Short Samurai Sword (Wakizashi)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Mar 1859
name: label: Donor Name
content: Emperor Of Japan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "THE SHEATH AND THE MATCHING HANDLE ARE ENTIRELY OF PLAIN WOOD WITHOUT ANY DECORATION. THIS IS THE SHORTER OF THE TWO WHICH CAME AS A PAIR OR SET. 11/77 SWORD LOANED TO NAVAL HISTORY FOR EXHIBIT, MAY 19, 1965 ALSO THE SHEATH BUT THIS WAS NOT USED ON EXHIBIT SO UPON REQUEST, JAN. 1969 IT WAS RETURNED. LOAN TO PACIFIC HERITAGE MUSEUM 5/28/87." RECATALOGED FROM #4133. FROM CARD: ...WAKIZASHI-SIGNED: ECHIZEN (NO) KAMI SUKEHIRO. EXAMINED BY THE NBTHK SHINSA IN DALLAS, TEXAS, NOVEMBER, 1972. IDENTIFIED AS SETTSU SUKEHIRO FIRST GENERATON, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, A PROMINANT SWORDSMITH OF THE KUNISUKE GROUP. ALSO, THE FOSTER FATHER OF 'TSUTA' SUKEHIRO, ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING SMITHS OF THE SHINTO SWORD PERIOD. IN ADDITION TO ITS QUALITY AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, THIS BLADE EXHIBITS A POLISH PRIOR TO 1853 WHICH IS USEFUL IN STUDYING THE TECHNIQUE OF MODERN SWORD POLISHING. 6/76-SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION SUGGESTS THAT THIS BLADE IS ACTUALLY A VERY EARLY EXAMPLE OF TSUTA SUKEHIRO WORKING MORE IN HIS FATHER'S STYLE. GP. ..OR SIGNING A BLADE THAT WAS ACTUALLY MADE BY HIS FATHER (D. 1663)."
label: Notes
content: Green certificate and other documentation are in Japanese swords and fittings Notebook 1 in Anthropology Records Room.
label: Notes
content: See Chang-Su Houchins. 1995. Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew Perry's Japan Expedition (1853-1854). Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Number 37. P 112 and 113
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Apr 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Japanese
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 199043
label: USNM Number
content: E115-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sword / Sheath
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 60 cm
label: Length - Blade
content: 46 cm