Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIn Awa Province (Tokushima Prefecture), it is said that a group of swordsmiths emerged in the Kaifu River basin in the southern part of the province around the end of the Kamakura period. Extant examples are primarily from the mid-Muromachi period onwards, and names such as Ujiyoshi, Yasuyoshi, Yasuuji, and Yasunaga are well known. Perhaps because they were intended for use at sea, works of this school exhibit a unique style that emphasizes practicality and is rich in interest, such as those with a saw-toothed mune or those in katakiriba-zukuri with the mei carved on the blade, resulting in a mountain-knife appearance. Among them, the "Katana Ashu Ujiyoshi Saku (Meibutsu Iwakiri Kaifu)," formerly owned by Miyoshi Nagayoshi and later passed down to the Kuroda family, is famous. This work is a yoroi-doshi tanto with a nagasa of 7 sun, a firm mihaba, and a moto-shinogi-kasane of over 1 cm. The jigane is a finely packed masame-hada with abundant jinie, and chikei appears along parts of the hadame. The hamon is suguha, with hotsure and kinsuji along the habuchi, and it is a tempered edge full of variation and vigor, becoming strongly nie-deki around the monouchi and taking on a kuichigaiba style. The boshi continues straight and returns with hakikake at the tip. The nakago is ubu with shallow katte-agari yasurime. The koshirae is a jidai-koshirae featuring a matching set of shakudo kanagu. This piece is ubu mumei, a yoroi-doshi tanto with a powerful sugata appraised as Shinshinto Kaifu, and we introduce it as a dignified work together with its koshirae. Shirasaya, silver-clad ichiju habaki, kawari-nuri matching shakudo kanagu aikuchi tanto koshirae, Hozon Token Kanteisho.
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Wakimono · Awa
9 pieces on the market now
The Kaifu group (Kaifu-ha, 海部) takes its name from the Kaifu district of Awa Province on Shikoku, in the region of present-day Tokushima. The Kotō Meizukushi and the Kokon Meizukushi place the founder as Kaifu Tarō Ujiyoshi (海部太郎氏吉), set around the Kōryaku era (1379-1381), and record a second strand said to descend from a pupil of Naminohira around the Ōan era (1368-1375) who signed with the single character Fuji (藤). No blade securely traces back to those origins, and the setsumei are consistent that the group's documented activity belongs to the Muromachi period, growing conspicuous from its latter half. The smiths who appear by name on the designated blades are Ujiyoshi (氏吉), Ujishige (氏重), Yasuyoshi (泰吉) with a Daiei 5 (1525) example, and Yasunaga (泰長), placed around the Daiei era; one tantō by Ujishige is read as the earliest of the line, end of Nanbokuchō into early Muromachi. A shintō continuation survives in Fujiwara Ujiyoshi of Kaifu in Ama district, working in the Kyōhō era (1716-1736), whose hand the setsumei describes as late kotō in appearance, his ancestors' manner carried forward without absorbing other provinces' shifts. Forging across the group runs to ko-itame or itame that often flows and inclines toward masame near the edge, with ji-nie and chikei that the setsumei repeatedly call subdued or lacking strong brilliance; shirake-utsuri and a faintly blackish kanairo recur. The temper is most often a suguha base, from a narrow line on the tantō to a broad suguha mixed with ko-notare, gunome, and midare, the nioiguchi frequently hazy and oceanic (bōyō) rather than tight, with ko-nie, kinsuji, and sunagashi; bōshi turn back in ō-maru with long kaeri or run midare-komi with a togari tendency.
The signature Kaifu form is the hira-zukuri tantō of wide mihaba and slight uchizori, carrying a bonji with suken and gomabashi cut as deep kaki-nagashi grooves, the long mei boldly chiselled in thick strokes. The setsumei also note the kiriba-zukuri wakizashi known as Kaifu mountain swords (Kaifu no yamatō), and a high, thick build of utilitarian character; a flowing masame-tinged jigane with hazy temper and a coarse, bōbō nie reads as the group's ordinary signature, while finer pieces in the same idiom step above it. For kantei, a deeply tempered suguha-based blade whose ko-itame carries dense ji-nie can at a glance suggest Go Yoshihiro, and the group's drift toward a Naminohira manner and the old saying that Kaifu work "changed into E" mark the lines along which it is read. The standing of these smiths rests on cutting character: the meibutsu Iwakiri Kaifu, a katana by Ujiyoshi recorded in the Kyōhō Meibutsu-chō, takes its name from its sharpness, was held by the Miyoshi of Awa with whom Miyoshi Nagayoshi is said to have won martial exploits, and passed thereafter to the Kuroda of Fukuoka. The Ujishige tantō once in the collection of Itō Miyoji is published in the Kōzan Oshigata; a katana by the later Yamato Daijō Ujishige stands at Hiromine Shrine; and two wakizashi by Fujiwara Ujiyoshi were given to the Imperial Household Agency by volunteers from Tokushima. Signed Kaifu blades are few, which makes each named example reference material for the group as a whole. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Ujiyoshi氏吉 | 1492-1501 | 3 |
| Ujishige氏重 | 1655-1658 | 2 |
| Yasunaga泰長 | 1521-1528 | 1 |
| Yasuyoshi泰吉 | 1504-1521 | 1 |
| Ujiyoshi氏吉 | 1596-1615 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
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.
NBTHK official siteNo cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).
¥1,000,000
Certificate reading — 無銘（新々刀海部）