A dated Genna 5 (1619), eighth month, carries the firm signature Kashū-jū Kanewaka and stands as the documentary cornerstone of the line: the published sources call it "a superior piece that clearly shows a -style approach, and valuable as reference material" (志津風をよく示した優作で、資料的にも貴重である). This is the first-generation Kanewaka, the founder of the (Kanazawa) house that bears his name. He styled himself Tsujimura Jinroku and later Shirōemon-no-jō; descended from the Seki smiths of , he moved to and was retained there, and his extant first-generation work begins with dated pieces of Keichō 12 (1607). Around Genna 5 he received the court title no Kami and changed his name to Takahira, so the bulk of his earlier blades are signed in the six characters Kashū-jū Kanewaka , and the later ones no Kami Fujiwara Takahira. He is the root of the tradition.
His hand is read first by its strong character. Over an that flows and stands, -leaning in places, with entering and adhering, he tempers a shallow mixed with and small , pointed -ba and a box-leaning element. The runs tight and bright, adhering well and at times gathering into coarse , with and drawn frequently through the line. The published sources read this directly as a , indeed a Naoe-, manner carried out of into . On his finest signed the judges find that "the and clearly display Kanewaka's distinctive characteristics, the adheres well, and the blade conveys a spirited, forceful presence" (地刃に兼若の特色がよく示されてよく沸つき、覇気がある).
The is the constant of his work. It is an that flows toward the edge and the back, standing a little, -inclined in stretches, with and , the steel at times dark-toned yet clear. Over that the temper carries the box-leaning quality that became the family tell: a -gakatta element worked into the and . On the first generation it stays soft and -collapsing rather than crisply drawn; the published sources note that a clearly defined -ba is comparatively uncommon in his own hand and grows sharp only from the second and third generations. The runs in to a , sometimes pointed and brushed, and several blades carry twin grooves cut through to a kaki-nagashi finish, while one bears a grass-style with and .
Within the first generation the published sources draw a careful internal distinction. The rare blades signed in the bare two characters Kanewaka are read as the oldest in tone: of one such the judges write that "among the two-character Kanewaka, this example is the most archaic even within the first generation" (この二字銘の兼若は初代中でも古調), and that the other early pieces accord with it. These archaic works show an leaning to , somewhat rough and , the temper a construction with the tightening, small running linked, -ba, and . He worked across every form, and the published sources observe of one of his that "extant works by the first-generation Kanewaka are extremely few in every form, , and alike" (現存する初代兼若の作刀は、刀、脇指、短刀ともに極めて少く), which makes each surviving piece of evident value. He also left a , the double-edged form notoriously difficult to make well, which the judges single out as exceptionally well executed and important as documentary material.
What sets the first-generation Kanewaka apart, within the school he founded and against the wider field of Keichō , is exactly what the judges name in his own blades. His is the - manner brought to , the flowing , the with and -ba, the and , the soft box-leaning temper that has not yet hardened into the sharp -ba of his successors. One is described as recalling in certain respects the tradition associated with Muramasa, in the matching of its temper on both faces, a resemblance the published sources offer as colour rather than attribution. He stands before the maturing of the line, the founding hand from which Matasuke and the later Shirōemon descend.
For the collector he is a scarce founding name of the tradition. Fujishiro grades the first generation Jō-jō . He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin and the modern tier, with several signed and dated , a , a and the among them. His blades are preserved in long-held private collections grounded in their own provenance, one Jūyō Bijutsuhin recorded from the Ueno Kahei collection. Because so few first-generation works survive in any form, a signed Kanewaka of the comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a dated document of how began.