¥800,000

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About the school

Kanesada School兼定派

Seki in Mino province supplied the base for the Kanesada line, whose blades the NBTHK places among the representative work of the *Mino-den* in the closing phase of the Muromachi period. The setsumei consistently pair Kanesada with Kanemoto as the two leading masters of Sue-Seki, the late Seki group active with Seki as its center, where (as one 31st-session katana notes) the Mino smiths flourished second only to Bizen. Within the line the signatures sort by how the character *sada* (定) is cut: when the element under the *u-kanmuri* (う冠) appears as 之, the smith is called Nosada (之定), and when it appears as 疋, Hikisada (疋定). Several generations and individuals carried each name, which the Imperial-collection *tantō* (Kotō #85 to #87) state makes precise identification difficult; a *kanwaku* of ordinary workmanship is mentioned alongside them, and one entry records that a Kanesada was called Hachiya Seki, residing at Hachiya in the same province. The standout is the second-generation Izumi no Kami Kanesada, the Nosada the records single out for high technical ability and for receiving, rare in the *kotō* era, the court title Izumi no Kami. Per the *Kotō Mei Shūroku* cited in the 14th Tokuju setsumei, he first cut *sada* in *kaisho* (standard script) and shifted to the 之 form, the change placed by extant works between the eleventh month of Meiō 8 and before the eighth month of Meiō 9, with Nosada signatures running on to about Daiei 6 (1526). Several blades carry domain provenance: Nosada works pass through the Tosa Yamanouchi, Akita Satake, Shimazu, and Tatebayashi Akimoto families, and one was made for Takeda Nobutora, father of Shingen. The shared vocabulary the setsumei draw is a refined *itame-hada*, frequently mixed with *nagare* (flowing grain) or *mokume* and tending to stand up as *hada-dachi*, carrying *ji-nie*, *chikei*, and very often a whitish *shirake-utsuri*. Against Kanemoto's pointed, *togariba*-dominant *sanbon-sugi*, Kanesada is defined by variety: rounded *gunome*, *ko-notare*, and *gunome-chōji*, with *togariba* and *yahazu*-like elements mixed in, *ashi* and *yō* entering, *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running, and a *nioiguchi* the records repeatedly call bright and clear (*saeru*). A second register is the elegant *suguha* the setsumei name *Rai-utsushi*, an evocation of Rai work that the 30th-session *tantō* likens directly to Rai Kuniyoshi; the 45th-session *tantō* ties the same Kyō-modeled *chū-suguha* to a Nosada early signature. The hand is read most clearly in Nosada: a *gunome-chōji* base broken into modest rises and falls, a *jigane* that is brighter and more thoroughly *nerareta* (well-kneaded) than ordinary Sue-Seki, and, on katana, a slender to standard *mihaba* with pronounced taper and slightly elevated *sakizori*. When Nosada turns to *notare* the silhouette broadens with a larger *kissaki*. The *bōshi* runs *midare-komi* to *ko-maru*, at times *Jizō*-flavored, and a *mizukage*-like stand-up at the *machi* recurs. Lesser Kanesada and the Hikisada works read as plainer and, where *togari*-heavy *gunome* dominates a *tantō*, the Imperial entries judge the manner unusual and late. For kantei the registers converge on Seki signatures: *taka-no-ha* (and on *tantō* often *higaki*) *yasurime*, *ubu kurijiri* or, in later years, *iriyama-gata* tangs with *sujikai* file, and the diagnostic 之-versus-疋 reading of *sada*. Tang-form drift, *higaki kurijiri* giving way to *sujikai iriyama-gata*, lets the 50th-session *tantō* be dated to late Daiei. The cutting reputation is carried in metal: *kinzōgan* cutting-test inscriptions appear on the 14th-session Tokuju katana, owned as a personal sash-sword by Miura Shōgen, *karō* of the Kii Tokugawa, and on a 58th-session katana, while another names Kosuga Tatewaki of the Tsuyama Matsudaira and another the Nawa cutting record. The Jūyō-Bijutsuhin Nosada for Takeda Nobutora is recorded in the *Kokon Kaji Bikō* and *Mino-tō Taikan*; the 62nd-session katana survives in the *oshigata* of Kōzu Haku. On this evidence the line holds standing as the Mino tradition's most accomplished late voice, Nosada its peak hand for a brightness and refinement uncommon for Seki.

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