In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThis item is a tanto attributed to the Sengo school, which includes Muramasa. While Sengo is famous for Muramasa himself, and although this tanto is not attributed to the individual mei of Muramasa, it is a small tanto that one can fully accept at a glance as being Sengo Muramasa itself. Sengo (Muramasa) has been listed in mei-kan since as early as Joji (Nanbokucho period). Extant signed works are seen from the late Muromachi period onwards. Dated examples span fifty years from Bunki to Tenbun, and it is said there were first and second generations during this time. The zokumyo of this period was Uemon-no-jo; tachi are few, and many tanto and sunnobi tanto are seen. Entering the Edo period, out of consideration for the Tokugawa family, many Sengo (Muramasa) mei were erased to become mumei, or were passed down with the mei altered to names such as Hiromasa or Murashige. Due to the characteristic yakiba composition, nakago tailoring, and excellent sharpness, they are called the "Yoto Muramasa" and are popular among sue-koto enthusiasts. This sword is a tanto with a suitable nagasa of approximately 7 sun 3 bu 1/2, with ordinary mihaba and kasane. It is a beautiful tanto with dense carvings that provide a fine appearance. The jigane is itame hada, well-kneaded, becoming nagare-gokoro near the ha, with utsuri appearing near the mune, creating a moist texture. The hamon is sugu with gunome midare, well-covered in nie, and following the okite of Sengo (Muramasa), there are areas where the ha is baked low as if about to run off the edge, and the hamon on the omote and ura align. Within the ha, there are hataraki such as sunagashi, and it is very saeru. The boshi returns simply to komaru. Although mumei, this is a compelling work that one can fully accept as being from Ise Province's Sengo Muramasa, a name synonymous with Japanese swords. This tanto is accompanied by a high-quality period tanto koshirae featuring impressive fittings made entirely of silver, with the saya decorated with silver zogan of chidori. A separate certificate was obtained for the koshirae. This item is an excellent tanto by Sengo Muramasa with both interior and exterior complete. Shirasaya, kuro-urushi-nuri murachidori-zu gin-hyomon-saya aikuchi koshirae, kin-paku-ichi-ju habaki. Hozon Token Kanteisho, Tokubetsu Hozon Tosogu Kanteisho.
Offered by World Seiyudo
This piece has sold
5 on the market
Get an email when new Muramasa School work hits the market.
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Soshu-den · Ise
5 pieces on the market now
Kuwana, in Ise Province, gave the Sengo line its base, and from there the Muramasa (村正) name carried the work of late-Muromachi Ise into the Sengoku decades. The oldest extant date in the whole line is Bunki 1 (1501), carried by a katana signed "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku"[[c:1]]; from that anchor the prevailing scheme reads the Bunki pieces as the first generation, the Tenbun as the second, and the Tensho as the third, with the second master held the most skillful and most prolific of the three. The published sources set aside the popular tale that the founder studied under Masamune, calling it an unfounded tradition; the line begins instead near the close of the Muromachi period. Its hand shares common features with Mino, Shimada, and Sue-Soshu, and resembles Heianjo Nagayoshi of Kyoto so closely that the judges presume some relationship between the two, while a likeness to the Shimada smiths and to the Sue-Seki Kanesada is noted as a thing that can confuse a first reading. From the workshop issued the disciples Masashige (正重) and Masazane (正眞), filed by tradition as students of the shodai, who carried the manner forward alongside the Muramasa name itself. The feature the commentary names again and again as the school's own is the matched temper: the hamon on omote and ura align to one mirror-image pattern (omote-ura soroi), and the valleys of the midare press in toward the cutting edge. To this the masters add box-shaped elements (hako-midare), a gunome and notare base mixed with compound gunome, togariba, and yamagata figures, the nioiguchi drawn tight with patchy ko-nie in mura, and sunagashi running frequently; the boshi runs midare-komi or sugu to a ko-maru, often swept with hakikake. The forms that carry it are the wide hira-zukuri tanto and sunnobi ko-wakizashi with mitsu-mune, and the short, strongly saki-zori uchigatana; the jigane is itame tending to stand, mixed with flowing and masame-inclined grain, the steel dark at times and showing the whitish shirake cast the descriptions repeatedly note. Beneath sits the tanago-bara nakago, the fish-belly swelling that grows pronounced from the second generation, cut with a thick-chisel two-character mei.
The successors diverge by proportion rather than trick: Masashige opens the same vocabulary out, his grain standing more openly and his o-gunome and nie carried further; Masazane draws it in, holding box teeth low at the koshimoto under a calm suguha, his jihada closing tighter than his fellow pupil's. Beside the flamboyant rule each smith keeps a quiet register, tanto in suguha aimed at the Rai manner, and an occasional reach toward hitatsura with tobiyaki and muneyaki, never the rule of the work. To kantei the school, the matched faces are the first tell: the aligned omote and ura, the box figures, the valleys pressing to the edge, the tight nioiguchi with its patchy nie, and the tanago-bara nakago under the thick mei part Muramasa from the Mino, Shimada, and Heianjo hands it otherwise resembles. Within the line the nakago-mune decides: cut angular on Muramasa, it rounds out fleshily on Masashige, while Masazane is told from Masashige by his tighter steel. The Sengo reputation for cutting sharpness, with the midare valleys driven toward the ha, drew the Tokugawa legend that the blades brought calamity on the house; the sources handle it as recorded fact, noting that from the Edo period many signatures were effaced for fear of the name, so that signed katana in particular grew comparatively rare, and that one of Masazane's katana was cut "Yamashiro Province Masazane" as a deliberate screen for a daimyo recipient. Provenance runs through private and daimyo hands rather than institutional holdings: a first-generation wakizashi transmitted as a possession of Oda Nobunaga, a Masazane descended in the Mizuno and Tosa Yamauchi houses, a Lotus Sutra katana held in the Nabeshima line. The Nichiren devotion read off some blades, the title Myoho-renge-kyo cut into the steel, ties the work to its Ise region. A signed, ubu Sengo blade of secure date and matched temper comes to notice only from time to time, the legend that thinned the signatures adding to the call for those that remain. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Muramasa村正 | 1521-1528 | 41 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1501-1521 | 17 |
| Masashige正重 | 1521-1528 | 12 |
| Masazane正眞 | 1501-1504 | 4 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1573-1592 | 1 |
Sōshū in the Muromachi period
In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
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.
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).