Complete Coincidence

This morning Kei and I went over to Ome with Kei's father to visit Hayakawa-san, a sword-savvy friend of his. The drive took about two hours one way, but we had a good time hiking around Tokyo's back country and looking at swords.

I was totally blown away when Hayakawa san pulled out the first of several impressive "bitoken," (swords of artistic value) from his collection. As he was wiping it down before showing it to us, I caught glimpses that hinted at it being an early Edo period sword, possibly from the Kanbun Shinto school of smiths in the Osaka area. At one point the thought that it might possibly even be a Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke blade crossed my mind, but I thought that would be too coincidental in the back woods of eastern Japan. I almost passed out when I looked at the nakago: Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke, second generation of the Kawachi line of smiths. I lost the ability to articulate any thought in Japanese, but I somehow managed to explain to Hayakawa san that I spent most of my senior year of college researching the Kawachi lineage.

I had forgotten that the Kawachi's trademark is length (even the current Kawachi Kunihira, a deeply moving individual who I had the honor of meeting a few times several years ago). The family specializes in a "kobushigata chojiran hamon" (fist shaped, random clove patterned hamon), but more than anything the length of their swords is the first thing to stand out. I thought I was holding a katana, but then I realized I had forgotten (yet again) that the Kawachi's primarily made koto style nodachi and tachi. What I was holding was classified as a wakizashi. Somebody pinch me... PLEASE!