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THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR · 6 MAY 2017 AT 10AM
Arms & Armour
241
Japanese sword.
A Japanese Shinto tachi in black lacquer saya, the heavy blade decorated with a horimono of a dragon
to one side and a figure holding a tsurugi in a mountain landscape to the other. Signed and inscribed
with reference to cutting test. Obverse, Kato Tsunatoshi on orders of Fujiwara Teifuku - On a day of the
second month Tenpo eight (1837). Reverse, On the 27th day of the tenth month of the same year at
Senju Yamakado Yazaemon [cut through] a head and into the earthenmound below. Boshi to habaki
23.50in. (59.7cm)
Kato Tsunatoshi, real name Kato Hachiro, originally came from Dewa´s Yonezawa and was, like his father
Kato. Kunihide, a student of Suishinshi Masahide, he moved to Edo during the Bunsei era (1818-1830)
where he worked in the residence of the Uesugi family, the daimyo of Yonezawa. Around the first year
of Ansei (1854) he left his go Chounsai to his son Koretoshi and changed his pseudonym to Chojusai, he
died in 1863.
Provenance
Received as a gift by Colonel Sean O’Driscoll, US Army, aide to General Douglas MacArthur in Japan in
1945.
Gifted to the current owner by O’Driscoll’s widow in 1992.
Estimate €3000-€5000 (approx £2550-£4250)
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