My daily life with the Shiina sisters

Acting like an elder, Longzhu Zhengjiu did not continue to make things difficult after saying a few words.

The Longzhu family still has more kindness towards Imagawa Kaede.

After all, according to the ideas of Ryuju Masahisa and Ryuju Momo, even if there was no affair between Ryuju Momo and Imagawa Kaede, the Ryuju family would definitely find a son-in-law for Ryuju Momo in the future.

In this case, compared to hiring an ordinary person who is capable but fickle, Imagawa Kaede's direct cashing in is obviously better. More importantly, Imagawa Kaede or the Imagawa family obviously doesn't think highly of their financial resources, so there is no need to worry about those messy things.

"Uncle Zhengjiu, I feel it would be awkward to come to your house empty-handed for the first time, so I have prepared three small gifts. I hope you will accept them."

"Um…"

As for the gift that Imagawa Kaede mentioned, Longzhu Masahisa had heard some news about it from his daughter a while ago, so although he appeared to be indifferent at the moment, he was actually quite curious in his heart.

After all, it was the collection of Imagawa Yoshiki, and he wanted to see what kind of "filial son" his son-in-law could be.

"Tanaka."

As the words fell, the sliding door in the distance was opened. Tanaka bowed before walking into the room, handed the two boxes in his hand to Imagawa Kaede, then bowed slightly and walked out.

Putting the long wooden box aside, Imagawa Kaede opened the square wooden box first. As he did so, Longzhu Masahisa's eyes were also attracted to it.

Inside the box is a framed painting, showing a raging sea with foam about to swallow up a small boat. Mount Fuji, seen from afar, stands peacefully, but looks very small compared to the huge waves. The colors of the painting are unified in a blue tone, and the yellow boat and the sky and background, which are almost khaki, form a sharp contrast with the blue of the waves.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

"This is... The Great Wave off Kanagawa!"

"Yes, it is from The Great Wave off Kanagawa in the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji." After thinking for a moment, Imagawa added, "This is the first batch to be printed."

But at this time, Longzhu Zhengjiu didn't think too much about it. He took the painting and looked at it carefully.

Although Imagawa Kaede didn't know much about the art form of "Ukiyo-e", he knew something about Katsushika Hokusai, the author of this painting. Hokusai was the only Japanese person selected as one of the "100 people who influenced the world in the millennium". His painting style had a great influence on the later European painting world. Many Impressionist painting masters such as Degas, Manet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin have copied his works.

Compared to some artists who were not famous during their lifetime, but whose paintings became more valuable after their death, Hokusai was quite popular when he was alive. After all, Ukiyo-e mainly existed in the form of woodblock prints, which had obvious commercial uses at the time.

Longzhu Zhengjiu likes this painting very much. The collection value of this painting is actually greater than its economic value. After all, it is a printed work, not the traditional sense that a painter draws a painting and there is only one original painting in the world. Although theoretically the earliest batch is the most expensive, there are at least a thousand copies in the same batch. Of course, it is not a problem to sell this one for one million US dollars.

This is also the reason why Imagawa Yoshiki agreed to let Imagawa Kaede bring this painting. After all, he has collected all the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (strictly speaking, it is Forty-six Views, but because this series was very popular at the time, ten more were painted. The Great Wave off Kanagawa is the most famous one among them) like stamps. Isn't it normal to have one or two identical ones?

Of course, this was also done intentionally by Imagawa Yoshiki. It is not expensive for them to buy such paintings individually, but it is troublesome to collect them, and few people are willing to sell them. He asked Imagawa Kaede to bring one to Ryuju Masahisa, perhaps with the idea of ​​letting him embark on the path of stamp collecting.

Imagawa Kaede's idea is that in the future, when he gives gifts to his father-in-law, he won't have to bother. He can just give one at a time. It's convenient and saves trouble. No one really thinks that Imagawa Kaede would be stupid enough to be a "filial son", right?

After Longzhu Masahisa commented on the painting, Imagawa Kaede opened the long and thin box beside it at the right time.

Inside the box lay a small sword, the blade was about 60 centimeters long, but unlike the finished product, the blade, sheath, small handle, hairpin, edge, head, eye socket, and hilt were deliberately disassembled and not assembled.

Seeing Longzhu Zhengjiu looking at the box eagerly, Imagawa Kaede said with a smile:

"Uncle, why don't you take it out and have a look."

Upon hearing this, Longzhu Masahisa did not bother to be polite with Imagawa Kaede. He first took the cotton cloth from the box, then used the cotton cloth to carefully pick up the blade of the sword from the box and began to examine it carefully.

The blade was naturally shiny as new, but the end was pitch black. Longzhu Zhengjiu looked carefully at the inscription on the end and found that it actually had the two characters "Guangshi" on it. He looked at the blade again carefully. The blade was straight and mixed. The cap was a small round tip. The carvings were the front and back big sticks and the additional scratches.

Suddenly his hand trembled and he almost dropped the blade in his hand to the ground.

"Daiden Tai Mitsuyo!"

Upon hearing this, Imagawa Kaede smiled and said, "Of course it's not the Great Sword of Tai Mitsuyo. The Five Swords of the World is still lying safely in the Maeda Moral Education Association."

Seeing the look that Longzhu Zhengjiu gave him, Imagawa Kaede didn't want to keep it a secret any longer.

"This one is shorter than the Daitenta Mitsuyo. It's only 65.75cm compared to Daitenta's 61.5cm. But since both of them were made by the same swordsmith, it's okay to call them Kotenta Mitsuyo. I heard from Taozi that Uncle sometimes suffers from insomnia. I wonder if this famous sword can help Uncle."

After hearing this, Longzhu Masahisa was originally silent, but now he looked at Imagawa Kaede with an uncertain expression, which made Imagawa Kaede a little scared.

Unexpectedly, he suddenly burst into laughter, and when he stopped laughing, he said, "I have always had a good sleep, but your aunt has been having trouble sleeping lately."

Hearing this, Imagawa Feng could only smile and said, "Well, I guess I heard it wrong. I think Uncle Longzhu also thinks that you are tall and your eyes are full of energy. You don't look like someone who has trouble sleeping."

Although he said this, Imagawa Kaede felt relieved in his heart.

The ukiyo-e above is secondary. This knife is the choice of the Imagawa couple after discussion. Ever since he mentioned to Mrs. Imagawa that Ryuju Masahisa wanted him to visit Ryuju's house, the couple began to discuss the gift.

As for gifts, of course they have to be given in accordance with one's wishes, so a painting and a knife, one literary and one martial, seem very appropriate.

The Ukiyo-e can be said to be the only authentic work of which Imagawa Yoshiki was reluctant to part with. If the Imagawa family were to sell it, the sword would naturally have to be a famous one.

After much selection, only two swords were finally chosen. One was naturally the sword called "Kotenta Mitsuyo" by Imagawa Yoshikiyo, and the other was Izumi-no-kami Kanesada of Hijikata Toshizo, the then vice-chief of the Shinsengumi. Hijikata Toshizo actually had two swords, the third Izumi-no-kami Kanesada and the eleventh Izumi-no-kami Kanesada. The Izumi-no-kami Kanesada stored in the Hijikata Toshizo Archives was the eleventh Izumi-no-kami Kanesada, and the one in the Imagawa family's collection was naturally self-evident.

The reason why he gave the sword to Little Noda Mitsuyo at the end was actually related to the story of Great Noda Mitsuyo. After all, in the island country, a famous sword cannot be without a story. For example, the Kusanagi sword was actually used by the owner at that time to cut the grass and open the way to help him escape from the encirclement. For example, Douji-kiri and Spider-kiri were nothing more than the chopping of Shuten-doji and the spider spirit.

Of course, there is also Daitenta Mitsuyo, one of the Five Swords of the World. Legend has it that Maeda Toshiie's daughter Gohime was weak and sickly, so Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave Daitenta to the Maeda family. After placing Daitenta next to her pillow, she recovered. Therefore, Daitenta was said to have the power to exorcise evil spirits and suppress demons.

Of course, the purpose of giving this sword was not to exorcise evil spirits or anything like that. It was simply that Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave the sword to Maeda Toshiie, and now Imagawa Kaede gave this "Kodenta Mitsuyo" to him, Ryuju Masahisa. Needless to say, what this means.

Of course, I believe that with this knife, Mrs. Longzhu's "insomnia" will soon be cured. As for the authenticity of this knife, it is actually made by Miike Tenta Mitsuyo, a swordsmith from Chikugo Province in the late Heian period. For example, the Yasutsuna in Dojikiri Yasutsuna is the name of the swordsmith. A swordsmith can't just make one knife handle for his whole life? And this knife is just not that national treasure. As for some mysterious abilities in it, of course you can brag about it, and I can brag about it, right?