¥580,000

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About the school

Fukuoka Ishido School福岡石堂派

Within the *shintō* of Chikuzen, the setsumei place the Fukuoka Ishidō group beside the Chikuzen Nobukuni line as one of the two pillars of the province. The school took root at Fukuoka under the patronage of the Kuroda house, whom its smiths served as domain craftsmen. The lineage's character was set by Koretsugu (是次), born in Kan'ei 5 (1628), commonly called Hansanbyōe and also Ippei. In Meireki 1 (1655), by order of Lord Kuroda Mitsuyuki, he went up to Edo and studied *Bizen-den* under Musashi Daijō Sakon Korekazu (Koreichi, 是一) of the Edo Ishidō; three years later he returned to his province and entered Kuroda service. One blade records his aim plainly: the setsumei note that he worked *chōji-ba* strongly in the manner of the Ichimonji school, a deliberate revival of the old Bizen idiom in the new era. Moritsugu (守次), son of Ishidō Rihei, apprenticed to his cousin Koretsugu after his father's death; because Koretsugu's heir Toshitsugu predeceased him, Moritsugu is said to have succeeded to the main line. He called himself Gonsabē, later Hansabē, and died in Genroku 14 (1701) at sixty-nine. The hand is recognized first in the *jihada*: a dense *ko-itame* or *itame* that flows overall and, in the lower half, runs strongly to *masame*, carrying fine *ji-nie* and delicate *chikei*. Across nearly every blade an *utsuri* stands out, sometimes a *midare-utsuri*, sometimes a straight, *suguha*-like reflection running along the *shinogi-suji*. The temper is the school's signature: a broad-width *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome*, *ko-gunome*, angular and pointed (*togari*) forms, often opening from a *suguha* or straight *yakidashi* into a flamboyant, varied *midare*. It is *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie*, frequently with *ashi* and *yō*, *sunagashi*, *kinsuji*, *tobiyaki*, and *muneyaki*. The setsumei name two diagnostic traits inherited from Korekazu: a *masame* tendency in the forging, and *chōji-midare* that inclines in reverse, the *saka-gakari* slant. A further idiom recurs throughout the corpus: where the *yakigashira* climbs so broadly that the crest reaches the *shinogi*, distinctive forms appear that the records call *ika no atama* (squid heads), with related pouch-shaped *fukuro-chōji* and *jūka* forms also cited. Koretsugu and Moritsugu are named in the setsumei as the masters who represent the group; the cooperative signature "Moritsugu · Morimasa," naming Moritsugu and his son Morimasa, is recorded on a *gassaku* katana, and Morimasa appears there as a working hand of the line. For kantei, the setsumei set out the school's separable points. The *masame*-tinged *ji* with standing *utsuri* distinguishes these blades from true old Bizen, since genuine *kosaku* do not show this fine *masame*; the tightened *nioiguchi* with *ko-nie* and *sunagashi* likewise marks them as *shintō* rather than koto. The *saka-gakari* slant, the squid-head crests reaching the *shinogi*, the deep *bōshi*, and a signature cut in a distinctive long, thick-chiseled hand blending *kaisho*, *gyōsho*, and *reisho* are read together as the lineage's fingerprint. Sugata is also diagnostic within the group: Koretsugu favored the shallow *sori* of the Kanbun-shintō form, while Moritsugu's blades are noted as comparatively deeper in curvature. The corpus carries several documentary anchors. Koretsugu's dated works run from Kanbun 6 (1666), including a large *hōnōtō* votive katana, through Kanbun 9 and Kanbun 11, the last bearing a gold-inlaid *futatsu-dō* cutting-test inscription naming Shibasaki Denzaemon Masatsugu; one katana commissioned by Buhei-no-jō Fuji Okisuke is tied to the Kōzai line that served the Hosokawa. Moritsugu's Tenna 4 (1684) blades bear the *Nanban-tetsu* supplemental inscription recording imported iron, and he is recorded executing *horimono* on works of the same province's Nobukuni Yoshimasa. In the NBTHK register the two cousins stand as the representative makers of the Fukuoka Ishidō, the Chikuzen branch that carried the Ko-Ichimonji *chōji* into the shinto age.

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