NihontoWatchSummary This blade was attributed to Sue-Hosho (末保昌) by NBTHK, one of Japan’s most reputable Japanese sword appraising organizations. Hosho is the school that flourished during the late Kamakura-early Muromachi period (early14th-early 15th century). In Japanese sword terminology, when the appraisal is given as Hosho (保昌), they are attributed to the ones made during the late Kamakura-Nanbokucho era (early-Late 14th century). And those made during the early Muromachi period are called Sue-Hosho (末保昌). Sue (末) means “end” in Japanese. Hosho school was founded by Sadamune (定宗) in the early 14th century in Yamato province (Today’s Nara prefecture). The prominent swordsmiths who belonged to this school were Sadayoshi(貞吉), Sadakiyo(貞清), and Sadaoki(貞興). The Hosho school was famous for creating blades with *Masame Hada, one kind of steel surface pattern that appeared on the Japanese sword. There were five prestigious schools, including Hosho school, during the Kamakura-early Muromachi period in Yamato province. They are called Yamato Goha(大和五派); Senjyuin(千手院), Shikkake (尻懸), Taima(当麻), Hosho(保昌) and Tegai(手掻) school. They served politically powerful monks and temples in Nara, such as Todaiji temples. They were initially forging swords for military monks who became powerful due to the government’s policy back then. Monks needed many weapons as there were many political rivalries between influential temples. They required strong weapons like swords to protect themselves. During this time, Hosho school or other Yamato sword schools met the requests from monks. They also forged blades for Samurai during their heyday. Yamato Den The swords forged in Yamato regions are famous for their beautiful Jigane, steel surface, and straight tempering line(Suguha). And, they invented the particular sword-forging tradition called YAMATO DEN. This blade has a beautiful Jigane with a Suguha tempering line, which shows an outstanding characteristic of the Yamato sword. The overall condition is excellent. Based on the shape of Nakago(Tang), it was shortened in the past. We assume its original length was much longer than it is now. Masame Hada Masame (柾目) means straight grain in Japanese. Masame Hada is the Japanese sword terminology for the Hada (steel surface pattern of the Japanese sword) that looks like straight grain when one cuts a tree in half. This kind of Hada is often seen in the works of Yamato Den swordsmiths like the Hoshou school. And it usually is combined with Itame Hada, another grain pattern that looks like wood-grain seen in the Japanese sword. You can see the mixture of Masame/Itame Hada from this blade. This blade is appraised as a Hozon Token(保存刀剣) issued by NBTHK(Nihon Bijutsu Touken Hozon Kyokai:日本美術刀剣保存協会). *Please keep in mind that there are a couple of visible Kitae Kizu on this blade. If you like to see the detail, please feel free to contact us. Fuchi-Kashira This Fuchi Kashira depicts a dragon running through rough waves. On the Kashira part, the wave pattern on the surface of the sea is engraved in an abstract design. And the plants are also sculpted to express the scenery of the waterside. Golden paint is effectively applied to some parts. In Japan, there is a belief that worships the dragon as a water god. Therefore, it is understandable that a combination of dragons and water (waves in this case) was incorporated into a design of sword mountings. Tsuka and Menuki From the gaps in the Tsukamaki thread, we think this Menuki’s motif is the Karajishi (唐獅子), especially due to its curly hair. It seems the entire surface was initially colored with golden paint. The Shishi (獅子) means a lion in Japanese, and the Karajishi is a lion brought from the continent to Japan in the Toh period (唐, Tang dynasty, 618-907). The Karajishi typically has curly hair for its head, neck, body, and tail, as you see in this work. In Buddhism, the Karajishi is regarded as a symbol of wisdom, and Monju Bosatu (文殊菩薩, Manjushri Bodhisattva) rides lions. According to a theory, the Karajishi is the origin of Komainu (狛犬, stone guardian dogs that exorcize evil spirits). It shows that this beast motif has been familiar to Japanese people since ancient times. Tsuba and Habaki This oval-shaped Tsuba has a dazzling appearance due to its design and color. The thin metal plate is attached to its edge and adds decorativeness to this work. It also has practicality, such as preventing the wear of the edge part. Also, it prevents the wear and tear of the Kimono if the edge damages it by touching the cloth. The theme of this Tsuba is the same as the Fuchi Kashira. Both the front and back sides are connected to form a single image, depicting a single dragon swimming in the sea (or this dragon seems to be flying over the sea). Initially, the dragon was an imaginary creature found in ancient foreign traditions or myths. Furthermore, it is regarded as a symbolic beast of auspicious signs. Its body is likened to nine animals: antlers are deer, the head is a camel, eyes are demons, the neck is a snake, belly is Mizuchi (蛟, a mythical animal in Japan that looks like a snake and has a horn and four legs), scales are fish, claws are falcons, palms are tigers, and ears are cows. It was thought that the dragon would reign at the top of all animals because of its odd-looking appearance. Authentication Paper They authenticated the blade on Dec 3rd in the 3th year of Reiwa (2021). They appraised it as Hozon Touken, the blade worth preserving for Japanese society.
Hosho School保昌派
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Yamato-den · Yamato
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From the close of the Kamakura period into the Nanbokucho, the Hosho school worked in Takaichi District of Yamato Province, the old province whose forging traditions grew up around the great temples of Nara and answered to their need for arms. The line belongs to Yamato-den, one of its five schools alongside Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima, and like them it carried the conservative temper of a smithing world bound to monastic patronage. Its smiths share the character Sada as the common element of their names, among them Sadatsugu, Sadamune, Sadayoshi, Sadakiyo, Sadaoki and Sadamitsu, and the published sources rank Sadamune and Sadayoshi as the two most knowable hands, recording that both styled themselves Hosho Goro. Sadayoshi is the smith who most often inscribes his residence and a working date, anchoring the school to the very end of Kamakura with eras such as Bunpo, Genko and Karyaku; Sadakiyo and Sadaoki follow as the textbook hands through whom the group manner is read in full, while Sadamitsu carries the masame idiom forward into the Nanbokucho generations. The forging is where every Hosho smith is known. Across the school the jigane becomes an all-over masame-hada, the straight grain running cleanly from machi to point and out onto the mune, frequently with a flowing nagare tendency, the steel dense and refined with ji-nie thickly adhered and chikei entering along the grain; a nie-utsuri stands faintly over the masame on the more tightly forged tanto. Over this grain the smiths temper a quiet suguha, often a suguha-cho carrying a shallow notare with small gunome and ko-midare, the temper not standing apart from the steel but intertwining with it and fraying repeatedly into hotsure, gathering nijuba, kuichigai-ba and uchinoke along the habuchi, with kinsuji and sunagashi running through and the nioiguchi clear. The published commentary names the school habit exactly, that from around the monouchi upward the tempered width broadens while the nie turns one step stronger.
The masame runs into the boshi, which finishes yakizume with vigorous hakikake, at times a flame-like form, at times a small ko-maru turnback, and the same straight grain tends to open into ware. Within this shared vocabulary the hands diverge by degree: Sadayoshi forges the coarser grain with the strongest nie, while the slightly later Sadakiyo and Sadaoki read calmer and cleaner, quieter in both ji and ha. To kantei a Hosho blade is to read that pure, total masame, for the distinction from the rest of Yamato-den is drawn there: Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima forge a masame-leaning itame, while Hosho commits to the complete straight grain, the most conspicuously individual manner of the five Yamato schools. The tang carries the second tell, filed in higaki, the cross-hatched cypress-fence pattern, and cut off bluntly at the tip, with a darkish iron color the sources count among Yamato work as a point to be appreciated. Workmanship is uniform enough that the smiths are told apart chiefly by their signatures, so that signed and dated Sadayoshi pieces are the most fixed, while the unsigned o-suriage katana given later gold-inlaid or kiritsuke-mei attribution are read as Hosho from manner and era. Of the best hands Sadayoshi stands highest, graded Sai-jo saku in Fujishiro's ranking, with Sadakiyo and Sadaoki close behind on a thin spine of designated work; tanto predominate throughout the school, the hira-zukuri form of slender width and thick kasane showing the old inward uchizori, with rarer tachi, ken and shobu-zukuri blades among the survivors. Provenance for the group runs through the daimyo houses, the Higo Hosokawa and Date families among them, while the shortened katana preserve in their inlay the names of Hon'ami and Umetada appraisers, a school that made its grain its signature. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sadayoshi貞吉 | 1317-1327 | 10 |
| Sadakiyo貞清 | 1321-1324 | 9 |
| Sadaoki貞興 | 1362-1368 | 7 |
| Sadamitsu貞光 | 1346-1370 | 3 |
| Sadatsugu貞次 | 1455-1457 | 0 |
Yamato in the Muromachi period
The monasteries that had sustained Yamato lost ground through the Muromachi period, and the schools thinned with them; Sue-Tegai kept the old masame manner alive in quantity. The burning of Tōdaiji’s Great Buddha hall in 1567 closed the temple age.
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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