Sengoku Seki was an industry: smiths organized under their tutelary Kasuga shrine, arming the war bands of central Japan. Magoroku Kanemoto’s sanbonsugi and the finest Kanesada work prove quality survived inside mass production.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchOrdering Number: AS25774Wakizashi in Koshirae (NBTHK Hozon Token)Inscription:(Orikaeshi-mei, Folded-back signature) Kanemoto 兼元Golden Inscription:Kanbun 10 Kanoe-inu Nen 6 Gatsu Kichijitsu (June, 1670)寬文拾庚戌歳六月吉日Rakuyo Nishidote ni Oite Kore wo Kiru洛陽於西土手切之(performed at Nishidote in Kyoto)Ichijin ni shite Hajime O-kesa, Nochi Futatsu-do一刃仁而初大袈裟後二筒胴(With a single stroke, first O-kesa cut, then two torsos cuts)Habaki: gold-plated single habakiBlade length: 48.6 cmCurvature: 0.8 cmPeg holes: 1Width at base: 2.35 cmWidth at tip: 12.35 cmThickness: 0.58 cmSword weight: 430 gramsEra: Muromachi period, circa 15th〜16th centuryShape: slightly thin wakizashi with folded back signatureJigane: Ko-itame hada with partially rough textureHamon: Nioi-base Gunome and pointed gunome midareFeatures:The O-kesa is said to be a technique in which the blade cuts diagonally from the left shoulder down toward the right hip, and it is said to be relatively difficult to execute. Futatsu-dō seems to to refers to cutting through two torsos stacked together. There was Nishidote execution ground in Kyoto in the Edo period.Koshirae:Tsuba: Shakudonanako base with openwork carvings.Menuki: a design of paulownia familycrestAll metal fittings: Shakuonanako base with paulownia and hollyhock family crests.NBTHK Hozon CertificateAoi-Art estimation Paperwhole OshigataPlease note: the price does not include the shipping fees.Auction Starting Price:2,250,000JPYSold at the auctionRelated Items:Wakizashi:Tanba Kami Fujiwara Jumyo (NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token) (Consignment Sale)Wakizashi:Mutsu Ju Miyoshi Nagamichi with Saidan-mei (NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token)Wakizashi:Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi (Osaka 3rd) (NBTHK Hozon Token)Wakizashi: Unsigned(Ichimonji)with Kiritsuke-mei by Kanesaki (NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token)Wakizashi : (Orikaeshi-mei) Yoshimitsu (Province unknown, late Muromachi period).(NBTHK Hozon Token)Wakizashi: (Kirikomi-mei) Ecchu Kami Takahira Saku Kore(NBTHK Hozon Token)
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Mino-den · Mino
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Kanemoto (兼元) worked at Akasaka in Mino Province, and the line takes its place among the smiths of the late Muromachi period whom the NBTHK registers under the Mino-den tradition centered on Seki. The setsumei place the family within the Sue-Seki (Sue-Mino) milieu, naming Kanemoto alongside Kanesada as the two leading figures of the province in this era; one tantō note instead pairs the name with Kaneshiba, and another with Izumi no Kami Kaneshige, marking the company the line kept. The name passed through successive generations, and the records repeatedly state that distinguishing each generation has not been definitively settled. Dated long signatures reading "Nōshū Akasaka-jū Kanemoto" survive from the Meiō, Bunki, Daiei, Kyōroku, and Eishō eras, while two-character signatures bear no date. The first generation is documented through pieces dated Meiō 6, 8, 9, and 10, all giving the Akasaka residence; the most accomplished hand, and the one the world singles out under the sobriquet "Magoroku Kanemoto," is the second generation. The shared vocabulary of the line is the sanbonsugi (three-cedar) gunome, a sequence of linked pointed crests that rise and fall in groups. The ground is Mino-den through and through: itame-hada mixed with mokume and flowing masame, tending toward standing grain (hada-dachi), with fine ji-nie, chikei, and a whitish shirake-utsuri that the setsumei call out again and again. The temper mixes togariba (pointed elements) and gunome, is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, and runs sunagashi, kinsuji, and occasional tobiyaki; the bōshi is typically midare-komi turning in ko-maru, often described as Jizō-like with hakikake or a falling kaeri. The chief means of separating the second generation from the later line is regularity: as the generations descend, the pointed crests grow sharply angular and standardized, whereas Magoroku's sanbonsugi is deliberately uneven, the gunome heads rounded in places, and the pattern shifts freely into nihonsugi, yonsugi, and gosugi groupings of two, four, and five. The records describe this as a gyōsō (cursive, free) manner.
The first generation, by contrast, does not emphasize sanbonsugi at all, favoring gunome mixed with gunome-chōji and at times yubashiri and tobiyaki; both generations also made suguha, and one tantō is an uncommon Rai-utsushi in elegant straight temper that evokes Kaneyuki. For kantei, the line is read through the standing Mino grain, the shirake-utsuri, and above all the irregular sanbonsugi, with the leaning bōshi a noted point: the records observe that the honka model and these blades share a bōshi that falls over. Named and documented works recur across the register. A naginata dated Kyōroku 1 (1528) carries the full Akasaka signature and is valued as documentary source material, dated two-character pieces being scarce. A katana bearing a kinzōgan inscription on the reverse is known as "Sasatsuyu Kanemoto" and is recorded in the hands of Makishima Kenmotsu Akishige, of the same clan as Furuta Kosukezaemon. The "Aoki Kanemoto," a second-generation work, is said to be the sword with which Aoki Ichishige, a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu, killed Magara Masataka of the Asakura side at the Battle of Anegawa in Genki 1 (1570). A further katana carries a Genna 1 (1615) kinzōgan cutting-test inscription by Nakagawa Saheita reading "two bodies," and one suguha katana descended in the Echizen Matsudaira family. Two katana signed Kanemoto are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. Across these works the line is registered as the cutting-edged representative of Sue-Seki, its hand recognized wherever the three-cedar temper runs uneven over standing Mino steel. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1521-1528 | 30 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1573-1592 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1592-1596 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1818-1830 | 0 |
Mino in the Muromachi period
Sengoku Seki was an industry: smiths organized under their tutelary Kasuga shrine, arming the war bands of central Japan. Magoroku Kanemoto’s sanbonsugi and the finest Kanesada work prove quality survived inside mass production.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
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