The smiths gathered under the Nitta-shō (新田庄) name were - makers who resided in the Nitta estate of Province across the late period and into the era. The document a small circle of signed hands rather than a single descent line. Chikayori (親依) is the most frequently encountered, with dated work spanning Bunpō, Gen'ō, Karyaku, and Gentoku, his Gen'ō 2 (1320) headed by the title Uemon no Jō; Ujiyori (氏依), styled Saemon no Jō and Sahebei no Jō, carries a Kagen 3 (1305) date and is placed in reference compilations within the Chikata-shō (Oyada-shō) line of Chikayori; Noritsugu (則次) reaches a Bunna 3 (1354) date in the period; and Yasunori (保則) appears in as teacher under the Noriyoshi entry. The measure this group directly against of the period and judge it somewhat below that workshop in skill, while one notice groups the makers alongside the Karakawa and Haji circles and another likens Noritsugu's later work to the Unrui and Unshō sphere.
A shared idiom runs through the blades. The form is the slender late- , with , , and a small or extended . The is or , at times tending to or carrying and patches of larger flowing grain, with adhering and (often ) appearing as a defining trait. The temper rests on a low, narrow worked in with , into which and enter; and mingle in places, and the often tightens toward a subdued () or faintly character, with and faint where present. The commonly turns in . Within this vocabulary the record real divergence: Chikayori's Robert Benson runs to a more flamboyant , mixing into with on the , while Ujiyori's signed shows the most meticulous forging of the group, broad in with thick .
For the eye these are the working points, the slender shape, the -bearing ground, and the quiet low read against the showier output and the lineage that the notices invoke for comparison. Named and provenanced works anchor the record: Chikayori's Gentoku 4 (1332) at Hie Shrine is cited as the one other remembered example beside his Gen'ō piece, a Noritsugu descends from the Unshū Matsudaira family, an Ujiyori survives with its black-lacquer , and the Yasunori blade carries a two-character signature read against the group's manner. The treat extant work by every one of these hands as rare, valuing the signed and dated survivals as documentary anchors that fix the production span of the Nitta-shō smiths and let their restrained corner of the tradition be understood at all.