NihontoWatch出ました出ました大和保昌の保昌貞行の在銘の奇跡的な太刀の出現です。かの明治大正昭和の大鑑定家本阿弥光遜先生の掟と特徴の本に保昌の太刀は大すりあげ無銘が多く、正真在銘作の太刀は紀州徳川家の（現在重文に指定されている）貞継の作品1口しか見たことが無い、とおっしゃるほど素晴らしく貴重な奇跡の保昌貞行の在銘の太刀の出現です。保昌は大和高市郡（高市早苗首相の遠祖の出身地）曽我村に住し祖を保昌国光としていますが作品が無く、古来保昌貞宗又は保昌五郎貞吉を始祖とし。太刀、短刀共に在銘は稀で、短刀は前田家に名物桑山保昌や大保昌が有り、通字は貞の字が付き名鑑には貞宗、貞吉、貞真、貞清、貞興、貞光、貞行、貞継などの刀匠銘を拝見しますが在銘は殆ど無く、本保昌貞行の太刀は南北朝貞和頃（1345年）（681年前）の作品で鎌倉時代文保頃（1317年）の保昌の始祖保昌五郎貞吉の子供です、本貞行在銘太刀が現存する事は学術的にも資料的にも素晴らしく貴重です。本太刀の元は2尺6寸の長寸の太刀を後世に短くし鎬がやや高く元身幅広く先身幅との差の有る平肉の少ない堂々たる良い太刀姿を現し、地金は鎬地は柾目で地は板目肌や杢目肌に柾目肌を交え地には地景や地沸を多く現し、刃紋は沸出来の直調の刃を焼き刃縁にややほつれや互目を交え刃中金筋や砂流しを交え刃中明るく見事です、帽子は表は小丸裏は焼き詰めて中心のやすり目は掟通りと言われる桧垣やすりを掛け大和保昌伝を見事に証明しています。拵も江戸期の格調高い拵えが貴重な本保昌貞行の在銘の太刀に一段と華を添えています。この度古いお数寄者様より大切にしてきた保昌貞行の在銘の太刀ですが自分も年を取りましたので大切にして頂ける方にお譲り下さいとお預かりした為に大名登録と言われる昭和26年の東京都登録もまた貴重です、全国の博物館でも是非欲しい在銘保昌貞行の貴重な太刀を是非お楽しみ下さいませ。
NihontoWatchOffered by Nipponto
4 on the market
As written by the shop
(Translation unavailable)
Yamato-den · Yamato · around 1345-1350
Tōken Taikan top 26%
1 piece on the market now
Yamato-den · Yamato
4 pieces on the market now
From the close of the Kamakura period into the Nanbokucho, the Hosho school worked in Takaichi District of Yamato Province, the old province whose forging traditions grew up around the great temples of Nara and answered to their need for arms. The line belongs to Yamato-den, one of its five schools alongside Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima, and like them it carried the conservative temper of a smithing world bound to monastic patronage. Its smiths share the character Sada as the common element of their names, among them Sadatsugu, Sadamune, Sadayoshi, Sadakiyo, Sadaoki and Sadamitsu, and the published sources rank Sadamune and Sadayoshi as the two most knowable hands, recording that both styled themselves Hosho Goro. Sadayoshi is the smith who most often inscribes his residence and a working date, anchoring the school to the very end of Kamakura with eras such as Bunpo, Genko and Karyaku; Sadakiyo and Sadaoki follow as the textbook hands through whom the group manner is read in full, while Sadamitsu carries the masame idiom forward into the Nanbokucho generations. The forging is where every Hosho smith is known. Across the school the jigane becomes an all-over masame-hada, the straight grain running cleanly from machi to point and out onto the mune, frequently with a flowing nagare tendency, the steel dense and refined with ji-nie thickly adhered and chikei entering along the grain; a nie-utsuri stands faintly over the masame on the more tightly forged tanto. Over this grain the smiths temper a quiet suguha, often a suguha-cho carrying a shallow notare with small gunome and ko-midare, the temper not standing apart from the steel but intertwining with it and fraying repeatedly into hotsure, gathering nijuba, kuichigai-ba and uchinoke along the habuchi, with kinsuji and sunagashi running through and the nioiguchi clear. The published commentary names the school habit exactly, that from around the monouchi upward the tempered width broadens while the nie turns one step stronger.
The masame runs into the boshi, which finishes yakizume with vigorous hakikake, at times a flame-like form, at times a small ko-maru turnback, and the same straight grain tends to open into ware. Within this shared vocabulary the hands diverge by degree: Sadayoshi forges the coarser grain with the strongest nie, while the slightly later Sadakiyo and Sadaoki read calmer and cleaner, quieter in both ji and ha. To kantei a Hosho blade is to read that pure, total masame, for the distinction from the rest of Yamato-den is drawn there: Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima forge a masame-leaning itame, while Hosho commits to the complete straight grain, the most conspicuously individual manner of the five Yamato schools. The tang carries the second tell, filed in higaki, the cross-hatched cypress-fence pattern, and cut off bluntly at the tip, with a darkish iron color the sources count among Yamato work as a point to be appreciated. Workmanship is uniform enough that the smiths are told apart chiefly by their signatures, so that signed and dated Sadayoshi pieces are the most fixed, while the unsigned o-suriage katana given later gold-inlaid or kiritsuke-mei attribution are read as Hosho from manner and era. Of the best hands Sadayoshi stands highest, graded Sai-jo saku in Fujishiro's ranking, with Sadakiyo and Sadaoki close behind on a thin spine of designated work; tanto predominate throughout the school, the hira-zukuri form of slender width and thick kasane showing the old inward uchizori, with rarer tachi, ken and shobu-zukuri blades among the survivors. Provenance for the group runs through the daimyo houses, the Higo Hosokawa and Date families among them, while the shortened katana preserve in their inlay the names of Hon'ami and Umetada appraisers, a school that made its grain its signature. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sadayoshi貞吉 | 1317-1327 | 10 |
| Sadakiyo貞清 | 1321-1324 | 9 |
| Sadaoki貞興 | 1362-1368 | 7 |
| Sadamitsu貞光 | 1346-1370 | 3 |
| Sadatsugu貞次 | 1455-1457 | 0 |
Yamato in the Nanbokuchō period
When the Southern Court made its capital at Yoshino, in Yamato itself, the province’s schools were at their height: the late Tegai line, Shikkake Norinaga, and the pure masame of Hōshō. Their technique was already spreading across the provinces.
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 siteFor returns due to customer circumstances, the cost is the customer's responsibility. For returns due to our mis-shipment or a defective item, we bear the cost.
Price on request