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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchSwordsmith This blade was forged by Yamato Daijyo Fijiwara Masanori(大和大掾藤原正則), who was born in Miyatsu city, Tango koku(northern Koyoto prefecture). Based on his remaining work, he was active during the early Edo period(the 13th year of Keisho-the fourth year of Keian:1608-1651). Masanori is famous for having forged extremely sharp blades and was popular among high-class Samurai. It is said that he was a descendant of Yamashiro koku Sanjyo Yoshinori(山城国三条吉則), one of the most famous swordsmiths during the Muromachi period（Prior to Edo period).After learning the sword-forging technique from his father, Norimitsu(則光) in Miyatsu city, Norimitsu, he moved to Kyoto city. Masanori eventually was noticed and supported by Matsudaira Hideyasu, the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Edo government. Hideysu was the feudal lord of Echizen province during the early Edo period. He then moved to Echizen province to serve the Matsudaira clan. He became an Okakaekaji for Matsudaira Tadanao(松平忠直), who was the first son of Matsudaira Hideyasu. An Okakaekaji means those who exclusively forged swords for specific Samurai or clan. It was honorable for any makers to serve this position back then. The swords forged during the Keicho era(1596-1615) are generally called Keicho Shinto. Osaka castle, Himeji castle, and other gorgeous-looking castles were constructed during this time.Many feudal lords preferred fancy-looking items, and this trend applied to Japanese sword making as well. You can see a gorgeous Midare tempering line on this blade. What is Daisho? Daisho is a pair of two Japanese swords Samurai carried. During the Edo period, having Daisho in public places was considered social status for Samurai. Furthermore, Samurai were required to wear them under the law back then. Daisho is written as 大=Big and 小=Small. Dai part means Katana, and Sho part means Wakizashi. They have such a fancy appearance that we believe a high-ranked Samurai owned them. Both scabbards are also coated with stingray skin. We are confident you would like this pair of Daisho Koshirae. And based on the style of the sword mounitng, they are categorized as DENCHU KOSHIRAE(Sword mountings for entering a castle), which is very formal style of the mountings. Appraisal This blade is appraised as a Tokubetsu Hozon Token(特別保存刀剣) issued by NBTHK(Nihon Bijutsu Touken Hozon Kyokai:日本美術刀剣保存協会). -Katana Jimon(Jihada) -Katana -Wakizashi Fuchi-Kashira At the Fuchi part, there are several letters that are written in an old typeface. These letters are inlaid with golden metal (probably brass). The Kikkou (亀甲, turtle’s shell) pattern is designed for the Fuchi part of the Katana’s handle. It is a continuous geometric pattern connecting regular hexagons up and down. According to a theory, this design was brought to Japan from the Asuka (592-710) to the Nara period (710-794). A proverb says turtles live a long life; therefore, turtle and turtle’s shell pattern represent longevity. In addition, as this continuous hexagonal pattern does not get out of its shape, people wished for eternal prosperity by using this design. When this design was brought to Japan, the aristocracy monopolized it so that ordinary people could not even see it. It was such a prestigious design at that time. The Kikkou pattern was applied to various items such as Kimono (着物, traditional Japanese costume), Obi (帯, belt for Kimono), porcelains, etcetera. Samurais started using the Kikkou pattern in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and it has become widely known among the general public. If you focus on the Fuchi part of the Wakizashi’s handle, you will find a geometric pattern; the Saya Gata (紗綾形) design. It is a type of continuous pattern which many Samurais loved. According to a theory, this motif was brought to Japan from the Continent in the Momoyama period (1568-1600). The Saya Gata pattern has a graceful appearance and represents the longevity and prosperity of the family. Tsuka and Menuki For the Katana, two different motifs are designed for its Menuki. One side is the Samurai, who wears armor. As he brings the sword, it seems he is on the battlefield. Now please look at the other side. Although its entire shape is unclear, it might be the dragon motif due to its characteristic elongated body with scales. Initially, the dragon is an imaginary creature found in ancient 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, mythical animal in Japan which looks like a snake and have 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. For the Wakizashi, we would guess that it might be a kind of fruit or vegetable that is designed for its Menuki. One of them is colored with golden metal. Tsuba and Habaki The Chou (蝶, butterfly) is the motif of these Tsubas. It depicts a butterfly resting with its wings upright. It is said the butterfly pattern has been used since the Heian period (794-1185). This design was brought from the Continent to Japan, and people introduced it in various fields. As proof of this, butterflies have also appeared in stories, such as Heike-Monogatari (平家物語, The Tale of the Heike). This insect design gradually began to be used as a family crest, and it spread nationwide by being used by the Taira (平) clan. Taira no Kiyomori (平清盛, 1118-1181), who was the leader of the Taira family, used the Agehachou (揚羽蝶) crest. That is, it was treated as a symbolic design of the Heike(平家). According to a theory, about 300 Samurais used this motif for their family crests in the Edo period. It tells us the close relationship between the butterfly pattern and Samurai culture. One of the most famous Samurais, Oda Nobunaga, used seven family crests in his life. Among them, there was a butterfly design. Using this crest, he called himself a descendant of the Heike clan to replace the Muromachi Shogunate, governed by the Ashikaga (足利) family, who follows the Genji (源氏) clan. It was one of his strategies to gain control over the government. Among the various animal patterns, people preferred the butterfly pattern due to its growth process, beauty and auspiciousness. A larva becomes a chrysalis, and it grows up to a butterfly. As this insect changes its looks, it symbolizes being reborn; therefore, Samurai loved this design. Also, as butterflies make a couple on good terms, this motif represents happy marriage. Authentication Paper They authenticated these two blades on Feb 25th in the third year of Reiwa (2021). They appraised them as Tokubetsu Hozon Touken, the blade especially worth preserving for Japanese society.
Masanori正則
Offered by Samurai Museum
This piece has sold
Get an email when a new Masanori piece hits the market.
Echizen Shinto (Fukui, Echizen); signing Yamato Daijo Fujiwara Masanori · Echizen · around 1596-1615
2 pieces on the market now
Masanori signed his work in full as Yamato Daijo Fujiwara Masanori[[c:1]], and the earliest of his dated blades carries the year Keicho 13 (1608), with later pieces reaching Genna 2 (1616), Kan'ei 1 (1624) and Keian 4 (1651). That span sets him squarely in the first generation of Echizen smiths working at Fukui in the opening decades of the Edo period, active alongside the first and second generations of Echizen Yasutsugu. The published sources transmit, as one view only, that he descended from Sanjo Yoshinori of Yamashiro, that his native province was Miyazu in Tango, and that he afterward moved to Fukui in Echizen. They place him in the immediate orbit of Yasutsugu, perhaps as a pupil, and add that even where that cannot be shown it is difficult to deny that he came under that smith's influence[[c:2]]. The name continued through several more generations after him, but it is this first Masanori, with his long signature and his ubu nakago, whose hand the four designated blades record.
His everyday manner is read first off the jigane. Over an itame that flows and stands a little (板目 on all four blades, hada-dachi on three, with flowing grain entering on two) he lays ji-nie, and on the larger katana chikei (地景) appears; the steel is sometimes blackish. The hamon that runs above it is a midareba built from gunome, large gunome, pointed togariba and yahazu-like (矢筈) heads, with ko-nie attaching, the boshi running midare-komi to a small round turnback. What the published sources return to, however, is not any single feature of the line but the character of the nioiguchi: it tends to sink, somewhat subdued, and they sum the whole up by saying that his is a subdued-nioiguchi blade generally close to the Seki smiths, 「匂口の沈んだ刃で, 一般に関物に近い」. That sinking quality, paired with the flowing standing jigane, is the closest thing he has to a constant tell across the busier work.
Not every blade is busy. On one of the naginata the hand quiets entirely: the kitae is a fine ko-itame with only a slight tendency to stand, ji-nie appearing, and the hamon settles into a suguha (直刃) with ashi and ko-nie, the boshi straight to a ko-maru. The published sources name this suguha alongside the midareba as the other thing he often produces, and they judge the piece refined in its forging, with the ji and ha well ordered throughout, 「地鉄が精美で地刃の出来がよく整った」. It is the disciplined counterpart to the flowing midare manner, and it shows that his Echizen training carried a calmer register as readily as the showier one.
The ceiling of his work lies elsewhere again. His seventh-session designated katana, the oldest of the four on record, is the height of his ambition: a wide blade running to a large point, cut on the omote in single-bevel construction (片切刃) and on the ura in shinogi-zukuri, modeled after the so-called Kiriba-Sadamune (切刃貞宗). Above a standing itame with frequent muneyaki runs a paired so-mon in a large midare (双文大乱) mixed with gunome, ashi and yo entering freely, sunagashi running through, and the ura passing into full tempering (皆焼), the boshi thrusting up with hakikake and nie. A sankoken (三鈷剣) is carved on the omote. Of this blade the published sources write that the workmanship is excellent, very nearly reaching the first-generation Yasutsugu, and that among Masanori's own works there is none to set beside it, 「殆んど初代康継に迫るものがあり, 同作中これに比すべきものがない」. The katakiriba construction is itself a recurring trait of his record rather than a one-off, appearing on a naginata as well, but it is on this katana that the Sadamune model is named and the ambition fully realized.
What distinguishes Masanori within the crowded field of Echizen Shinto is best drawn from his own grounded features rather than by contrast with his neighbors. The flowing, standing itame and the sinking nioiguchi are the marks the published sources tie to his closeness to the Seki tradition, and they are what hold his everyday work together; against them, the katakiriba blades and the Sadamune-modeled showpiece are the reach toward an older and grander manner. The judges note on the twenty-third-session naginata that his own characteristic features show densely in the ji and ha of that piece, 「地刃に正則の特色が濃く」, and on the same blade that the carving is splendid besides. He is, in the school's reckoning, a smith whose typical work sits close to Seki yet who could, on his best day, turn out a katana that approached the founder of his own province's Shinto tradition.
Masanori's designated record stands at four Juyo blades, two katana and two naginata, every one signed in full and on an ubu nakago; his record reaches the Juyo tier and no higher, and none of the four carries a recorded line of provenance or a named owner. The seventh-session katana, the Sadamune-modeled piece the published sources rank without equal in his output, is the work by which he is best known, and the two naginata, one quiet in suguha and one densely his own, round out a small but coherent body. For the collector this is a smith whose work surfaces only occasionally and whose finest blade is a landmark when it appears; the signed Echizen katana and naginata of his hand are not beyond reach in the way a designated cultural property would be, but they come to market rarely, and a piece in which his subdued nioiguchi and flowing standing jigane are clearly present rewards patience more than it does pursuit.
Where Masanori 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
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 siteReturns/exchanges limited to defects caused by shipping (except willful misconduct or gross negligence by the company); customers must contact within 72 hours of receiving the product.