Sukemori is a Fukuoka smith of the middle period, signing the bare two characters of his name on the that carry it, and one of these the published sources call "one of the foremost superior works among Sukemori's pieces". He worked in within the school that arose in the early under Norimune, when the school had already moved past its classical opening into the broad, robust for which it is remembered. The published record is careful with his name from the outset, for the carries a Sukemori under , under Ko- and under the Fukuoka , and the manner of signing differs from blade to blade. From this the judges conclude that "it is thought there were multiple smiths working under the name", so what survives under the one signature is read as the output of more than one hand across two or three generations.
His recognized prime is the two-character signed of mid- shape, the body of standard width, the high and carried on toward the point, ending in a chu-kissaki. Over a jigane of itame that mixes in a flowing tendency and stands a little in places, with ji-nie and a clear midare-utsuri, he forges an extremely brilliant choji-midare into which enter gunome, ko-gunome and angular kakubaru elements. The ashi and yo are abundant, the nioiguchi deep and nioi-dominant with ko-nie gathering unevenly, and in the lower half a sunagashi runs; on one tachi the whole pattern leans into a reverse saka-gakari slant. It is this florid temper that the judges measure against the school's best, finding his finest choji-midare "extremely brilliant and gorgeous" and holding that it "connects to the quality seen in the same line as Yoshifusa"3. The boshi runs midare-komi and turns in a small ko-maru, hakikake at the point, one example finishing pointed.
The jigane is the constant beneath the flame. On the prime tachi the itame is read as standing a little, the grain tending toward hada-dachi, with ji-nie and the bright Ichimonjimidare-utsuri over which the temper sits; one Juyo piece mixes mokume into the itame. Where the forging is allowed to tighten, as on his slender early work, it closes into a well-packed ko-itame with ji-nie and the jigane grows quieter. The hamon over it on those early pieces is correspondingly restrained, a wind-swept ko-midare mixing in ko-choji, deep in nioi with ko-nie well adhered, ashi entering well, sunagashi running and kinsuji seen here and there, with a bo-hi carved through both faces. So the same name spans a wide jigane under a brilliant temper on one side and a tight ko-itame under a calm ko-midare on the other.
These are the two faces of his record. The first is the broad mid-Kamakuratachi, suriage but keeping a high koshizori, in the flamboyant choji the published sources tie to Yoshifusa. The second is the slender, small-built early signed tachi, ubu, with high koshizori and pronounced funbari and a ko-kissaki, which the judges appraise as an early-KamakuraIchimonji work close to the Ko-Bizen manner. They note of these early pieces that the name and workmanship are "so similar in both signature manner and style"4 to Ko-Bizen that a given blade cannot always be assigned at a glance, and that with extant works few and none dated, the question is the harder. The two-character signature itself becomes part of the kantei: on the mid-Kamakuratachi it is boldly cut with a fine chisel toward the mune near the tang, a manner the published sources record as "without other example"5.
What sets Sukemori within his school is exactly what the judges name. His brilliant choji-midare over a standing itame and a clear midare-utsuri places him in the mainstream Fukuoka manner of the mid-Kamakura, the school then forging its splendid large-clove-flower choji in nioi-deki; his finest tachi is set beside Yoshifusa, and his early slender pieces look back to the classical Ko-Bizen from which the school grew. He is held apart from the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths by the brightness of his midare-utsuri and the gathering of choji on his edge, and apart from his own quiet early register by the flame of his prime. The published sources judge both ji and ha intact, and of one shortened tachi they write that "its tachi form with pronounced koshizori combines elegance and strength"6.
For the collector Sukemori is a rare and problematic early Bizen name. Fujishiro grades him Jo saku, and the Toko Taikan values his work in the middle range. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through two blades at the Tokubetsu Juyo rank, three at Juyo, and a folded-meikatana at the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin. Of recorded whereabouts his blades sit in long-held collections grounded in their own provenance: the Tokubetsu Juyotachi transmitted in the Wakisaka family of Tatsuno in Harima, and the Juyo Bijutsuhin katana that passed from Kurokawa Fukusaburo to the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, with a piece recorded at Ise Jingu. Only a small number fall in the tradeable tiers, and most designated blades, in private hands or not, are held rather than traded; a signed Sukemori comes to light only seldom, so a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how brilliantly, and how variously, the one name was worked.
Historical importance
Where Sukemori stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.