Pattern elements visual glossary


Visual glossary of the activity elements layout for Sagami school's grandmasters

Kunimitsu (國光)



Tosaburo Yukimitsu (藤三郎行光)


Maru mune (丸棟) – a roundish mune, tanzaku-ba (短冊刃) – a type of hamon that looks like small and narrow rectangular elements, but resembles small vertical poem cards (tanzaku).

tobiyaki (飛焼き) – a hardened spots in the ji area that do not fit into the nioiguchi line and not connected to the hamon, literary can be translated as: flying hardening. ōgiba (扇刃) – a hamon elements, shaped like a fan, mixed with hitatsura elements.


Masamune (正宗)


ara-nie (荒沸) – large and coarse crystals of the nie. ōgiba (扇刃) – a hamon elements, shaped like a fan, mixed with hitatsura elements. nie (沸) – term that can be literary translated as boiling and used for small individual martensite, austenite, pearlite or troostite particles that look like twinkling stars. tanzaku-ba (短冊刃) – a type of hamon that looks like small and narrow rectangular elements, but resembles small vertical poem cards (tanzaku). yubashiri (湯走り) – spot or spots where nie is concentrated on the ji that can be literary translated as running hot water, which look the same as tobiyaki but with a not so clear borders. tobiyaki (飛焼き) – a hardened spots in the ji area that do not fit into the nioiguchi line and not connected to the hamon, literary can be translated as: flying hardening.

sunagashi (砂流し) – literary can be translated as stream of sand, marks in the temper line that resemble the pattern left behind by a broom sweeping over sand. Sunagashi usually appear inside the hamon and near and parallel to the habuchi. nijūba (二重刃) – literary can be translated as double ha, i.e. a second habuchi line, consisting of nie or nioi, drawn parallel to the main habuchikinsuji (金筋) – literary can be translated as gold line; short, straight, brilliant black line of nie that appears inside the hamon.




Sadamune (貞宗)


yamaji no ha (山路の刃) – literary can be translated as mountain path ha, i.e. a wavy hamon with an inconsistently wide habuchi. tanzaku-ba (短冊刃) – a type of hamon that looks like small and narrow rectangular elements, but resembles small vertical poem cards (tanzaku). ōgiba (扇刃) – a hamon elements, shaped like a fan, mixed with hitatsura elements. Jitetsu is tinted slightly blue.


Hiromitsu (廣光) and Akihiro (秋廣)


hitatsura (皆焼) – literary can be translated as full tempering. Gunome-midare, notare-midare mix with chōji or another undulating hamon elements with plentiful tobiyaki scattered throughout the blade. muneyaki (棟焼き) – Hardened areas along the mune. tobiyaki (飛焼き) – a hardened spots in the ji area that do not fit into the nioiguchi line and not connected to the hamon, literary can be translated as: flying hardening.


Sources:


Kotō Meizukushi Taizen (古刀銘尽大全), 1792;

Meikan kuchi Den no Hisho (銘鑑口傅之祕書), 1852;

Kokon Meizukushi Taizen (古今銘盡大全), 1778; 

Kokon Wakan Banpō Zensho (古今和漢万寶全書), 1694; 

Honchō Kaji Kō (本朝鍛冶考), 1795;

Tsurugi Mekiki Densho (剣目利傳書), late Muromachi years;

Kokon Tōken Binran (古今刀剣便覧), 1937.

Original content Copyright © 2020 Dmitry Pechalov