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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchJust a Part of Our Huge Collection. Samurai Store now has over 100 katana swords in storage and at our warehouses. Please get in touch with us via WhatsApp or Email and tell us what you want! Proudly listed by: Samurai Store, Inc. JAPAN 3-5 weeks for the export permit to be granted. We Ship Worldwide via EMS / UPS / Surface Item# TS089 Antique Katana sword in Ornate Mounting Edo Period, Enpō Era (1673–1681) NBTHK Hozon certificated (Well Preserved certificate) Swordsmith: Attributed to Higashiyama Yoshihira A quality Katana sword from SAMURAI STORE Tokyo . Edo Period, Enpō Era (1673–1681) | NBTHK Hozon Certificate A rare and highly refined work attributed to Higashiyama Yoshihira, a distinguished Kyoto smith of the Umetada tradition, ranked Jōjō-saku and counted among the Wazamono swordsmiths. This elegant katana is attributed by the NBTHK to Higashiyama Yoshihira (東山美平) , an accomplished swordsmith active in Yamashiro Province—present-day Kyoto—during the early Edo period. Yoshihira belonged to the celebrated Umetada tradition of Kyoto and is known as “Higashiyama Yoshihira” after the Higashiyama district of Kyoto where he lived and worked. His surviving works are relatively scarce and are highly appreciated for their sophisticated forging and distinctive tempering. He is traditionally ranked Jōjō-saku (上々作) , indicating a smith of particularly high workmanship, and is also listed among the Wazamono (業物) smiths, whose blades were historically recognized for excellent cutting ability. Exceptional Jihada and Hamon The jihada displays a beautifully tight and refined mokume-hada , with exceptionally vivid nie scattered across the surface. Under the light, these brilliant crystalline particles appear almost like fine snow falling across the steel , giving the blade remarkable depth and visual character. The nioiguchi is deep and clearly defined, while the hamon demonstrates the dynamic workmanship for which Yoshihira is admired. Particularly noteworthy is the distinctiv
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Shinto · Yamashiro · around 1681-1684
Tōken Taikan top 21%
3 pieces on the market now
Where Yoshihira 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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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.
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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