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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch(Published in Kubikiri Asaemon Token Oshigata, Volume 2, P149) It has appeared, it has appeared; a famous sword published in the sword oshigata of the Yamano family, the Shogunate's retained tameshigiri practitioners of the Edo period, and later the Yamada family's Kubikiri Asaemon, has appeared. This sword was used in the Edo period, Jokyo 4 (1687) (338 years ago), by Yamano Kichizaemon-no-jo Hisatoyo to cut through the hardest part of the waist of two human bodies stacked together in a single stroke; then in Kaei 1 (1847) (178 years ago), Naito Keinosuke of the Mito Domain Shoinban (the Lord's personal guard) brought it to the Yamada family on behalf of the 10th Lord of the Mito Tokugawa, Tokugawa Yoshiatsu (eldest son of Lord Tokugawa Nariaki), to request a test as the Lord's sashiryo. Upon performing the test, it cut through the wakige (the area of both breasts) in a single stroke, and the evaluation stated that the workmanship and sharpness of the sword are generally good, a crack on the mune has been repaired, and there are scratches in places inside the hi. I remember seeing this sword several years ago when it was presented by another daimyo. It is a strict evaluation without much sontaku, asking "How is this as a sashiryo sword for the great daimyo Mito Tokugawa Yoshiatsu?", but that is part of the historical interest of this sword. Naito Keinosuke of the Shoinban, who brought the sword, served as a study partner to Lord Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and later, during the violent civil war between the Mito family's Tenguto and the Shosei-ha (conservatives), he achieved merit in suppressing the Tenguto as a member of the Shosei-ha and became a professor at the Mito Kodokan; however, he was later imprisoned, escaped Mito amidst the confusion, and in the Meiji era became a Yamagata Prefecture official, a principal of a Gunma Prefecture middle school, and was a historian who was appointed as a professor at Tokyo University in Meiji 19. The Echizen Yasutsugu family of this sword is a prestigious lineage of swordsmiths who were treated as samurai with a stipend of 400 koku (an annual salary of 80,000,000 yen in today's money) by Yuki Hideyasu. This sword is a precious work by Shimosaka Shirouemon, the third son of the first generation Echizen Yasutsugu, who was famous as a smith retained by the Tokugawa Shogun family. After the first generation Yasutsugu passed away in Genna 7 (1621) (404 years ago), the eldest son, the second generation Shimosaka Ichinojo Echizen Yasutsugu, succeeded him; however, after the second generation Echizen Yasutsugu passed away in Shoho 3 (1646) (379 years ago), because the second generation Yasutsugu's son Umanosuke was a minor, a succession dispute broke out. Due to the intervention of the Hatamoto Abe Shirogoro with the Roju, stating "This is a family lineage established by Gongen-sama," a reconciliation was reached; the second generation's son Umanosuke became the third generation Edo Echizen Yasutsugu, and the first generation Yasutsugu's third son, Shimosaka Shirouemon, inherited the residence in Echizen and the Echizen Yasutsugu family, becoming the third generation Echizen Yasutsugu in Echizen. There are works from around the Kanbun era of the Edo period, 1661 (364 years ago), to around the Enpo era, 1680 (345 years ago). This sword exhibits a sugata with a thick moto-kasane and a difference between the moto-mihaba and saki-mihaba with sori; the jigane is forged in itame hada, with abundant ji-nie and chikei appearing on the ji, and the horimono is a carved bo-hi. The hamon is a spirited blade tempered in nioi-deki with nie, forming a large notare mixed with gunome and many kinsuji. This sword is likely a special order piece for a daimyo related to the Tokugawa family. On this occasion, an old collector mentioned that as they have aged, they would like this famous sword published in the Kubikiri Asaemon Token Oshigata to be passed on to a successor at a low price, so we are offering it at a special bargain price. Please enjoy this famous sword, which is precious both in the history of swords and in the history related to the Mito Tokugawa family.
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Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto · Echizen · around 1660-1673
Tōken Taikan top 14%
3 pieces on the market now
Where Yasutsugu 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 · 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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