The fountainhead of the Bizen tradition. From the late Heian period the smiths of "Old Bizen" forged slender, deeply curved tachi of an archaic dignity the NBTHK calls koko — "archaic fragrance" — their luminous itame jigane crossed by the midare-utsuri that would become the signature of all Bizen work. Its twin pillars Tomonari and Masatsune, and the celebrated Kanehira — maker of the National Treasure Ō-Kanehira — set the standard against which every later Bizen smith would be measured.
The The Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School (古備前), active 1100–1230 in Bizen Province across 277 documented smiths: 10 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 54 Jūbun, 90 Jūbi, 73 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 213 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School (古備前) · 1100 – 1230
Masatsune (正恒) — Mainline · 987-989. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The published sources place Masatsune, together with Tomonari, as "a representative smith of Ko-Bizen workmanship"[[c:1]], the two together counted as the twin pillars of the group. The NBTHK records that since old times it has been transmitted that there were three generations bearing the name, or possibly even more, their activity spanning from the end of the Heian period through the Kamakura period, so that "Masatsune" denotes a name-line rather than a single man. Of that line the same notes return to one judgment: among the Ko-Bizen makers his "signed works survive in the greatest number"[[c:2]], and moreover, across that body, the workmanship "has no unevenness"[[c:3]] in quality.
The characterization the sources weigh most carefully is the comparison with Tomonari. In the conventional assessment, the NBTHK writes, Tomonari excels in the elegance of the *tachi* form, exhibiting a graceful, feminine refinement (*taoyame*-buri), and somewhat surpasses Masatsune in the archaic flavor of the *hamon*; yet in the meticulousness and excellence of the *jitetsu* the judgment goes to Masatsune. In the hardened edge too, the same notes say, Masatsune tends to display a greater technical sophistication, so that works which are "more urbane and refined"[[c:4]] are often found among his production. The sources mark the signatures as well: where Tomonari occasionally cuts a long inscription such as "Bizen no Kuni Tomonari," Masatsune "confines himself always to a two-character signature"[[c:5]], and one seldom encounters *bo-hi* or other carvings on his work.
The single feature the published descriptions return to as his clearest tell is *utsuri*. While Tomonari's *utsuri*, the same notes observe, is comparatively inconspicuous, in Masatsune's work it can be seen with considerable clarity; the sources write of one *tachi* that the *jifu-utsuri* "rises with striking clarity"[[c:6]]. His forging is described as a well-worked *itame* mixed with *mokume*, with *ji-nie* adhering well, fine *chikei* entering, and the mottled *jifu* of old Bizen steel woven through, over which the *midare-utsuri* or *jifu-utsuri* stands up distinctly. This, the NBTHK records, is the quality for which his *kitae* is well regarded, shown "without the slightest looseness."
On that *jigane* the published sources describe a temper based on *suguha*, mixing *ko-midare*, *ko-choji*, and at times *ko-gunome*; *ashi* and *yo* enter well, *ko-nie* adheres thickly, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appear in places, and the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear. The *boshi*, the notes say, tends to run straight and turn back roundly in *ko-maru*, often hardened more deeply than Tomonari's. Read together, the sources call this an "archaic yet highly dignified"[[c:7]] manner of workmanship that clearly expresses the distinctive charm of Ko-Bizen, old in feeling and deep in flavor; where the *choji* stand out more than usual, they note, the temper takes on a fresher and more decorative character. As to form, the descriptions record a slender *tachi-sugata* with deep curvature and marked *koshizori*, mostly *suriage* today yet keeping the classical figure of its age.
The published record reaches its plain measure in the designations behind his name. He is *Sai-jo saku* in Fujishiro's grading. The consolidated body of his work numbers five blades that are National Treasures and nine that are Important Cultural Properties, with twelve Tokubetsu Juyo and twenty-two Juyo beyond them; thirty-four of his blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers together. Most survive signed in the two characters that the sources make a point of recognition, forty-nine signed against thirteen unsigned attributions among the works tallied here, and no dated piece comes down, as is usual for the Ko-Bizen period, so the hand is placed by style rather than by an inscribed year.
The provenance recorded against his blades runs through houses that held the country: the Imperial Family, the Owari Tokugawa Family, the Maeda Family, the Date Family, the Ikeda Family, the Shimazu Family, the Soma Family, and a sword once held by the Shogun Tsunayoshi. The finest are kept now in the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, the Hayashibara Museum of Art, the Kurokawa Research Institute, and the Hikone Castle Museum, with further pieces at the Kyushu National Museum and Ise Jingu. Because the name-line was prolific, a signed Masatsune does on occasion reach a serious collector, a touchstone of the earliest signed Bizen.
Tomonari (友成) — Mainline · 987-989. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Among the works of Ko-Bizen the published sources place Tomonari as the smith whose manner is the most classically archaic and who at the same time carries the highest dignity[[c:1]]. Together with Masatsune he is counted one of the two pillars (双璧) of the school, and the same descriptions return to a single comparison between the pair: that Tomonari is marked by the excellence of his *sugata* while Masatsune is marked by the excellence of his *kitae*[[c:2]]. The published record traces the line back to a founding Tomonari placed around the Eien era of the late Heian period, and notes that the same name was carried through several generations down to about the mid-Kamakura period; because surviving *tachi* bear Katei-era dates of the early Kamakura, the name cannot have belonged to a single man.
The published sources separate the two masters further by their *utsuri*. Where Masatsune shows *utsuri* that is clearly visible, Tomonari's tends to be faint, and the descriptions record works in which it scarcely appears at all. They add that his *jigane* inclines slightly toward a blackish iron color, and that he favored carving *bo-hi*, a feature comparatively uncommon in Masatsune; the same notes remark that a Tomonari *tachi* without *bo-hi* is rare.
The *sugata* the descriptions assign to him is the slender *tachi* of the period: *shinogi-zukuri* with *iori-mune*, high *koshizori* with marked *funbari*, the curvature settling slightly toward the tip, closed by a *ko-kissaki*. The forging is *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing a little in places (*hada-dachi*), *ji-nie* applied and *chikei* woven through; over this a faint *midare-utsuri* rises, and in some blades the descriptions note a *ji-fu* or *ji-madara* texture mixed into the *hada*. The seven *tachi* recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection more often show a *ko-itame* that is well knit[[c:3]] with *ji-nie* applied, while on the *Uguisumaru* the *ji-nie* lies thick and a *nie*-based *midare-utsuri* rises toward the back[[c:4]]. The temper is a *suguha*-based pattern carrying *ko-midare* as its main theme, into which *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome* enter; the *nioi* is deep, *ko-nie* adheres thickly, *ashi* and *yo* work within the *ha*, and *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* run through it. The *boshi* is a quiet *ko-maru*, at times tending to *yakizume*.
The published sources order his signed work by the length of the inscription. Compared with the long signatures such as *Bizen no Kuni Tomonari* and *Bizen no Kuni Tomonari saku*, the descriptions write, the longer forms more often accompany workmanship of a markedly archaic character[[c:5]], while blades signed simply *Tomonari* or *Tomonari saku* show *ji* and *ha* that are more orderly and are appraised as somewhat later in date. The notes record several forms of his signature: *Bizen no Kuni Tomonari*, *Bizen no Kuni Tomonari tsukuru*, *Tomonari saku*, and *Tomonari*. They observe a particular complication of the corpus: that certain blades originally bore Katei-era dates which were later erased, the descriptions reason, to make the work appear that of an older Tomonari. Of the blades that survive, the published sources judge those whose *ji* and *ha* most effectively express the archaic, elegant taste of early Ko-Bizen to be the ones that most readily stand comparison with Tomonari himself, and one such *tachi* they call the work that most fully expresses the archaic refinement of old Bizen[[c:6]]. Honma's inventory, which lists the *Uguisumaru* as Gyobutsu, places it among the older works of the name and calls its workmanship brilliant[[c:7]]. Among the National Treasures is also a small signed *koshigatana* at Itsukushima Jinja, worn by polishing, of which the published sources write that no other surely signed *tanto* of the Heian period survives[[c:8]].
Tomonari is *Sai-jo saku* in Fujishiro's grading and stands at the head of the field by the weight of designation against his name. Three of his blades are National Treasures, with six Important Cultural Properties above eight works in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. Of his recorded works few can ever trade: nine are held in the National Treasure and Important Cultural Property tiers, and only eight stand in the Tokuju and Juyo tiers; the *Maruguchi* *tachi*, a Meibutsu since the Muromachi period, passed by way of Tanaka Mitsuaki to Emperor Meiji, and seven of his *tachi*, the *Uguisumaru* among them, are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. The institutions that hold him include Nikko Toshogu, Itsukushima Jinja, the Tokyo National Museum, the Okura Museum of Art, the Kyushu National Museum, Takateru Jinja, Seikado Bunko Art Museum, the Mouri Museum and Ise Jingu. Sixteen of his blades carry a recorded provenance, among the holders Emperor Meiji, Emperor Taisho, the Himeji Sakai Family, the Satake Family, Taira no Munemori, Ashikaga Takauji and the Mito Tokugawa Family. A Tomonari coming into open hands is among the rarest events in the field.
Kanehira (包平) — Mainline · 1151-1200. Kokuhō, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Kanehira is one of the Ko-Bizen masters of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. The published descriptions place him from of old, with Sukehira and Takahira, among the *Bizen Sanpei* (備前三平), the three Hira of early Bizen, and the published descriptions return again and again to a single reason his name stands above the others: the existence of the Ō-Kanehira, the supreme *tachi* long counted among the finest blades ever forged in Japan and now a National Treasure. By that one work, the NBTHK writes, 'his name has become still more widely known to the world'[[c:1]]. He is the rare early smith remembered for a single overwhelming masterpiece who is, at the same time, recognizable by a consistent hand and reachable through a real body of signed work.
That hand is the refined Ko-Bizen manner held to a quiet register. Over a standing *itame* mixed with *mokume*, *ji-nie* adhering well and *chikei* woven through, he tempers a *suguha*-based pattern carrying *ko-midare* as its theme, into which *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome* enter; the *ashi* and *yo* work freely, the *nie* attaches thickly, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run within the *ha*, closed by a calm *ko-maru* *boshi*. The published sources read this as classical Bizen carrying 'an antique fragrance'[[c:2]], a *sugata* that is 'truly graceful'[[c:3]] and 'shows the character of its age well'[[c:4]]. Where the later Bizen schools turn to a flamboyant *choji* display, his is the same vocabulary held in a steady hand. What sets him apart within the Three Hira is not the temper, which he shares with his peers, but the scale he commands: the published sources pair the Ō-Kanehira only with the Masatsune of Kunōzan Tōshōgū as a Ko-Bizen *tachi* of large, broad and powerful build.
The *sugata* the descriptions assign to him is the slender *tachi* of the period: *shinogi-zukuri* with *iori-mune*, 'high *koshizori*, the curvature settling toward the tip'[[c:5]], with marked *funbari* and a *ko-kissaki*, the figure they call typical of the late Heian through early Kamakura. Across the forging a faint *midare-utsuri* rises, at times a *jifu-utsuri*, the speckled reflection the published record notes standing up clearly in the steel of old Bizen. The temper keeps its measured *ko-nie* throughout, the *nioiguchi* bright; in a few blades the *ha* drops to a *yakiotoshi* just above the *machi*, an archaic touch the sources mark as one sometimes met with in Ko-Bizen work.
His signature carries a story the published descriptions dwell on. His habitual *mei* is the two-character 包平; of the long provincial form 備前国包平作 the record states that, apart from the Ō-Kanehira, 'there is virtually no other example'[[c:6]], counting only one further long-signed blade, now in the Tokubetsu Juyo tier. The descriptions also reason, more than once, that the two-character signatures fall into a small fine-chisel hand and a larger thick-chisel hand, so that either the name spans several periods of one career, or several smiths in late Heian to early Kamakura Bizen worked under it. The entry for the Ō-Kanehira itself settles on the second reading: more than ten *tachi* signed Kanehira survive, and 'because this Ō-Kanehira alone differs in workmanship and in the manner of its signature, he is held not to have been a single smith'[[c:7]]. For so early a smith an unusual number of his works come down *ubu*, the original signed *nakago* intact, where most of his contemporaries are now *mumei*, and of the blades that survive the signed far outnumber the unsigned. How prized that signature was can be read in one Satake-house *tachi* whose *mei* was deliberately shaved on one side, which the record explains, according to one account, as 'a measure to escape an order to present the blade to the Shogun's house'[[c:8]].
Within the Three Hira the published sources draw the comparison by *utsuri* and by build, and they note where his work touches the other early Bizen hands: of one *tachi* whose *boshi* turns back straight and round, the NBTHK writes that it 'reveals an atmosphere that in one vein also connects to Masatsune'[[c:9]]. His Ko-Bizen manner is part of the root from which the whole Bizen tradition descends, and the Ō-Kanehira gathers all of it into one object. Long the cherished sword of Ikeda Sanzaemon Terumasa and handed down in the Ikeda house of Okayama, it is said by the published sources to represent one form of the late Heian *tachi*, and it is held today in the Tokyo National Museum.
For the collector the reckoning is plain. Kanehira is *Sai-jo saku* in Fujishiro's grading, and few names in the whole sword canon carry a heavier weight of designation. The Ō-Kanehira is a National Treasure and can never trade, kept as patrimony rather than offered; behind it stand some eighteen blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, of recorded whereabouts in the Tokyo National Museum, the Sano and Hayashibara museums, the Seikado Bunko, and the Kurokawa and Mori Shusui collections among others. Their recorded provenance runs through the first houses of the realm, the Ikeda, the Kuroda, the Satake, the Akimoto and the Tokugawa shogunal family, and three signed *tachi* are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. A signed Kanehira is not wholly beyond reach, but it comes to a serious collector only from time to time and with patience, a landmark when it does. He is the Ko-Bizen master known for one unrepeatable blade, recognized by the composure of his steel and, as the record keeps returning to, the rarity of his long signature.
Yoshikane (吉包) — Mainline · 1150-1220. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. When a signed tachi of Yoshikane was designated at the seventh Tokubetsu Juyo session in 1980, the commentary called it "a typical work of Ko-Bizen Yoshikane in the quality of the ji and ha and in the manner of the signature alike"[[c:1]]. Yoshikane (吉包) was a smith, or more probably several smiths, of the Ko-Bizen school of Bizen province, active from the end of the Heian period into the early Kamakura period. For so early a hand his works survive in comparative number and in a nearly uniform style. From the mei and the workmanship the published sources read several smiths of the name across slightly different dates, all of them judged Ko-Bizen, and they leave the question of generations open. The same name recurs a little later in the early Fukuoka Ichimonji school of the same province, so that the appraisal of any Yoshikane begins by deciding between the two. Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo saku.
His tachi are slender, with high koshizori and marked funbari, closing in a small kissaki that often inclines gently forward; the published sources call the figure classical and graceful, and one entry adds that pieces in which blade and nakago alike seem to carry rather little hiraniku "are frequent in Yoshikane"[[c:2]]. The forging is the first of his marks: an itame that stands out, mixing o-hada in places and patches of jifu, with ji-nie attaching well. The NBTHK states the point outright, writing that "within Ko-Bizen it is the comparatively standing hada that is the characteristic of this smith"[[c:3]]. The second lies in the temper, whose nioiguchi sinks rather than brightens; describing a Tokubetsu Juyo tachi, the published sources name the pair together, finding that "Yoshikane's character appears in points such as the sinking tendency of the nioiguchi and the standing hada of the jigane"[[c:4]].
The yakiba itself is a suguha-toned line that undulates shallowly into ko-midare, mixing ko-choji and traces of gunome. Ashi and yo enter busily, ko-nie attaches, and sunagashi and kinsuji run through the ha. At times the temper is dropped above the machi, and here the published record is careful with its own evidence, noting that yakiotoshi "is not confined to this smith but is met with from time to time in Ko-Bizen work"[[c:5]]. A midare-utsuri does appear, but it is held in check rather than bright: on the refined ko-itame blades the published sources find only a faint jifu-utsuri, while a wider o-suriage katana shows a more conspicuous midare-utsuri, so that the reflection runs from quiet to plain but never reaches the standing brilliance of the Ichimonji namesake. The boshi runs sugu to ko-maru, frequently with hakikake at the point.
The published record divides his work and his mei into two manners, a small signature on a slender blade with a suguha-toned ha against a somewhat larger signature on a wider blade quenched in ko-midare, and it states that "the former is regarded as the earlier in date"[[c:6]]. The earlier register is known above all through an o-suriage katana bearing a gold-inlay attribution by Hon'ami Kochu, designated Tokubetsu Juyo at the twenty-fifth session with an itomaki-tachi koshirae of gold nashiji bearing chrysanthemum and paulownia crests. There the standing itame gives way to a tight ko-itame with ji-nie and a faint jifu-utsuri, the ha widening into a broad suguha tone with ko-choji and ko-midare; of its jigane the commentary writes that "the excellent forging built mainly on ko-itame is praised"[[c:7]], and it finds the broad, softly inflected nioiguchi deeply appealing. The scholarship has also moved within the record itself: a Juyo tachi formerly carried a vermilion attribution to Nagamitsu, but on repolishing the jigane and the ha proved distinctly older than Nagamitsu, and the blade was re-designated with the attribution changed to Yoshikane.
Inside Ko-Bizen the published sources separate him by exactly the traits above: the hada that stands more than in his fellow smiths, the nioiguchi that sinks, the quieter utsuri, the occasional yakiotoshi. Against the Ichimonji namesake the line is drawn from his own side as well. The Ko-Bizen Yoshikane signs with a small two-character mei cut with a fine chisel, the character 包 differing in particular from the Ichimonji form, and the habit of adding saku is met with more often in the Ko-Bizen works; his temper keeps ko-midare as its keynote with a restrained utsuri, where the namesake favors flamboyant choji under a standing midare-utsuri. The published sources add the matter of supply: "in general more works of the Ichimonji survive, and Ko-Bizen Yoshikane is scarce"[[c:8]].
The designated record now runs deep for so early a name: seven blades at the Tokubetsu Juyo level and twenty-eight at Juyo, with a further group of Important Cultural Property and prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi, 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 daimyo 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 mumei tachi the commentary judged the piece "that can most fittingly be likened to Yoshikane among the many smiths of Ko-Bizen"[[c:9]]; a signed Juyo tachi descends from the Walter A. Compton collection. What a private collector may realistically encounter is the thirty-five blades of the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, of which only some have a recorded whereabouts, and the published record itself remarks on how seldom the name comes to hand. A Ko-Bizen Yoshikane, above all a signed one, comes to market rarely and is among the rarer encounters that old Bizen affords.
Kageyasu (景安) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The Meikan record Kageyasu (景安) under "Bizen, around Genryaku"[[c:1]], the era of 1184 to 1185, and the NBTHK counts him among the smiths of the Ko-Bizen stream at the opening of the Kamakura period. His record divides into two signature registers: a rare group cut with the small, long signature Bizen no kuni Kageyasu[[c:2]], and a comparatively numerous group signed with two large characters in a thick chisel. The Kokon Meizukushi (古今銘尽) makes him an Osafune smith and a son of Kagehide, but the published sources reject the claim on the work itself, finding that the *jiba* and the manner of the *utsuri* are in the Ko-Bizen mode, so that the Osafune theory does not hold. Whether he belongs to Ko-Bizen or to the earliest Ichimonji is left open; that he does not descend later than the early Kamakura period is held firm. One tradition makes him a pupil of Yoshinori (義憲の門).
His hallmark the NBTHK names outright. The *yakiba* mixes, somewhere within an overall *suguha*-toned line, angular *ha* of *gunome* character[[c:3]], and between widely spaced *gunome* and *choji* it shows *tobiyaki* and *yubashiri*[[c:4]], traits the published sources call clearly distinctive. The commentary on his *kodachi* presses the point, observing that in most of the surviving works angular elements invariably accompany the temper somewhere along the edge. Honma Junji adds that even in the flamboyant pieces "an angular hamon mixes in somewhere in almost every case"[[c:5]]. The squared edge is matched by an unusual weighting of the temper. Where the habit of the old Bizen masters is *ko-midare*, *gunome* leads in his work, and *choji* stands further forward in his *yakiba* than in the Ko-Bizen peers Tomonari, Masatsune and Kanehira, in whose recorded blades the squared *gunome* does not appear at all.
The tachi form is slender, the *koshizori* high with pronounced *funbari*, the blade gathered into a *ko-kissaki*; of one long-signed tachi the published sources write that the figure is "beautiful and unmistakably refined"[[c:6]]. The jigane is *itame*, mixed in places with *mokume* and flowing *hada*, with a slight tendency to stand. *Ji-nie* adheres well, *chikei* enter, and a *midare-utsuri* rises, with *jifu* mixing on some blades. The temper works in *ko-nie*, either a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare* or a *choji-midare* mixed with *gunome*. *Ashi* and *yo* enter well, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appear, and the *nioiguchi* runs deep on some blades while tightening in places on others. The *boshi* as a rule runs *sugu* to a small round turnback, and the published record notes the habit that even where the lower half runs to *midare*, "the boshi tends to settle large and straight"[[c:7]]. On one katana the *utsuri* emerges only partially in *bo-utsuri* fashion, and the commentary reads that technically unfinished rendering as an archaic charm, strengthening a date before the middle Kamakura period.
The two registers carry the scholarship. The long-signature group, few in number, is judged correctly Ko-Bizen, and in the comparison "the long signature shows the more archaic air, and the characters of the signature are somewhat more naive"[[c:8]]; whether the difference from the two-character group is one of production date or of different men is, the published sources say, a matter requiring further study. Within the two-character signature itself a bold thick-chisel hand and a finer chisel are distinguished, so several smiths of the name are considered to have existed, the workmanship supporting the view; later homonyms worked in the Fukuoka and Yoshioka Ichimonji, the Osafune and the Yoshii lines. One tachi preserving only the character Ichi on its shortened *nakago* carries a Hon'ami origami of 1688 appraising it to Kageyasu at thirteen gold pieces, and Honma observes that its angular *ko-gunome* carries even a sealed-bid appraisal straight to Kageyasu[[c:9]], taking the blade as evidence that the smith stands in the Ichimonji line.
That bridge position defines his school role. The *choji* standing forward in his small irregular temper is read as the manner the earliest Ichimonji inherit, the published sources writing of one Tokubetsu Juyo tachi that "it seems that this manner of workmanship was later carried forward into Ko-Ichimonji"[[c:10]]. For so early a smith the works survive in relative number, and the Juyo Bijutsuhin commentary rates the hand plainly: his works are "comparatively numerous, and skilled"[[c:11]]. The record holds one singular document of form as well. Extant *kodachi* begin with the Ko-Bizen smiths of the early Kamakura period, and the signed *kodachi* by Kageyasu, an *ubu* blade of 53.5 cm with *koshizori* and *funbari*, is likely the only one from his hand.
Twenty-five designated works stand on record, and against the habit of so early an age the record is overwhelmingly signed, twenty-one signed blades against four unsigned. One blade holds Important Cultural Property rank, one is recorded in the Imperial collection, and eight are Juyo Bijutsuhin, certified across the 1930s and 1940s. The tier a private collector may realistically encounter is the six Tokubetsu Juyo and nine Juyo, though blades of this age are held long, and a signed Ko-Bizen tachi reaching the open market is a rare event. Of recorded whereabouts, his blades rest at Kashima Jingu, the Tsuchiura City Museum, the Sano Art Museum and the Samurai Art Museum in Berlin. Eleven blades carry recorded provenance, and the roll is distinguished: the Kan'in-no-miya house, whose Prince Haruhito held the signed Tokubetsu Juyo tachi; the Date of Sendai, with whom a tanto remained from early times; a branch of the Yonezawa Uesugi, in whose line the *kodachi* descended; the Migita Mori; and the Yanagisawa, whose blade came as a grant from the shogunal house and carries an old origami of 1661.
Nobufusa (信房) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Four tachi signed Nobufusa saku (信房作) are designated Important Cultural Properties, and a fifth, listed as Gyobutsu in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, has been famous since the Muromachi period as Jumansoku. Nobufusa worked in the Ko-Bizen school at the turn of the Heian into the Kamakura period, and Fujishiro grades him Sai-jo saku. The published sources state that two smiths bore the name, one of Ko-Bizen and one of the early Ichimonji school. The stated rule makes the three-character mei Nobufusa saku the Ko-Bizen norm and the two-character mei the Ichimonji one, yet the Juyo Bijutsuhin record states the assignment the other way about and adds that in style both are Ko-Bizen-like and hard to tell apart[[c:1]]. Each blade is judged in the end by the antiquity of its *sugata* and *jiba*.
His surviving work is of one prevailing manner, the form first: a slender tachi with a marked difference between base and tip widths, high *koshizori* with pronounced *funbari*, inclining slightly forward toward a small *kissaki*. Most signed pieces keep an *ubu* nakago; of the sanjimei blade passed at the sixty-first Juyo session the NBTHK writes that "the kijimomo-gata ubu-nakago is truly archaic in flavor"[[c:2]]. A *kodachi* survives as well, rare for the period, descended in the Nabeshima family of the Hizen Ogi domain and called valuable as documentary material.
The *jigane* is an *itame* that tends to stand, qualified in his papers as *hadatachi-gokoro* or somewhat standing, with *ji-nie* attaching. *Mokume* mixes in at times, *utsuri* rises, and on the kodachi a faint *nie-utsuri* casts over the surface. The temper is the old Bizen line at its quietest: a *suguha* tone undulating shallowly into *ko-midare* with *ko-choji* mixed in, *ashi* and *yo* entering. The *nie* lies deep, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running through, and on several blades the temper is dropped above the *machi* in *yakiotoshi*; of one tachi the sources note that the hamon "unusually shows yakiotoshi at the base"[[c:3]]. The *boshi* runs *sugu* to *ko-maru*, often with *hakikake* at the tip. The sources place this within the school formula, by which flamboyant *midare* is rare in Ko-Bizen, the base customarily a *suguha* tone or a shallow *notare*, the whole carrying an antique fragrance[[c:4]]; his blades answer the formula exactly.
His signatures divide into two registers, the division the central question of Nobufusa scholarship. Of the two-character tachi raised to Tokubetsu Juyo at the fifth session, the NBTHK writes that its sugata and jiba are "distinctly more archaic and classically elegant even among works of Ko-Bizen Nobufusa"[[c:5]], and places it with the Ko-Bizen smith for that archaism; because the cut of that mei differs from the three-character pieces, whether the two registers are one man is left to future research. Of another nijimei tachi they state that "no other example is known with a two-character signature that is this archaic in tone"[[c:6]]. Honma's note in the Juyo Bijutsuhin record keeps the larger question open: the old oshigata books made the sanjimei pieces Ichimonji, he moved them to Ko-Bizen in the Nihonto Bunrui Mokuroku, and after still more archaic two-character blades appeared he left both readings standing. The question has since moved a blade. The three-character tachi handed down in the Shonai Sakai family was designated as Ko-Bizen Nobufusa, but its own commentary now inclines, after new two-character material came to light, to read it as the Ichimonji Nobufusa, and it is treated under that smith. The commentary on the Jumansoku tachi reads the other way, holding that works signed Nobufusa should be called Ko-Bizen rather than Ichimonji. His records twice add the theory that the Nobufusa writing 延 (延房) was the same man. One sanjimei tachi keeps a vermilion-script kao on its nakago and closely matches the mei of an Important Cultural Property; the pair is called "valuable material for understanding this smith"[[c:7]].
Inside Ko-Bizen his place is marked by his own documented traits. His itame stands out on four of his twelve blades, about as often as in Kanehira or Tomonari and far more often than in Masatsune, and his papers usually soften it to a tendency. The yakiotoshi above the machi recurs on his blades at the highest rate among those same hands, and *hakikake* brushes the *boshi* on four of his twelve blades, level with Sukekane as the most often among the profiled hands of the school. On both of his mumei den katana a *nijuba*-like doubling shows near the base and above the *monouchi*. *Gunome*, named freely in the school formula, is never once recorded on his blades. On one of those den katana the NBTHK gathers the threads: the work is smallish in scale yet busy in the jiba, and "within this compact, lively style of workmanship there are qualities in which one may recognize the received tradition of Nobufusa"[[c:8]].
Almost nothing of Nobufusa can ever change hands. Twelve works are on official record, the weight sitting at the top: four Important Cultural Properties, one of them held by the NBTHK, a Juyo Bijutsuhin once owned by Count Tanaka Mitsuaki, and the signed tachi famous since the Muromachi period as Jumansoku, listed as Gyobutsu in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. The four Important Cultural Property blades are preserved as patrimony and will not trade, and further examples rest at Ise Jingu and the Hayashibara Museum of Art. Four blades carry recorded provenance, running through the Nabeshima family, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Ikeda Yoshiyasu and the Imperial Family. What remains within reach is thin: one Tokubetsu Juyo and five Juyo blades, of which only two are unsigned attributions. The published sources themselves observe that signed works survive in but several pieces, and a Nobufusa coming into open hands is among the rarest encounters the field affords.
Yukihide (行秀) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. On the tachi of the eighteenth Tokubetsu Juyo session, signed Yukihide in two characters on an ubu nakago and descended in the Daitokugawa family, the NBTHK names the trait by which this smith has always been known: the reverse slant of its midare is "a distinctive manner frequently seen in Yukihide among Ko-Bizen works" (「古備前の中でも行秀によく見る個性的な態」)[[c:1]]. Yukihide is a Ko-Bizen smith of the close of the Heian period into the beginning of the Kamakura period, transmitted as of the Tomonari line, and for so early a hand his surviving works are comparatively numerous. Nearly every published entry opens on the same adjudication, because the meikan carry the name in both Ko-Bizen and the Ichimonji school, smiths whose workmanship and manner of signing are, the published sources say, similar yet distinguishable in each; all seventeen designated works on record are read as the Ko-Bizen hand. The same sources add that signatures of both large and small cut survive under the name, so that several smiths appear to have borne it.
The published record states his two tells in nearly identical words across half a century of designations: "from of old, the mixing of reverse-tinged ha within the hamon and the appearance of nijuba have been held the points of interest" of this smith (「古来刃中に逆ごころの刃が交じり、二重刃がかかる点などが見どころ」)[[c:2]]. The first is the saka inclination. The midare and the ashi slant in the reverse direction, the ko-choji of the central region turn saka-gakari, and saka-ashi mix among the ko-ashi. A Juyo entry of 1965, on the tachi from the Tokugawa shogunal house, observes that its ko-nie yakiba, slightly reverse-slanting and mixing gunome in places, shows "a workmanship somewhat unlike the other Ko-Bizen works, and in this point lies this smith's distinctive trait" (「どこか他の古備前物と異なった作風を示している点にこの工の特色がある」)[[c:3]]. The second tell is the doubled edge. A little apart from the yakigashira, tobiyaki and yubashiri run in dotted continuation and join into a nijuba-like line, conspicuous from the middle of the blade toward the monouchi. The NBTHK notes that this dotted doubling, frequent in Yukihide, is also seen at times in the Ko-Bizen smiths Naritaka, Tomomura and Sukemura.
The jigane is itame mixed with mokume, the ji-nie thick and on the finest pieces dust-fine, with fine chikei entering and a standing midare-utsuri or the patchy jifu-utsuri. On his best work the records single out the splendid jifu-utsuri "reaching as far as the shinogi" (「鎬まで達する地斑映りが見事」)[[c:4]]. At his most refined the ko-itame is so closely knit that the Tokubetsu Juyo entry of 2020 calls it a texture "that at a glance could be mistaken for a Kyoto product" (「一見京物にも見紛う精良な肌合」)[[c:5]]. The yakiba itself stays quiet: a suguha tone or shallow notare with ko-midare, ko-choji and ko-gunome mixing in, ashi and yo entering frequently, and ko-nie attaching well with kinsuji and sunagashi. The boshi runs sugu to ko-maru, on a few pieces in a yakizume manner. All of this sits inside the school norm the same entries describe, an old Bizen style in which flamboyantly irregular pieces are few and the whole carries an archaic fragrance (「総じて古香」); what marks Yukihide within that norm is the direction in which his quiet midare leans.
Fourteen of the seventeen designated works are signed, against three unsigned, and the signature never varies in kind: a nijimei only, cut on the haki-omote toward the mune, generally with a thickish and at times boldly large chisel, though one early Juyo entry records a finely chiseled example. A Juyo entry of 1970 already counted the extant signed works at fewer than ten, and the sources prize them accordingly, calling a tachi whose characters remain crisp "a precious work for knowing both this smith's range of workmanship and his signature" (「同工の作域や銘字を知る上で貴重な作」)[[c:6]]. The sugata is the early Bizen tachi, koshizori high with funbari, rising to a chu or small kissaki; one long blade of 81.6 cm keeps a wide mihaba and thick kasane. The signed works are all tachi, while the three unsigned comprise a tachi, a katana and a wakizashi, each adjudicated by the same criteria: on the mumei wakizashi the somewhat tightened nioiguchi with a reverse-leaning choji in ko-nie led the judges to conclude that "the attribution to Yukihide is the most appropriate" (「行秀の極めは最も妥当」)[[c:7]], and two unsigned pieces carry Hon'ami origami, one of Kanbun 8 (1668) by Kojo at one hundred fifty kan, one of Genroku 16 (1703) by Kochu at ten gold pieces. The record is candid in the other direction as well: a Juyo tachi of 1979, in the general style of late Ko-Bizen, is expressly noted as lacking the reverse-tinged midare seen now and then in this smith.
His place in the school is drawn from both sides. Upstream the transmission makes him of the Tomonari line; no pupil is named after him, and the question the scholarship keeps returning to is not succession but identity, the Ichimonji namesake of nearly the same period whose work and signature sit close to his and must be separated blade by blade. The powerful build of the Daitokugawa tachi, wide in mihaba with pronounced funbari, is paired in the published record with his only tachi designated Juyo Bunkazai, the two showing the same imposing silhouette. The four prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin certifications, all signed tachi, three then in Aichi collections and one in Kyoto, read the same way: their commentary calls the nioi-leaning ko-nie midare with reverse-tending ashi typical of the smith, while noting of one blade that it tempers, "unusually for Yukihide's work, a nioi-predominant suguha" (「行秀の作では珍しく匂勝ちの直刃」)[[c:8]].
Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo saku. Seventeen designated works stand on record: three Tokubetsu Juyo and nine Juyo, twelve blades across those two tiers, joined by the four prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin and the single tachi holding Juyo Bunkazai (Important Cultural Property) designation. The provenance attached to so small a body of work is distinguished: blades descended in the Daitokugawa family, the Tokugawa shogunal house and the Sendai Date family, the last with its mid-Edo efu-tachi mounting of rosewood bearing shishimaru crests in mother-of-pearl, while the tachi long held by a retainer family of the Dewa Shonai domain is famous under the name Kasugai-dome Yukihide (「かすがい留め行秀」)[[c:9]], after the brass clamps that once secured old flaws beside its shinogi-ji. Of recorded whereabouts today, the Sano Art Museum holds examples, and the remainder rest in private hands in Japan and abroad. With seventeen designated works in all, a Yukihide reaches the market only rarely; when one appears it is most often a Juyo tachi, and a signed nijimei piece in the saka manner carries an individual hand of the Heian to Kamakura transition fixed by its own signature.
Naritaka (成高) — Mainline · 1171-1175. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Naritaka is one of the Ko-Bizen smiths of the turn from the late Heian into the early Kamakura period, his line within the school not clearly traced. The published sources are candid about how little is fixed: he is counted among the Ko-Bizen works on the antiquity of his form and his ji and ha rather than on any documented descent, and one Important Cultural Property tachi famed as the personal sword of Nasu no Yoichi anchors the small body by which his hand is known. Extant signed work is very scarce, only a handful of tachi, and the published commentary on the Jūyō blade of 1960 sets the scope plainly: he was a smith of the Ko-Bizen group, and his surviving blades are extremely few, of which the *ubu*-tang signed pieces are likely limited to the Nasu family heirloom and that one tachi. From this small but consistent group his manner is read with confidence, and within Ko-Bizen the same commentary judges him a maker of comparatively high skill[[c:1]], one whose level can still be appreciated through the few signed tachi that survive.
The build is the old Bizen ideal stated again and again: a slender tachi, *shinogi-zukuri* with *iori-mune*, the curvature high at the waist with evident *funbari*, running to a small *ko-kissaki*. The published sources call this form elegant in the extreme (典雅) and return to the word old-fragrant for the whole impression. What most individualizes his finest blades among the profiled Ko-Bizen hands lies in the temper. Over a *suguha*-toned base whose upper half straightens, the *ha* breaks low into *ko-midare* and *ko-chōji* worked in *nie*, with *ashi* and *yō* entering; and along the *habuchi* and the *yakigashira* there crowd, frequently, *uchinoke* and a doubled *nijūba*, with *yubashiri*, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* playing through. The *uchinoke* is the rarest of these in the school: it is named on his Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi, in both its Jūyō and its Tokubetsu Jūyō descriptions, and recorded only once each in two of his profiled fellows. The doubled *nijūba* recurs on two of his nine blades, well above the *chōji* mainline and shared with the *nie*-active Ko-Bizen register. These are the marks that place his hand, less in the bright *chōji* current than among the *nie*-working old-Bizen smiths.
The *jigane* is read by the forging more than by the reflection. Over an *itame* that stands a little, *mokume* mixing in and the steel well-forged, *ji-nie* attaches and *chikei* enter finely, and a *midare-utsuri* rises clearly, the archaic ji of old Bizen. The published sources describe the same blade's ji and ha as suffering no loss to its beauty, a bright and splendid result[[c:2]]. The *utsuri* is real and clear on his best work, yet it sits below the rate of the *utsuri*-defined Ko-Bizen hands; his ji is carried as much by the standing *itame*, the *chikei* and the *nie* as by the reflection alone. The *bōshi* runs *sugu* to a small round turnback, with slight *hakikake* on one face of the early *ubu* tachi. The whole reads as a careful, restrained Ko-Bizen hand whose activity gathers along the edge rather than across the *ji*.
Within one coherent manner the published record draws a clear register. Most of his signed blades keep to the slender, elegant tachi with the restrained *suguha*-based temper; the signature is cut in two characters, small, at the very tip of the *nakago*. Against this runs a more flamboyant variant on the broad, large pieces: on the wide *ubu* Jūyō tachi of 1960 the commentary records *chōji-midare* with a *nijūba* tendency, *nie* adhering well and *ashi* and *yō* entering frequently, and notes that on both faces the *monouchi* tempers especially wide and grows vigorously irregular[[c:3]]. On the difference of cut between his signatures the published sources are measured: the manner of the *mei* differs somewhat from examples seen elsewhere, but this they put down to a difference in the period of making rather than to any doubt. A single *ubu* mumei *katana* carries the attribution *den* Naritaka, of which the judges write frankly that the tradition is not unreasonable in point of period and manner, while conceding that there is no positive feature compelling Naritaka alone[[c:4]].
Naritaka is not among the most famous names of Ko-Bizen, the published sources concede, yet the same commentary ranks him squarely with his fellows: compared with Sukekane and Yoshikane he is in no way inferior[[c:5]]. His distinction within the school is carried by his own grounded traits rather than by any borrowed comparison: the standing *itame* with its fine *chikei* and well-risen *midare-utsuri*, broken at the edge by *uchinoke* and the doubled *nijūba*, in which the marks of old Bizen work show conspicuously and old-fragrant, as the published sources say of the signed tachi[[c:6]]. It is on this register, the elegant slender tachi with its *nie*-worked edge activity, that he closes the Ko-Bizen line from the side of skilled but lesser-named hands, judged the equal in workmanship of the smiths beside whom he is set.
The weight of designation behind his name reaches the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers and the Important Cultural Property, two plates in that register recording a Naritaka tachi, with a further three tachi certified Jūyō Bijutsuhin in the prewar designations; of his recorded works five carry a provenance. His most famous blade is the Important Art Object tachi handed down as the sword of Nasu no Yoichi Munetaka, the archer of the fan target at Yashima, accompanied by its period black-lacquer tachi mounting and famed as such in the published record[[c:7]]; that it has descended in the Nasu family together with its original mounting across roughly eight centuries is called of exceptional documentary value[[c:8]]. Another Jūyō Bijutsuhin tachi was given directly by Tokugawa Ieyasu to an ancestor of the Uemura family for service in battle and held there until its certification, while the well-proportioned *ubu* tachi once owned by Kuroda Naganari was reckoned by the appraiser to surpass it in the quality of its ji and ha. The Important Cultural Property plates add a tachi held by the state at the Kyoto National Museum, forged in *itame* and tempered in *ko-midare*, and a signed tachi with its tachi mounting in the Nasu family in Aomori, forged in *itame* mixed with *mokume* and tempered in *suguha*. Of recorded whereabouts two of his blades are held in public hands, at the Kyoto National Museum and the Otawara City Museum, the rest in private collections. With only a handful of signed tachi surviving and the foremost of them held as heritage with its centuries-old mounting, a signed Naritaka coming into open hands is among the rarer things a collector of old Bizen might encounter, and a landmark when one does.
Junkei (順慶) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Junkei signs with two characters, 順慶, and since the Edo period that name was transmitted as the Buddhist name of the first Nagamitsu of Osafune, so that his blades were long read as the old-age work of the most famous Bizen smith of the mid-Kamakura period. The published sources reject the identification. Judging from the workmanship, the calligraphy of the signature and the movement of the chisel, they find it difficult to endorse, and they place him instead as a Bizen smith active no later than the middle Kamakura period, one who was not of the Osafune group and whose dating should be placed earlier. The swordbooks have long carried both the same-person and the different-person theories, and today the different-person view is the one adopted.
The prewar certifications went furthest. When two signed tachi were certified as Juyo Bijutsuhin, the commentary attributed to Honma, then serving in the Ministry of Education, called the old reading of Junkei as a joint name of Osafune Nagamitsu an error and judged from the two blades that "there can be no doubt that they are Ko-Bizen"[[c:1]], adding that he had deliberately recognized the tachi as Ko-Bizen when it was certified. Of the second tachi the commentary by Hiroi writes that it "overall clearly manifests the characteristic features of Ko-Bizen blades"[[c:2]].
His signed work shows a quiet, archaic hand. The forging is an itame that stands, on the longer tachi of rather large grain and flowing, elsewhere mixed with o-itame, with ji-nie adhering; on the second prewar tachi it tightens into a ko-itame that still shows its grain. Over it he tempers a ko-midare, described on the first prewar tachi as set in a shallow notare, with strong nie and an archaic feeling throughout. On the signed Juyo pieces the temper is a suguha-based or narrow line of small gunome mixed with ko-midare, the nie thickly applied, with sunagashi and kinsuji intertwining with the hada and, on one tachi, yubashiri. Ashi and yo enter well where the commentary names them. The boshi runs straight to a ko-maru.
What the signed work does not show is utsuri. Of the katana bearing a two-character orikaeshi-mei the published sources observe that "utsuri is not seen in the ji"[[c:3]], read its ha as a suguha-based ko-midare with small gunome and notably strong nie, call the whole archaic, and conclude that it "presents one typical example of Junkei"[[c:4]]. Of the signed Juyo tachi, cut down but keeping its two characters at the end of the tang, they note that its manner differs in feeling from Nagamitsu.
Set against these is a single greatly shortened mumei katana transmitted as Bizen Junkei. It is somewhat wide, with rather high curvature for an o-suriage blade and a chu-kissaki tending to ikubi. Its itame is mixed with o-itame and mokume, the grain standing, and here a midare-utsuri appears distinctly; the temper is choji mixed with gunome, ashi and yo entering frequently, the nioi deep with ko-nie, and the boshi a shallow notare-komi to ko-maru. The published sources explain the attribution through the same distinction that separates him from the Osafune master: among works given to Junkei some resemble Nagamitsu, but "generally they differ in being nie-deki"[[c:5]]. On that basis they write that the traditional attribution ought to be accepted.
His designated record is seven works. Two are Important Cultural Properties, designated by the state and preserved as national heritage. Their plates record both as signed tachi of the Kamakura period, one forged in itame and tempered in a choji mixed with gunome[[c:6]], the other in ko-itame with a ko-midare, so that the choji temper of the mumei katana appears on a signed blade as well. Two are the signed tachi certified Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war, in 1939 and 1941, a prewar certification of important art that does not take a blade out of private hands. Three are Juyo: the mumei katana, the orikaeshi-mei katana and the signed tachi, which is recorded in the Tsuchiya Oshigata and of which the published sources write that, despite slight fatigue, "a signed tachi is precious"[[c:7]]. The second prewar tachi, certified with an Osaka owner, is now recorded at the Sano Art Museum, and the current owners recorded for his works also include the Mori Shusui Museum of Art. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. With the Important Cultural Properties fixed in public keeping and signed examples surviving in so few numbers, a Junkei of the Juyo or Juyo Bijutsuhin tier comes to market only rarely, and a signed blade in private hands is a document of an early Bizen hand that the published sources took back from Nagamitsu's name.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukekane is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith of the late Heian to early Kamakura period, his name one of the school's enduring puzzles. Two Jūyō-Bijutsuhin tachi designated in 1935, one signed in six characters "Bizen no Kuni Sukekane saku" and held by the Matsudaira house, the other a small-signature blade from the Sakai house, fix him in the historical record; the published sources note that the name Sukekane is found among both the Ko-Bizen group and the Fukuoka Ichimonji line, and that there were likely three or four smiths who shared it. The man profiled here is the Ko-Bizen one, the archaic hand. The published commentary draws the distinction plainly: of the two Sukekane, "the former is an archaic, classical small-midare of nie-based workmanship, whereas the latter forges flamboyant chōji-based midare in which a sense of technical artifice is felt"[[c:1]]. His is the quiet side of the divide.
His characteristic temper is a *suguha*-toned small *midare*. Over it run *ko-chōji*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-notare*, with *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the work *nie*-based, with *sunagashi* and fine *kinsuji* coursing through and, on a recurring group, *nijūba* and even *sanjūba* running intermittently along the upper edge. This is not the regular clove-flower of the Ichimonji smiths but the calm, antique line the published sources call the manner of old Bizen, where "flamboyant *midare* is uncommon"[[c:2]] and "a *suguha*-toned base with shallow *notare* predominates"[[c:3]]. The *bōshi* answers the edge below it, running straight to a *ko-maru* or finishing in a *yakizume*-like sweep with *hakikake*, sometimes with *yubashiri* drifting at the turn.
The *jigane* is the constant. He forges a well-packed *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing a little, with *ji-nie* and *chikei* entering frequently, and a clear *midare-utsuri* rising in the ji. On the finest of them the reflection thickens into the patchy *jifu-utsuri* of old Bizen steel. Over that *jigane* the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear, and the *ha* carries thick *ko-nie*. The published sources prize exactly this antique flavor, calling one Tokubetsu-Jūyō tachi a work of "old-scented workmanship characteristic of Ko-Bizen"[[c:4]], the *ji* and *ha* carrying a savory depth of taste.
Within his own record the work divides into two registers of one hand. The typical Sukekane is a slender tachi, *ubu* where it survives so or shortened yet keeping a high *koshizori* with *funbari*, the point a compact *ko-kissaki*, the temper a calm *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*. On his outstanding signed tachi the line opens out: a broad *suguha* into which *chōji*, *gunome* and angular elements are set, flowering into a brilliant *midare* that the judges single out, one such piece called "a particularly outstanding achievement" that strikingly manifests the features of Ko-Bizen. The signature is its own scholarly question. The published commentary records small, intermediate and large hands, and notes that while the convention treats small signatures as Ko-Bizen and large ones as Ichimonji, some Ichimonji works carry small signatures too, so that "a distinction based on the signature alone is not necessarily easy"[[c:5]].
What sets the Ko-Bizen Sukekane apart from his Ichimonji namesake is exactly this *nie*-based restraint. His bright *midare-utsuri*, his *suguha*-toned small *midare* with its *nijūba* and deep *nie*, and the archaic, slightly drooping tachi shape with its *ko-kissaki* are read as Ko-Bizen, while the flamboyant chōji and the air of technical display belong to the other hand. On the *ō-suriage mumei* katana and wakizashi attributed to him, the published sources affirm the appraisal from the period and the Ko-Bizen workmanship rather than from any single personal tell, accepting the traditional attribution where the *jigane* and *hamon* are markedly archaic in tone. His blades stand at the root of the Bizen line, before the school's great flowering at Fukuoka.
For the collector he is a rare early name. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku, and the *Tōkō Taikan* values his work near the top of its scale. He has no National Treasure of his own Ko-Bizen hand; his record runs instead through the Important Cultural Property rank and the prewar Jūyō-Bijutsuhin, with two blades in the Tokubetsu-Jūyō and twenty-two in the Jūyō. Because his extant works are so few, the published sources call his best signed tachi documentary material of very high value for understanding him at all. His blades carry distinguished provenance, transmitted in the domain era through the Satake house of Akita, the Tokugawa and Matsudaira families, the Sakai house of Tadakatsu, the Ikeda of Inshū, and bearing in one case the gold-inlaid ownership name of Takeda Genshinren. Most are long held, not traded; only the Jūyō and Tokubetsu-Jūyō tier ever moves, and even then a signed Ko-Bizen Sukekane comes to light only seldom. A privately held example, of recorded whereabouts, is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how Bizen began.
Toshitsune (利恒) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Toshitsune is a smith of the Ko-Bizen Masatsune line, working at the close of the Heian period and into the early Kamakura, and the published sources transmit him as a disciple of Masatsune, in one account a son of Mitsutsune. A signed tachi of his, designated an Important Cultural Property, survives at the Kyoto National Museum, and three more signed tachi were named Important Art Objects in the prewar designations. He is, for an old-Bizen name, comparatively well recorded: signed pieces survive in notable number alongside a body of shortened, unsigned blades attributed to him on workmanship, so that the *Meikan* in fact lists three smiths who carried the name across the Shogen, Bunryaku and Kencho eras. His standing is fixed by the lineage he extends. The judges write that both his signature and his work make the relationship with the school's founder readily plausible, finding his blades to 'support the relationship with Masatsune'[[c:1]].
The core of his hand is a *suguha*-based *ko-midare*, the calm old-Bizen temper the published sources read as recalling Masatsune. Into a shallow, small irregular line he mixes *ko-choji*, *ko-gunome* and small *midare*, with *ashi* and *yo* entering well, *ko-nie* adhering, and frequent *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running through the edge. On one of his finest signed tachi the published sources single out the *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* that entwine the small *midare* at the base as splendid. The *boshi* runs straight into a small round, at times finishing with a *yakitsume* tendency and *hakikake*. The shape beneath it is the old-Bizen bearing: at base slender, the *koshizori* high with *funbari*, the curve settling into a *ko-kissaki*.
The *jigane* is the constant. He forges an *itame*, in places a tighter *ko-itame* and in places standing a little, with *ji-nie* and frequent *chikei*; over it a *midare-utsuri* rises, clearing on his best pieces into a distinct *jifu-utsuri*, the speckled reflection of old Bizen steel. The published sources note that where the *ji-nie* gathers strongly the *utsuri* is the less conspicuous, so the reflection comes and goes with the steel rather than standing uniform. On the latest of his Juyo tachi the judges describe an *itame* mixed with *mokume* and tending to stand, thick *ji-nie* and frequent *chikei*, with the *jifu-utsuri* emerging clearly and the *nioiguchi* bright, and conclude that the blade 'fully manifests the distinctive qualities and virtues of Ko-Bizen'[[c:2]].
What the published sources name as Toshitsune's own tell, though, is *sugata*. Distinct from Masatsune, many of his blades, signed and shortened alike, are broad in *mihaba* and dignified in construction, the *chu-kissaki* at times compact toward *ikubi*, and over them the activity within the *hamon* is a step more florid: the small *midare* opens into *ko-choji* and a *choji-midare*, *jifu* enters the standing *itame*, and on one *ubu* tachi *yubashiri* gathers in the upper half into *nijuba*. The Jubun tachi at Kyoto and several signed examples carve *bo-hi*, while one tachi bears devotional *horimono* at the base, *bonji* with *gomabashi* and *bonji* with *suken*. The judges record three smiths of the name in the *Meikan*, which accounts for the variation in both signature and emphasis, and treat the spread as one tradition rather than two manners. The signed tachi, the published sources observe, include some whose edge is, like Masatsune, slightly subdued, and others somewhat more brilliant and florid, 'but in every case the boshi is rounded'[[c:3]].
That rounded *boshi*, with the well-ordered *jigane*, is exactly the thread by which the judges keep him within the line even on his broadest, most florid work. Reviewing his wide, dignified mumei katana, they grant that the construction is broader and the *hataraki* more flamboyant than Masatsune's, yet add that the refined *jigane* and the rounded *boshi* let one perceive the continuation of Masatsune's style. They affirm such blades from era and school, naming the imposing construction, 'a wide blade with a dignified presence'[[c:4]], as one of Toshitsune's distinctive traits. His work 'well displays the characteristic features of the Masatsune group'[[c:5]], the verdict that recurs across his entries. He stands among the old-Bizen hands at the threshold before the flowering of the Fukuoka Ichimonji, his most decorative pieces reaching a *choji-midare* but never the full clove-flower of the mid-Kamakura.
For the collector he is one of the more attainable of the old-Bizen names, which for a late-Heian to early-Kamakura Bizen smith is a relative thing. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku, and his *Toko Taikan* valuation places him among the higher-ranked old-Bizen hands. He has no National Treasures; his record runs instead through a single Important Cultural Property, three prewar Important Art Objects, and seventeen blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, of which only a part can ever change hands. The Important Cultural Property tachi is held at the Kyoto National Museum, and others are preserved in long-standing institutional collections, the Sano Art Museum and the Mori Shusui Museum of Art among them; among the recorded provenances are the Suwa family, whose tachi descends with a fine itomaki-tachi koshirae bearing the Suwa crest, and the prewar collectors Ide Tokuichi, Otomo Tsunetaro and Yamauchi Toyokage. One signed tachi crossed to the United States in the celebrated Compton collection. A signed, unshortened Toshitsune comes to light only from time to time, and a privately held example is a document of how Bizen forged at its beginnings, the calm root from which its most brilliant traditions would grow.
Motochika (基近) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū. Motochika is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith of the close of the Heian and the opening of the Kamakura period, recorded in the Meikan under both Ko-Bizen and Fukuoka Ichimonji, and the published sources call his surviving output scarce, judging him a maker of the early Kamakura whose blades 'are considered to be by a Ko-Bizen smith of the early Kamakura period, and surviving works are few'[[c:1]]. His name sits at the threshold where the old Bizen tradition passes into the Fukuoka Ichimonji that would flower in the mid-Kamakura, and it carries a connoisseurship problem with it. The published commentary describes two faces to the recorded work under his signature, one a splendid *chōji-midare* designated an Important Cultural Property, the other a *ko-midare* rich in *nie* certified an Important Art Object, and observes that 'the style of the signature is extremely similar in both'[[c:2]], leaving open whether they are one hand or several.
The Important Cultural Property *tachi* survives in the record only as its catalogue plate, which gives a signed blade inscribed Motochika *tsukuru*, forged in *ko-itame* and tempered in an *ō-chōji-midare*. The fuller readable record is the quieter face, and its hand is the *nie*-rich *ko-midare*. Over the temper the published sources describe a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, *ashi* entering, the *nie* gathering well and brightening into the interior of the *ha*, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running frequently and intermittent *yubashiri* and *tobiyaki* along the *yakigashira*. The published sources note of Ko-Bizen work generally that flamboyant *midare* are few, the basic tone being *suguha*-like or a shallow *notare*, and this blade keeps that calmer, *nie*-active manner. On the signed Important Art Object *tachi* the same temper reads as a *ko-midare* in deep *nioi* with *ko-nie*, into which *ashi* and *yō* enter well.
The *jigane* is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, tending to stand a little, over which lies a thick *ji-nie* and fine *chikei*, and from which a faint *utsuri* rises, the archaic Ko-Bizen steel the published sources read as the close of the Fujiwara age and the beginning of the Kamakura. The *bōshi* falls in a gentle *notare-komi*, turning back in *ko-maru* on the front and running pointed on the reverse, both sides swept at the tip with *hakikake*. The shape keeps the old bearing of its period, slender with a clear taper, a strong *koshizori* with *funbari* at the base on the signed *tachi* and a small *kissaki*, archaic and tasteful even where greatly shortened.
The central scholarly question around him is the relation of his two manners, and the published sources lay it out without closing it. One account holds the *ko-midare* blades to be Ko-Bizen and the flamboyant *ō-chōji* to be Fukuoka Ichimonji; another holds them the work of a single maker, the 'ko-midare an earlier phase and the ō-chōji-midare a later phase'[[c:3]]. Because the signatures are so alike across the two groups, whether the related blades are by one hand or by namesakes 'remains a question for further study'[[c:4]]. Both faces survive under a signature: the Important Art Object *tachi* in a *ko-midare*, and the Important Cultural Property *tachi*, whose plate records an *ō-chōji-midare*. What the published commentary describes in detail is the calm, *nie*-laden *ko-midare*, and it is by that manner that the school places him within the old-Bizen field.
For the collector he is a rare early name with a slight designated record. The Fujishiro appraisers give no grade for him, and his survival runs through a single Important Cultural Property (the flamboyant *chōji-midare*), two signed pieces certified Important Art Objects, and the *nie*-rich *ō-suriage mumei* katana raised to Tokubetsu Jūyō, of which the published sources say that, as a Ko-Bizen blade, one may 'fully savor the subtle fascination of its *nie*'[[c:5]]. He has no National Treasures. His blades are heritage held rather than traded: a signed *tachi* with an unshortened *nakago*, formerly of Tanzan Shrine and presented to the Emperor Meiji, is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, where the published sources call it a work of modest *deki*, somewhat tired, yet a fine sword and 'one of great value for reference'[[c:6]]; another, certified an Important Art Object, descended through Ikeda Kamesaburō, and the plate of the Important Cultural Property records it in a private collection in Tokyo. The Important Cultural Property is patrimony that does not come to market, and even the *nie*-rich katana stands at the top tier; a signed or Tokubetsu-Jūyō Motochika in private hands is among the rarer things a collector of early Bizen could encounter, and one appears, when it does, only with patience.
Sanetsune (眞恒) — Mainline · 1077-1081. Kokuhō, Jūbi. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetoshi (眞利) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sanetoshi (真利) is a smith of the Ko-Bizen group in Bizen Province, traditionally transmitted as belonging to the lineage of Sadazane (貞真). Signature references list smiths reading "Mari" or "Sanetoshi" among the Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, Katayama Ichimonji, and Osafune lineages, making definitive attribution on the basis of the signature alone difficult. The designation records appraise works bearing this name variously as Ko-Bizen proper and as Ko-Ichimonji, reflecting the overlapping stylistic territory these early Bizen schools occupied during the late Heian through early Kamakura periods. His era of activity is recorded around Jōei (1232--1233).
Sanetoshi's forging is described as powerful *itame-hada* with *ji-nie* adhering thickly and *chikei* appearing within the ground; a faint, standing *midare-utsuri* is observed on certain works. The *hamon* is typically a small *midare* mixed with *ko-gunome* and a *ko-chōji* tendency, with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* entering and abundant activity within the tempered area[[c:1]]. On blades appraised as Ko-Ichimonji work, the temper pattern takes on a *suguha-chō* character mixed with *ko-midare* and *ko-chōji*, displaying a more restrained and archaic elegance when compared with the bolder expressions of mid-Kamakura Ichimonji[[c:2]]. The *bōshi* tends toward *sugu* with a *ko-maru* turnback, and *hakikake* appears frequently.
Sanetoshi occupies a position at the junction of the Ko-Bizen and early Ichimonji traditions, and his surviving works offer valuable evidence for understanding the transition between these closely related schools. The designation records note that the quality of both *jigane* and *hamon* in his work well displays the distinctive qualities of Ko-Ichimonji craftsmanship, while the slender proportions with pronounced *koshizori* clearly manifest the formal characteristics of early Kamakura production. One designated blade retains an *ubu nakago* with sharply preserved signature characters, making it an especially important documentary source for the study of this smith and the broader Ko-Bizen milieu.
Kageyori (景依) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Jūbun, Jūyō. Kageyori's one dated work on record is a *tachi* at the Tōshōgū in Wakayama, signed Sakon-Shōgen Kageyori and dated the first month of Shōō 2 (1289), now an Important Cultural Property. He is a Bizen smith of the Ko-Bizen group, and his name is one of the kantei problems of old Bizen. Examining the surviving signatures, the published sources hold that "it appears there were roughly three smiths using the name Kageyori in Bizen Province"[[c:1]]. The oldest is the hand of "a boldly cut, large two-character signature"[[c:2]]. The latest prefixes Bizen no Kuni Osafune and belongs to the close of the Kamakura period, and works of the Kōan and Einin years in a somewhat older manner lie between. A further strand carries the title Sakon-Shōgen with an Einin date, and of it the published sources write that its lineage "is not clearly established"[[c:3]]. Each blade is therefore placed by its own *ji* and *ha* before it is assigned to a line.
His fully described record is two signed Jūyō *tachi*, both slender with a small *kissaki*. The shortened Tokyo *tachi* keeps a high *koshizori* in spite of the *suriage*, while the *ubu* Hyōgo *tachi* has a somewhat shallow *sori*. The temper of both is a *suguha*-toned line worked from within. On the shortened blade it is a *suguha-chō* mixed with small *gunome*, with *chōji-ashi* entering. *Ko-nie* adhere, the *nioiguchi* tends toward tightness, and the *bōshi* sweeps out in a *kake-dashi*. On the *ubu* blade it is a *chū-suguha*-toned line of *ko-chōji* mixed with *ko-midare*, small *ashi* entering. There the *nie* adhere well, *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appear, and the *bōshi* runs straight into a *ko-maru*. Both carry a *bō-hi* on each side.
The *jigane* divides along the same two blades. On the Tokyo *tachi* a *ko-itame* is closely forged and a *midare-utsuri* stands, and the published sources read the whole, the packed *ko-itame* with its *utsuri* and the tight *suguha-chō* of small *gunome* and small *chōji*, as "one stylistic mode seen in late-Kamakura Bizen"[[c:4]]. On the Hyōgo *tachi* the *itame* inclines to stand, with *ji-nie* adhering. From its slender form and the well developed *nie* of *ji* and *ha*, the published sources judge it "a Kamakura-period work in the Ko-Bizen lineage"[[c:5]]. Its tang is signed on the *omote* with a large two-character *mei*, the form that the same explanation names as the oldest of the name.
The three Important Cultural Property *tachi* are known in the published record by their plates, which give the forging and the *hamon* in a word. The Sakon-Shōgen *tachi* of Shōō 2 is a *ko-itame* with *chōji* mixed with *gunome*. The *tachi* signed Kageyori *tsukuru* at Inaba Shrine in Gifu is an *itame* with a *suguha*. The *tachi* signed Kageyori at the Tokyo National Museum, 80.0 cm long, is a *ko-itame* with a *ko-midare* mixed with *gunome*. Taken with the two Jūyō blades, the five run from a plain *suguha* through a *suguha*-toned small midare to a *chōji* mixed with *gunome*, always on a *ko-itame* or *itame*, and only the Tōshōgū blade carries a date.
Kageyori belongs to the Ko-Bizen group, the collective name for the Bizen smiths of the late Heian into the Kamakura period. No fixed descent is transmitted for him, and his attributions rest on era and on the old-Bizen character of his *ji* and *ha*. What marks his described hand is restraint: the *chōji* appears as *ashi* and small clusters inside a *suguha*-toned line, and on the Tokyo Jūyō blade the *utsuri* stands in a tight *ko-itame*.
Five designated works stand on record, all of them signed *tachi*: three Important Cultural Properties and two Jūyō Tōken. The Important Cultural Properties rest at the Tokyo National Museum, the Tōshōgū in Wakayama and Inaba Shrine in Gifu, patrimony held by a national museum and two shrines rather than blades that pass between collectors. One of his blades carries a recorded provenance from the Arima family. Only the two Jūyō *tachi* stand in the tier that private collections may hold, so a signed Kageyori in private hands is among the rarer things a collector of early Bizen could encounter, and one comes to market, when it does, only with patience.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Tsunemitsu is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith of the Masatsune line, working at the close of the Heian and the opening of the Kamakura period. The published sources transmit him as the son, or else a disciple, of Masatsune, and read his work as belonging unmistakably to that house: of the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi formerly in the Daishōji Maeda family they write that it 'displays workmanship in both ji and ha shared with Masatsune'[[c:1]], enough to accept the maker as one of that line. His surviving record is small, a handful of signed tachi and a single shortened mumei katana drawn to him on workmanship alone, and the commentary returns each time to the same point, that signed works by his hand are 'comparatively few, in contrast to Masatsune'[[c:2]]. He is one of the quiet old-Bizen hands standing at the threshold before the Fukuoka Ichimonji would flower in the mid-Kamakura.
His hand is a single manner, seen across a spread of quality. The temper that recurs across his signed blades is a *suguha*-based *ko-midare* into which *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome* are mixed, with *ashi* and *yō* entering, the *nioiguchi* tending slightly toward tightness, *ko-nie* adhering well, and *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running frequently through it. It is a shallow, small irregular line. On the Daishōji Maeda tachi the published sources note that 'in both hamon and bōshi the blade calls Masatsune to mind'[[c:3]], the signature clear and the nearly *ubu* shape valuable in itself. The *bōshi* runs straight into a small round, the Tokubetsu Jūyō piece finishing instead in a larger *ō-maru*, and on three of the tachi a *bō-hi* is carved through, terminating in *kaku-dome*.
Beneath that temper the *jigane* is a well-packed *ko-itame*, standing a little in places, with *ji-nie* and a faint *utsuri* rising in the calmer pieces. On his best blades the reflection clears into a true *midare-utsuri* over a slightly standing *itame* mixed with a little *mokume*, *chikei* entering, the old-Bizen *jigane* the judges name among the principal points of his work. The shape is the bearing of his period throughout, slender, with a clear taper from base to point, a high *koshizori* with *funbari* and a small *kissaki*, the *sori* settling toward the tip.
His most decorative surviving pieces open the manner toward flamboyance without leaving it. On the Jūyō tachi of the sixty-second session the temper rises high at the *koshimoto* in a *koshiba*-like fashion, then proceeds in a *ko-midare* mixing *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, the *habuchi* showing *hotsure*, fine *tobiyaki* and *yubashiri* intermixing, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running, while a clear *midare-utsuri* stands in the *ji*; the published sources call it a blade in which 'the points of interest of old Bizen work are well displayed'[[c:4]]. On the Jūyō tachi of the thirty-eighth session the *chōji* mixes with *gunome* and becomes a shallow *notare* toward the *monouchi*, the *nioiguchi* tightening and the *nioi* predominating, named by the judges as one characteristic style of this smith. The signed work is the body of his record, *ubu* and cut with a bold two-character *mei*; the one shortened *mumei* katana, wide-bodied and *shizumi* in the *nioiguchi*, was placed within the line on its *ji* and *ha* despite the loss of its signature.
What separates Tsunemitsu within old Bizen is exactly what the judges name in placing him. His calm *suguha*-based *ko-midare*, his bright *midare-utsuri* on the finest pieces, and his *ji* and *ha* held in common with Masatsune place him within Masatsune's line, while his comparatively few signatures set him apart from the more prolific master. One commentary, examining the most representative of his surviving tachi, calls its signature 'the most typical example' of his hand, the touchstone by which the rest are read.
For the collector he is a rare early name with a small but high designated record. Fujishiro assigns him no grade, and he has no National Treasures; his survival runs instead through one signed tachi designated an Important Cultural Property, recorded by its plate as a *ko-itame* with *ko-midare* and dated by it to the Heian period, one raised to Tokubetsu Jūyō, four at Jūyō, and two prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, almost all of them signed. His blades are heritage carried down in named houses and a public collection rather than swords that circulate: the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi and one Jūyō tachi descended through the Daishōji Maeda family of Kaga, the latter accompanied by a Hon'ami Kōjō *origami* appraising it at fifteen gold coins; one of the two Jūyō Bijutsuhin passed through Tachibana Kantoku of Fukuoka, its signature altered at some point to read Masatsune, the character *masa* added above and the original *mitsu* struck out; and one of his blades is now held at the Seikadō Bunko. The Important Cultural Property is patrimony that does not come to market, and the handful in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers reach it only rarely, since the published sources call an *ubu*, signed example 'few in number, of high value as reference material'[[c:5]]. A signed Tsunemitsu in private hands is among the rarer things a collector of early Bizen could hope to encounter, and one appears, when it does, only with patience.
Tochika (遠近) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Tochika is a Ko-Bizen smith of the Masatsune line, working in Bizen around the middle of the Kamakura period. The old sword books transmit him as the son of Tsuneto of the Masatsune house and give his active period as around Bun'ei, and one tradition makes him the forebear of Hatakeda Moriie. The Meikan instead enters the name as Bizen of the Jokyu era, adding that one later smith shared it. The published sources judge that neither reading settles the matter: none of the extant signed *tachi* dates as early as Jokyu, and all of them show mid-Kamakura workmanship. His record is a small body of signed *tachi*, each with a two-character *mei*, and the published sources note that several survive bearing the same type of signature.
His hand is read in two manners, and the published record is careful to say that among his signed works none is seen in a distinctly Ko-Bizen manner. The showy face is a brilliant *choji-midare*. On the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* the *jigane* is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, tending a little to standing grain, with fine *ji-nie* and a *midare-utsuri*. Over it he sets a *choji-midare* mixed with *kawazuko-choji*, *gunome* and *togariba*, the *ashi* and *yo* entering vigorously. The *nioi* is deep and *ko-nie* adheres well, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run, *tobiyaki* is intermixed, and the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear. The *boshi* enters with a little *midare* and turns back in a small round with a slight pointed tendency. The published sources call it an outstanding example of this flamboyant manner, one that in a certain vein "calls to mind Hatakeda Moriie and Bizen Saburo Kunimune"[[c:1]].
The *jigane* under both manners is an *itame*, in places flowing and standing a little, with a *midare-utsuri* that stands clearly on some blades and only faintly on others. The other face of his record is the quiet manner: a *suguha-cho* with a slight admixture of *ko-gunome*, the temper narrow and the *nioiguchi* tight, the *boshi* running straight into a small round. One *ubu* signed *tachi* in this mode, slender with a high *koshizori*, is read by the published sources as showing "workmanship corresponding to the example at Nikko Futarasan Shrine"[[c:2]]. That shrine's own *tachi*, an Important Cultural Property, is recorded with a *suguha* mixed with *nijuba*.
That one smith should temper both a decorative Bizen *choji* and a restrained *suguha* is the central question around him. Writing of a *tachi* in *ko-choji* and *ko-midare*, the published sources observe that besides such *choji* there are works in a *suguha*-like mode with a tight *nioiguchi* of the kind seen in the Bitchu Aoe group, and that for this reason "the lineage is not clear"[[c:3]]. The Hatakeda connection is likewise offered as a matter still requiring study. On a shortened *tachi* with a two-character signature, the published sources hold that the style makes a relationship with Moriie impossible to deny, and of another they write that, though the relationship is unclear, it is "by no means to be regarded as unrelated"[[c:4]].
What sets Tochika apart is carried by his own grounded traits. His brightest *tachi* turn on *kawazuko-choji* gathered into a clove temper of deep *nioi*, and one Juyo *tachi* carries a *bonji* and *bo-hi* at the *koshimoto*. His quiet *tachi* turn on a tight *suguha* over a faint *utsuri*. Both manners stand on the slightly standing *itame* and *midare-utsuri* that the published sources describe throughout his record.
Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures. His designated works on record number six: two Important Cultural Properties, one of them held by Futarasan Shrine in Tochigi and the other in private hands, together with one Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* and three Juyo *tachi*. The Tokubetsu Juyo blade is transmitted as the wearing sword of Matsudaira Terusada, lord of Takasaki Domain, and is accompanied by a Hon'ami Kotsune origami of Enpo 4 appraising it at five gold coins. Only four of his blades sit in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, and most designated blades are held rather than traded, so a signed Tochika *tachi* comes to market only rarely. The published sources call the Tokubetsu Juyo example "precious as documentary material for understanding the range of this smith's work"[[c:5]], and a privately held signed *tachi* is a notable thing for a collector to encounter.
Hidechika (秀近) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Ietada (家忠) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Ietada is a Bizen smith whose period and lineage remain incompletely established. The sword reference books record smiths using this name in association with both the Ko-Bizen school and the Fukuoka Ichimonji group during the early Kamakura period, with proposed dates ranging from the Bunji era (1185–1190) to around the Joo era (1222–1224). The sole dated reference in the *Meikan* is a blade inscribed "Bizen Einin" together with "made by Ietada," yet no extant work bears a date inscription, and because the question cannot be resolved by signature style alone, the NBTHK observes that the establishment of a definitive chronology and the determination of which lineage these works belong to must await future research. What is consistently affirmed is that signed blades by Ietada are exceedingly few — a circumstance that invests each surviving example with considerable documentary weight.
Across the examined works, the technical character is remarkably cohesive. The *jigane* presents *itame-hada*, in the finest examples well-forged and well-kneaded to convey what the NBTHK describes as a soft feeling, with *ji-nie* adhering throughout and fine *chikei* entering well. *Jifu-utsuri* or *midare*-like *utsuri* appears distinctly. The *hamon* is consistently built upon a *ko-choji*-like pattern mixed with *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome*, with *ashi* and *yo* entering frequently — a temper in which the undulations and openings remain hardly conspicuous, yielding what the NBTHK characterizes as an uncontrived, antique elegance[[c:1]]. The *boshi* typically enters in *midare-komi* or runs straight, turning back in *ko-maru*, at times showing *hakikake*, with *nie* and *kinsuji* appearing in the return. The *sugata* is slender, retaining *koshizori* even through *suriage*, and concluding in *ko-kissaki* — presenting a graceful *tachi* figure in good state of preservation.
The NBTHK appraises Ietada's workmanship as displaying the characteristic features of the Ko-Bizen group, noting that the archaic and classically elegant manner of these blades places them no later than the early Kamakura period. The recurring evaluative emphasis falls upon the restraint and antiquity of the work: irregularities remain gentle, technical effects are subdued rather than assertive, and the overall impression is one of quiet dignity. The Tokubetsu-Juyo appraisal states that this single example alone attests to Ietada's high technical ability, and that the blade should be admired as one that enhances the estimation of this smith[[c:2]] — a judgement that, given the extreme scarcity of signed works, underscores the importance of each surviving piece to the study of early Bizen swordmaking.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1185-1220. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. A *tachi* certified Juyo Bijutsuhin in 1935, signed Sukemori saku and then in the possession of Kinkyo Shigetaka of Toyama, carries the judgment on which this smith's identity rests. The reference works list an Ichimonji smith named Sukemori, but the published sources state that "there exists a Ko-Bizen Sukemori clearly different from that figure; this blade is likely his"[[c:1]]. The same entry adds that "the style of the signature likewise appears more old-fashioned than that of Ichimonji Sukemori"[[c:2]]. Sukemori is therefore treated as a Ko-Bizen smith, working in Bizen before the flowering of the Fukuoka Ichimonji. Four designated works on record carry his name: that prewar *tachi*, a *tachi* designated Juyo in 1974 and Tokubetsu Juyo in 1980, a further Juyo *tachi* of 1975, and an Important Cultural Property *tachi* whose plate assigns it to the Heian period.
Strong *nie* is the feature the published sources return to. On the prewar *tachi* the *hamon* is *ko-midare* with strong *nie* through *ji* and *ha*, an archaic manner. A second commentator on the same blade notes that several smiths used the name in Bizen from the last phase of Ko-Bizen into the Nanbokucho period, and that "among the examples examined, this Sukemori shows particularly strong *nie* and is the most archaic in tone"[[c:3]]. The Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* shows the same character in fuller description. Its temper is a broad *suguha*-tone that undulates gently and in places runs in *notare*, mixing *choji* and *ko-midare*. *Ashi* enter abundantly, *nie* adheres well, *sunagashi* runs frequently, and the *nioiguchi* tends to *shizumi*.
The *jigane* of that blade is a dense *itame*, thickly covered with *ji-nie* and entered by fine *chikei*. Its Tokubetsu Juyo description notes a slight admixture of *nagare-hada* on the *ura*, and its earlier Juyo description an *itame* tending to stand. The shape is somewhat slender, with *koshizori* retained though the blade is *suriage*, and a *chu-kissaki*. The *boshi* runs in *midare-komi* and turns back with a *ko-maru* tendency. On the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* the published sources judge the whole "more archaic than Fukuoka Ichimonji, a Ko-Bizen work of around the early Kamakura period"[[c:4]]. The tang carries a large two-character signature cut boldly with a thick chisel.
One blade stands apart in manner. The Juyo *tachi* of 1975 keeps a three-character signature, somewhat corroded, read as Sukemori saku. Its *itame* shows slight *chikei*, and its temper is a *choji-midare* mixed with *gunome* and small *notare*, the *nioi* deep with *ko-nie*, *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appearing, the *boshi* straight to a small round. The published sources observe that the name is found in both the Ko-Bizen and the Ichimonji groups, with works differing in style and manner of signing, so that several smiths of the name are thought to have worked in both lineages. Even so, they place this blade "judging from the workmanship and the style of the signature"[[c:5]] in the Ko-Bizen group.
The Important Cultural Property *tachi*, held at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto, is recorded by its plate in brief: signed Sukemori, *shinogi-zukuri* with a *mitsu-mune*, forged in *itame*, its temper *ko-midare* mixed with small *choji*, 70.3 cm long. That quiet *ko-midare* agrees with the prewar and Tokubetsu Juyo blades. Across the record his work is set apart from the Ichimonji namesakes by the calm *suguha*-toned line, the weight of *nie* in *ji* and *ha*, and the *sunagashi* that runs through the temper.
His designated record is small and high. He has no National Treasures. The Kitano Tenmangu *tachi* is Important Cultural Property, kept as shrine heritage. The prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi* is published in the *Kozan Oshigata*, the *Kanto Zuiroku* and the *Nihonto Taikan*. Two blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, both recorded in private hands. Of the finest the published sources write that "both *ji* and *ha* are intact, and it is a well-made example"[[c:6]]. A signed Ko-Bizen Sukemori comes to market only rarely, and a privately held example is among the uncommon things a collector of early Bizen may encounter.
Sukehira (助平) — Mainline · 1151-1200. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukehira has been counted since antiquity among the Bizen Sanbira, the three Ko-Bizen smiths whose names end in *hira*, with Takahira and Kanehira. The three survive very unevenly. The published sources write that Kanehira is met from time to time while Sukehira is extremely rare[[c:1]], and that no work of Takahira has been seen that can be accepted with confidence. He worked at the close of the Heian period and the opening of the Kamakura, and every blade the NBTHK has examined is signed with the five-character long signature Bizen no Kuni Sukehira and never with two characters[[c:2]]. This is the reverse of Kanehira, whose long signature appears on only two blades.
His finest surviving work is an ubu tachi designated Jūyō in the 49th session and Tokubetsu Jūyō in the 18th. It is slender, with a marked difference between base and tip width and pronounced *funbari*, a high *koshizori* growing shallower toward the point, and a small *kissaki*. The tang is ubu in *kijimomo* form, signed below the peg hole in large characters cut with a fine chisel. The published sources call the shape "dignified and elegant"[[c:3]], and as one of the few ubu signed tachi by this smith "of very great value as documentary material"[[c:4]], its ji and ha moreover healthy.
The jigane of that tachi is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, ji-nie adhering well and fine *chikei* entering frequently, with a *midare-utsuri* standing. The hamon is low: a *suguha-chō* mixed with small *midare*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-chōji*, with ko-ashi and yō. Ko-nie adheres thickly and fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run through it. Along the edge, *yubashiri* and *nijūba* appear at intervals, and the bōshi turns back in a small round with *nijūba*. The published sources write that these features "create the archaic, deep flavour of Ko-Bizen work"[[c:5]].
The other signed tachi keep the same manner in a quieter key, and the published sources judge them frankly. A slender tachi of the 33rd session, recorded at designation in the United States, has an *itame* with fine *mokume* and a narrow *suguha-chō* with gunome, small notare and small midare, *uchinoke*, sunagashi and kinsuji. It is called "a low-tempered *suguha-chō ko-midare* of subdued flavour, its ji and ha well covered in nie"[[c:6]]. A tachi of the 29th session, shortened but still deep in *koshizori*, has a *suguha-chō ko-midare* with *yubashiri* at the peaks and a *bō-hi*, but its signature is somewhat indistinct. A nearly ubu tachi of the 13th session has an old grace in its shape[[c:7]]. Yet "its ji and ha have become tired overall"[[c:8]], and its small midare are not wholly settled.
The 29th-session commentary sets his work beside the other surviving signed tachi. These are a tachi then listed as Gyobutsu, a formerly Gyobutsu tachi now in the Tokyo National Museum, and a fire-damaged blade at Nikkō Tōshōgū. The Gyobutsu tachi has *funbari*, a small *kissaki*, a fine *ko-itame* with ji-nie and a ko-midare with small chōji, abundant ashi and yō and kinsuji in places, and the commentary finds that "both show the flavour of Ko-Bizen and allow this smith's own character to be seen"[[c:9]], the three long signatures closely alike. Two such tachi are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, one presented to Emperor Meiji by the Tōdō family and the other, listed as Gyobutsu in that inventory, by the Iwasaki family. Honma proposes them as genuine works that "should serve as the foothold for the study of Sukehira"[[c:10]]. Their workmanship is acceptable as Ko-Bizen, and their signatures stand comparison with other Ko-Bizen signatures. He notes slight differences in the characters *hira* and *kuni* between the two, and judges that these "are probably due to a difference in date of making"[[c:11]].
For the collector, Sukehira is one of the rarest names in early Bizen. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. His record holds one Tokubetsu Jūyō and three Jūyō tachi, four across the two tiers, every one signed, with the two tachi in Honma's inventory beside them. One Jūyō tachi descends from the Fushimi-no-miya household with an origami of Hōreki 13 and a gold *nashiji* mounting with chrysanthemum crests. A signed Sukehira in private hands is among the rarest things a collector of Ko-Bizen could encounter, and when one appears it is valued as documentary material for one of the three Sanbira.
Shigetsune (重恒) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Shigetsune is a Ko-Bizen smith whom the *Meikan* places about the Kenchō era of the early Kamakura period, working in Bizen at the threshold of the great Bizen flowering. He is among the most thinly recorded of the old-Bizen hands. The published sources identify him with the smith the swordbooks list under that era, and they state plainly that the details of his descent are not known, that "his lineage is not clear"[[c:1]]. Only a handful of signed tachi survive: two were designated Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war, one entered the Juyo ranks in the school's early sessions, and a further tachi was raised to Tokubetsu Juyo. His name is read off these few blades and the close kinship of their signatures rather than off any documented teacher or line.
His characteristic hand is a *suguha*-based small *midare*, the calm idiom of old Bizen. Over a slender tachi he tempers a shallow *suguha* base into which he sets *ko-chōji*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare*, with *ashi* and *yō* entering thickly and *ko-nie* well adhered. The temper is never the towering clove-flower of the later Fukuoka school; it stays small and even, its interest carried in the activity rather than in the height of the heads. Fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run through it, and on his best work the temper rises at the *koshimoto* into a conspicuous *koshiba*, the one feature the judges single out on the Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi. The *bōshi* runs with a shallow *notare* into a small *ko-maru*, or finishes in a *yakizume*-like sweep.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that quiet temper. He forges an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, in places standing a little and showing a somewhat coarse grain toward the base, carrying fine *ji-nie* and a faint *utsuri*. On the finest pieces the forging tightens into a flowing *ko-itame* and the faint reflection clears into a distinct *midare-utsuri*, the speckled old-Bizen *jigane* that the published sources count among the principal points of his work. The shape is the bearing of the period: slender, with a slight taper from base to tip, a high *koshizori* and strong *funbari*, the curvature settling toward a small *kissaki*, and on two of the tachi a *bō-hi* cut on both faces.
His surviving work reads as one manner held through a spread of quality rather than as two separate registers. The plainer signed tachi keep the *suguha*-based *midare* even and restrained; the best, like the Juyo Bijutsuhin piece with its prominent *koshiba* and the largely *ubu* Juyo blade with its bold three-character signature, raise the temper and brighten the *jigane* without ever leaving the old-Bizen idiom. The published sources observe that his signatures are uniformly small in scale, cut as either Shigetsune or Shigetsune saku, and that two of the surviving tachi share a manner of signing so close that the one anchors the reading of the other, which is how a smith with almost no documentary trail is held together at all.
What sets Shigetsune apart is exactly the old colour the judges name. His temper is held apart from the flamboyant *chōji-midare* of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji that would soon flower at Fukuoka, and the published sources call his workmanship "old in style and of high refinement"[[c:2]], a piece in which "the characteristic flavor of Ko-Bizen is clearly evident"[[c:3]]. He stands before that flowering, among the quiet old-Bizen roots from which the most brilliant of the Bizen traditions grew, distinguished from the plainer hands of his own time by the brightness of his *midare-utsuri* and the gathering of *chōji* on his edge, and from his successors by the calm of his line.
For the collector he is a rare early name rather than a famous one. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, the Juyo and the Tokubetsu Juyo ranks, with two blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers in all. The Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi passed through Ichiki Kitokurō and through Iwasaki Koyata to the Seikadō, and the Tokubetsu Juyo blade carries a Hon'ami Kōtsune *origami* of Genroku 8 valuing it at ten gold coins. The judges call that blade "healthy in both *ji* and *ha*"[[c:4]] and "an outstanding example among Shigetsune's work"[[c:5]], and they hold the *ubu*, signed Juyo tachi "especially valuable for retaining its original tang and signature"[[c:6]] and a precious document for the study of so little-known a smith. With so few blades surviving and most of them long held, a signed Ko-Bizen Shigetsune comes to market only seldom; a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, and a small window onto how Bizen forged before its golden age.
Suemori (末守) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatsuna (高綱) — Mainline · 1190-1210. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshitsugu (吉次) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Jūbun, Jūbi. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikakane (近包) — Mainline · 1150-1200. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasunawa (安繩) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yukimitsu (行光) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kunikane (國包) — Mainline · 987-989. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Masatsugu (正次) — Mainline · 1150-1185. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Masatsugu is a smith of the Ko-Bizen group in Bizen Province, active from the late Heian into the early Kamakura period. Sword reference compilations record him only as "Motomae," and the NBTHK assessments consistently identify him as a smith of the Masatsune lineage. His precise dates remain uncertain; the *meikan* places him before the Genryaku era (1184--1185), while one designation associates him with the Bunryaku era (1234--1235), suggesting either a broad working period or successive generations bearing the same name. Reliably signed extant works are extremely rare, lending particular scholarly weight to each surviving example.
Masatsugu's characteristic forging is a tightly worked *ko-itame-hada* with abundant *ji-nie* and *chikei*, occasionally showing a tendency toward *utsuri*. His *hamon* is typically a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare* mixed with *gunome*, executed with deep *nioi* and well-adhering *ko-nie*; *ashi* enter frequently and effectively. One blade exhibits a *ko-nie-deki* temper forming a shallow *notare*-like line mixed with *ko-midare* and *ko-ashi*. The *boshi* characteristically turns in a deeply formed *ko-maru*, a hallmark that the NBTHK identifies as diagnostic of the Masatsune line[[c:2]]. Blades that retain original proportions display a shallow *koshizori* with a compact *ko-kissaki*, consistent with the classical Ko-Bizen profile.
The NBTHK evaluations repeatedly emphasize the exceptional quality of Masatsugu's surviving work within the Ko-Bizen corpus. One blade is described as "the finest in workmanship among blades bearing the same name," while another is judged "an excellent work even among examples of the same group." Both assessments further note that the blades clearly exhibit the characteristic features of the Ko-Bizen school and are in *kenzen* -- sound and well-preserved -- condition[[c:1]]. The provenance of the finest example, transmitted within the Matsudaira family of Tsuyama, underscores the esteem in which these works have been held. Though his oeuvre is exceedingly small, Masatsugu stands as an important representative of the Masatsune current within the foundational Ko-Bizen tradition.
Suketomo (助友) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takakane (高包) — Mainline · 1012-1017. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomomura (友村) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Jūbi, Tokujū. Tomomura (友村) was a swordsmith of the Ko-Bizen tradition, active in the early Kamakura period. Sword reference works place his working period around the Kenryaku era (1211–1213). Extant signed works are exceedingly rare; the most celebrated is a tachi designated as a Jūyō Bijutsuhin (Important Art Object) held by Yusuhara Hachimangū Shrine in Ōita Prefecture. Beyond this, only a small number of signed examples survive, lending each authenticated work considerable documentary significance for the study of the Ko-Bizen school.
Tomomura's blades characteristically present a slender, classical *tachi sugata* with high *koshizori* that becomes slightly shallower toward the tip, often with a suggestion of *funbari* and a *chū-kissaki*. His forging shows *itame-hada* with standing grain, mixed with *nagare-hada* and *mokume*; *ji-nie* adheres with *chikei*, and a distinctive patchy *jifu-utsuri* stands out prominently. The *hamon* is fundamentally *suguha-chō*, mixed with *ko-midare*, *ko-gunome*, and a *ko-chōji*-like tendency; *ashi* and *yō* enter well, with deep *nioi* and dense *ko-nie*. A particularly notable feature is the appearance in the upper half of crescent-shaped *tobiyaki* that continue intermittently along the edge, producing a *nijūba*-like effect and, in places, an impression reminiscent of *sanjūba*. Near the base, fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appear.
The NBTHK consistently characterizes Tomomura's work as strongly evoking an "archaic, old-fashioned flavor" and an "unmistakably archaic charm." His workmanship is noted to be in accord with that of fellow Ko-Bizen smiths such as Yukihide, Naritaka, and Sukemura, whose works similarly display a *nijūba* effect "comparable to that seen in the celebrated Meibutsu Mikazuki Munechika." Authenticated blades are praised as *kenzen* — sound and well-preserved — in both *ji* and *ha*, displaying "excellent workmanship" and assessed as "valuable reference material" of great documentary importance for the Ko-Bizen tradition.
Tsuneto (恒遠) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Tokujū, Jūyō. Tsuneto (恒遠) is a Ko-Bizen smith whose signed tachi, raised to Tokubetsu Juyo at the 28th session in 2024, is described by the NBTHK as a fine work imbued with archaic elegance and high dignity[[c:1]]. The sword registers enter him as "Bizen, two-character signature, before Genryaku"[[c:2]], and they list two smiths of the name, one of the Genryaku era and one of the Ryakunin era. The published sources transmit him as a member of the Masatsune line and place him as the father of Tochika. The 1984 Juyo commentary notes the register entry that makes him Masatsune's son, and judges that the workmanship of his jihada and hamon and the manner of his signature readily confirm his place in the Masatsune group[[c:3]].
His signed works are very few. The 2024 commentary counts fewer than five[[c:4]]: a kodachi at Juyo, the Tokuju tachi itself, and one example in the Tokyo National Museum. Each of the three blades on record carries a two-character signature. On the Tokuju tachi it is cut large with a thick chisel, while on the tachi of Honma's inventory it is cut in a fine chisel toward the mune. In form the blades show *koshizori* with *funbari*, the point turning slightly forward toward a small *kissaki*, the shape the published sources describe as general to Ko-Bizen.
The *jigane* is an *itame*. On the Tokuju tachi it is predominantly *ko-itame*, mixed in places with *itame* and a flowing tendency, the grain standing slightly, with *ji-nie*. Each blade carries a *utsuri* of its own character, a faint *jifu-utsuri* on the Tokuju tachi and a prominent *nie-utsuri* on the kodachi. The hamon is built on *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare*. *Ashi* and *yo* enter well, *ko-nie* attaches evenly, and slight *sunagashi* appears. On the kodachi the *nioiguchi* shows an *urumi* tendency, yet the tempering is clear. The *boshi* varies from blade to blade: an *o-maru* on the Tokuju tachi, a *ko-maru* on the inventory tachi, and on the kodachi a pointed *ko-maru* on one face and a *yakizume* on the other.
Two registers stand side by side. The tachi first designated Juyo in 1967 departs from the narrow *yakihaba* that the commentary calls usual for Ko-Bizen work. Its *yakihaba* is wide and takes in large *choji-midare*, and the result is flamboyant and brilliant. When the same blade was raised to Tokubetsu Juyo, the NBTHK read its *ko-choji*, varied in the size of its clusters, as workmanship that suggests the coming of the Ichimonji school[[c:5]]. It saw in the blade fresh nuance added to the manner of Masatsune[[c:6]], and on that basis placed Tsuneto as the Ryakunin smith of the registers. The tachi recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection stands at the other pole. It is a narrow *suguha* manner with a shallow *notare* and *ko-midare*, the *nioiguchi* clouded and growing sparse above the *monouchi*.
The inventory's commentary says of that tachi that extant works are exceedingly few and that its author had hardly seen another[[c:7]], and it values the signature as a good reference. The 1984 commentary likewise treats the kodachi as valuable reference material, an example of the Ko-Bizen kodachi. Together the three blades show the Masatsune line working in both a restrained narrow temper and a broader *choji* manner that looks forward to Ichimonji.
Three designated works are on record. The Tokuju tachi and the kodachi are his two blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, and he has no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property. The tachi of Honma's inventory, formerly in the Imperial collection, is now recorded in the Tokyo National Museum. The Tokuju tachi is illustrated in the Kozan Oshigata and was transmitted during the domain era in the Akimoto family of Tatebayashi in Kozuke. With fewer than five signed works known, a signed Tsuneto in private hands is among the rarest Ko-Bizen blades a collector could encounter.
Tsunezane (恒眞) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasukiyo (安清) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takakane (高包) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Tokujū, Jūyō. One of the surviving signed tachi of Takakane records his place of residence in its inscription, "Bizen no Kuni Yoshioka Takakane," and the published sources note that the Yoshioka locality is transmitted not only as the home territory of the Yoshioka Ichimonji but, tracing the chronology further back, as an ancient seat of the Ko-Bizen smiths as well. That single blade, designated at the fiftieth Juyo session, captures the difficulty and the appeal of the name in one line of signature. Takakane is an early-Bizen smith of the late Heian into the early Kamakura period, placed by the reference works among the Ko-Bizen group and tied by tradition to the Bizen Sanpei line of Takahira. He does not, however, refer to a single man. The published sources put the matter plainly, that Takakane is not one person but is found in both Ko-Bizen and the Ichimonji line[[c:1]], and they add that extant works are few[[c:2]]. Each surviving blade is therefore appraised individually to one group or the other, and the bulk of them are judged to be Ko-Bizen.
His characteristic hand is the quiet old-Bizen one. Over an itame *jigane* the temper is a suguha-toned ko-midare into which a ko-choji feeling enters, the *ashi* and *yo* working well within the *ha*, the *nioiguchi* often deep, *ko-nie* adhering, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running through the tempered area. It is a small, restrained pattern rather than the showy clove-flower of the later Ichimonji masters, and the published sources read it as the archaic Bizen edge: a ko-midare mixed with ko-choji that, in their words, clearly displays the features of this school[[c:3]]. The *boshi* answers the *ha* in kind, sweeping with *hakikake* into a small *ko-maru*, and on the early tachi it can turn back so briefly as to approach *yakizume*. The signed work is concentrated in two-character *mei* cut near the *nakago-jiri*, and only a single full long signature, the Yoshioka tachi, survives among the recorded blades.
The *jigane* is where the Ko-Bizen character is read most surely. The forging is itame, well worked and at times mixed with *mokume*, the *ji-nie* gathering thickly and on the finest blade settling as a dust-fine *mijin*; over it a *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly. On the ichi-signed pieces the grain flows and stands a little, with *chikei* entering, so that the *jigane* is a touch more active; on the Ko-Bizen tachi it is calmer and the *utsuri* the steadier tell. The *sugata* is consistent across the corpus and is itself a dating instrument: a slender *shinogi-zukuri* tachi with *iori-mune*, high *koshizori* with *funbari*, the curvature drooping slightly toward the tip, closed by a *ko-kissaki*. Most surviving blades are *suriage*, yet they keep the proportions of the period, and the *ubu* examples, the Yoshioka tachi among them, stand dignified and graceful in the form of the end of the Fujiwara age into the beginning of the Kamakura.
The corpus divides into two registers along the line of the signature. The Ko-Bizen blades, signed simply Takakane, carry the quiet ko-midare described above. A smaller group adds the character *ichi* above the name and is appraised as Ko-Ichimonji; on these the published sources observe that the manner of the Fukuoka Ichimonji line, arising under Norimune in the early Kamakura, still preserves a strong remnant of the older Ko-Bizen taste[[c:4]], the temper a ko-midare mixed with ko-choji and ko-gunome, the *boshi* entering in *notare-komi* toward a near-*yakizume* turnback. A third and more ornate mode appears on a few blades whose edge leans to a *choji-midare* led by ko-choji, the *nioiguchi* bright, with small *tobiyaki* and *yubashiri* in places, the closest his Ko-Bizen work comes to the Ichimonji temper. The published sources also weigh his dating against the reference books: where the *meikan* would place him as early as the Genryaku era, they reject that on the evidence of the workmanship and judge him roughly contemporary with the Kencho-era dated works of Yoshikane[[c:5]].
What distinguishes Takakane from the company he keeps is best drawn from his own grounded traits rather than from his neighbors. On the appraised Ko-Bizen blades the judges are explicit, writing that Takakane is found among both Ko-Bizen and Ko-Ichimonji but that the work in hand belongs to the former[[c:6]]; his standing *midare-utsuri* over a well-forged itame, and his suguha-toned ko-midare carrying ko-choji deep in *nie*, are the features they return to as the period's fine character. Within the Ko-Bizen circle his is among the slenderest and most reserved hands, the temper closer to ko-midare than to the bolder ko-choji of some of his fellows, and the *utsuri* a steady presence rather than the faint reflection of the oldest Tomonari. The ichi-signed register places him, uniquely among Ko-Bizen names, directly at the hinge between the archaic Bizen phase and the Ichimonji flowering that Fukuoka would bring to its height a generation later.
Takakane stands at 1,800 in the Toko Taikan, and the weight of designation against his name is modest but real: two of his blades reach the Tokubetsu Juyo tier and four the Juyo, six designated works on record in all, with the great majority of his output signed rather than attributed. None of his blades carries a higher designation, so what survives sits in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers rather than in shrine and museum patrimony, and the published record carries no documented daimyo provenance for him. His value to the collector and the scholar lies elsewhere: in the rarity and the documentary force of the signed pieces. The published sources call the Yoshioka tachi's inscription of exceptionally high documentary value, noting that a Muromachi-period *oshigata* compilation, the *Osekisho*, preserves reference material for a Takakane with a closely similar signature, and they praise the antique elegance of the inscribed characters[[c:7]]. One of his blades is judged to express conspicuously the characteristic workmanship of Ko-Bizen[[c:8]]. Signed Takakane are few, and a privately held example reaches the open field only rarely; when one does, it comes with the rare combination of an early-Bizen hand and a legible early signature, and it is the signature, as much as the steel, that makes it a landmark.
Munetsune (宗恒) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Tokujū, Jūyō. Munetsune is a smith of the Ko-Bizen tradition, active in Bizen Province from the close of the Heian period into the early Kamakura period. "Ko-Bizen" is a general designation for the Bizen swordsmiths — and their works — spanning from the late Heian through the early Kamakura period, and Munetsune is counted among them. According to sword signature references (*meikan*), he is recorded as a son of Munehiro and is placed around the Joo era (1222-1224), with his lineage considered to belong to the line of Masatsune. Surviving signed works are exceptionally rare, making each authenticated example precious as documentary material.
Munetsune's tachi exhibit a slender build with high *koshizori*, pronounced *funbari*, and a *ko-kissaki* or *chu-kissaki* — a graceful silhouette that clearly expresses the characteristic features of the period. The *kitae* is well-forged *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, with fine *ji-nie* adhering closely, *chikei* entering, and *utsuri* — whether *jihan-utsuri*, *midare-utsuri*, or patchy *utsuri* — standing out vividly. The *hamon* is typically *suguha*-based or *ko-midare*, mixed with *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome*, with abundant *ashi* and *yo*; *ko-nie* adheres well, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appear within the hardened edge. The *boshi* is characteristically straight, turning back in *ko-maru* or tending toward *yakitsume*.
Munetsune's blades are possessed of an archaic fragrance and deep taste, revealing a refined, dignified artistic realm[[c:1]] that embodies the essential character of Ko-Bizen. The remarkable preservation of several examples in *ubu* form — retaining their original tachi nakago with *kurijiri* tips and *katte-sagari* file marks — adds significant documentary value. His finest works are commended for being *kenzen* in both *ji* and *ha*, with bright steel and richly varied *yakiba* that convey Ko-Bizen style at its most distinguished.
Yoshimune (吉宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kagezane (景眞) — Mainline · 1150-1220. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Munetsune (宗恒) — Mainline · 1150-1220. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tadashige (忠重) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takahira (高平) — Mainline · 1100-1185. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemoto (恒元) — Mainline · 1104-1106. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunetsugu (恒次) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Tokujū. Tsunetsugu is traditionally held to be the son of Masatsune and a swordsmith of the late Heian period, placing him among the earliest generation of the Ko-Bizen group. A smith of the same name was active at nearly the same time among the *Senoo kaji* of neighboring Bitchu Province, and a later Bizen smith bearing the court title Sakon Shogen also used the name Tsunetsugu during the late Kamakura period. These overlapping identities have historically invited confusion, particularly in the case of two-character signatures, which the NBTHK has occasionally noted may be mistaken for works of the Aoe school.
In workmanship, the Ko-Bizen Tsunetsugu is described as "in general, calmer than those of Masatsune," with a style "constructed chiefly in a *suguha*-based" manner. His *kitae* characteristically shows a closely forged *ko-itame-hada* with well-adhering *ji-nie* and prominent *midare-utsuri*. The *hamon* is typically a *chu-suguha*-based temper mixed with small *choji*, enlivened by *ashi* and *yo*; *nie* gathers especially in the lower half, with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appearing to varied and engaging effect. Even in blades that have been greatly shortened (*o-suriage*), the forging quality and clarity of the *jigane* remain distinguishing hallmarks.
The NBTHK consistently praises the superlative condition of his surviving works, describing them as *kenzen* — "sound and well-preserved" — and singles out the "superbly clear" (*saeru*) quality of the *jigane* as "remarkable."[[c:1]] That his blades retain their integrity across centuries of shortening and transmission speaks to an exceptional standard of craft. Historical provenance further attests to this esteem: one example carries a Hon'ami Kochu *origami* of Shotoku 5 (1715) with a valuation of ten gold pieces, and the *shusho* attribution on surviving works has been accepted as reliable by the NBTHK, affirming Tsunetsugu's place as a distinguished smith within the founding generation of the Ko-Bizen tradition.
Tsunetsugu (恒次) — Mainline · 1310-1333. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshinori (義憲) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Tokujū. Yoshinori is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith active during the late Heian to early Kamakura period, working within the broader tradition of Bizen Province smiths whose output predates the rise of the Osafune and related lineages. The term Ko-Bizen denotes, as a general designation, the swordsmiths of Bizen and their works from this formative era. Extant signed works by Yoshinori are scarcely found, making each surviving example of considerable documentary importance. A later smith bearing the same reading, Yoshinori of Kawada in Bizen, is documented in the Nanbokucho period with a dated work inscribed Jowa 2 (1346); the Kawada locality lies at some distance from Osafune, and its workmanship differs considerably from the Osafune group.
The Ko-Bizen Yoshinori's characteristic form is a somewhat slender tachi with deep *koshizori* and a slight forward inclination toward the tip, clearly manifesting the archetypal shape of the Ko-Bizen period[[c:2]]. The forging is *itame-hada* in which the grain rises subtly, a quality described as *hada-dachi*, and *midare-utsuri* stands out prominently. The *hamon* is based on *suguha* into which small *choji*, *gunome*, and minor irregularities are mixed; *ashi* and *yo* appear within the temper, *nie* adheres well, and *kinsuji* are present. A slight degree of *yaki-otoshi* at the base of the temper lends an additional archaic flavor[[c:3]]. The *boshi* is *midare-komi*, turning back in *ko-maru*. Several examples preserve *bo-hi* carved *kaki-nagashi*.
Yoshinori's tachi are consistently noted for being *kenzen* — sound and well-preserved in both *ji* and *ha* — with good workmanship throughout[[c:1]]. The combination of standing-grain forging, prominent *midare-utsuri*, and a suguha-based temper with restrained choji activity places his work squarely within the Ko-Bizen aesthetic, characterized by an antique dignity that distinguishes these earliest Bizen smiths. His bold, thick-chiseled signatures, rendered in large characters, constitute precious source material for research into the Ko-Bizen school and its documentary record.
Other smiths
Hidezane (秀真) — Mainline · Mid-Kamakura. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikazane (近眞) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Hiroyuki (弘行) — Mainline · 1199-1219. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kunitsugu (国継) — Mainline. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kunitsuna (国綱) — Mainline. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Motokane (元包) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Muneyasu (宗安) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobuchika (信近) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norishige (則重) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Norishige of the Ko-Bizen school is a smith of Bizen Province active during the late Heian to early Kamakura period, and is entirely distinct from the far better-known Etchu Province Norishige of the Soshu tradition. Ko-Bizen Norishige belongs to the earliest stratum of Bizen work, predating the organized schools of Ichimonji and Osafune. His signed tachi and wakizashi bear a two-character inscription reading "Norishige," cut with a characteristically thick chisel on the *ha-omote* side toward the *mune*. Extant signed examples are acknowledged as rare, and several surviving blades have been considerably shortened (*suriage*), with signatures preserved through the *orikaeshi-mei* technique of folding the original tang.
The workmanship of Ko-Bizen Norishige displays the hallmark features of the early Bizen group. The *jigane* shows tight *itame-hada* with a tendency toward standing grain, and the steel exhibits a quality described as having an *utsuri*-like appearance -- the faint, shadowy reflection in the ground metal characteristic of classical Bizen forging. The *hamon* is typically rendered in *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji* and small *gunome*, with *ashi* and *yo* entering frequently to create a lively, animated temper line. *Sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appear within the hardened edge, and *nie* adheres well throughout. The *boshi* tends toward *midare-komi* finishing in *yakizume*, a construction consistent with the oldest Bizen conventions.
Ko-Bizen Norishige occupies a position of scholarly interest precisely because his surviving corpus is small yet consistently demonstrates the foundational qualities of Bizen-den workmanship. His blades range from compact pieces approaching *kodachi* proportions to full-length tachi, attesting to a versatile production. The combination of sound preservation, clear internal activity, and the rarity of authenticated signatures makes each confirmed work a significant reference point for understanding the formative period of the Bizen school.
Sukeyuki (助行) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tametoshi (爲利) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunekiyo (恒清) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshitsuna (吉綱) — Mainline · 1185-1250. Yoshitsuna of the Ko-Bizen group is known through a single katana bearing an *orikaeshi-mei*, with a blade length of two shaku three sun six bu, recognised as a Juyo Bijutsuhin on 6 July 1944. The published sources identify him from the sword registers: 「吉綱は銘鑑によれば、古備前国継の門とされている鎌倉時代初期の刀工である」 (according to the registers, Yoshitsuna is a smith of the early Kamakura period regarded as a pupil of Ko-Bizen Kunitsugu).
The blade is described briefly. Its 「鍛え小板目約み、地沸つき、映りごころがある」 (forging is a tight *ko-itame* with *ji-nie* and a suggestion of *utsuri*); the *hamon* is a *suguha* in *ko-nie-deki* with *ashi* entering, and the *nioiguchi* tends slightly toward tightness. The entry closes with the judgement that 「地刃ともに整っている」 (both *ji* and *ha* are well ordered).
The katana was owned at recognition by Kimura Mataichirō of Aichi. With this one folded-back signature as the whole of his record, Yoshitsuna appears as a quiet *suguha* hand of the early Ko-Bizen circle around Kunitsugu.
Chikanobu (近信) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikanori (近則) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikayoshi (近吉) — Mainline · 1150-1250. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Hiromitsu (廣光) — Mainline · 1185-1333. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Ietoshi (家俊) — Mainline · 1185-1232. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kagenori (景則) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kagesuke (景助) — Mainline · 1201-1204. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kageyori (景依) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kanesuke (包助) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kuninawa (国繩) — Mainline · Early Kamakura. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kuninawa (国縄) — Mainline. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kunishige (国重) — Mainline. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kuniyasu (國安) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Masamune (政宗) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Masazane (正眞) — Mainline · 1211-1235. The name Masazane is borne by smiths of markedly different lineages and eras. The earliest is Ko-Bizen Masazane, whose period of activity is traditionally placed around the Joo era (1222-1224) of the early Kamakura period; extant signed works are exceedingly rare. A later Masazane appears in the Yamato Monju lineage, a group that established its forges at Tawara in Mikawa Province around the Bunki and Eisho eras of the early sixteenth century, producing blades in a *suguha* style without structural faults that came to be known as "Mikawa Monju." Yet another Masazane, signing *Fujiwara Masazane*, was a student of the first-generation Muramasa, working alongside Masashige in a related but subtly distinguishable manner.
The Ko-Bizen work presents the hallmarks of its school: a slender *tachi* with high *koshizori* and small *kissaki*, its *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* bearing *ji-nie* and abundant *kinsuji*. The *hamon* is a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome*, thickly covered with *nie*, yielding an antique elegance. The Muramasa-school Masazane favors a distinctive *hako-gakatta* tempering pattern with the *hamon* aligned on *omote* and *ura*, clearly reflecting the characteristic traits of that group, while tending toward a somewhat tighter *jihada* than his fellow student Masashige. The Mikawa Monju Masazane produces a *suguha*-cho with *ko-ashi* and well-adhering *ko-nie*, distinguished from the Sengo Masazane by *taka-no-ha yasurime* that indicate Yamato rather than Ise origin.
Each Masazane lineage contributes documentary value precisely because signed examples remain scarce. The Ko-Bizen tachi in its *ubu* state preserves a refined *sugata* and brilliant *nie* of great antiquarian significance, while the Muramasa-school and Monju works illuminate the distinctive regional idioms of their respective traditions.
Masazane (政真) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Munetsugu (宗次) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Muneyoshi (宗義) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagakane (永包) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumitsu (信光) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norikane (則包) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanekuni (真國) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetada (眞忠) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetsune (眞恒) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Sanetsune is a swordsmith of the Ko-Bizen tradition who inherited the lineage of Masatsune, one of the foundational figures of the Bizen school. Active in the early Kamakura period, he represents the continuation of the oldest stratum of Bizen Province smithing. Several signed *tachi* by Sanetsune survive, and designation records consistently note correspondences in both workmanship and manner of signing among these extant pieces, confirming a coherent body of work within the Masatsune line. His signatures are typically rendered in two characters cut with a somewhat thick chisel, placed in a manner characteristic of the group.
Sanetsune's forging displays the hallmarks of Ko-Bizen craftsmanship. The *jigane* is worked in *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, compacted in a tight and disciplined manner, with *ji-nie* present and *chikei* entering well. His tempering is characteristically a *suguha*-toned *ko-choji-midare* mixed with *ko-midare*, exhibiting abundant *ashi* and *yo*. The *nioiguchi* is bright, with thickly adhering *nie*, and the *habuchi* is enlivened by frequent workings of *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The *boshi* tends toward a straight form with a slight *ko-maru* return. His blades display the slender *mihaba*, pronounced *koshizori*, and *ko-kissaki* that define the archaic *tachi* silhouette of the late Heian to early Kamakura transition, conveying a distinctly classical dignity described in the records as possessing an archaic character (*koshoku*).
Sanetsune's significance lies in his position as a direct heir to the Masatsune line at the very origins of the Bizen tradition. His works preserve the restrained elegance and archaic flavor that distinguish Ko-Bizen from the later, more flamboyant Ichimonji and Osafune schools. Designation records emphasize that even blades attributed to him with some uncertainty can be confidently placed within the closest relationship of his immediate line, underscoring the coherence and documentary value of this earliest generation of Bizen smithing. His tachi, though often shortened, retain an elegant shape with high *koshizori* that is particularly appealing, and both *ji* and *ha* possess the dignified presence characteristic of Ko-Bizen workmanship.
Sukechika (助近) — Mainline · 1058-1065. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomasa (遠政) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshimori (利守) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Tsunemitsu is transmitted as either the son or a student of Masatsune, the progenitor of the Ko-Bizen school, and is thus situated at the very origin of the Bizen swordmaking tradition. His working period is placed in the late Heian to early Kamakura era, a time when the Ko-Bizen group was defining the classical *tachi* form that would dominate Japanese swordcraft for centuries. Extant signed works by Tsunemitsu are exceedingly rare, lending particular scholarly value to each authenticated example.
The Juyo setsumei consistently describe a forging style rooted in *ko-itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, at times becoming *o-hada* with *nagare-hada* interwoven -- a grain structure that conveys what the examiners characterize as an archaic, or *koga*, quality. *Ji-nie* adheres across the surface, and *midare-utsuri* stands out prominently, a hallmark of the early Bizen tradition. The *hamon* is typically a shallow *notare*-based pattern into which *ko-choji*, *ko-gunome*, and *ko-midare* are combined; the *nioiguchi* tends toward tightness, with fine *ko-nie* adhering thickly in the *habuchi*. One setsumei singles out the tachi in Juyo 7 as "likely the finest example among Tsunemitsu's works," noting that despite a *hagire* at the *monouchi*, both form and workmanship are of superior quality. His blades characteristically display pronounced *koshizori* with *funbari* and a *ko-kissaki* or *chu-kissaki*, preserving the elegant proportions of the period.
As a smith of the Masatsune lineage working at the threshold of the Kamakura period, Tsunemitsu's surviving blades offer a direct window into the formative phase of Ko-Bizen craft. The restrained yet technically accomplished character of his work, together with the extreme scarcity of signed examples, ensures that each blade bearing his *mei* occupies a place of enduring importance in the study of early Bizen swordmaking.
Tsunemori (恒守) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasunori (安則) — Mainline · 1175-1199. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasutsuna (安縄) — Mainline · 1150-1250. Yasutsuna, who signs with the character 縄 rather than the 綱 of the better-known name, is known through an *ubu*, signed tachi designated Juyo Token at the 15th session in 1967. The published sources describe it as 「古備前派とみられる安縄の生ぶ有銘の太刀であり」 (an *ubu*, signed tachi by Yasutsuna, regarded as belonging to the Ko-Bizen lineage), and the two-character signature is cut low on the *omote* of the tang.
The tachi is *shinogi-zukuri* with an *iori-mune*, a high *koshizori* and a *ko-kissaki*, with a blade of 70.4 cm. Its *jigane* is *itame* with standing grain, *ji-nie* and intermingled *chikei*, and the published sources note that the *utsuri* is not conspicuous. The temper is a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji*, with *nie* adhering well and slight *kinsuji*; the *boshi* is in the manner of a *ko-maru*. The ubu tang has a *kurijiri* with the tip rising toward the edge, *katte-sagari* file marks and a single peg hole.
From these features the published sources draw their dating: the work 「いかにも古香な作風を示して、同派の中でも時代の上る方であろう」 (presents an unmistakably archaic manner, and is likely among the earlier examples within the group). They close by valuing the blade on both counts, 「作風、銘文ともに貴重な一口である」 (precious for both its workmanship and its inscription).
With this single described work on record, Yasutsuna of 安縄 is read as an early hand within the Ko-Bizen group, distinguished from the other Yasutsuna entries by the form of his name.
Arizane (有眞) — Mainline · 1126-1131. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikafusa (近房) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikakage (近景) — Mainline · 1087-1094. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikakage (近景) — Mainline · 1110-1113. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Chikayori (親依) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Fusanori (房則) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kagehide (景秀) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kageyoshi (景良) — Mainline · 1126-1131. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kanechika (包近) — Mainline · 1145-1151. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kanenaga (兼永) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kanenaga (包永) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kanesuke (包助) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Kunizane (國眞) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Masamune (政宗) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Mitsutsune (光恒) — Mainline · 1120-1124. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Morikuni (盛國) — Mainline · 806-810. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Morozane (師實) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Motochika (基近) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Munetada (宗忠) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagahide (長秀) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagakane (長包) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagamoto (長基) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagashige (長重) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagasue (長末) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagatomi (永富) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagayori (長頼) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nagazane (長眞) — Mainline · 1120-1124. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naomune (直宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naotsuna (直綱) — Mainline · 1175-1177. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naotsune (直經) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naoyoshi (直吉) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narikane (成包) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narikane (成包) — Mainline · 1110-1113. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narikane (成包) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narikane (成包) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narishige (成重) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritaka (成高) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsugu (成次) — Mainline · 1177-1181. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsuna (成綱) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsuna (成綱) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsune (成恒) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Narizane (業實) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobufusa (延房) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobukuni (信國) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumasa (延正) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumasa (延正) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (信宗) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (信宗) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (延宗) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (信宗) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobutomo (信友) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobutomo (信友) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobutsugu (延次) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobuzane (信實) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobuzane (延眞) — Mainline · 1154-1156. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norihisa (則久) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norimori (則守) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norinao (則直) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norisue (則末) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noritsune (則經) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyasu (則安) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyasu (憲保) — Mainline · 990-995. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyasu (則安) — Mainline · 1040-1044. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyoshi (則吉) — Mainline · 1227-1229. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyoshi (則吉) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyuki (則來) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Norizane (則眞) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sadatoshi (定俊) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sadatoshi (定俊) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sadatoshi (定俊) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanefusa (眞房) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanemune (眞宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetada (眞忠) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetsune (實經) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetsune (實經) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Saneyori (真依) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Shigetsuna (重綱) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sukenari (助成) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Suketaka (助高) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tadachika (忠近) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tadatsugu (忠次) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tadatsune (忠恒) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tadazane (忠眞) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takamasa (高正) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takamitsu (高光) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takamitsu (香光) — Mainline · 1201-1204. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takamitsu (高光) — Mainline · 1077-1081. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takashige (高重) — Mainline · 1239-1240. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takashige (高重) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takasuke (高資) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatomo (高友) — Mainline · 1177-1181. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatomo (高友) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatomo (高友) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatsuna (高綱) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatsuna (高綱) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatsune (高經) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takayasu (高安) — Mainline · 1177-1181. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takayasu (高安) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takayasu (高安) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takayasu (高安) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamechika (爲近) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamekage (爲景) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamekuni (爲國) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamekuni (爲國) — Mainline · 1227-1229. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamemune (爲宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamenori (爲則) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tamenori (爲則) — Mainline · 1145-1151. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tametoshi (爲利) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tametoshi (爲利) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tametsugu (爲次) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tameyasu (爲安) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tokane (遠包) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tokitsune (時恒) — Mainline · 1256-1257. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tokizane (時眞) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomasa (遠政) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomofusa (友房) — Mainline · 1177-1181. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomoharu (友春) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomohide (友秀) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomohiro (友弘) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomokage (友景) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomokage (友景) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomokane (友包) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomomasa (友正) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomomori (友盛) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomonaga (友長) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomonari (友成) — Mainline · 1053-1058. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomonari (友成) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomonari (友成) — Mainline · 1151-1154. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomonori (友則) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomosada (友定) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomosue (友末) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomotada (朝忠) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomotoshi (友利) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomotoshi (友利) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomoyasu (友保) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomoyasu (友安) — Mainline · 1004-1012. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomoyasu (友安) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tomoyuki (友行) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshinobu (俊信) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshinobu (利延) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshito (俊遠) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshitsune (俊恒) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toshitsune (俊恒) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Totsugu (遠次) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toya (遠也) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Toyoie (豊家) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsugusada (次定) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsugutsune (次恒) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuguyori (次依) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunefusa (經房) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunefusa (經房) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunefuyu (恒冬) — Mainline · 1110-1113. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunehisa (恒久) — Mainline · 1110-1113. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunehisa (恒久) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemoto (恒本) — Mainline · 1040-1044. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemoto (恒本) — Mainline · 1104-1106. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunemoto (恒元) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunenobu (經延) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunenori (經則) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunenori (恒則) — Mainline · 1256-1257. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunenori (恒則) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunesue (恒末) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunesuke (恒助) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunetake (恒建) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneto (經遠) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneto (恒遠) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneto (經遠) — Mainline · 1108-1110. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneyasu (常保) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneyasu (常保) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneyori (常依) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneyoshi (經義) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsuneyoshi (經義) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunezane (恒眞) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunezane (恒眞) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasuhisa (安久) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasuhisa (安久) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yasutsuna (安綱) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshimori (吉守) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yukihide (行秀) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yukihide (行秀) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.