¥780,000

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Specifications

About the maker

Osafune Munemitsu宗光

On a tanto dated Chokyo 2, the eighth month of 1488, Osafune Sakyo no Shin Munemitsu signed a thick-kasane hira-zukuri of withered fukura, forged a closely packed ko-itame with chikei and bright ji-nie, and over it set a naka-suguha that runs straight, mixes a little ko-ashi, breaks here and there into hotsure along the habuchi and carries kinsuji, the nioiguchi bright. The published sources call it a masterpiece among his works, 「同作中の傑作と称して過言でない」. The blade states his case plainly. He was the second son of Rokurozaemon no Jo Sukemitsu and the younger brother of Ukyo no Suke Katsumitsu, one of the representative names of the late-Muromachi Osafune forges collectively called Sue-Bizen, and where his school was famous for a high, flamboyant temper he was famous for its opposite. The published record fixes him as an accomplished maker of the quiet line, and it is on that quiet line, not on the school's noise, that his hand is recognized. That individuality the published sources state in so many words: beyond the compound gunome typical of Sue-Bizen, Munemitsu holds an established reputation as a superior maker of suguha, 「直刃の上手として定評がある」. His characteristic blade is the standard late-Muromachi katate-uchi uchigatana, not greatly extended in length, with sakizori and a short, compact tang made for one-handed quick draw, over which he tempers a bright suguha by turns slender, medium and broad. The dated Eisho katana of 1505 shows the manner at its surest, a broad suguha into which ko-gunome is mixed, ashi and yo working actively through it, ko-nie adhering and nie-suji rising, both ji and ha bright and clear. Set beside his brother the difference is one of scale and temperament rather than tradition. Comparing him with Katsumitsu, the published record observes that his pattern is of smaller-scale design, a manner frequently seen in Munemitsu's work, 「刃文が小模様で宗光によくみる作風を示している」, where Katsumitsu pushed the open-waisted gunome into a louder, choji-rich flourish. His jigane is a tightly forged ko-itame, the grain compact and refined, fine ji-nie adhering and chikei entering, and across it stands a midare-utsuri, on the more archaic pieces a straight bo-utsuri instead. It is this reflection over the packed steel that lends his suguha its older flavour, and on the dated Bunmei katana of 1479 the published record notes the well-ordered jigane, the standing bo-utsuri and the slender suguha with a tight nioiguchi as giving the blade an archaic air at first glance. On both faces he cuts the devotional carvings that mark Sue-Bizen work, a formal kurikara, bonji seed-syllables, a plain suken, a four-pronged vajra and lotus pedestal, and shrine names such as Hachiman Daibosatsu and Marishiten; the published sources read these as the hand of collaborating specialist carvers and as a sign of the period and lineage rather than of any one smith. The boshi runs straight to a small or large round on the suguha blades, and turns midare-komi where the temper grows busy. Munemitsu was not confined to the quiet line, and the published record is careful to say so: examples exist of the Sue-Bizen compound gunome, even if his suguha is rated higher. In that register, best seen on the broad-bodied wakizashi of the later Eisho years, he works over a ko-itame with dense fine ji-nie and a standing midare-utsuri, the temper wide, the line an open-waisted gunome mixed with choji, fukuro-choji, togariba and a fukushiki-gunome manner, ashi and yo entering, small tobiyaki scattered through it, kinsuji and sunagashi running, the nioiguchi bright and clear. The conspicuous choji within the gunome the published sources place most often in Katsumitsu among Sue-Bizen smiths and next most often in Munemitsu, 「互の目の中に丁子刃が目立つ」, so that even at his most flamboyant the kantei still reads him as the smaller-scaled of the two brothers. A separate strand of his record is documentary rather than stylistic. Because his career was long and because joint signatures survive both with his elder brother and with his nephew Jirozaemon no Jo Katsumitsu, the published record holds that the name Munemitsu likely ran into a second generation, the Eisho works belonging to the second, while granting that a firm boundary between the two is difficult to draw. A large part of his surviving output is collaboration with the Katsumitsu line, prized under the joint name Munekatsu. These joint katana and wakizashi are typical katate-uchi pieces, the jigane a ko-itame with chikei and fine ji-nie, the temper by turns a calm suguha lightly mixed with gunome and the school's open-waisted compound line, the kurikara and shrine carvings on both faces. Two of them are forged away from Osafune, on campaign at Kojima in Bitchu in the Bunmei years, the inscription naming the place; one joint katana of 1486 is held to be of high documentary value beyond the quality of its work. The traditions the published sources record place the brothers at the Omi encampment in 1488 by command of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa, setting up temporary forges across Bizen and Bitchu, and fighting under Akamatsu Masanori. He stands as the technical peer of his fellow late-Osafune names Yosozaemon no Jo Sukesada and Gorozaemon no Jo Kiyomitsu, distinguished among them by his command of the straight temper; his bright midare-utsuri over a refined ko-itame and his clear suguha set him apart without recourse to his brother's flourish. Munemitsu sits among the better-documented of the Sue-Bizen smiths, and his designated record reflects it. A katana co-signed with Katsumitsu and forged at Kojima in Bitchu in 1486 is a Juyo Bijutsuhin, recorded across the standard reference literature, and a joint Katsumitsu and Munemitsu katana stands as an Important Cultural Property. He has no National Treasure and no Tokubetsu Juyo, but twelve of his blades have passed Juyo Token, and a katana of his is preserved in the Imperial collection. The accompanying han-dachi koshirae of one Eisho 6 katana, a variant-lacquer mounting with the maru-ni-hiki-take-suzume crest of its house, descends in the Sendai Date family and was itself designated for its quality. Provenance of recorded whereabouts is thin but distinguished, running to the Imperial Family, the Date house and the prewar owner Shudo Sei of Fukuoka. For a private collector the designated blades outside museums and old houses are the realistic encounter, the dated joint pieces especially valued for the light they throw on the late Osafune genealogy; signed and dated Munemitsu survive in fair number for a Sue-Bizen name, yet a sound example with a clear date comes to market only from time to time, a documented joint blade rarer still.

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