School attribution
School-level mumei attributions across the subtree
祐定
祐定
Stylistic phases across the school's history
Sukesada (祐定) is the great name of late- , the most prosperous of the forges that scholars group together as . The signature was carried by a body of smiths so large that the early-modern reference Hayami-dashi lists as many as twenty-one who appended a zokumyo (common name) to distinguish themselves, and the published commentary is blunt that of all the late- families the Sukesada line was the largest and most productive. Two registers of work issue from this single name. At the top stand the masters identified by their common-name titles, Yosozaemon-no-jo, Hikobei-no-jo, Genbei-no-jo, and Hikozaemon-no-jo, whose custom commissions (chumon-uchi) the sources distinguish sharply from the mass run; beneath them lies the great body of kazu-uchi-mono, the bulk production signed plainly Sukesada with no personal name, dated and placed to the house by era and quality. Hikobei-no-jo is recorded as the father of Yosozaemon-no-jo, who in turn heads the most distinguished branch, born in Onin 1 by back-count from a inscribed at age seventy-one in Tenbun 6; the name then runs in -signature generations down through the Eiroku and Tensho years.
The shared vocabulary of the school is the temper the late workshops made their own. Over a of tightly packed , fine settling like dust, woven through, and a faint rising near the (the thinned last trace of the bright reflection that filled the prime), the smiths build an open-waisted that develops into the doubled, compound structure marking a blade above all else. Mixed into it run , , and pointed , in places gathering into the double-flower juka and the crab's-claw formation called kani-no-; the is -based with adhering, and entering richly, and trailing, the bright and clear. A second pole answers this flamboyance, the quiet , broad and shallowly undulating with folded in, of which Genbei-no-jo in particular was the master, while a livelier climbs the body with frequent and on certain , often in . The blades take the robust late- form, wide in body with little taper, thick in , deep in with and an extended . The divergence between the masters and the general production is one of care rather than kind: Yosozaemon's bright, well-packed and his command of all three registers, , , and , set his typical work apart from the coarser bulk, and the commentary states plainly that it is precisely because such chumon-uchi exist that the name carries its high standing.
To a Sukesada blade is first to read the signature register, then the manner. A named master signs a long on the with the date on the , often over two columns and frequently with carving (, a dragon, a , or the invocation Namu ); the bulk kazu-uchi-mono sign Sukesada alone and are judged to the house by era and the - keynote of on bright . Yosozaemon-no-jo leads the name in renown and breadth, ranked beside the late- Kiyomitsu among the two great hands of the workshop's closing age, his blades transmitted in houses grounded in their own provenance, the Hachisuka, the Mori, and the Ii, with a recorded to the warrior Yamanaka Shikanosuke and others in the Imperial collection. Genbei-no-jo and Hikobei-no-jo follow, their custom blades often carrying an owner inscription beside the date, and Hikozaemon-no-jo offers the approachable end of a famous name. The Sukesada cutting reputation runs through the whole body, the heavy made to be worn and used two-handed as the fell from use. For the collector this is the most attainable of the great names, never common at its summit yet, in a signed and dated example with the open-waisted reading clearly down its edge, the surest single document of how worked in its last great generation.
118 designated · 11 named makers
0.32 weighted designation index across 118 designated works
Top 30% of schools
Stats as of 6/17/2026
21 works with recorded provenance
2.52 provenance index across 21 provenanced works
Top 32% of schools
Ranked by elite standing (top-tier designations weighted)
祐定
祐定
Stylistic phases across the school's history
Sukesada (祐定) is the great name of late- , the most prosperous of the forges that scholars group together as . The signature was carried by a body of smiths so large that the early-modern reference Hayami-dashi lists as many as twenty-one who appended a zokumyo (common name) to distinguish themselves, and the published commentary is blunt that of all the late- families the Sukesada line was the largest and most productive. Two registers of work issue from this single name. At the top stand the masters identified by their common-name titles, Yosozaemon-no-jo, Hikobei-no-jo, Genbei-no-jo, and Hikozaemon-no-jo, whose custom commissions (chumon-uchi) the sources distinguish sharply from the mass run; beneath them lies the great body of kazu-uchi-mono, the bulk production signed plainly Sukesada with no personal name, dated and placed to the house by era and quality. Hikobei-no-jo is recorded as the father of Yosozaemon-no-jo, who in turn heads the most distinguished branch, born in Onin 1 by back-count from a inscribed at age seventy-one in Tenbun 6; the name then runs in -signature generations down through the Eiroku and Tensho years.
The shared vocabulary of the school is the temper the late workshops made their own. Over a of tightly packed , fine settling like dust, woven through, and a faint rising near the (the thinned last trace of the bright reflection that filled the prime), the smiths build an open-waisted that develops into the doubled, compound structure marking a blade above all else. Mixed into it run , , and pointed , in places gathering into the double-flower juka and the crab's-claw formation called kani-no-; the is -based with adhering, and entering richly, and trailing, the bright and clear. A second pole answers this flamboyance, the quiet , broad and shallowly undulating with folded in, of which Genbei-no-jo in particular was the master, while a livelier climbs the body with frequent and on certain , often in . The blades take the robust late- form, wide in body with little taper, thick in , deep in with and an extended . The divergence between the masters and the general production is one of care rather than kind: Yosozaemon's bright, well-packed and his command of all three registers, , , and , set his typical work apart from the coarser bulk, and the commentary states plainly that it is precisely because such chumon-uchi exist that the name carries its high standing.
To a Sukesada blade is first to read the signature register, then the manner. A named master signs a long on the with the date on the , often over two columns and frequently with carving (, a dragon, a , or the invocation Namu ); the bulk kazu-uchi-mono sign Sukesada alone and are judged to the house by era and the - keynote of on bright . Yosozaemon-no-jo leads the name in renown and breadth, ranked beside the late- Kiyomitsu among the two great hands of the workshop's closing age, his blades transmitted in houses grounded in their own provenance, the Hachisuka, the Mori, and the Ii, with a recorded to the warrior Yamanaka Shikanosuke and others in the Imperial collection. Genbei-no-jo and Hikobei-no-jo follow, their custom blades often carrying an owner inscription beside the date, and Hikozaemon-no-jo offers the approachable end of a famous name. The Sukesada cutting reputation runs through the whole body, the heavy made to be worn and used two-handed as the fell from use. For the collector this is the most attainable of the great names, never common at its summit yet, in a signed and dated example with the open-waisted reading clearly down its edge, the surest single document of how worked in its last great generation.
118 designated · 11 named makers
0.32 weighted designation index across 118 designated works
Top 30% of schools
Stats as of 6/17/2026
21 works with recorded provenance
2.52 provenance index across 21 provenanced works
Top 32% of schools
Ranked by elite standing (top-tier designations weighted)