The dated Genki two (1571) and signed at full length " no ju Magouemon-no-jo Kiyomitsu kore" is the piece the published sources hold up as the measure of this smith, an whose they call extremely fine, the broad with small and well in, and which they call not only a masterwork of Kiyomitsu but a typical and representative work of the school in this period. Kiyomitsu is one of the leading names of , the term used for the late- workshops and their output collectively, and among the many smiths who signed the name the published sources single out two as the superior hands: Gorozaemon-no-jo and Magouemon-no-jo, the latter being the smith whose work fills this record. He bears the byname Magouemon-no-jo and works in the Eiroku years between 1558 and 1570, and the published sources note that the byname runs to a second generation, reading this Eiroku run as that second hand. Every blade here is a signed, dated on an tang, a body of work as nearly knowable as a name can be, several of the signatures long enough to carry the residence in full.
His reputation rests first on . The published sources name Magouemon-no-jo, with Gorozaemon-no-jo, as the technically superior of the Kiyomitsu smiths, both of them excelling at the straight temper, and call the wide itself the mark of the Kiyomitsu line. His characteristic blade is a sturdy , the body broad and the thick, the high and -zori standing toward a that extends a little or a large , over which he lays a wide mixed with small and a -like wave. Within it the and enter thickly, the tight to small and on his finest blades bright and clear, with fine running. A robust shape tempered in this manner, the edge well worked and the shining, is what the published sources call the true forte of the smith who excelled at the straight temper.
The beneath that temper is as much a part of his recognition. He forges a packed and , applied, entering in fine grain on the better pieces. What sets his apart, and the published sources name it expressly, is that where Tadamitsu and Sukesada keep the close, Kiyomitsu mixes into the so that the tends to stand, a distinguishing feature the sources call particular to him. The exception is telling. On his masterworks, including the Genki , the sources remark that the is unusually free of unevenness and finely packed, the refinement of those blades lifting them above his common work. The runs straight to a small round with a sweep of on the blades, and on the pieces it turns over in and points or doubles toward the back, a small round one side and a pointed return the other.
Against that calm register he forges a showier second manner, and the published sources treat it as fully representative of him rather than as a departure. Its mark is the , the opened at the base, becoming complex and doubled, mixed with small and pointed heads or set against a bearing square-shouldered heads, the and in, laid, with and running and and entering. The published sources read the opened with its small as resembling that of Yosozaemon-no-jo Sukesada, the other great hand, and call these blades his representative work, noting that like the other late- smiths his range is wide and extends to , and full . The shapes themselves are part of the reading: the sources observe that by this period the blades grow long and the tang lengthens to suit two-handed use, the broad body and large of the latest pieces marking the very end of the age.
What sets Magouemon-no-jo apart within is read through his own work rather than by contrast. His wide taking in small , the and coming in thickly, is the manner the sources tie to his name, the calmest of his registers, while the with its and extends his range toward Sukesada and toward the showy late- taste, the published sources calling one of these the representative straight-tempered work of his hand. Tadamitsu and Sukesada share the , but the standing with is the tell that tells his straight temper from theirs. Several of his blades carry order-inscriptions that fix him in time and place, the most consequential naming the Urakami Munekage, one made as a treasured possession for him and another forged at Tenjinyama castle for his line; the published sources identify this patron with the deputy-governor of the province and value the inscriptions as evidence of the smith's standing.
The weight of designation behind his name is steady rather than vast. Ten of his blades hold the rank, with nothing on record in the or the higher designated tiers, so his is a record built in the upper-middle reaches of designation rather than at its summit, and his designation factor places him well down the long roll of swordsmiths. Provenance is recorded thinly, the surest trace being the Urakami Munekage order-inscriptions carried on the blades themselves rather than a roll of later owners. Genuine signed, dated Magouemon-no-jo blades survive in fair number for a name, and an , signed example in its original form, of the kind the published sources hold up as an outstanding piece of his hand, is among the more attainable of the great late- smiths for a collector who waits. The tier appears from time to time and a fully signed, dated Eiroku with the standing and the bright is a landmark when it does, the smith better met through one such honest, documented blade than sought in any rarer tier he never reached.
