Craftsmanship in Wood

http://r-jiten.nabunken.go.jp/kensaku.php

Awesome website. Thanks for sharing it.

David

Daruma wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:33 am

Gadge,

Found out a bit more on blade #1

The kanji on the left reads 桜人作 Translates to "made by о̄jin"

桜人 literally "cherry tree person"

作 read "saku" which means made in/by

The center kanji 花之助 is more than likely read "hana no suke" which again is probably a name.

The most interesting tid bit is the small hiragana on the right side which is read "tenka ichi"

Here is the translation:
てんかいち
天下一
Noun
1. unique thing; best on earth​

For the maker to make such a proclamation either means he was very proud of that blade or just plain arrogant..... but I would guess at the former.
Could be a real jewel......

I for one am not sold on that reading of the first character on that blade, but am not sure what it is otherwise. I've never seen the name 'Hana no Suke', or 'Fuji no Suke'

The blade is, to me, a factory made piece by an anonymous worker, hence the 'signing' by a name nobody actually has, vis 桜人 literally "cherry tree person". That goes along with the stamping of 'Tenkaichi", which, if it were a blade with a smith's real name on it would be bragging - but with the 'Mr. Cherry Tree Person' making it, you can get away with such hyperbole. There are other blades out there with the same stamping, like this one:


In a similar vein would be appending the term Saikо̄kyūhin 最高級品 (lit. the very best goods) to many products, including plane blades like this one by Dogyū:

A close up:
It could still be a real jewel, however I suspect it is rather more a run of the (factory) mill piece. Not aiming to run it down Gadge, just assessing it as best I can based on what I see.

Daruma wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:53 am

If that is true though -being a factory made product- wouldn`t it be easier to find it via a web search? .......
Of course, the reverse might be true if it was a valuable special piece. ?

Yes, as to either idea, one would think so, however I tried searching for it using the available terms/names we can identify on the blade, to no avail.
Just the 'names' on the blade leads me to conclude it cam from a factory. I think if it were a valuable and special piece, there would be a Japanese web page talking about it - that's certainly true for other rare and special planes, like stuff from Usui Kengo, etc.

As to male names ending in ~suke, this web page has some interesting commentary:

http://no-sword.jp/blog/2005/05/reach-o ... meone.html

Thanks again for your help and the link to the translation site.
All those blades were bought online at reasonable prices, mostly from a Japanese guy who lives in Australia but regularly returns to pick up pieces from markets etc in Japan.
He's pretty knowledgeable so I'd be very surprised if he had sold me a treasure at such a low price.