After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIntroduction Yamamura Yasunobu (山村安信) was a Japanese swordsmith who was active around the Ōei period of 1394-1428. He was part of the Yamamura school of Echigo province, who were a family of samurai who had taken up swordsmithing. This started with Masanobu was taught by the famous swordsmith Nobukuni of Kyoto. Nobukuni in turn traced his lineage back to the first-generation Nobukuni who was trained by Sōshū Sadamune, Masamune's son and lineage holder. The lineage combined Sōshū characteristics with more typical Kyoto Rai swordsmithing. This example A tantō from the first years of the Muromachi period. It appears to be unshortened (ubu) but with two peg holes (mekugi-ana). The most striking part of it is the sunken panel with dragon grasping a sacred jewel on the right side of the blade. It has the unusual feature of being blackened, with some elements highligted with pure gold. The style of the dragon indicates it was done in the Shintō period. At the base of the blade are two faint lines, indicative that there was once a different horimono in its place, probably a stylized ken (straightsword) as was commonly seen in the Sōshū line. On the other side is a very crisply carved Sanskrit character invoking Fudō Myōō (the Immovable Wisdom King), probably done around the same time as the dragon horimono. An unusual feature for the school is the very prominent utsuri present on both sides of this blade that is not described in the standard literature describing this school, yet the NBTHK did attribute it straight to this smith. Blade attributes (With plain English below) Sugata: Hira-zukuri, mitsu-mune, muzori. (Overall form: Wedge shaped cross-section with flat sides, tri-facetted spine, and no curvature.) Jigane: Itame mixed with nagare and masame with some ji-nie. Prominent utsuri. (Steel: Regular wood grain mixed with running and straight grain. Some martensite crystals in the area above the temperline. Very clear shadow of temperline.) Hamon: ko-midare hamon in ko-nie-deki with kinsuji, nie-kuzure and sunagashi. (Temperline: Small-dimensioned wavy temperline, executed in fine, individually visible martensite crystals. Some black gleaming lines of martensite, formations of crystals that looked like frayed cloth and some like brushed sand.) Bōshi: Sugu with a brief round kaeri. (Temperline in tip: Following the edge, with a small round turning point.) Horimono: Bohi and Fudo bonji on the left side, dragon grasping a pearl on the right. (Carvings: Groove and sanskrit character invoking Fudō Myōō (the Immovable Wisdom King) on the left and a dragon grasping a pearl on the right.) Nakago: Kiri-yasurime, two mekugi-ana. (Tang: Straight file marks, two peg holes.) NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon The blade was rated "Especially Worthy of Preservation" by the NBTHK on recent papers dated August 2nd, 2025. The unsigned blade was attributed to Yamamura Yasunobu. Yamamura Yasunobu Yamamura Yasunobu was the second son of Masanobu, the first of the samurai family ot take up swordsmithing. Yasunobu's workmanship is quite close to that of Nobukuni, who taught his father. It it believed that in his later years, he even started to sign under the name Nobukuni himself. There is for example a tachi signed: 山村住信国 Yamamura-jū Nobukuni Nobukuni, resident of Yamamura Koshirae It comes in a very fine set of tantō koshirae consisting of a mustard-ground, gold sparkle (maki-e) lacquered scabbard with sparrows. The ura-gawara (reinforcement of kozuka slot) is also shaped like three sparrows. The mounts are made of shibuichi and shakudō . The tsuka is covered with stingray-skin, wrapped with cord. The kashira is a basket of fruit, the fuchi are flowers, the koiguchi is shaped as the basket they sit in. The kurigata on the saya is again shaped like a basket of flowers, with its handle functioning as the loop. The kojiri (scabbard endpiece) is shaped like a large basket of flowers with long bamboo handles that exend to nearly half of the saya, reinforcing it in a tasteful manner. What is notable about the baskets is that they are not cast or chiseled, but actually woven of strips, like actual baskets. The theme is a plentiful harvest with the baskets symbolizing abundance. The sparrows eat insects that damage the crops and so an abundance of sparrows is also associated with a good harvest. Today we don't pay too much attention to them, but back in the day a summer without sparrows often meant a winter with food shortages so they were quite literally associated with luck and fortune. The kojiri is signed in grass script: 壽高 Toshitaka According to Haynes, he was the adopted son of the first Mori Toshitaka, student of Tanaka Kiyotoshi. He worked in the Tanaka school style, known for its detailed representation of designs from the natural world. Toshitake could also do the restrained Higo-style fittings.1 Notes 1. Haynes Index H 10579.0. Kozuka The kozuka continues the basket theme with a basketry background, decorated with plum blossom. A flower that blooms in winter, it symbolizes thriving in difficult circumstances. Its flowers fall when they are at their best, symbolizing the image of the ideal samurai who does not cowardly achieve old age but perishes on the field, in his prime. The kozuka is signed: 石黒政美 Ishiguro Masayoshi He was a rather famous maker of Edo who lived between 1772-1862. The signature doesn't match those in the books and so it's a gimei or "spurious signature", common on Edo works. The workmanship, however, is still very good. The kogatana blade is signed: 法僑來國次入道壽做 Hokkyo Rai Kunitsugu Nyūdō Hisashi A somewhat puzzling sentence, referring to Rai Kunitsugu (a famous bladesmith) as a Buddhist monk. It is not the typical format of a maker's signature, but rather an honorary referral. Condition Blade is in an older traditional sashikomi polish with some minor scratches and blemishes. Details can be clearly seen however, it is not in the way of appreciating the workmanship of the blade. The koshirae has cracks in the lacquer at the seams on both sides. The wrap is a later replacement of what was probably once a baleen wrap. Some minor wear and tear on all parts, consistent with age.
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Echigo · around 1394-1428
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 49%
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
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.
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