NihontoWatchNihontoWatchUmetada Shigenari was a metalworker of the Umetada school associated with Nishijin in Kyoto, and is attributed as a pupil of Umetada Shigeyoshi. The Umetada school was a lineage that handled a wide range of work including the production of swords and tsuba, as well as the refurbishment of famous blades and the making of habaki; examples of work attributed to Shigenari also feature a combination of iron ground carving with gold and silver zogan. This piece bears a naga-mei cut across the seppa-dai reading "Yamashiro no Kuni Nishijin-ju" and "Umetada Shigenari". The motif is the rising sun emerging from between clouds and waves crashing against rocks, depicting a fresh and highly auspicious scene reminiscent of the first sunrise over the sea. Broad gold nunome-zogan is applied to the rising sun at the upper left, portraying the morning light vividly appearing from the blackish-brown iron ground, while at the lower right, a rock standing tall among the waves is raised in nikubori, with gold zogan scattered across its surface. The waves that fill most of the tsuba surface are expressed through fine, continuous sujibori and swelling wave crests; the gaze is naturally guided from the violent current breaking against the rock at the lower right to the wave lines that undulate and spread toward the lower left, where gold zogan placed as dots among the splashing spray adds a lifelike vitality, like water droplets momentarily glittering in the morning sun. On the omote, the rising sun, clouds, rocks, and waves are assembled as a single landscape, using gold in surfaces, dots, and fine fragments to distinguish even the intensity of light, while the ura features only waves arranged simply, leaving the stillness of the broad iron ground. When appreciating the piece by turning between the flamboyant omote and the restrained ura, the scenery continues from the power of the waves breaking against the rock under the rising sun to the lingering echoes of the sea surface stretching into the distance, allowing one to enjoy the skillful composition that creates different senses of distance within the limited front and back surfaces of the tsuba. The tate-maru gata iron ground is trimmed into a taut form suitable for a wakizashi, and a gin-fukurin is wrapped around the mimi to neatly tighten the blackish-brown iron ground and the golden rising sun. It is a high-standard tailoring where the three color tones of gold, silver, and iron complement each other, and the sekigane remaining at the top and bottom of the nakago-ana suggest a provenance of having been carefully used in an actual koshirae. This work possesses highlights characteristic of the Umetada school, such as the iron quality, the combination of carving and gold nunome-zogan, the naga-mei, and the gin-fukurin, condensing a grand seascape into a small tsuba surface through the contrast between the rising sun and rough waves. Depending on the angle of the light, the gold of the rising sun and the spray sinks and floats; one can enjoy the tense composition from the front, the nikubori of the wave crests and rocks from an angle, and the brilliance of the gin-fukurin from the side. It is a piece rich in aesthetic appeal that I would recommend not only as a collection item of Umetada metalwork but also for those who wish to pair a dignified old metalwork piece with a wakizashi koshirae.
Offered by Toushin
We couldn’t find current papers for this piece. Ask the dealer whether it has been, or can be, submitted to shinsa. — Hoshi
2 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto
2 pieces on the market now
Shinto · Kyoto
45 pieces on the market now
The Umetada school is one of the most distinguished metalworking lineages of the Momoyama period, rooted in Nishijin, Kyoto, and claiming descent from the legendary Sanjo Munechika. The house served the Ashikaga shogunal family over successive generations, establishing deep foundations in the full range of sword-related arts -- swordmaking, blade carving (toshin-bori), the production of steel and fittings, the shortening of blades, the insertion of inlaid signature attributions (zogan-mei), and the making of mountings. " Myoju taught both Hizen Tadayoshi and Higo no Kami Teruhiro, and accepted commissions from the Toyotomi and Tokugawa houses as well as many daimyo families. An earlier stratum of production, appraised as Ko-Umetada, dates from the close of the Muromachi period and demonstrates that the group's technical foundations were firmly established before Myoju's maturity. The near-contemporary Mitsutada, though absent from formal genealogies, is conjectured to have been of senior standing within the circle; his works, executed on brass with an archaic dekoboko-ji ground, display "an even more classically archaic elegance" than Myoju's. Shigeyoshi, active from the Kan'ei through Genroku eras, carried the tradition forward into the mid-Edo period. The Umetada school's collective technical identity divides into two principal modes: iron works and soft-metal (irogane) works. In the iron mode, Myoju expressed geometric patterns -- sayagata, raimon, kasumi-kaminari-mon, and rinzu-mon -- by means of gold nunome-zogan, complemented by celebrated openwork including wheel and double-tomoe sukashi tsuba.
The nejikaeshi-mimi (twisted turned-back rim) and gold rim inlay are techniques "at which he particularly excelled," while the iron itself is invariably "carefully selected" and displays excellent quality. In the irogane mode -- employing shakudo, suaka, brass, and other alloys as ground material -- the school developed a distinctive form of hira-zogan (flat inlay) that retains only slight relief, deploying colored metals in novel combinations. " Ground textures including hammered tsuchime-ji, polished migaki-ji, and file-finished surfaces are deployed with meticulous care to heighten the pictorial effect. Mitsutada's work on brass with its uneven, raised-and-recessed ground and enrichment through gold and silver nunome-zogan represents a more archaic variant of this aesthetic. Shigeyoshi synthesized the inherited hira-zogan tradition with textile-derived designs of linked shippo, karakusa arabesque, and sayagata patterns -- reflecting his Nishijin milieu, the heart of Kyoto's silk-weaving district -- while deploying suemon-zogan, sukidashi-bori, and kin-iroe across shakudo grounds in both polished and stone-textured finishes. The Umetada school's historical significance is singular: the pictorial manner of design, the hira-zogan technique, and the use of non-iron metals as the ground material "all find their earliest beginning with Myoju" -- he stands as the originator of an entire aesthetic vocabulary in kinko. The NBTHK consistently describes Myoju's work as possessing "the vitality that preserves the very momentum of brushwork," with a "strong connection with Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu" that places him among the foremost artistic figures of the Momoyama age. " Solid-gold tsuba, frequently melted down during periods of upheaval, are recognized as extremely rare survivals of exceptional documentary and artistic value. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Myoju明寿 | 1590-1631 | 45 |
| Muneyoshi宗吉 | 1596-1615 | 4 |
| Naritsugu就次 | — | 0 |
| Umetada Mitsushige光重 | 1700-1750 | 0 |
| Kaji’emon加治右衛門 | — | 0 |
We could not find an authenticity certificate on the seller’s listing. Japanese swords and fittings are normally papered by the NBTHK (or the NTHK). Without one, the attribution is the seller’s own assessment and has not been independently verified — treat it with caution and ask the dealer about certification before buying.
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¥363,000