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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThe first generation Echizen ju Harima no Daijo Fujiwara Shigetaka was a swordsmith representing Echizen during the Shinto period, and according to the genealogy of Shinto smiths, he is said to be a descendant or a student of Seki Kanenori. It is said that the first and second generations held titles, while those below them did not. Regarding the style, well-made works resemble Higo no Daijo and others, or the style of Hyuga no Daijo Sadatsugu and others, with gunome midare or suguha, and the jigane is often itame or ko-itame with a hadadachi feeling. As for the mei characters, both the first and second generations used "Echizen ju Harima no Daijo Fujiwara Shigetaka"; the first generation cut the Shigetaka mei slightly wide, while the second generation made the space above the "ta" inside the "Shige" character vertically long, and the "Taka" character also takes a vertically long shape. Sword production by the first generation is scarce, while works by the second generation are numerous. This wakizashi is a work by Shigetaka who is thought to be the second generation, and the jigane is well-kneaded and tight, slightly hadadachi and refined. It is a spirited work that fires the nie-deki gunome midare that Shigetaka excelled at, the nioiguchi is bright and clear, gunome ashi enter profusely, and the ashi enter long, almost reaching the hasaki. This is one of three blades purchased in ubu condition from Ehime, and although it is a wakizashi size under two shaku, the length of the saya is about 70 cm (two shaku three sun), making it a complete uchigatana koshirae. In a world of great peace, uchigatana koshirae housing a wakizashi like this may have become popular for reasons such as it being heavy and tiring to walk with a daisho at the waist, but looking at this sword, from the point that it is equipped with plain fuchi-kashira that are resistant to friction and a thick iron tsuba with few irregularities (signed Shoami Kanenori), I speculate that it may have been the sashiryo of a warrior who considered combat in rooms with low ceilings. Please enjoy this single sword while reflecting not only on the quality of the toshin but also on the thoughts of the predecessors regarding such koshirae. It would also be a pleasure to enjoy the works of the first and second generations side-by-side together with the first generation Shigetaka of number 328.
Offered by Toushin
2 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto · Echizen · around 1624-1644
Fujishiro Chu-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 49%
2 pieces on the market now
Shinto · Echizen
37 pieces on the market now
The Shimosaka name began not as a single hand but as a trademark shared by a band of Echizen smiths at the dawn of the shinto era, and the designated record gathers their work under that one signature rather than parsing it into individuals. The published sources read the early inscriptions, the generic Echizen no Kuni Shimosaka and the titled Higo Daijo Fujiwara Shimosaka, as the product of a group, of which the first-generation Yasutsugu served as the representative. Born in Shimosaka village of Sakata district in Omi, Yasutsugu moved to Echizen under the patronage of Yuki Hideyasu, signing in his early years Higo no Daijo Shimosaka before his Keicho 10 to 11 summons to Edo, where he forged before Ieyasu and Hidetada and received the character Yasu and the right to cut the Tokugawa hollyhock crest on his nakago. The titled signature was carried by several Echizen hands at once, and the texts list Yasutsugu, Sadakuni and Kanenori among the smiths whose chisel movement and brush intent are too alike to part on present evidence. From this band the Echizen Yasutsugu line descended, dividing after the second generation into the Edo and Echizen Shimosaka houses, and around it formed the deep relief carving the province made its own. The school is recognized first in its steel. The forging is itame mixed with mokume that stands and opens, often flowing into nagare, carrying thick ji-nie and fine chikei, the kane taking on the blackish cast the sources name outright as Echizen-gane; the same dark, standing jihada recurs from Yasutsugu through his son, through Sadatsugu, Shigetaka and the unnamed Shimosaka hands, and the commentary returns to it as the group's signature. Over it the hamon favors a suguha to chu-suguha or shallow notare into which linked gunome and ko-gunome mix, ko-ashi and yo entering, the nie thick and gathering unevenly into rough patches, kinsuji and sunagashi streaming through, the nioiguchi tending to a sinking shizumi.
The boshi is the steadiest tell, running to a ko-maru swept in hakikake and turning back long, with a Sanpin-flavored reminiscence of the Mishina and Echizen-Seki inheritance. Yet the house is not uniform: Sadakuni works an austere suguha over an unusually refined ji with little of the blackish mokume, Sadatsugu fires the brightest, most choji-laden midare of the circle, and the third generation cleans the forging and brightens the nioiguchi toward his Edo contemporaries. Binding the registers is the carving, the deep Echizen-bori and Kinai-bori of kurikara, Fudo Myoo, bonji and gomabashi set in relief within the hi, which Sadakuni may have first supplied to Yasutsugu's blades. For the collector the school rewards reading by register rather than by a single famous holding. Yasutsugu is its summit, rated Jo-jo saku, retained smith to the shogunal house, whose Sadamune and Toshiro copies (the Namazuo, the lost Oyako, the Shishi) show his own Echizen hand under the model, and whose best katana carry the possession inscriptions of his patron Honda Hida no Kami Narishige and provenance in the Echizen and Kishu Tokugawa houses. The second generation follows so faithfully that his finest blades part from the father chiefly by the form of the character tsugu; the Edo third generation continues the suguha and ko-notare manners with a straight yakidashi and a Hojoji affinity. Around them the specialists define the edges of the idiom: Sadakuni and his quiet suguha with a pair of tanto recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, Sadatsugu with his Narishige-crested cutting-test blades, and Shigetaka, the most skilled of Yasutsugu's pupils, whose chestnut-tailed kurijiri nakago and Kinai carving (the Honebami and Hossho copies among his masterworks) name him at a glance and whose finest work approaches the master. A signed Shimosaka blade, whether a titled Yasutsugu beneath the aoi-mon, a named piece by one of the band, or a Higo Daijo pre-Yasutsugu register, comes to market only from time to time, valued as the wellspring from which the Echizen Yasutsugu line and its carving tradition arose. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Yasutsugu康繼 | 1596-1615 | 76 |
| Yasutsugu康繼 | 1624-1644 | 25 |
| Yasutsugu康繼 | 1661-1673 | 8 |
| Sadakuni貞國 | 1596-1615 | 11 |
| Shigetaka重高 | 1596-1615 | 7 |
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.
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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¥473,000
Certificate reading — 銘 播磨大掾藤原重高 越前住