Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchWe present a masterpiece of Bushu Shitahara swords. Bushu Shitahara swords refers to a group of swordsmiths who lived in the present-day Ongata and Moto-Hachioji districts of Hachioji City, Tokyo, and produced swords and spears from the end of the Muromachi period through the Edo period. The Shitahara smiths began with Chikashige during the Daiei era; it is said that Chikashige's son Yasushige received the "Yasu" from Hojo Ujiyasu of Odawara, and his younger brother Terushige received the "Teru" from the lord of Hachioji Castle, Hojo Ujiteru, for use in their names. Although the Shitahara smiths flourished under the patronage of the Go-Hojo clan, after the fall of the Go-Hojo, they became purveyors to the Tokugawa clan and continued producing swords and spears until the end of the Bakufu. Terushige, along with Yasushige, is a representative swordsmith who could be called one of the twin jewels of the Shitahara smiths. This work is a hira-zukuri wakizashi with a fine sugata; the jigane is itame mixed with ko-mokume, hadatachi, with jinie, showing the so-called whirlpool-like hada texture unique to the Shitahara school, and the hamon is o-gunome midare mixed with notare with ashi, konie, fine sunagashi mixed into the habuchi, and the nioiguchi is somewhat subdued. The boshi is notare returning to komaru. The nakago has a good rust patina and the mei is magnificent. The yasurime are shallow katte-sagari that could also be seen as kiri, and remain in healthy condition. This sword is a typical work of Shitahara in both ji and ha, and is a superior piece representing Shitahara swords. During the Sengoku period, the Fussa area was under the control of Hojo Ujiteru. Furthermore, the Bushu Shitahara swords protected by the Hojo clan are the local swords of the Tama district. This is a sword we especially want those living in the Tokyo Tama district to own. There is a sayagaki. Gold-clad nijyu habaki.
Offered by World Seiyudo
7 on the market
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto · Musashi · around 1558-1570
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 49%
1 piece on the market now
Where Terushige stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
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Shinto · Musashi
7 pieces on the market now
The Shitahara group (下原) worked at Hachiōji in Bushū, the old province of Musashi, from the end of the Muromachi period and carried its forge on into the Edo period. The setsumei place the lineage among the swordmakers of Musashi in the kotō age and name Terushige, Yasushige, Hiroshige, and Chikashige as its leading hands, with the meikan recording Terushige across three generations: a shodai in Kyōroku, a nidai in Eiroku, and a sandai in Tenshō. " That same blade was made to order, in this case from Hagiwara Kaminao of Kōshū, marking the group as a working provincial forge serving its region. In the forging the setsumei return repeatedly to an itame-hada freely mixed with mokume that stands up rather than lying flat, the grain described as hada-datsu, often running to nagare near the edge and taking on an ayasugi-like, whorled or vortex-like cast in the jigane. The temper is a moderately undulating notare into which gunome enter, frequently in regular paired sequences, with pointed togariba, a chōji-like feeling at times, and ko-nie clinging along a nioiguchi that can settle into a subdued shizumi tone; sunagashi and ashi appear within the ha, and the bōshi tends to run midare-komi and turn back in maru. One katana sets gunome, ō-midare and angular elements into a notare, its bōshi sweeping off in hakikake.
The setsumei read this hand as a synthesis drawing on late Sōshū and the Muramasa line together with late Mino tendencies, which together account for the standing grain and the paired gunome. For kantei the markers are consistent: the risen mokume with its ayasugi turn, the regularly paired gunome, and a build suited to the uchigatana of the closing Muromachi years, often with pronounced sakizori and an extended chū-kissaki. Carving recurs, including bō-hi, bonji, gomabashi, and a deeply cut kurikara-ryū whose coiling tail the NBTHK singles out as characteristic. Named and dated pieces anchor the group: the Yamamoto Genjirō Terushige naginata, uncommon as a double-edged ryōba form, and a Terushige katana appraised between Eiroku and Tenshō that the register calls the hakubi of the school. The setsumei note that Shitahara work survives in number into the shintō period while outstanding examples remain few, which sets these designated blades apart within the lineage. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Terushige照重 | 1558-1570 | 2 |
| Terushige照重 | 1596-1615 | 1 |
| Yasushige康重 | 1558-1570 | 1 |
| Morishige盛重 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
| Yasushige康重 | 1661-1704 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
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.
NBTHK official siteNo cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).
¥1,600,000