The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchMuneyoshi was a swordsmith of Tsuruga in Echizen Province around the Keicho era, and according to the "Nihonto Meikan", there was a Muneyoshi residing in Esshu Tsuruga in the Eikyo era, a Muneyoshi residing in Tsuruga in the Daiei era, and following the Keicho Muneyoshi, the lineage continued with Fujiwara Muneyoshi (Echigo no Kami) residing in Tsuruga around the Shoho era. This katana is a work that clearly displays the characteristics of Keicho Shinto with a kissaki that is extended and a width that does not narrow significantly from the moto to the saki, and the mihaba and kasane are jinjo. It is a goso stroke with a shinogi-takai tsukurikomi that gives a sense of excellent cutting performance. The jigane is a well-kneaded itame with hadatachi, chikei enters, and areas of kasudatsu are seen, and the hamon is a ko-nie deki in a suguha style mixed with notare, with kinsuji entering and sunagashi appearing. The boshi is sugu with a maru return at the saki. The nakago is ubu, but the nakago-mune has been polished down to suppress the nakago-sori, and since this kind of shape modification of the nakago-mune is frequently seen in old works, while it is of course preferable for it to be perfectly ubu, at this level it does not even count as a defect. This sword, which proudly boasts a powerful Keicho Shinto sugata, is a high-quality masterpiece of great value as an ideal reference material for studying Keicho Shinto and learning about the transition of sword sugata.
Certificate reading — 銘 越州敦賀住藤原下総守宗吉
NihontoWatchOffered by Toushin
45 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto · Echizen · around 1596-1615
Fujishiro Chu-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 60%
1 piece on the market now
Where Muneyoshi 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.
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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Shinto · Kyoto
45 pieces on the market now
The Umetada school is one of the most distinguished metalworking lineages of the Momoyama period, rooted in Nishijin, Kyoto, and claiming descent from the legendary Sanjo Munechika. The house served the Ashikaga shogunal family over successive generations, establishing deep foundations in the full range of sword-related arts -- swordmaking, blade carving (toshin-bori), the production of steel and fittings, the shortening of blades, the insertion of inlaid signature attributions (zogan-mei), and the making of mountings. " Myoju taught both Hizen Tadayoshi and Higo no Kami Teruhiro, and accepted commissions from the Toyotomi and Tokugawa houses as well as many daimyo families. An earlier stratum of production, appraised as Ko-Umetada, dates from the close of the Muromachi period and demonstrates that the group's technical foundations were firmly established before Myoju's maturity. The near-contemporary Mitsutada, though absent from formal genealogies, is conjectured to have been of senior standing within the circle; his works, executed on brass with an archaic dekoboko-ji ground, display "an even more classically archaic elegance" than Myoju's. Shigeyoshi, active from the Kan'ei through Genroku eras, carried the tradition forward into the mid-Edo period. The Umetada school's collective technical identity divides into two principal modes: iron works and soft-metal (irogane) works. In the iron mode, Myoju expressed geometric patterns -- sayagata, raimon, kasumi-kaminari-mon, and rinzu-mon -- by means of gold nunome-zogan, complemented by celebrated openwork including wheel and double-tomoe sukashi tsuba.
The nejikaeshi-mimi (twisted turned-back rim) and gold rim inlay are techniques "at which he particularly excelled," while the iron itself is invariably "carefully selected" and displays excellent quality. In the irogane mode -- employing shakudo, suaka, brass, and other alloys as ground material -- the school developed a distinctive form of hira-zogan (flat inlay) that retains only slight relief, deploying colored metals in novel combinations. " Ground textures including hammered tsuchime-ji, polished migaki-ji, and file-finished surfaces are deployed with meticulous care to heighten the pictorial effect. Mitsutada's work on brass with its uneven, raised-and-recessed ground and enrichment through gold and silver nunome-zogan represents a more archaic variant of this aesthetic. Shigeyoshi synthesized the inherited hira-zogan tradition with textile-derived designs of linked shippo, karakusa arabesque, and sayagata patterns -- reflecting his Nishijin milieu, the heart of Kyoto's silk-weaving district -- while deploying suemon-zogan, sukidashi-bori, and kin-iroe across shakudo grounds in both polished and stone-textured finishes. The Umetada school's historical significance is singular: the pictorial manner of design, the hira-zogan technique, and the use of non-iron metals as the ground material "all find their earliest beginning with Myoju" -- he stands as the originator of an entire aesthetic vocabulary in kinko. The NBTHK consistently describes Myoju's work as possessing "the vitality that preserves the very momentum of brushwork," with a "strong connection with Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu" that places him among the foremost artistic figures of the Momoyama age. " Solid-gold tsuba, frequently melted down during periods of upheaval, are recognized as extremely rare survivals of exceptional documentary and artistic value. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Myoju明寿 | 1590-1631 | 45 |
| Muneyoshi宗吉 | 1596-1615 | 4 |
| Naritsugu就次 | — | 0 |
| Umetada Mitsushige光重 | 1700-1750 | 0 |
| Kaji’emon加治右衛門 | — | 0 |
Kyōto: the revival workshop
The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
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 siteAs a rule we do not accept returns, except when we have sent a different item from the one ordered or when there is a significant discrepancy between the description and the item. If you wish to return an item, please contact us within 3 days of its arrival and then send it back.
¥660,000