Wakasa no Kami Ujifusa worked at Seki in through the Genki and Tensho years of the late sixteenth century, and the published sources count him among the representative smiths of , the last and largest body of the tradition. He was the son of Seki Kanefusa, and the published record preserves a telling detail of his name: he at first succeeded to his father's name Kanefusa, and only later changed to Ujifusa, the character Uji said to have been granted to him by Imagawa Ujizane. He received the title Wakasa no Kami in Eiroku 13, and a Reiwa-designated still carries the residence inscription Bishu Kiyosu ju, the record of his removal in old age from Seki to Kiyosu in Owari. That move matters beyond his own work, for his son became Hida no Kami Ujifusa, the founder of the Owari Ujifusa line and one of the three founding masters of Owari , so the father stands at the hinge where the old tradition passes into the new Owari work.
His representative work is the broad , and a Genki-dated blade is the type: with , generous in with a chu- or large , several extended and a few slightly shortened, the build the published sources read as evidence that by the Genki years the had grown long in place of the and was carried in both hands. Over this body he tempers a or a broad large- into which the pointed of enter, with and , the running from tight and subdued to bright, attached with and patches of . The mixed into the undulating temper is the tell of his ordinary , the feature that places him squarely in the Seki body rather than to one side of it. The published record calls one such blade his representative work, a piece of imposing construction with a grand and open temper, a quiet superlative the institution rarely spends.
The carries the Seki character. His stands rather than tightening, flowing in places to with the gathering at the , and adheres over it, with entering on his more vigorous blades. This standing, flowing is the late- surface, and it is the bed on which his and his sit; on a recent the published sources read a strong Genki-Tensho build with a robust open , the bright and the well gathered, the and alike well preserved. The answers the temper below it, running to a on most of his and pointed and brushed in on others, while on a number of his blades the temper carries fully over the point in an face, the published sources reading one Reiwa-designated as an outright with the tempered long down the back and a Showa-designated blade as a almost in the manner of turning back in ; a plain is carried through the blade. These are not the cool, regular Seki blades of the workshop average but the bolder, freer end of the tradition, and they are why the published sources hold work of this quality from his hand uncommon.
Against this broad manner stands a second and rarer face, seen on his : a Yamashiro copy. A Tensho-dated is the surviving example, slightly wide for its length with a thick and inner curvature, and over a flowing overall, the especially strong on the , the gathers finely and a whitish rises in the . The temper is a narrow , -prevalent with a tight, controlled and , the running straight to a quiet , the carving a on the face and a at the base of the back. Of this register the published sources observe that the Seki work of the Genki-Tensho period often shows such Yamashiro-mono copies, and they rank this one as well composed and of fine quality, among Ujifusa's superior pieces. The carving program reads off the form: where his carry the plain , the devotional and the short belong to the .
His place in the school is best taken from his own attested traits rather than borrowed comparison. He is a smith whose hand is recognized in the standing , the folded into a broad or large-, and the occasional turn to a refined Yamashiro-copy ; the bright open and the are the spine of his work, the quiet its grace note. The lineage runs cleanly through him. He took the body from his father Kanefusa and carried it, with the move to Kiyosu, to the threshold of Owari, where his son Hida no Kami Ujifusa would refine the broad into a settled Owari manner and be numbered with Masatsune and Nobutaka as one of the three founders of that school. The published sources note that several generations continued under the name, and the father is the root of that descent.
Ujifusa is preserved entirely at the level, with no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties on record, so his work belongs to the more attainable end of the connoisseur's field rather than to the museum population. The published designation record holds nine signed and a signed among his designated works, all of them signed pieces rather than attributions, several carrying Genki and Tensho dates and one the Bishu Kiyosu ju residence inscription that the sources prize as material for the study of his late Owari years. No provenance or institutional holder is recorded for these blades, and the published sources are candid that his surviving work, his in particular, is comparatively few and that pieces of real quality are rarer still. A signed, dated Wakasa no Kami Ujifusa of the broad Genki-Tensho type is therefore an uncommon thing to encounter, and a collector meets one only from time to time and with patience, the strongest of them at the top of what the late- field offers. The published sources sum the best of them plainly, calling one his representative work of imposing construction and grand temper, another a typical and representative Seki blade of the late , and the fine one of his superior pieces.
