Description:
This is a beautifully constructed katana attributed to the Mizuta Den from Bichu provence in beautiful mounts. It is a signed han-dachi style  of mountings.  This fine sword was made in the 1600’s.  The koshirae is very exquisite but of a true refined samurai style.  They are plush looking without being too flashy in appearance.  The blade is very well forged and the hada/grain texture is smooth looking and dark. There is mokume and itame both.  The hamon is very active and has abundant hataraki/activaty.  It is nioi based, nie mix with many sunagashi etc. visible.  The shape is very nice with a well balanced curvature and o-suriage.  This sword is a very fine blade and has been submitted for shinsa/appraisal to Yoshikawa Sensei.

The blade itself is a notare, peppered with ara-nie and small activities throughout emulating the great old blades of past. The hada is so fine and  well worked of ko-itame with mokume. It is covered in ji-nie and has an oily appearance that is found in the best of blades. A rare package!! At 23 7/8” it was most probably used as an uchigatana.

During the twelfth century Uchigatana started to be used and by the Muromachi Period approximately 1336 to 1573 the uchigatana began to rival the tachi as the sword of choice by warriors. Unlike the tachi, the uchigatana was worn edge-up in the belt,  this and usually being slightly smaller than the tachi was the main difference between the tachi and the uchigatana.  Since it is worn differently, the engraved words on the sword are also opposite to the tachi, making the words still upright instead of upside-down like when one wears the tachi like an uchigatana. This sword became popular for several reasons, the uchigatana was more convenient to wear and did not get in the way of using a polearm as much as a tachi, also the frequency of battles fought on foot and the need for speed on the battlefield, were major reasons for the uchigatana being rapidly accepted and indicated that battlefield combat had grown in intensity. Since it was shorter, it could be used in more confined quarters, such as inside a building.

Unlike the tachi, with which the acts of drawing and striking with the sword were two separate actions, unsheathing the uchigatana and cutting the enemy down with it became one smooth, lightning-fast action (this technique was called battojutsu otherwise known as Battokiri). The curvature on the blade of the uchigatana differs from the tachi in that the blade has curvature near the sword’s point (sakizori), as opposed to curvature near the sword’s hilt (koshizori) like the tachi. Because the sword is being drawn from below, the act of unsheathing became the act of striking. For a soldier on horseback, the sakizori curve of the uchigatana was essential in such a blade, since it allows the sword to come out of the saya (sheath) at the most convenient angle for executing an immediate cut.

The word uchigatana can be found in literary works as early as the Kamakura Period, but during that time the uchigatana was used only by individuals of low status and privates in the ranks. Most uchigatana made during the early Kamakura Period were not of the highest standard, and because they were considered disposable, virtually no examples from these early times exist today. It wasn’t until the Muromachi Period (considered by some to be a kind of Dark Age in the history of the Japanese Sword), when the samurai began to use them to supplement the longer tachi, that uchigatana of high quality began to be made. In the Momoyama and Edo Periods, the tachi was almost totally abandoned and the custom of wearing a pair of long and short uchigatana together, the daisho (literally “big-little”) became the dominant sign of the Samurai class.

The tsuba depicts bamboo grasses and trees and also a paulownia leafed tree in cartouche like settings. An uncommon and exceptional depiction framed within the tsuba of iron and gold with a mottled texture of a blackish lacquer is found on this koshirae. The overall appearance  is exceptional and rarely in as good as a condition as this. Tree like settings in Japanese art follows many traditions. There is a silver ribbed habaki.

This blade is in original polish that has some minor scuffing only.  If polished again in the future it would be an even more stunning blade, showing extremely fine detail in the workmanship .As can be seen there is a small scuff in the boshi that would disappear with polish.

mei on the fuchi. It reads: “Tôyô’an Katsuô hour” (東陽菴勝應彫) – “carved by Tôyô’an Katsuô”
Haynes lists one Katsuô, H 02861.0, stating that he worked around 1800, made tsuba, and that his kaô is unrecorded. So not sure if its this artist, but possible. Also the gô “Tôyô’an” is unrecorded what would make this fuchi actually an important reference for this artist as it tells us the pseudonym he used. These handachi mounts are all matching and signed. An important fact to understand on original antique mounts.

The handachi fittings are richly engraved in arabesque with blue sageo and black tsuka ito. The menuki are of a Vajra and Ken. The fittings appear to be silver washed over copper. A beautiful package!