Kawachi no Kami Minamoto Motoyuki (本行), commonly known as Matsuba Motoyuki, was a swordsmith of Karatsu in Province active during the mid- period. His era of activity is recorded as Tenna (1681--1684), and reference works list him as the first generation bearing this name. Motoyuki worked within the broader tradition of swordsmithing, a lineage celebrated for its refined forging and disciplined temperlines. He received the court title Kawachi no Kami and signed with the full " no Karatsu-jū Kawachi no Kami Minamoto Motoyuki ." He is rated chū-jō (above average) by Fujishiro and carries a Hawley rating of 55.
Motoyuki's workmanship is characterized by a tightly forged with fine , producing a steel of notably clear kana-iro tone. His typically begins with a -based before developing into a wide, gentle mixed with , exhibiting deep with and a bright, clear . His blades tend toward wide with shallow and an elongated , reflecting the robust proportions favored in the Genroku era. The is rendered with a rounded turnback, and the is characteristically finished with filemarks and a long signature placed near the side.
Motoyuki's finest surviving work -- a dated Genroku 11 (1698) -- is described in the designation records as his greatest masterwork, with both and praised as bright and clear and the overall state of preservation deemed exceptionally . This blade was mounted with fittings by Tsuchiya Yasuchika, one of the celebrated Nara sansaku, in a commission for the Matsudaira Daigaku no Kami Yoritsada. The pairing of Motoyuki's blade with Yasuchika's metalwork in a unified mounting testifies to the esteem in which his work was held among discerning patrons of the period.