Osafune Norimitsu

The first Norimitsu of Osafune is anchored by a single dated work, a hira-zukuri tanto signed Bizen no Kuni Osafune jū Norimitsu and dated the twelfth month of Kagen 3 (1305), designated Juyo Token at the eighth session. The published sources record that 「初代則光は長光の門人と伝え」 (the first Norimitsu is traditionally said to have been a student of Nagamitsu), and they note that besides this tanto there survive tachi with two-character signatures of the kind seen on Nagamitsu and Kagemitsu, and tachi with a long Bizen no Kuni Osafune jū signature. Of the date itself they write 「この短刀に見るごとき嘉元の年紀は貴珍であり、他には例を見ない」 (a Kagen date such as this tanto bears is a rare treasure, and no other example is known). He is distinct from the far better known Norimitsu of the mid-Muromachi period, the smith of so-called Eikyo-Bizen celebrated as Kansho Norimitsu, whom the sources name only to set the earlier master apart.

The Kagen tanto is a standard uchi-zori blade with a somewhat thick kasane, recalling a yoroi-doshi. Its jigane is itame with a tendency to nagare, and midare-utsuri stands out. The hamon is gunome mixed with angular, kataochi-like gunome, with sunagashi strongly visible, in nioi-deki with a bright nioiguchi; the boshi runs midare-komi and turns back in ko-maru with a long return. The sources observe that 「一見地刃の出来が景光を思わせるものがあり」 (at a glance the workmanship of the jigane and temper has something that recalls Kagemitsu). The bonji below the suken on the omote is a later carving.

Two unsigned katana have been given to him on the strength of that manner. One, o-suriage and slender with deep curvature, a high shinogi and a small kissaki, has a tightly packed itame with ji-nie and midare-utsuri, and a temper in a suguha tone mixed with small gunome, small choji and somewhat angular elements in ko-nie, with fine sunagashi and kinsuji. The sources judge these features 「鎌倉末期の備前物の中でも則光にもっとも擬せられるものであり、古則光の所伝は首肯し得る」 (among late Kamakura Bizen works, the ones most readily likened to Norimitsu, so that the traditional attribution to Ko-Norimitsu may be accepted). The other carries a gold-inlaid attribution to Norimitsu with the kiwame of Hon'ami Kokan, eighteenth head of the Hon'ami house. Its ko-itame is mixed with mokume and densely forged, with fine ji-nie, fine chikei and midare-utsuri; the hamon is a florid midare of round-headed choji with gunome and togariba, ashi and yo entering well, nioi-dominant with ko-nie. For the sources this evokes the main Osafune line of the late Kamakura period, calling to mind 「長光あたりを髣髴とさせるものがある」 (something reminiscent of Nagamitsu and his circle), and they find Kokan's appraisal fully appropriate.

The record of the first Norimitsu therefore rests on three Juyo works: one signed and dated tanto in the angular gunome manner of Kagemitsu, and two attributed katana that show midare-utsuri throughout and a temper ranging from a restrained suguha-based ko-midare to the full choji of Nagamitsu's school.