When a signed of Yoshikane was designated at the seventh session in 1980, the commentary called it "a typical work of Yoshikane in the quality of the and and in the manner of the signature alike". Yoshikane (吉包) was a smith, or more probably several smiths, of the school of province, active from the end of the period into the early period. For so early a hand his works survive in comparative number and in a nearly uniform style. From the and the workmanship the published sources read several smiths of the name across slightly different dates, all of them judged , and they leave the question of generations open. The name recurs a little later in the early Fukuoka school of the province, so that the appraisal of any Yoshikane begins by deciding between the two. Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo .
His are slender, with high and marked , closing in a small that often inclines gently forward; the published sources call the figure classical and graceful, and one entry adds that pieces in which blade and alike seem to carry rather little "are frequent in Yoshikane". The forging is the first of his marks: an that stands out, mixing o- in places and patches of , with attaching well. The states the point outright, writing that "within it is the comparatively standing that is the characteristic of this smith". The second lies in the temper, whose sinks rather than brightens; describing a , the published sources name the pair together, finding that "Yoshikane's character appears in points such as the sinking tendency of the and the standing of the ".
The itself is a -toned line that undulates shallowly into , mixing and traces of . and enter busily, attaches, and and run through the . At times the temper is dropped above the , and here the published record is careful with its own evidence, noting that "is not confined to this smith but is met with from time to time in work". A does appear, but it is held in check rather than bright: on the refined blades the published sources find only a faint , while a wider shows a more conspicuous , so that the reflection runs from quiet to plain but never reaches the standing brilliance of the namesake. The runs to , frequently with at the point.
The published record divides his work and his into two manners, a small signature on a slender blade with a -toned against a somewhat larger signature on a wider blade quenched in , and it states that "the former is regarded as the earlier in date". The earlier register is known above all through an bearing a gold-inlay attribution by Kochu, designated at the twenty-fifth session with an - of gold bearing chrysanthemum and paulownia crests. There the standing gives way to a tight with and a faint , the widening into a broad tone with and ; of its the commentary writes that "the excellent forging built mainly on is praised", and it finds the broad, softly inflected deeply appealing. The scholarship has also moved within the record itself: a formerly carried a vermilion attribution to Nagamitsu, but on repolishing the and the proved distinctly older than Nagamitsu, and the blade was re-designated with the attribution changed to Yoshikane.
Inside the published sources separate him by exactly the traits above: the that stands more than in his fellow smiths, the that sinks, the quieter , the occasional . Against the namesake the line is drawn from his own side as well. The Yoshikane signs with a small two-character cut with a fine chisel, the character 包 differing in particular from the form, and the habit of adding is met with more often in the works; his temper keeps as its keynote with a restrained , where the namesake favors flamboyant under a standing . The published sources add the matter of supply: "in general more works of the survive, and Yoshikane is scarce".
The designated record now runs deep for so early a name: seven blades at the level and twenty-eight at , with a further group of Important Cultural Property and prewar Bijutsuhin , and two blades that descend in the Imperial Household. There is no National Treasure among them, and the early Imperial and Important Cultural Property blades are patrimony held in court and museum hands rather than pieces that trade. The provenance recorded behind the rest reaches court and houses alike: the Imperial Family through the Katsura-no-miya line, the Tokugawa and Kuroda houses, the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira and Matsudaira Yasuharu, the Yamauchi, and the Kikkawa family of Iwakuni, whose the commentary judged the piece "that can most fittingly be likened to Yoshikane among the many smiths of "; a signed descends from the Walter A. Compton collection. What a private collector may realistically encounter is the thirty-five blades of the and tiers, of which only some have a recorded whereabouts, and the published record itself remarks on how seldom the name comes to hand. A Yoshikane, above all a signed one, comes to market rarely and is among the rarer encounters that old affords.