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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchPeriod : Late Muromachi Country : Sagami no Kuni Certificate : Zaidan Hojin Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai Tokubetsu Hozon Token Kanteisho Mounting : Koshirae and Shirasaya Nagasa : Slightly less than 1 shaku 2 sun 4 bun Sori : 2 bun 3 rin Mekugi-ana : 2 Motohaba / Motokasane : 31.8mm / 6.0mm Period : Late Muromachi Country : Sagami Paper : NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token Fittings : Koshirae+Shirasaya Length : 37.4cm(14.72inches) Curve : 0.7cm Hole : 2 Bottom Width,Thickness : 31.8mm・6.0mm Soshu-ju Tsunahiro were Soshu smiths who continued in an unbroken line from the late Muromachi period to the end of the Edo period. The first generation had the surname Yamamura and originally signed with the mei Masahiro, but it is said that he was later summoned by Hojo Ujitsuna of Odawara, received the character "Tsuna," and changed his mei to Tsunahiro. While distinguishing the generations of Tsunahiro is said to be difficult, the Fujishiro Toko Jiten places the first generation in Tenbun, the second in Eiroku, and the third in Bunroku; according to the Yamamura family genealogy and ancient documents, the transition between the first and second generations occurred between Tenbun 7 (1538) and Tenbun 10 (1541). The third generation Tsunahiro was called Yamamura Soemon, lived in Kamakura Ogigayatsu, and later moved to that region at the invitation of the Lord of the Tsugaru clan, where it is recorded he forged 300 long and short swords before returning home in Keicho 11 (1606). This work is hira-zukuri, mitsu-mune, with a kasane that is somewhat thin compared to its dimensions, and a sugata that is curved overall. There is a horimono of a so-no-kurikara-ryu at the koshimoto on the omote, and bonji with tsume on the ura. The jigane is itame with mokume, jinie appears, the hadame is large in many places, the jigane is strong, chikei enters frequently, and the hamon at the koshimoto is sugu-cho mixed with shallow ko-gunome with tobiyaki, while the upper half becomes hitatsura; the habuchi is nioi-gachi, the boundary between the ji and ha is clear, ko-nie attaches well to the hasaki, and along the鍛え (kitae), sunagashi and kinsuji enter frequently; the kaeri of the boshi continues to the middle, and the muneyaki enters vigorously, making it a typical work of the Soshu school. The koshirae is a chiisagatana-koshirae where both the saya and tsuka have 2-bun inro-kizami; the fuchi-kashira depicts a scene of the spring equinox, the menuki depict rice bales, Hotei, and hoju, and the kozuka also features auspicious motifs such as rice ears, hoju, and uchide-no-kozuchi, coming together in a celebratory theme. Item published in the 2024 Dai Token Ichi catalog
Certificate reading — 銘 相州住綱広
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Soshu-den · Sagami
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Within the province of Sagami, where Masamune and his successors had set the Soshu-den on its course, a late body of smiths carried that workmanship forward through the Muromachi period after the classic Nanbokucho masters had passed. These are the Sue-Soshu (末相州), the late Sagami line that took up the manner of Hiromitsu and Akihiro and worked it into the sixteenth century under the patronage of the Later Hojo of Odawara. The published sources draw a division within the group: one body of smiths remained at Kamakura while a separate circle lived at Odawara under the Hojo, the latter collectively called the Odawara-Soshu. The Tsunahiro line anchors the whole, its shodai transmitted as a descendant of Hiromasa who first signed Masahiro, summoned by Hojo Ujitsuna to Odawara and granted the character tsuna; the name then passed as a workshop title through several generations into the Edo period. Around it stand Tsunaie, a retained smith of the Hojo regarded among the more skilled of the late line; Fusamune, the Odawara smith whose carving carries a long reputation; the mid-Muromachi Hiromasa, transmitted as the third generation of his name; Masahiro, a Sagami lineage of four or five generations said to descend from a younger son of Masamune; and Hirotsugu of Kamakura, who also bears Tenbun-era inscriptions tying him to Suruga. The shared vocabulary of the school is read off temper, steel, and carving together. The jigane is an itame mixed with mokume and nagare-hada that tends to stand and open rather than gather tightly, ji-nie adhering across it with chikei entering, the Odawara hands (Fusamune above all) tightening this toward a packed ko-itame. Over that ground the smiths temper a gunome-midare into which choji, togariba, the arrow-notch yahazu tooth, and ko-notare enter, the ha widening as it rises; nie attaches with sunagashi and kinsuji, and tobiyaki with muneyaki are then carried across the ji until the whole becomes hitatsura, the full-temper manner the sources name as the inheritance from Hiromitsu and Akihiro.
The Odawara face leans angular and compound, gunome heads breaking into doubled and koshi-biraki structures over a tight, nioi-dominant nioiguchi, while the Kamakura face of Tsunahiro keeps the broader, yahazu-laced midare. Devotional carving recurs throughout, true and grass kurikara, bonji on a lotus rendai, sanko-ken and gomabashi in raised relief, and incised invocations such as Hachiman Daibosatsu. Set against the classic Soshu-den apex, the divergence is one of register rather than kind: where the Kamakura and Nanbokucho masters reached great depth of nie and clarity of steel, the late line works a flatter, more demonstrative hitatsura over a standing grain, the steel less deep and the nie less profound, the flamboyance of full temper standing in for the restrained command of the founders. For kantei, the Sue-Soshu blade announces itself by the Muromachi sugata (compact hira-zukuri tanto with uchizori, or sun-nobi wakizashi of wide mihaba with sakizori) carrying full hitatsura over an open, standing itame, with the dense devotional horimono the sources treat as a defining mark of Sagami work of the era; the absence of the deep, lucid nie and the midare-utsuri-free clarity of the Kamakura masters separates it from classic Soshu. The Odawara hand is told from the Kamakura hand by its tighter steel, its angular and koshi-biraki gunome, and Fusamune's exceptionally refined relief carving. Among the members, Tsunahiro is the first name of the group, the smith who closes the tradition, the published sources naming him well known and highly skilled within the group, with Tsunaie and Fusamune as the next most accomplished; Hiromasa and Masahiro furnish the dated, ubu-signed documents on which the divided generations are anchored. Provenance, where it survives, is real and distinguished: a Tsunahiro wakizashi bears the ownership inscription of the Hojo retainer Sakurai Daigaku and later passed to Okubo Ichio, while one of his blades is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection; most members, however, carry no recorded daimyo or temple history, their standing resting on the rarity of a signed late-Sagami blade and the carving and steel the sources praise on each. A signed Sue-Soshu work, seldom met yet not locked away as national patrimony, offers the student the Muromachi register of the Soshu-den read whole. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Fusamune總宗 | 1504-1521 | 5 |
| Tsunahiro綱廣 | 1532-1555 | 14 |
| Hiromasa廣正 | 1444-1456 | 4 |
| Hirotsugu廣次 | 1492-1501 | 4 |
| Tsunaie綱家 | 1532-1555 | 3 |
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.
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.
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