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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch相州住綱廣は室町後期から江戸末期まで連綿と続いた相州鍛冶です。初代は山村姓で、初銘を正廣と切りましたが、その後小田原の北條氏綱に召出され、「綱」の一字を賜り綱廣と改銘したと言われています。綱廣の代別は難しいと言われていますが、藤代刀工辞典では初代が天文、二代が永禄、三代が文禄とされており、山村家系図および古文書によると天文七年(1538)から天文十年(1541)の間に初二代の代替があったとされています。三代綱広は山村宗右衛門と称し、鎌倉扇ケ谷に住し、後に津軽藩主の招きによりその地へ移り、大小300振りを鍛刀し、慶長11年(1606)に帰国したとあります。 本作は三代綱広と思われます。鎬造、庵棟、鎬幅やや狭く、元先の幅差少しつき、表裏三文字ずつ文字が刻まれています。表に(夢泡〇)、裏に(風〇〇)とあり、正確には読み取れないのですが、人生や物事のはかなさを示しているのではないかと想像されます。地鉄は板目に小板目、流れ心あり、地沸付き肌立ち、刃文は沸勝ちで、直ぐに角、尖った互の目を4つ、5つと焼き、刃先は総体的に小沸よく付き、短い砂流や飛び焼もよく入り、帽子は先掃きかける出来です。時代のスタイルで寸は短いものの、中心は生で、相伝の特色がよく表された良い作品です。また、はばきは赤銅地に網代模様と洒落たもので、政房制と銘があります。附けたりの半太刀拵も時代の作です。
NihontoWatchOffered by Shoubudou
This piece has sold
Get an email when a new Sue-Soshu Tsunahiro piece hits the market.
As written by the shop
Soshu-den · Sagami · around 1592-1605
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 37%
1 piece on the market now
Where Tsunahiro 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.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Soshu-den · Sagami
Phase: Sue-Sōshū末相州· 1356–1868
21 pieces on the market now
When the great Kamakura masters had passed and the country slid into the wars of the late Muromachi, a residual Soshu-den held on in Sagami under a new patron. The Later Hojo, ruling from Odawara castle, kept smiths at hand, and it was from this orbit that the leading name of the window emerged: Tsunahiro, transmitted as a retained smith of the Odawara Hojo who took the character tsuna from Hojo Ujitsuna. The first generation's earliest dated works fall in the Tenbun era, and the line runs forward in the conventional reckoning through Tensho, Keicho, Kan'ei, and Manji, the third generation drawn west to Tsugaru by Tamenobu to forge daisho before returning home. Around him stood a wider Sagami population working the same idiom: Hirotsugu of Kamakura, whose strongest hands cluster near the Meio and Tenbun years; Hiromasa and Soso, names carried across several indistinct generations; Masahiro, reaching back toward Joji; and the Odawara group of Yasuharu, Yasukuni, and Fusamune, the last praised above all for his carving. These smiths inherited the manner of the Nanbokucho apex at a remove of generations rather than by direct descent from the mainline of Masamune and Sadamune. The signature of the phase is the open declaration of the full temper. The forging stays itame mixed with mokume, the grain inclined to stand (hadadachi-gokoro), with ji-nie and chikei; over it the smiths ran a notare-and-gunome ground that climbs the upper half into hitatsura, tobiyaki and muneyaki firing across ji and mune, sunagashi and kinsuji threading the ha. This is the hitatsura and o-midare learned from Hiromitsu and Akihiro, but pushed toward display: the Hirotsugu katana of the 61st Juyo runs its temper so high it reaches the shinogi, mixing choji, togariba, and yahazu-gata into a demonstrative yakidaka pattern.
The contrast with the classic apex is precise and the appraisers mark it. Where Masamune raised nie to its deepest refinement over a bright, clear steel, the Sue-Soshu ji tends to shirake, a whitish cast standing in for that clarity, and the nioiguchi inclines to shizumi, a sunken or subdued quality rather than depth. The 238th Jubi record states the point plainly for the first-generation Tsunahiro: the ji and ha carry abundant nie, yet the very shape of the hamon departs from that of Hiromitsu and Akihiro. The temper is broader and busier across the surface, but it lacks the quiet command and the leaping interior activity of the original. To kantei the window is to separate this demonstrative late temper from the classic Soshu-den it imitates: a standing itame with shirake, a wide hitatsura worked with yahazu and crescent tobiyaki, a nioiguchi that sinks rather than deepens, and signatures reading Soshu-ju with full given names rather than the o-suriage mumei of the great forebears. The named hands carry the distinctions, Fusamune through his dense, precise horimono of kurikara and bonji, Tsunahiro through his crescent tobiyaki and high monouchi fire, Hirotsugu through a hitatsura vigorous enough to recall Hasebe. Provenance keeps these blades close to power: several are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, one bearing the ownership inscription of Akimoto Yoshihide of Kozuke, another the Hachiman Daibosatsu invocation of a Sengoku warrior, the Tsunahiro commission tied by its dated nakago to the Tsugaru house. 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.
NBTHK official sitePlease contact us by phone within 3 days of the item's arrival and ship it back the next day. The postage and security service fees are the customer's responsibility.