Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch前田利家は織田信長に仕えて数々の軍功に輝き、信長没後は秀吉より北陸道支配を委ねられた歴戦の将である。二代利長、三代利常は徳川将軍家と姻戚関係を持ち、また将軍家の普請事業の費用を積極的に負担して将軍家への親和姿勢を顕示した。その一方で、槍一筋で戦陣に生きた前田利家の遺訓が脈々と生きていたのであろう、刀工を保護するなど武備充実にも怠りがなかった。 表題の寸法が延びた両鎬槍は加賀の代表工、四郎右衛門兼若の精鍛作。身幅広く塩首短く両区張り、肉厚で表裏に鎬筋が慄然と立って、刺突の威力を感じさせる造り込み。地鉄は小杢目肌が肌起ち、太い地景が入り、粒立った地沸が厚く付いて白く映りが立つ。直刃の刃文は浅く揺れ、区上は沸深く、次第に匂口締まりごころに小沸が付いて総体に刃縁明るく、所々に湯走り掛かり、ほつれ、二重刃、喰い違いを交え、小足が無数に入り、匂が充満して刃中も明るい。焼を充分に残し帽子は、先端が僅かに掃き掛ける。茎は生ぶで保存状態は極めて良好。細かな筋違鑢が掛けられ、細鑚の銘字は鑚枕が立ち、裏年紀も貴重。四郎右衛門兼若は二代又助兼若の子。名手の誉れ高い父の指導で作刀技術を修め、延宝五年に家督を継承。緻密な地鉄に互の目乱や直刃の冴えた作を遺している。現存珍しい(注)槍の遺作で、しかも出来も優れている。 注...作例は少なく、資料を豊富に集めた『加州新刀大鑑』にも兼若の槍は載せられていない。
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Shinto · Kaga · around 1673-1681
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 60%
1 piece on the market now
Where Kanewaka 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 · Kaga
3 pieces on the market now
Among the shintō workshops of the northern provinces, the Kanewaka line of Kaga (Kashū) traces its root to Mino. The setsumei record that the first-generation smith was a son of Shihōsuke Kanewaka of Seki and that, though he stood in the lineage of the Seki smiths, he forged his blades in Kaga. " The second generation, Matasuke, was the third son of the first, born in Keichō 17 (1612), active from Kan'ei through Enpō, and dead in Enpō 5 (1677) at sixty-six. The third, his legitimate heir, took the name Shirōemon and worked from Kanbun through Shōtoku, with dated pieces from Enpō 5 to Hōei 4 (1677 to 1707); a fourth, the Tsujiura Shirōemon of the same name, assisted his father as a substitute smith and inherited the name after Matasuke's death. The cutting-test katana signed Tsujimura Etchū no Kami Fujiwara Takahira[[c:2]] ties the workshop to the Maeda domain's swords, its blade tested five times and the result inlaid in kinzōgan. The shared hand is grounded in Mino forging carried north. The jigane across these blades is itame mixed with masame and mokume, often with standing grain (hada-dachi), abundant ji-nie, fine chikei, and a steel of slightly blackish yet clear tone, a cast the setsumei call a trait of the northern provinces (Hokukoku-mono). The temper is built on ko-notare mixed with gunome and pointed togariba, frequently assuming a boxed (hako-ba) character, with deep nioi, well-adhering nie, conspicuous sunagashi, kinsuji, and at times tobiyaki; the bōshi runs sugu with ko-maru or enters midare-komi, often with hakikake and a yakitsume-leaning point, a Yamato-tradition close noted on the masame-forged third-generation work.
To read the hand, the setsumei point to Mino Shizu and Naoe Shizu affinity, the wanare-based mixture of gunome and togari, and the box-shaped temper. Generations are told apart by that box: in the first generation it tends toward nie-kuzure, flavorful and not sharply drawn, and a defined hako-ba is comparatively uncommon; from the second and third it grows more crisply outlined. The third generation also worked saka-chōji-midare (reverse chōji), and in such pieces the fourth produced utsuri effects that could be taken for the Ishidō school. The kantei points the setsumei fix upon are the standing, blackish itame-masame ground, the boxed notare with sunagashi and kinsuji, and the Shizu-derived midare leaning. " Named works carry the lineage: a Genna 5 ken, whose date proves the title came later; the Kashū Fujiwara Yukimitsu tachi dated Bunmei 17 (1485) marks the older Muromachi Kashū ground from which such northern work descends; and a katana with kenuki-gata tachi koshirae in ashide maki-e shows the dress that accompanied the line. One blade, recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, is attributed to the fourth-generation Tsujiura Shirōemon, and record provenance in Kaga and Ishikawa hands. Across the generations the verdict is consistent: each smith was skilled in his own right, the forging at times exceeding ordinary Kashū work, and the dated inscriptions stand as documentary anchors for early Kaga shintō. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kanewaka兼若 | 1596-1619 | 10 |
| Kanewaka兼若 | 1673-1681 | 4 |
| Kanewaka兼若 | 1624-1644 | 2 |
| Takahira高平 | 1673-1681 | 1 |
| Yukimitsu行光 | 1469-1487 | 1 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
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 siteIf, due to our fault, the item differs significantly from its proper condition, the item may be returned. Cooling-off is within one week of the item's arrival.