounting for a Short Sword (Wakizashi) | Japanese

Title: Blade and Mounting for a Short Sword (Wakizashi)

Swordsmith: Blade inscribed by Naotane Taikei (Japanese, Yamagata 1778–1857 Edo)

Decorator: Engraving on blade attributed to Honjō Yoshitane (Japanese, Edo period, 19th century)

Fittings maker: Sword guard (Tsuba) inscribed by Yukinaka (Japanese, Hagi, active 19th century)

Date: blade, dated 1839; mounting, early–mid 19th century

Geography: Hagi, Nagato Province (Yamaguchi Prefecture)

Culture: Japanese

Medium: Steel, wood, lacquer, rayskin (samé), thread, iron, copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), gold, silver

Dimensions: L. 26 3/4 in. (67.9 cm); L. of blade 23 3/8 in. (59.4 cm); L. of cutting edge 17 27/32 in. (45.3 cm); D. of curvature 9/64 in. (0.36 cm)

Classification: Swords

Credit Line: Gift of Brayton Ives and W. T. Walters, 1891

Accession Number: 91.2.84

Inscription: Inscribed on the tang of the blade, on the obverse: 大慶直胤（花押） (Taikei Naotane (kaō)); on the reverse: 天保十年仲春 (Tenpō jū-nen chūshun) (Tenth year of Tenpō [1839], second month); on the sword guard (tsuba): 長州住幸仲作 (Chōshū jū Yukinaka saku) (Made by Yukinaka, residing in Nagato Province [present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture]).

Brayton C. Ives, New York (until 1891; his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, March 9, 1891 and following days, to Walters); W. T. Walters, New York (1891; his gift to MMA).

Tokyo. Fujishiro Okisato. "Conservation loan," November 1, 2008–June 1, 2009.

Nickel, Helmut. "Arms and Armor from the Permanent Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Summer 1991), pp. 62, 64. ill.

Ogawa, Morihiro, and Kazutoshi Harada. "Restoration of Japanese Swords in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art." In 在外日本古美術品修復協力事業 = Project for Conservation of Works of Japanese Art in Foreign Collections. Tokyo: Tokyo Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo, 2001. pp. 84–86, fig. 56.