After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch時代 : 室町末期 国 : 出羽国 証書 : 財団法人日本美術刀剣保存協会 保存刀剣 鑑定書 外装 : 拵入 刃長 : 6寸2分半 反り : 内反 目釘穴 : 1個 元幅・元重 : 17.6mm・6.9mm Period : Late Muromachi 16c Country : Dewa Paper : NBTHK Hozon Token Fittings : Koshirae Length : 19.0cm(7.48inches) Curve : Uchizori Hole : 1 Bottom Width,Thickness : 17.6mm・6.9mm (0.69inches・0.27inches) 出羽国(山形県、秋田県)の霊山月山は古来山岳信仰の聖地であり、その山麓で鍛えられたものを刀銘にしたと言われています。鎌倉時代の鬼王丸が月山鍛冶の祖とされているようですが、月山肌と称される独特の地鉄「綾杉肌」がなんと言っても特徴です。室町期には大いに栄え、月山二字銘の他、個銘を切るものもあります。月山以外の綾杉肌の刀工としては、下原康重一派、末波平一派などが上げられますが、その当時何かしらの交流が行われたのではないかと推察されます。江戸期では一時衰退しましたが、明治期に再興となり現代も連綿とその月山伝が継承されています。 本作は平造り、三ツ棟、身幅に比して重ね厚い体配です。刃文は直調に鍛えに沿って互の目交じり、かけだす所あるものの、金筋入り、地鉄は綾杉肌に地沸つく出来で、月山の典型作と言えます。白鞘は無く、全体が黒漆塗となり、柄部分に丸に剣片喰の家紋が入った作品です。
Certificate reading — 銘 月山
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Wakimono · Dewa
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Mount Gassan rises among the Dewa Sanzan, the three sacred peaks of northern Japan bound to the mountain asceticism of Shugendō, and the swordsmiths who took the mountain's name worked in its shadow in Ōshū, Dewa Province. The setsumei record that smiths signing "Gassan" are noted in the Kanchiin-bon Meizukushi as early as the Heian period, and the lineage's oldest surviving signed blade is a tachi simply signed Gassan, kept at the Gassan Shrine and judged to date from the late Nanbokuchō to early Muromachi period. Around that same early Nanbokuchō moment the corpus places Gassan Nagamitsu, whose signed tachi answers to the "Ushū Gassan group, around the Ryakuō era" recorded in the Meikan, and Shōgun, a Nanbokuchō hand sometimes identified with Gunshō, dated Genchū 3 (1386). A later branch is carried by Gassan Chikanori, working into the mid and late Muromachi (an ubu wakizashi dated Eishō 9, 1512). The line was revived in Osaka in the closing Tokugawa and Meiji years by Gassan Sadayoshi and his adopted son Gassan Sadakazu, who endured the Haitōrei edict and was appointed Teishitsu Gigei-in (Artist to the Imperial Household) in Meiji 39; his own adopted son Gassan Sadaichi continued the title into Taishō. The forging is the school's signature. " Over the itame base the grain flows (nagare) and tends to stand; ji-nie adheres and chikei enter, and the northern steel takes a dark, metal-like (kana-iro) hue read as Ōshū temperament.
The temper of the old line is a suguha whose nioiguchi is shizumi (subdued), at times mixed with gunome and ko-midare and softened toward urumi, the bōshi turning back in ko-maru. Departures within the corpus mark the lineage's range: Chikanori's late work can drop the ayasugi entirely and absorb Sue-Bizen and Osafune manners, while the Osaka revival smiths command itame with thick ji-nie, flamboyant nie-laden midare, kinsuji, and sunagashi in a full Sōshū idiom, and both Sadakazu and Sadaichi added meticulous horimono, from Bishamonten kurikara to taki kaen Fudō and dragon carvings carved by the same hand that forged the blade. For recognition the setsumei point first to the wave-grain ayasugi and the subdued, often slightly urumi northern nioiguchi, and where these recede, to the dark steel and standing grain that still betray an Ōshū hand. Signed examples of the old line are described as extremely rare, which raises the documentary weight of Nagamitsu's tachi and Shōgun's dated tantō. Provenance threads through the school's own sanctuary: the founding tachi and an Important Art Object tachi both reside at the Dewa Sanzan and Gassan Shrines. The Osaka revival is anchored by Sadaichi tantō signed Teishitsu Gigeiin, recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, alongside a Sadakazu wakizashi made on commission for Prince Kuni. Across six centuries the setsumei track a single mountain workshop, from the subdued ayasugi of the Dewa founders through a Muromachi offshoot that turned toward Bizen, to the Imperial-rank carvers of Osaka who reproduced the old wave-grain while mastering the wider traditions. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Tomosada友定 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Naonori直則 | 1830-1844 | 0 |
| Toshiyasu俊安 | 1504-1521 | 0 |
| Nagahisa長久 | 1334-1338 | 0 |
| Hisatoshi久利 | 1392-1573 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
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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