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 270 documented smiths: 12 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 57 Jūbun, 80 Jūbi, 72 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 212 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" (友成と並ぶ古備前物の代表的刀工), 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" (有銘作が最も多く), and moreover, across that body, the workmanship "has no unevenness" (出来に叢がない) 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" (総体に垢抜けて洗練された) 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" (銘は常に二字), 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" (地斑映りが鮮明に立ち). 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" (古様にして格調高い) 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 fifteen 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. Almost all survive signed in the two characters that the sources make a point of recognition, twenty-one signed against a single unsigned attribution 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 (最も古雅な作風を示し、且つ品格の高い). 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* (友成には姿の良さが、正恒には鍛えの良さが目立つ). 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 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 (長銘の方が一段と古調な出来口が多い), 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 (古備物の古雅な趣を最もよく表わした).
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 seven Important Cultural Properties above eight works in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. Of his recorded works most can never trade, eight held in the National Treasure and Important Cultural Property tiers and another eight 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 several of his *tachi* remain in the Imperial Household. 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. Eighteen of his blades carry a recorded provenance, among the holders the Imperial Family, Emperor Meiji, 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' (世に一段とその名が知られている). 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' (古香な趣), a *sugata* that is 'truly graceful' (いかにも優美) and 'shows the character of its age well' (時代の特色がよく示されている). 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, for no Ko-Bizen *tachi* is broader or more powerful than the Ō-Kanehira.
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' (腰反り高く、先に行って伏しごころ), 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' (他にはまず類例がない), 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. 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' (将軍家よりの献上の命から逃れるための処置).
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' (正恒にも通じる趣). 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 supreme treasure of the Ikeda house, it is the grandest *sugata* Ko-Bizen produced, 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 nineteen 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 through 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" (地刃の出来、銘振りともに古備前吉包の典型作). 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" (上も茎もやや平肉のつかない感じのものは吉包に多い). 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" (古備前の中でも比較的に肌立つものが此の工の特色). 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" (匂口が沈みごころで地がねの肌立つ点などに吉包の特色が表われている).
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" (焼落しは此の工に限らず古備前物にまま経眼するところである). 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" (前者の方が時代が遡るとみられる). 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" (小板目を主体にした精良な鍛えが称揚され), 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" (概して一文字派の作が多く現存し、古備前吉包は少い).
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" (数多い古備前諸工の中でも最も吉包に擬せられるものがある); 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" (元暦頃), 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 (備前国景安), 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 (直刃調のどこかに互の目調の角ばる刃を交え), and between widely spaced *gunome* and *choji* it shows *tobiyaki* and *yubashiri* (間遠の互の目や丁子の合間に飛焼・湯走りを見せる), 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" (殆どいずこかに角張った刃文が交じる). 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" (太刀姿が美しくいかにも上品である). 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" (帽子は兎角、大きく直ぐになるものが多い). 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" (長銘の方がより古調を呈しており、銘字もやや稚拙であり); 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 (入札鑑定でも、素直に景安と鑑せられる), 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" (やがてこの作風が古一文字に受け継がれていくように思われる). 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" (比較的に多く、上手である). 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-seven designated works stand on record, and against the habit of so early an age the record is overwhelmingly signed, twenty-three 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 eleven 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. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The National Treasure of the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka is a tachi signed Nobufusa saku (信房作), bestowed on Sakai Tadatsugu by Tokugawa Ieyasu and transmitted in the Shonai Sakai family ever since. It carries the name of one of the first-rank smiths of old Bizen. 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 record of the National Treasure states the assignment the other way about; 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" (雉子股形の生ぶ茎が実に古雅である). 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" (珍しく元に焼落としをみせ). 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 (総じて古香である); 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" (一段と古雅), 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" (二字銘でこれ程古調なものは他に見ない). 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. 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" (同工を知る上で貴重な資料).
Inside Ko-Bizen his place is marked by his own documented traits. His itame stands out more than in any other profiled hand of the school, though 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 half his pieces. 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" (小出来で賑やかなところに信房の所伝を認むべきものがある).
Almost nothing of Nobufusa can ever change hands. Thirteen works are on official record, the weight sitting at the top: the National Treasure at the Chido Museum, four Important Cultural Properties, among them blades at the NBTHK and Hie Jinja, a Juyo Bijutsuhin once owned by Count Tanaka Mitsuaki, and the signed tachi in the Imperial collection, famous since the Muromachi period as Jumansoku. The five National Treasure and Important Cultural Property blades are preserved as patrimony and will never trade, the Imperial piece stands outside any market by nature, and further examples rest at Ise Jingu and the Hayashibara Museum of Art. Five blades carry recorded provenance, running through Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sakai Tadatsugu and the Shonai Sakai family, 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.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Kokuhō, 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" (前者が沸出来の古雅な小乱の出来であるのに対して後者は丁子の華やかな乱刃を焼き技巧味が感ぜられる). 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" (総じて華やかに乱れるものは少なく) and "a *suguha*-toned base with shallow *notare* predominates" (直刃調が浅いのたれを基調とする). 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" (古備前物としての古香な出来口), 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" (銘振りからは、必ずしもその区別は容易とはいえない).
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.
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 (同派中でも上手な技倆の持主), 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 Naritaka 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, named on a quarter of his blades and effectively absent among his profiled fellows, and the doubled *nijūba* recurs on better than a third, far above the *chōji* mainline and shared only 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 (地刃ともに美観を損せず華やかな出来). 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 (表裏とも物打辺特に焼幅広く盛んに乱れる). 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 (逆に成高でなければならぬという積極的なところもない).
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 (前掲の助包、吉包等に比較して遜色がない). 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 (古備前物の特色が顕著に現れて古香である). 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, 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 (那須与一宗高の佩刀として有名な作で、当時の太刀拵が附属している); that it has descended in the Nasu family together with its original mounting across roughly eight centuries is called of exceptional documentary value (時代約八百年の長きにわたって当時の拵とともに、同家に伝来). 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. 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.
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」). 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 sixteen 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」). 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」). 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」). 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」). 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.
Thirteen of the sixteen 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」). 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」), 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 three prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin certifications, all signed tachi then in Aichi collections, 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」).
Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo saku. Sixteen designated works stand on record: three Tokubetsu Juyo and nine Juyo, twelve blades across those two tiers, joined by the three 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」), 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 sixteen 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.
Junkei (順慶) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Junkei is one of the enduring identity problems of early Bizen, and the question is older than the swords that survive him: since the Edo period his name had been transmitted as the Buddhist name of the first Nagamitsu of Osafune, so that for centuries his work was filed under the most famous Bizen hand of the mid-Kamakura. The published sources reject that reading. On the evidence of the workmanship, the calligraphy of the signature and the movement of the chisel, they resolve him instead as a Bizen smith working no later than the middle Kamakura period, and the prewar designations go further still: when the two Important Art Objects were certified, Honma, then in the Ministry of Education, deliberately recognized them as Ko-Bizen, judging that of the blade presented "there can be no doubt that it is Ko-Bizen" (古備前であることに相違がない). He is, in the modern reading, an independent archaic Bizen hand whom posterity had mistaken for the man he most resembles.
His recognized hand is best read on the signed blades, and it is quiet. Over an *itame* of rather large grain that stands and at times flows, on the finer pieces a *ko-itame* that still shows its *hada*, with *ji-nie* adhering, he tempers a moist, shallow *ko-midare* on a *suguha*-leaning base. Into it he sets small *gunome* and *ko-chōji*, with *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the *nie* notably strong and archaic in feeling, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* intertwining the *hada*. The *bōshi* runs straight to a small *ko-maru*. It is a restrained, old-toned manner, and the published commentary names it as such, calling one such piece a work that "presents one typical example of Junkei" (順慶の一典型を示している). The temper is the calmest of readings, not the flamboyant clove-flower of the later school but a small irregular line carried in the activity rather than in towering clusters.
The *jigane* is the constant across his record. *Itame* with *ji-nie*, the grain standing and on the wider blades mixed with *ō-itame*, recurs on each example, and where the forging tightens into *ko-itame* the steel only grows clearer. What it does not carry, on the signed work, is *utsuri*. The point is explicit in the published commentary, which observes of one signed sword that "no *utsuri* is seen in the *ji*" (地に映りはみられず) and reads the *ha* there as a *nie*-laden *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, archaic throughout. This absence is not an incidental note. It is the structural fact on which the whole reattribution turns, because the Osafune line he was confused with is a *nioi*-based, *utsuri*-bearing tradition, and Junkei is neither.
His record divides into two faces. The signed blades, the two Important Art Object tachi and the signed Jūyō tachi, are the Ko-Bizen-toned hand just described, the *nie*-deki *ko-midare* without *utsuri*. Against them stands the single *mumei* katana transmitted as Junkei, greatly shortened, which alone turns toward the showier mid-Kamakura Bizen reading: somewhat wide in body with a *chū-kissaki* leaning to *ikubi*, the *itame* mixed with large *ō-itame* and *mokume*, and here a *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly, the temper a *chōji* mixed with *gunome*, the *nioi* deep and *ko-nie* forming, the *bōshi* a shallow *notare-komi* to a small *ko-maru*, with *bō-hi* carved through. The two faces are not a contradiction but the span of his attributed work, the signed pieces fixing the personal hand and the *mumei* katana extending it toward the school manner.
What separates Junkei from the smith he resembles is exactly what the judges name. Among works given to him there are some that recall Nagamitsu, but, in the words of the published commentary, "generally they differ in being *nie*-deki" (一般に沸出来であるところに相違がある). The distinction is the whole of the modern argument: the Osafune Nagamitsu line is *nioi*-based and shows *utsuri*; Junkei's hand is *nie*-based and, when signed, shows none. So the resemblance that once collapsed him into Nagamitsu is, on close reading, the very thing that holds him apart, and the early identification as Nagamitsu's Buddhist name falls away. The swordbooks still carry both the same-person and different-person theories, but the modern view, taken on workmanship, signature calligraphy and chisel work, is settled on the latter, and he stands as a Bizen hand earlier than the Osafune period, near the Ko-Bizen root of the tradition.
For the collector he is a rare early name, and a thin record. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his standing rests instead on two prewar Important Art Objects, both judged Ko-Bizen, and three blades at the Jūyō rank, the published commentary calling a signed tachi "precious" (在銘の太刀は貴重である) even where it shows slight fatigue, because so few of his signed works survive. The recorded blades are held in institutions and long-held collections grounded in their own provenance: one of the Important Art tachi is preserved at the Sano Art Museum in Shizuoka, with examples also recorded at the Mōri Shūsui Museum of Art and the Sword Museum, and the provenance of his blades runs through the Ishikawa and Akashi Matsudaira houses. With only a handful of signed pieces in existence and the bulk of his record locked in Important-Art and museum holdings, a signed Junkei comes to light only seldom; the few in the Jūyō tier reach the market rarely, and a privately held, signed Junkei is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of a Bizen hand that scholarship had to recover from another man's name.
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' (正恒との関係も首肯し得る).
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' (古備前物の特色と美点を十二分に示しており).
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' (すべて帽子は丸い).
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' (身幅が広く堂々とした), as one of Toshitsune's distinctive traits. His work 'well displays the characteristic features of the Masatsune group' (正恒一類の特色をよく示しており), 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' (この基近は鎌倉時代初期の古備前の刀工と思われるもので、作刀は少ない). 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' (銘振りは両者酷似している), leaving open whether they are one hand or several.
His readable record is the quieter of those two faces, 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*. This is not the full clove-flower of the later school but the calmer, *nie*-active manner of old Bizen, the activity carried in the *ji* and the *ha* rather than in towering clusters. 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 the constant beneath that temper. It 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' (小乱は前期作、大丁子乱は後期作). 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' (研究の余地がある). What can be said from the surviving signed work is that his hand is the calm, *nie*-laden *ko-midare*, and it is by exactly that manner that the school separates him within the old-Bizen field, his bright active *nie* and *ko-midare* set apart from both the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths and the showy *chōji* of the Ichimonji to come.
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*' (古備前物にして沸の妙味を存分に味わえる). He has no National Treasures. His blades are heritage held rather than traded: a signed *tachi* survives as an Imperial heirloom at Tanzan Shrine, and another, certified an Important Art Object, descended through Ikeda Kamesaburō. 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.
Kageyori (景依) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Jūbun, Jūyō. Kageyori is a Bizen swordsmith of the Ko-Bizen group, known today by a small number of signed two-character *tachi* spanning the Kamakura period. 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' (景依は備前国に同名が三人程存在するようである): the oldest is the hand with 'a boldly cut, large two-character signature' (太鏨大振の二字銘が最も古く), the latest is the one prefixing Bizen no Kuni Osafune at the close of the Kamakura period, and works of the Kōan and Einin years of a somewhat older manner lie between. A second strand, the published sources note, carries the title Sakon-Shōgen and is dated to the Einin era, so that 'beyond the Ko-Bizen group there are pieces titled Sakon-Shōgen and dated to Einin' (備前景依には古備前派の他に左近将監を冠する永仁年紀のものがある) whose lineage is not clearly established. Each blade is therefore placed by its own *ji* and *ha* before it is assigned a generation.
His readable hand is a slender *tachi*, the *sori* high at the waist and carried even where the tang has been shortened, the *kissaki* small, the dignified bearing of Kamakura Bizen. The temper is the calm one of old Bizen, not the flamboyant *chōji* of the contemporaneous Fukuoka Ichimonji: a *suguha*-toned line, a *chū-suguha* or *suguha* base into which he works *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, with *chōji-ashi* and small *ashi* entering. The *suguha* field is never bare. On the shortened Jūyō *tachi* small *gunome* mix in over a *bō-hi*, *ko-nie* adhere, and the *nioiguchi* tends tight; on the *ubu* Jūyō *tachi* the *nie* gather well, with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running and the *bōshi* going straight into a *ko-maru*.
The *jigane* is old Bizen through and through. Over a well-packed *ko-itame* on the one blade rises a clear *midare-utsuri*, the steel the published sources read as one stylistic mode of late-Kamakura Bizen; on the other the forging runs to an *itame* inclining to stand a little, with *ji-nie* well developed. From that slender form and the well-worked *nie* of *ji* and *ha*, the published sources judge the second blade 'a Kamakura-period work appraised as of the Ko-Bizen lineage' (古備系の鎌倉期のものと鑑せられる). The two together show one quiet manner read across a small spread of quality, the *utsuri*-bearing *ko-itame* and the *suguha*-based clove the constant tells.
What sets him apart from his Bizen neighbours is exactly this restraint. Where the Fukuoka Ichimonji of the same decades raise a high, showy *chōji-midare*, Kageyori keeps a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, the *chōji* present only as *ashi* and small clusters in the line, the *utsuri* of old Bizen standing in the *ji*. He belongs among the old-Bizen hands who worked before and beside the Ichimonji flowering, his attribution resting on era and the old-Bizen character of his steel rather than on a fixed descent.
Kageyori survives in a small but high designated record. Fujishiro assigns him no grade, and the *Tōkō Taikan* values his work in the mid range. Three signed *tachi* are designated Important Cultural Property: one at the Tokyo National Museum, one at the Kishū Tōshō-gū in Wakayama bearing a Sakon-Shōgen signature dated to the second year of Shōō, and one at Inaba Jinja in Gifu. These are designated cultural property, patrimony held in museums and shrines, not blades that come to market. Two further signed *tachi* are designated Jūyō Tōken, one shortened and formerly in a Tokyo collection, one *ubu* in Hyōgo, with a blade of his recorded in the old Arima daimyō holdings. Across the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers only the two are recorded, so a signed Kageyori 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.
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' (地刃共に正恒に共通する作風を示しており), 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' (この工の在銘作は、正恒と相反して少なく). 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 read through a spread of quality rather than two separate registers. 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, calm by the standard of later Bizen, and it is by this temper above all that the school knows him: on the Daishōji Maeda tachi the published sources note that 'in both hamon and bōshi the blade calls Masatsune to mind' (この太刀は刃文も帽子も正恒をおもわせるものがあって), 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' (古備前物の見どころがよく表示されている). 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 mark him as that smith's nearest follower, while his quiet line and his comparatively few signatures set him apart from the more prolific master and, looking forward, from the flamboyant *chōji* of the Fukuoka Ichimonji that the mid-Kamakura would bring. 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, 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; the two Jūyō Bijutsuhin passed through Tachibana Kantoku of Fukuoka; 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' (数少ない同工の生ぶの有銘作として資料的に貴重であり). 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, himself a smith of the Masatsune house, and one tradition makes him a forebear of the Hatakeda line. His readable record is small, a handful of signed *tachi*, and every surviving piece carries the same bold two-character *mei* near the tang-tip. The Meikan enters the name as Bizen of the Jōki era with a note that one later smith shared it, but the published sources judge that none of the extant signed *tachi* dates as early as that, placing his work instead in the mid-Kamakura. He is one of those old Bizen hands who stands just before the great Ichimonji flowering, a documented name whose lineage the scholarship still treats as open.
His hand is read in two manners, and the published record is careful to say that none of his work reads, at a glance, as plainly Ko-Bizen. The showy face is a brilliant *chōji-midare*. Over an *itame* mixed with *mokume* that tends a little to standing grain, with fine *ji-nie* and a clear *midare-utsuri*, he sets a flamboyant clove temper that mixes *kawazuko-chōji*, *gunome* and *togariba*, the *ashi* and *yō* entering vigorously, the *nioi* deep and *ko-nie* well adhered, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running and *tobiyaki* intermixed. On the Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear, and the *bōshi* enters with a little *midare* before turning back in a small round with a slight pointed tendency. The published sources call this his outstanding decorative example and find in it, in one vein, a work that "calls to mind Hatakeda Moriie and Bizen Saburō Kunimune".
The *jigane* is the constant under both manners. It is an *itame*, in places flowing and standing a little, carrying *ji-nie* and the *midare-utsuri* of old Bizen steel, which clears brightly on his best pieces and stands only faintly on the quieter ones, where the forging tightens toward *ko-itame*. The other face of his record is exactly that quiet manner: a *suguha-chō* with a slight admixture of *ko-gunome*, the temper narrow and the *nioiguchi* tight, the *bōshi* running straight into a small round. One signed *tachi* in this mode, *ubu* and pleasing in shape, is read by the published sources as "workmanship corresponding to the example preserved at Nikkō Futarasan Shrine". It is this tight, controlled *suguha* that the judges elsewhere set close to the manner of the Bitchū Aoe group, the second pole of his recorded work.
That the same smith should temper both a flamboyant Bizen *chōji* and a restrained Aoe-like *suguha* is the central scholarly question around him. The judges note that two modes coexist within his small surviving body, that the signature differs somewhat from blade to blade, and that the *Meikan*'s early dating and same-name later smith cannot be reconciled with what the blades actually show. From this the lineage is left unsettled, and the relation to the Hatakeda house is offered as inference from style rather than as fact. Even on a shortened blade, the published sources hold, a relationship with Moriie "is by no means to be regarded as unconnected".
What sets the Ko-Bizen Tochika apart is named in his own grounded traits rather than in any borrowed comparison. His brightest *tachi* turn on the *kawazuko-chōji* gathered into a clove temper of deep *nioi* and clear *nioiguchi*, while his quiet *tachi* turn on a tight *suguha* over a faint *utsuri*, and both stand on the slightly standing *itame* and *midare-utsuri* of the old Bizen *jigane*. He looks back toward Masatsune in the calm of the quiet pieces and forward toward the decorative Bizen of the mid-Kamakura in the showy ones, a hand caught between the two and, for that reason, valued as a record of the transition.
For the collector he is a rare early name held almost entirely as patrimony. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record runs through two Important Cultural Properties, one of them preserved at Nikkō Futarasan Shrine, together with a Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* and several Jūyō *tachi*. The Tokubetsu Jūyō blade is transmitted as the wearing sword of Matsudaira Terusada, lord of Takasaki Domain, and is accompanied by a Hon'ami Kōtsune origami of Enpō 4 appraising it at five gold coins. Only four of his blades fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, and most designated blades, in private hands or institutional, are held rather than traded, so a signed Tochika *tachi* comes to light only seldom. The published sources call an *ubu* signed example "precious as documentary material for understanding the range of this smith's work", and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how old Bizen passed into the great age that followed.
Hidechika (秀近) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1185-1220. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukemori is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith of the late Heian into the early Kamakura period, known today only by a small body of *suriage* signed *tachi*, each bearing a bold, large two-character *mei* cut with a thick chisel. His name is one of the standing Bizen attribution problems. The reference works enter a smith called Sukemori among the Fukuoka Ichimonji group, but the published sources hold that a clearly distinct, older Sukemori works in a Ko-Bizen manner, and that it is to this archaic hand that his recognized signed blades belong. The point is made plainly on his Jūyō Bijutsuhin *tachi*: although the *meikan* list an Ichimonji Sukemori, "there exists a Ko-Bizen Sukemori clearly different from that one, and this blade is likely his" (それとは明らかに異った古備前の助守があり、本作がそれであろう). His signature style, the same source adds, is more old-fashioned than that of the Ichimonji Sukemori, so even the name on the tang reads as the older hand.
The temper is the tell of his work. Over a *jigane* of *itame* he sets a broad *suguha*-tone that undulates gently and becomes "wet" in feeling, mixing *ko-chōji* and *ko-midare* into the line, with *ashi* entering abundantly. What separates him from his Ichimonji namesakes is the strength of the *nie*: it adheres heavily through both *ji* and *ha*, *sunagashi* runs frequently along the temper, and the *nioiguchi* tends to *shizumi*, a subdued depth rather than a bright clove-flower. The published sources, weighing the several Sukemori smiths they have examined, judge this one "the strongest in *nie* and the most archaic in tone" (経眼した限りではこの助守が沸強く、最も古調である). The flaring *chōji* and high clove heads of the mature Fukuoka school are absent; in their place is the quieter, *nie*-laden Bizen of an older generation.
The *jigane* carries that same archaic character. The *itame* is dense, thickly covered with *ji-nie* and entered by fine *chikei*, standing a little in places and admixed on one blade with a touch of *nagare-hada* along the *ura*. The shape agrees with the dating: slender in build, the *sori* set at the waist and retained even after shortening, running to a *chū-kissaki*, the dignified bearing of the early Kamakura *tachi*. The *bōshi* runs in a *midare-komi* and turns back with a *ko-maru* tendency. Taken together, the published sources read the whole "as more archaic than Fukuoka Ichimonji, a Ko-Bizen work of around the early Kamakura" (総じて福岡一文字よりも古調で鎌倉初期頃の古備前物と鑑せられる).
Within his small surviving group the degree of flamboyance varies, and the variation is itself instructive. His more decorative *tachi*, an *ubu* blade keeping its three-character *mei* though the inscription is corroded, widens the body and raises the line into a *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome* and small *notare*, the *nioi* deep with *ko-nie* and *kinsuji* running through. Yet even there the judges place him by style and signature in the Ko-Bizen group rather than the Ichimonji. The name recurs, the published sources note, in both the Ko-Bizen and the Ichimonji lineages with differing workmanship and differing manners of signing, so several smiths used it across both schools, from the very end of Ko-Bizen into the Nanbokuchō period; this Sukemori is held the most archaic of them.
What sets his hand apart from both its neighbours is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from the flamboyant *chōji-midare* of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji by the calm of his *suguha*-toned line and the depth of its *nie*, his "signature style older than the Ichimonji Sukemori" (銘振りも一文字助守より古調である); and he is distinguished from the plainer old-Bizen hands by the strength of that *nie* and the *sunagashi* that enlivens it. He stands before the school's great flowering at Fukuoka, one of the quiet archaic roots from which the brightest of the Bizen traditions would grow.
For the collector he is a rare early name carried by a slight but high record. He has no National Treasures; his designations run instead through an Important Cultural Property *tachi* held at Kitano Tenmangū Shrine in Kyoto, a prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin *tachi* published in the *Kōzan Oshigata*, the *Kantō Zuiroku* and the *Nihontō Taikan*, a Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi*, and two Jūyō *tachi*, the Jūyō Bijutsuhin piece having descended through Shigetaka Kinkyō of Toyama. The published commentary calls his finest signed *tachi* "sound in both *ji* and *ha*, a well-made example" (地刃健全で出来のよい一口である), and holds the *ubu* signed blade valuable as reference material for the school. These are designated cultural property and long-held heritage, not blades that pass through the market; the few in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers come to light only seldom. A signed Ko-Bizen Sukemori in private hands is among the rarer things a collector of early Bizen could hope to encounter, and a document, when one appears, of how the Bizen line stood before Ichimonji.
Sukehira (助平) — Mainline · 1151-1200. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukehira is a Ko-Bizen smith of the close of the Heian and the opening of the Kamakura period, and since antiquity he has been named one of the *Bizen Sanbira*, the three '-hira' smiths, alongside Takahira and Kanehira. The published sources put the rarity of his name plainly: of the three, Kanehira is met from time to time, Sukehira is extremely rare, and Takahira has no work that can be regarded with confidence as authentic. The Tokubetsu Juyo tachi, an *ubu* blade signed *Bizen no Kuni Sukehira* in five characters, is the anchor of the small surviving group, and on it the commentary calls the workmanship one that evokes "the antique fragrance and deep flavor characteristic of old Ko-Bizen" (古備前物の古香で深い味わい). His record is one consistent hand, read not as two manners but as a single old-Bizen style seen across a spread of condition.
His characteristic hand is a low, quiet temper rather than a flamboyant one. Over the slender body he sets a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, the *yakiba* deliberately low, into which enter *ko-gunome*, *ko-chōji* and *ko-midare*, with *ko-ashi* and *yō* and thickly adhering *ko-nie*. Fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run throughout, and along the hardened edge intermittent *yubashiri* and *nijūba* are interwoven. On the slighter survivors the same line draws in to a *hoso-suguha* mixed with *gunome*, *ko-notare* and *ko-midare*, the *nioiguchi* tending to *shizumi*, with *uchinoke* appearing. This is the calm root manner of old Bizen, set apart from the high, decorative *chōji* of the Fukuoka Ichimonji that would flower a generation later, and the published sources read on the signed tachi the points by which "the individual traits of this smith can be discerned" (この工の特色が窺える).
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that quiet temper. It is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain well packed, with *ji-nie* well adhering and fine *chikei* entering frequently, and over it a *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly on his best pieces, while the more worn keep only a faint reflection. The *bōshi* runs straight into a *ko-maru*, on the Tokubetsu Juyo blade with *nijūba* and a slight turnback, in one suriage piece showing *hakikake*. On the Juyo 29 tachi a *bō-hi* is carved *kaki-nagashi* through both faces. On the finest examples both *ji* and *ha* are rich in *nie* throughout, the activity carried in the *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* of the temper and the *chikei* of the *jigane*.
The surviving body divides by condition rather than by style. The *ubu* signed tachi, the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo 49 among them, keep the original high *koshizori*, the *funbari* and the *ko-kissaki*, and present what the commentary calls a form "dignified yet graceful" (凜然として優雅); the *midare-utsuri* on these is clear. The shortened survivors carry the same hand more subdued: one Juyo blade, slightly shortened but almost *ubu*, shows the *ji* and *ha* tending overall to fatigue and the small irregularities of the temper a little unsettled, while another is read as a low-tempered *suguha*-based *ko-midare* of "subdued flavor" (焼の低い直刃調小乱れの渋味). A constant tell binds them: every confirmed survivor is cut with the long five-character signature *Bizen no Kuni Sukehira*, none with the two-character *mei*, the reverse of Kanehira, whose long signature is the exception.
What sets him apart within old Bizen is read off his own work rather than by contrast. His is the bright old-Bizen *itame* *jigane* with *ji-nie*, frequent *chikei* and a standing *midare-utsuri*, carrying a low *suguha*-based *ko-midare* enlivened by *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, the calm manner that precedes the school's great flowering at Fukuoka. The published sources draw the comparison directly on the Juyo 29 tachi: extant signed Sukehira survive in the Imperial collection, in the former Imperial holding now in the Tokyo National Museum and in the fire-damaged Nikkō Tōshōgū blade, and the long signatures on these pieces are cut in a strikingly similar manner, so that they at once display the flavor of Ko-Bizen and allow this smith's own traits to be discerned. He stands at the threshold of the Bizen tradition, the quiet root from which its most brilliant hands grew.
For the collector he is among the rarest of early Bizen names. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through a single Tokubetsu Juyo tachi and a small number of Juyo tachi, with related pieces in the Imperial collection, the Tokyo National Museum, the Nikkō Tōshōgū and the Hikone Castle Museum. Provenance is distinguished where it survives: one Juyo tachi descended through the Fushimi-no-miya household with a Hōreki 13 origami and a gold *nashiji* chrysanthemum-crest cord-wrapped *tachi* mounting, and his blades passed also through the Imperial Family, the Iwasaki and the Tōdō houses. The published sources hold an *ubu* signed Sukehira tachi to be "exceptionally valuable as documentary material" (資料的にも頗る貴重). With only a handful of authenticated works in existence and most held in institutions and long-held collections, a signed Sukehira reaches private hands only very rarely. A documented example is among the rarest things a collector of old Bizen could encounter, a witness to how the Bizen tradition began.
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" (その系統は明らかでない). 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" (古様にして格調高い), a piece in which "the characteristic flavor of Ko-Bizen is clearly evident" (古備前物の持ち味が顕然). 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*" (地刃ともに健やか) and "an outstanding example among Shigetsune's work" (重恒傑出の一口), and they hold the *ubu*, signed Juyo tachi "especially valuable for retaining its original tang and signature" (生ぶ茎で有銘であることが特に貴重) 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.
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.
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. 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 — a judgement that, given the extreme scarcity of signed works, underscores the importance of each surviving piece to the study of early Bizen swordmaking.
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. 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. 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.
Suemori (末守) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
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 recorded in the *meikan* as "Bizen, two characters, before Genryaku," placing him in the late Heian to early Kamakura period as a smith of the Ko-Bizen group. Judging from the workmanship of his *jihada* and *hamon*, as well as the manner of cutting his signature, it is readily accepted that he belongs to the Masatsune (正恒) lineage. His works are exceedingly rare, and signed tachi by Tsuneto represent some of the scarcest survivals among Ko-Bizen smiths. One example is held in the Imperial Collection (Gyobutsu), further attesting to the esteem in which his craft has been held.
Tsuneto's forging exhibits *itame* with a slight *nagare* tendency and somewhat standing grain, upon which *ji-nie* adheres and *nie-utsuri* stands out prominently. His *hamon* typically mixes *ko-choji* and *ko-midare* with frequent *ashi* and *yo*, accompanied by *sunagashi* and well-attached *ko-nie*. The *nioiguchi* often shows an *urumi* tendency characteristic of early Bizen work. In certain examples, however, the *yakihaba* broadens considerably and incorporates large *choji-midare*, resulting in a flamboyant and brilliant workmanship that departs from the narrow, restrained temperament more commonly associated with Ko-Bizen smiths. The *boshi* is typically rendered in *komaru* or with a slight *notare* tendency, and when *horimono* are present they take the form of *bo-hi* carved *kaki-nagashi*.
Tsuneto's surviving oeuvre constitutes valuable reference material for understanding the stylistic range within the Ko-Bizen tradition during the transitional period from late Heian into early Kamakura. His works convey an archaic and elegant flavor while demonstrating that the Masatsune lineage was capable of both restrained *suguha*-based compositions and more vigorous *choji* interpretations. That both *ji* and *ha* in his extant blades remain *kenzen* speaks to the soundness of his forging, and each signed example holds exceptionally high documentary value given the rarity of his authenticated corpus.
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 (高包は一人ではなく古備前と一文字にあり), and they add that extant works are few (現存するものは少い). 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 (同派の特色をよく示している). 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 (古備前物の趣が強く遺存している), 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 (建長年紀の吉包とほぼ同期のものであろう).
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 (高包は古備前と古一文字の双方に存在するが本作はその前者である); 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 (古雅のある銘字). One of his blades is judged to express conspicuously the characteristic workmanship of Ko-Bizen (古備前物の特色を顕著に示した出来口). 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 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.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetoshi (眞利) — Mainline · 1232-1233. 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. 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. 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.
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, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunetsugu (恒次) — Mainline · 1310-1333. 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." 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.
Yasunawa (安繩) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshinori (義憲) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Tokujū, Jūyō. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Yukimitsu (行光) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Tokujū, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Other smiths
Tsuneto (經遠) — Mainline · 1108-1110. 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.
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 · 1259-1260. Yoshitsuna (吉綱) is a smith of the late Kamakura period whose signed works place him in the Umanori district of Bingo Province, an area on the northern edge of the old Anna District in what is now Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Sword reference works (*meikan*) record a Yoshitsuna regarded as a student of Ko-Bizen Kunitsugu, active from the early Kamakura period onward. The reading of the place-name in his inscription was long debated: the characters were formerly misread as "Maki" and associated with Makimura near the Ukaishō district of Bizen, but subsequent research re-evaluated the second character and established the reading "Umanori." A regional connection to Kokubunji Sukekuni, who was active in Tōjō within the same district during the same period, is strongly suggested by shared stylistic features, further strengthening this identification. Fuller details of his lineage must await future research, as surviving examples and related documentary materials have still scarcely come to light.
The extant work bearing his signature displays *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, with running grain in places, thickly applied *ji-nie* with *chikei*, and a slightly mottled (*jifu*-like) texture within the surface steel; faint *midare-utsuri* appears. The *hamon* is fundamentally *suguha*, mixed with *ko-midare*, *gunome*, and *ko-gunome*, with well-entering *ashi* and *yō*; the *nioiguchi* is deep, with *ko-nie*, accompanied by *hotsure*, *uchi-noke*, and *yubashiri*-like effects, together with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The *bōshi* is straight with *ko-maru* and a very slight turnback. The overall workmanship reveals a blend of Bizen temperament and Yamato coloration consistent with the collateral Bizen lineages of Bingo Province, and shows a thread of affinity with the work of Kokubunji Sukekuni.
Both *ji* and *ha* are *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved), with ample *niku* and a broad, powerful *chū-kissaki tachi* form exhibiting high *koshizori* and clear *funbari* characteristic of the late Kamakura period. The *nakago* is *ubu*, and the dated inscription of Gentoku 3 (1331) is of considerable documentary value. Surviving works by this smith are extremely rare, rendering each example precious both as a study of provincial Bizen-related forging traditions and as primary material for the still-incomplete record of swordsmiths working in Bingo during the late Kamakura period. The blade was transmitted within the Tokugawa family during the domain-administration era.
Yukihide (行秀) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
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.
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.
Kunitsuna (国綱) — 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.
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 (安綱) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Yasutsuna (安綱) is renowned as a master smith of Hōki Province at the close of the Heian period, represented above all by the celebrated Dōjigiri. Older views placed his activity as early as the beginning of the Heian period, around Daidō (806-810), but this dating is now considered mistaken; modern scholarship assigns him to the late Heian era. A separate figure reading "Yasue" (安家) of the Ko-Bizen group is distinguished from the Hōki Yasutsuna, though both names employ overlapping characters. Within the Ko-Bizen lineage, the smith Yasutsuna is considered among the earlier, more archaic examples.
Yasutsuna's forging characteristically shows *o-itame* (large *itame* grain) that stands conspicuously, with *ji-nie* and the presence of *chikei*. The *hamon* is a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji*, executed in *nie* with *ashi* and *yo* entering well. Fine *kinsuji* appears, and a tendency toward *nijuba* is observed, with *sunagashi* running through and becoming intertwined with the surface grain. The NBTHK describes the overall manner as unmistakably archaic (*koko*), conveying a "Yamato spirit" (*Yamato-gokoro*). In the Ko-Bizen-attributed work, the *jigane* shows little conspicuous *utsuri*, while in other examples the archaic elegance of the *midare-ba* and the *kijimomo-gata* (pheasant-thigh) tang profile together convey an old-fashioned character.
A noteworthy point in appraising Yasutsuna's signature, as the scholar Honma observed, is that the character *tsuna* (綱) stands out as conspicuously large in comparison to *Yasu* (安). Surviving works include both *ubu* signed tachi of outstanding form and shortened unsigned blades transmitted through such distinguished collections as the Maeda family. The breadth and antiquity of Yasutsuna's production firmly establish him as a foundational figure in the earliest stratum of Japanese sword-making.
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.
Hidezane (秀真) — Mainline · Mid-Kamakura. 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 · 1110-1113. 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 · 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 · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsuna (成綱) — Mainline · 1182-1184. 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 (信宗) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (延宗) — Mainline · 987-1596. 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 (延眞) — Mainline · 1154-1156. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobuzane (信實) — Mainline · 1182-1184. 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 (則經) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyasu (則安) — Mainline · 1040-1044. 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.
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.
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 (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.
Takamitsu (高光) — Mainline · 1219-1222. 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 · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatomo (高友) — Mainline · 1243-1247. 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.
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.
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.
Live·Ko-Bizen lineage
古備前
The Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School
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 270 documented smiths: 12 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 57 Jūbun, 80 Jūbi, 72 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 212 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" (友成と並ぶ古備前物の代表的刀工), 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" (有銘作が最も多く), and moreover, across that body, the workmanship "has no unevenness" (出来に叢がない) 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" (総体に垢抜けて洗練された) 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" (銘は常に二字), 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" (地斑映りが鮮明に立ち). 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" (古様にして格調高い) 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 fifteen 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. Almost all survive signed in the two characters that the sources make a point of recognition, twenty-one signed against a single unsigned attribution 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 (最も古雅な作風を示し、且つ品格の高い). 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* (友成には姿の良さが、正恒には鍛えの良さが目立つ). 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 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 (長銘の方が一段と古調な出来口が多い), 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 (古備物の古雅な趣を最もよく表わした).
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 seven Important Cultural Properties above eight works in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. Of his recorded works most can never trade, eight held in the National Treasure and Important Cultural Property tiers and another eight 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 several of his *tachi* remain in the Imperial Household. 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. Eighteen of his blades carry a recorded provenance, among the holders the Imperial Family, Emperor Meiji, 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' (世に一段とその名が知られている). 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' (古香な趣), a *sugata* that is 'truly graceful' (いかにも優美) and 'shows the character of its age well' (時代の特色がよく示されている). 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, for no Ko-Bizen *tachi* is broader or more powerful than the Ō-Kanehira.
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' (腰反り高く、先に行って伏しごころ), 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' (他にはまず類例がない), 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. 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' (将軍家よりの献上の命から逃れるための処置).
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' (正恒にも通じる趣). 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 supreme treasure of the Ikeda house, it is the grandest *sugata* Ko-Bizen produced, 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 nineteen 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 through 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" (地刃の出来、銘振りともに古備前吉包の典型作). 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" (上も茎もやや平肉のつかない感じのものは吉包に多い). 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" (古備前の中でも比較的に肌立つものが此の工の特色). 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" (匂口が沈みごころで地がねの肌立つ点などに吉包の特色が表われている).
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" (焼落しは此の工に限らず古備前物にまま経眼するところである). 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" (前者の方が時代が遡るとみられる). 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" (小板目を主体にした精良な鍛えが称揚され), 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" (概して一文字派の作が多く現存し、古備前吉包は少い).
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" (数多い古備前諸工の中でも最も吉包に擬せられるものがある); 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" (元暦頃), 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 (備前国景安), 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 (直刃調のどこかに互の目調の角ばる刃を交え), and between widely spaced *gunome* and *choji* it shows *tobiyaki* and *yubashiri* (間遠の互の目や丁子の合間に飛焼・湯走りを見せる), 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" (殆どいずこかに角張った刃文が交じる). 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" (太刀姿が美しくいかにも上品である). 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" (帽子は兎角、大きく直ぐになるものが多い). 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" (長銘の方がより古調を呈しており、銘字もやや稚拙であり); 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 (入札鑑定でも、素直に景安と鑑せられる), 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" (やがてこの作風が古一文字に受け継がれていくように思われる). 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" (比較的に多く、上手である). 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-seven designated works stand on record, and against the habit of so early an age the record is overwhelmingly signed, twenty-three 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 eleven 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. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The National Treasure of the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka is a tachi signed Nobufusa saku (信房作), bestowed on Sakai Tadatsugu by Tokugawa Ieyasu and transmitted in the Shonai Sakai family ever since. It carries the name of one of the first-rank smiths of old Bizen. 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 record of the National Treasure states the assignment the other way about; 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" (雉子股形の生ぶ茎が実に古雅である). 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" (珍しく元に焼落としをみせ). 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 (総じて古香である); 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" (一段と古雅), 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" (二字銘でこれ程古調なものは他に見ない). 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. 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" (同工を知る上で貴重な資料).
Inside Ko-Bizen his place is marked by his own documented traits. His itame stands out more than in any other profiled hand of the school, though 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 half his pieces. 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" (小出来で賑やかなところに信房の所伝を認むべきものがある).
Almost nothing of Nobufusa can ever change hands. Thirteen works are on official record, the weight sitting at the top: the National Treasure at the Chido Museum, four Important Cultural Properties, among them blades at the NBTHK and Hie Jinja, a Juyo Bijutsuhin once owned by Count Tanaka Mitsuaki, and the signed tachi in the Imperial collection, famous since the Muromachi period as Jumansoku. The five National Treasure and Important Cultural Property blades are preserved as patrimony and will never trade, the Imperial piece stands outside any market by nature, and further examples rest at Ise Jingu and the Hayashibara Museum of Art. Five blades carry recorded provenance, running through Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sakai Tadatsugu and the Shonai Sakai family, 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.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Kokuhō, 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" (前者が沸出来の古雅な小乱の出来であるのに対して後者は丁子の華やかな乱刃を焼き技巧味が感ぜられる). 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" (総じて華やかに乱れるものは少なく) and "a *suguha*-toned base with shallow *notare* predominates" (直刃調が浅いのたれを基調とする). 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" (古備前物としての古香な出来口), 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" (銘振りからは、必ずしもその区別は容易とはいえない).
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.
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 (同派中でも上手な技倆の持主), 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 Naritaka 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, named on a quarter of his blades and effectively absent among his profiled fellows, and the doubled *nijūba* recurs on better than a third, far above the *chōji* mainline and shared only 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 (地刃ともに美観を損せず華やかな出来). 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 (表裏とも物打辺特に焼幅広く盛んに乱れる). 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 (逆に成高でなければならぬという積極的なところもない).
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 (前掲の助包、吉包等に比較して遜色がない). 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 (古備前物の特色が顕著に現れて古香である). 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, 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 (那須与一宗高の佩刀として有名な作で、当時の太刀拵が附属している); that it has descended in the Nasu family together with its original mounting across roughly eight centuries is called of exceptional documentary value (時代約八百年の長きにわたって当時の拵とともに、同家に伝来). 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. 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.
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」). 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 sixteen 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」). 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」). 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」). 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」). 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.
Thirteen of the sixteen 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」). 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」), 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 three prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin certifications, all signed tachi then in Aichi collections, 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」).
Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo saku. Sixteen designated works stand on record: three Tokubetsu Juyo and nine Juyo, twelve blades across those two tiers, joined by the three 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」), 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 sixteen 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.
Junkei (順慶) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Junkei is one of the enduring identity problems of early Bizen, and the question is older than the swords that survive him: since the Edo period his name had been transmitted as the Buddhist name of the first Nagamitsu of Osafune, so that for centuries his work was filed under the most famous Bizen hand of the mid-Kamakura. The published sources reject that reading. On the evidence of the workmanship, the calligraphy of the signature and the movement of the chisel, they resolve him instead as a Bizen smith working no later than the middle Kamakura period, and the prewar designations go further still: when the two Important Art Objects were certified, Honma, then in the Ministry of Education, deliberately recognized them as Ko-Bizen, judging that of the blade presented "there can be no doubt that it is Ko-Bizen" (古備前であることに相違がない). He is, in the modern reading, an independent archaic Bizen hand whom posterity had mistaken for the man he most resembles.
His recognized hand is best read on the signed blades, and it is quiet. Over an *itame* of rather large grain that stands and at times flows, on the finer pieces a *ko-itame* that still shows its *hada*, with *ji-nie* adhering, he tempers a moist, shallow *ko-midare* on a *suguha*-leaning base. Into it he sets small *gunome* and *ko-chōji*, with *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the *nie* notably strong and archaic in feeling, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* intertwining the *hada*. The *bōshi* runs straight to a small *ko-maru*. It is a restrained, old-toned manner, and the published commentary names it as such, calling one such piece a work that "presents one typical example of Junkei" (順慶の一典型を示している). The temper is the calmest of readings, not the flamboyant clove-flower of the later school but a small irregular line carried in the activity rather than in towering clusters.
The *jigane* is the constant across his record. *Itame* with *ji-nie*, the grain standing and on the wider blades mixed with *ō-itame*, recurs on each example, and where the forging tightens into *ko-itame* the steel only grows clearer. What it does not carry, on the signed work, is *utsuri*. The point is explicit in the published commentary, which observes of one signed sword that "no *utsuri* is seen in the *ji*" (地に映りはみられず) and reads the *ha* there as a *nie*-laden *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, archaic throughout. This absence is not an incidental note. It is the structural fact on which the whole reattribution turns, because the Osafune line he was confused with is a *nioi*-based, *utsuri*-bearing tradition, and Junkei is neither.
His record divides into two faces. The signed blades, the two Important Art Object tachi and the signed Jūyō tachi, are the Ko-Bizen-toned hand just described, the *nie*-deki *ko-midare* without *utsuri*. Against them stands the single *mumei* katana transmitted as Junkei, greatly shortened, which alone turns toward the showier mid-Kamakura Bizen reading: somewhat wide in body with a *chū-kissaki* leaning to *ikubi*, the *itame* mixed with large *ō-itame* and *mokume*, and here a *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly, the temper a *chōji* mixed with *gunome*, the *nioi* deep and *ko-nie* forming, the *bōshi* a shallow *notare-komi* to a small *ko-maru*, with *bō-hi* carved through. The two faces are not a contradiction but the span of his attributed work, the signed pieces fixing the personal hand and the *mumei* katana extending it toward the school manner.
What separates Junkei from the smith he resembles is exactly what the judges name. Among works given to him there are some that recall Nagamitsu, but, in the words of the published commentary, "generally they differ in being *nie*-deki" (一般に沸出来であるところに相違がある). The distinction is the whole of the modern argument: the Osafune Nagamitsu line is *nioi*-based and shows *utsuri*; Junkei's hand is *nie*-based and, when signed, shows none. So the resemblance that once collapsed him into Nagamitsu is, on close reading, the very thing that holds him apart, and the early identification as Nagamitsu's Buddhist name falls away. The swordbooks still carry both the same-person and different-person theories, but the modern view, taken on workmanship, signature calligraphy and chisel work, is settled on the latter, and he stands as a Bizen hand earlier than the Osafune period, near the Ko-Bizen root of the tradition.
For the collector he is a rare early name, and a thin record. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his standing rests instead on two prewar Important Art Objects, both judged Ko-Bizen, and three blades at the Jūyō rank, the published commentary calling a signed tachi "precious" (在銘の太刀は貴重である) even where it shows slight fatigue, because so few of his signed works survive. The recorded blades are held in institutions and long-held collections grounded in their own provenance: one of the Important Art tachi is preserved at the Sano Art Museum in Shizuoka, with examples also recorded at the Mōri Shūsui Museum of Art and the Sword Museum, and the provenance of his blades runs through the Ishikawa and Akashi Matsudaira houses. With only a handful of signed pieces in existence and the bulk of his record locked in Important-Art and museum holdings, a signed Junkei comes to light only seldom; the few in the Jūyō tier reach the market rarely, and a privately held, signed Junkei is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of a Bizen hand that scholarship had to recover from another man's name.
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' (正恒との関係も首肯し得る).
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' (古備前物の特色と美点を十二分に示しており).
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' (すべて帽子は丸い).
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' (身幅が広く堂々とした), as one of Toshitsune's distinctive traits. His work 'well displays the characteristic features of the Masatsune group' (正恒一類の特色をよく示しており), 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' (この基近は鎌倉時代初期の古備前の刀工と思われるもので、作刀は少ない). 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' (銘振りは両者酷似している), leaving open whether they are one hand or several.
His readable record is the quieter of those two faces, 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*. This is not the full clove-flower of the later school but the calmer, *nie*-active manner of old Bizen, the activity carried in the *ji* and the *ha* rather than in towering clusters. 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 the constant beneath that temper. It 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' (小乱は前期作、大丁子乱は後期作). 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' (研究の余地がある). What can be said from the surviving signed work is that his hand is the calm, *nie*-laden *ko-midare*, and it is by exactly that manner that the school separates him within the old-Bizen field, his bright active *nie* and *ko-midare* set apart from both the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths and the showy *chōji* of the Ichimonji to come.
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*' (古備前物にして沸の妙味を存分に味わえる). He has no National Treasures. His blades are heritage held rather than traded: a signed *tachi* survives as an Imperial heirloom at Tanzan Shrine, and another, certified an Important Art Object, descended through Ikeda Kamesaburō. 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.
Kageyori (景依) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Jūbun, Jūyō. Kageyori is a Bizen swordsmith of the Ko-Bizen group, known today by a small number of signed two-character *tachi* spanning the Kamakura period. 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' (景依は備前国に同名が三人程存在するようである): the oldest is the hand with 'a boldly cut, large two-character signature' (太鏨大振の二字銘が最も古く), the latest is the one prefixing Bizen no Kuni Osafune at the close of the Kamakura period, and works of the Kōan and Einin years of a somewhat older manner lie between. A second strand, the published sources note, carries the title Sakon-Shōgen and is dated to the Einin era, so that 'beyond the Ko-Bizen group there are pieces titled Sakon-Shōgen and dated to Einin' (備前景依には古備前派の他に左近将監を冠する永仁年紀のものがある) whose lineage is not clearly established. Each blade is therefore placed by its own *ji* and *ha* before it is assigned a generation.
His readable hand is a slender *tachi*, the *sori* high at the waist and carried even where the tang has been shortened, the *kissaki* small, the dignified bearing of Kamakura Bizen. The temper is the calm one of old Bizen, not the flamboyant *chōji* of the contemporaneous Fukuoka Ichimonji: a *suguha*-toned line, a *chū-suguha* or *suguha* base into which he works *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, with *chōji-ashi* and small *ashi* entering. The *suguha* field is never bare. On the shortened Jūyō *tachi* small *gunome* mix in over a *bō-hi*, *ko-nie* adhere, and the *nioiguchi* tends tight; on the *ubu* Jūyō *tachi* the *nie* gather well, with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running and the *bōshi* going straight into a *ko-maru*.
The *jigane* is old Bizen through and through. Over a well-packed *ko-itame* on the one blade rises a clear *midare-utsuri*, the steel the published sources read as one stylistic mode of late-Kamakura Bizen; on the other the forging runs to an *itame* inclining to stand a little, with *ji-nie* well developed. From that slender form and the well-worked *nie* of *ji* and *ha*, the published sources judge the second blade 'a Kamakura-period work appraised as of the Ko-Bizen lineage' (古備系の鎌倉期のものと鑑せられる). The two together show one quiet manner read across a small spread of quality, the *utsuri*-bearing *ko-itame* and the *suguha*-based clove the constant tells.
What sets him apart from his Bizen neighbours is exactly this restraint. Where the Fukuoka Ichimonji of the same decades raise a high, showy *chōji-midare*, Kageyori keeps a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, the *chōji* present only as *ashi* and small clusters in the line, the *utsuri* of old Bizen standing in the *ji*. He belongs among the old-Bizen hands who worked before and beside the Ichimonji flowering, his attribution resting on era and the old-Bizen character of his steel rather than on a fixed descent.
Kageyori survives in a small but high designated record. Fujishiro assigns him no grade, and the *Tōkō Taikan* values his work in the mid range. Three signed *tachi* are designated Important Cultural Property: one at the Tokyo National Museum, one at the Kishū Tōshō-gū in Wakayama bearing a Sakon-Shōgen signature dated to the second year of Shōō, and one at Inaba Jinja in Gifu. These are designated cultural property, patrimony held in museums and shrines, not blades that come to market. Two further signed *tachi* are designated Jūyō Tōken, one shortened and formerly in a Tokyo collection, one *ubu* in Hyōgo, with a blade of his recorded in the old Arima daimyō holdings. Across the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers only the two are recorded, so a signed Kageyori 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.
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' (地刃共に正恒に共通する作風を示しており), 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' (この工の在銘作は、正恒と相反して少なく). 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 read through a spread of quality rather than two separate registers. 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, calm by the standard of later Bizen, and it is by this temper above all that the school knows him: on the Daishōji Maeda tachi the published sources note that 'in both hamon and bōshi the blade calls Masatsune to mind' (この太刀は刃文も帽子も正恒をおもわせるものがあって), 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' (古備前物の見どころがよく表示されている). 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 mark him as that smith's nearest follower, while his quiet line and his comparatively few signatures set him apart from the more prolific master and, looking forward, from the flamboyant *chōji* of the Fukuoka Ichimonji that the mid-Kamakura would bring. 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, 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; the two Jūyō Bijutsuhin passed through Tachibana Kantoku of Fukuoka; 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' (数少ない同工の生ぶの有銘作として資料的に貴重であり). 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, himself a smith of the Masatsune house, and one tradition makes him a forebear of the Hatakeda line. His readable record is small, a handful of signed *tachi*, and every surviving piece carries the same bold two-character *mei* near the tang-tip. The Meikan enters the name as Bizen of the Jōki era with a note that one later smith shared it, but the published sources judge that none of the extant signed *tachi* dates as early as that, placing his work instead in the mid-Kamakura. He is one of those old Bizen hands who stands just before the great Ichimonji flowering, a documented name whose lineage the scholarship still treats as open.
His hand is read in two manners, and the published record is careful to say that none of his work reads, at a glance, as plainly Ko-Bizen. The showy face is a brilliant *chōji-midare*. Over an *itame* mixed with *mokume* that tends a little to standing grain, with fine *ji-nie* and a clear *midare-utsuri*, he sets a flamboyant clove temper that mixes *kawazuko-chōji*, *gunome* and *togariba*, the *ashi* and *yō* entering vigorously, the *nioi* deep and *ko-nie* well adhered, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running and *tobiyaki* intermixed. On the Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear, and the *bōshi* enters with a little *midare* before turning back in a small round with a slight pointed tendency. The published sources call this his outstanding decorative example and find in it, in one vein, a work that "calls to mind Hatakeda Moriie and Bizen Saburō Kunimune".
The *jigane* is the constant under both manners. It is an *itame*, in places flowing and standing a little, carrying *ji-nie* and the *midare-utsuri* of old Bizen steel, which clears brightly on his best pieces and stands only faintly on the quieter ones, where the forging tightens toward *ko-itame*. The other face of his record is exactly that quiet manner: a *suguha-chō* with a slight admixture of *ko-gunome*, the temper narrow and the *nioiguchi* tight, the *bōshi* running straight into a small round. One signed *tachi* in this mode, *ubu* and pleasing in shape, is read by the published sources as "workmanship corresponding to the example preserved at Nikkō Futarasan Shrine". It is this tight, controlled *suguha* that the judges elsewhere set close to the manner of the Bitchū Aoe group, the second pole of his recorded work.
That the same smith should temper both a flamboyant Bizen *chōji* and a restrained Aoe-like *suguha* is the central scholarly question around him. The judges note that two modes coexist within his small surviving body, that the signature differs somewhat from blade to blade, and that the *Meikan*'s early dating and same-name later smith cannot be reconciled with what the blades actually show. From this the lineage is left unsettled, and the relation to the Hatakeda house is offered as inference from style rather than as fact. Even on a shortened blade, the published sources hold, a relationship with Moriie "is by no means to be regarded as unconnected".
What sets the Ko-Bizen Tochika apart is named in his own grounded traits rather than in any borrowed comparison. His brightest *tachi* turn on the *kawazuko-chōji* gathered into a clove temper of deep *nioi* and clear *nioiguchi*, while his quiet *tachi* turn on a tight *suguha* over a faint *utsuri*, and both stand on the slightly standing *itame* and *midare-utsuri* of the old Bizen *jigane*. He looks back toward Masatsune in the calm of the quiet pieces and forward toward the decorative Bizen of the mid-Kamakura in the showy ones, a hand caught between the two and, for that reason, valued as a record of the transition.
For the collector he is a rare early name held almost entirely as patrimony. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record runs through two Important Cultural Properties, one of them preserved at Nikkō Futarasan Shrine, together with a Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* and several Jūyō *tachi*. The Tokubetsu Jūyō blade is transmitted as the wearing sword of Matsudaira Terusada, lord of Takasaki Domain, and is accompanied by a Hon'ami Kōtsune origami of Enpō 4 appraising it at five gold coins. Only four of his blades fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, and most designated blades, in private hands or institutional, are held rather than traded, so a signed Tochika *tachi* comes to light only seldom. The published sources call an *ubu* signed example "precious as documentary material for understanding the range of this smith's work", and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how old Bizen passed into the great age that followed.
Hidechika (秀近) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1185-1220. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukemori is a Ko-Bizen swordsmith of the late Heian into the early Kamakura period, known today only by a small body of *suriage* signed *tachi*, each bearing a bold, large two-character *mei* cut with a thick chisel. His name is one of the standing Bizen attribution problems. The reference works enter a smith called Sukemori among the Fukuoka Ichimonji group, but the published sources hold that a clearly distinct, older Sukemori works in a Ko-Bizen manner, and that it is to this archaic hand that his recognized signed blades belong. The point is made plainly on his Jūyō Bijutsuhin *tachi*: although the *meikan* list an Ichimonji Sukemori, "there exists a Ko-Bizen Sukemori clearly different from that one, and this blade is likely his" (それとは明らかに異った古備前の助守があり、本作がそれであろう). His signature style, the same source adds, is more old-fashioned than that of the Ichimonji Sukemori, so even the name on the tang reads as the older hand.
The temper is the tell of his work. Over a *jigane* of *itame* he sets a broad *suguha*-tone that undulates gently and becomes "wet" in feeling, mixing *ko-chōji* and *ko-midare* into the line, with *ashi* entering abundantly. What separates him from his Ichimonji namesakes is the strength of the *nie*: it adheres heavily through both *ji* and *ha*, *sunagashi* runs frequently along the temper, and the *nioiguchi* tends to *shizumi*, a subdued depth rather than a bright clove-flower. The published sources, weighing the several Sukemori smiths they have examined, judge this one "the strongest in *nie* and the most archaic in tone" (経眼した限りではこの助守が沸強く、最も古調である). The flaring *chōji* and high clove heads of the mature Fukuoka school are absent; in their place is the quieter, *nie*-laden Bizen of an older generation.
The *jigane* carries that same archaic character. The *itame* is dense, thickly covered with *ji-nie* and entered by fine *chikei*, standing a little in places and admixed on one blade with a touch of *nagare-hada* along the *ura*. The shape agrees with the dating: slender in build, the *sori* set at the waist and retained even after shortening, running to a *chū-kissaki*, the dignified bearing of the early Kamakura *tachi*. The *bōshi* runs in a *midare-komi* and turns back with a *ko-maru* tendency. Taken together, the published sources read the whole "as more archaic than Fukuoka Ichimonji, a Ko-Bizen work of around the early Kamakura" (総じて福岡一文字よりも古調で鎌倉初期頃の古備前物と鑑せられる).
Within his small surviving group the degree of flamboyance varies, and the variation is itself instructive. His more decorative *tachi*, an *ubu* blade keeping its three-character *mei* though the inscription is corroded, widens the body and raises the line into a *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome* and small *notare*, the *nioi* deep with *ko-nie* and *kinsuji* running through. Yet even there the judges place him by style and signature in the Ko-Bizen group rather than the Ichimonji. The name recurs, the published sources note, in both the Ko-Bizen and the Ichimonji lineages with differing workmanship and differing manners of signing, so several smiths used it across both schools, from the very end of Ko-Bizen into the Nanbokuchō period; this Sukemori is held the most archaic of them.
What sets his hand apart from both its neighbours is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from the flamboyant *chōji-midare* of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji by the calm of his *suguha*-toned line and the depth of its *nie*, his "signature style older than the Ichimonji Sukemori" (銘振りも一文字助守より古調である); and he is distinguished from the plainer old-Bizen hands by the strength of that *nie* and the *sunagashi* that enlivens it. He stands before the school's great flowering at Fukuoka, one of the quiet archaic roots from which the brightest of the Bizen traditions would grow.
For the collector he is a rare early name carried by a slight but high record. He has no National Treasures; his designations run instead through an Important Cultural Property *tachi* held at Kitano Tenmangū Shrine in Kyoto, a prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin *tachi* published in the *Kōzan Oshigata*, the *Kantō Zuiroku* and the *Nihontō Taikan*, a Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi*, and two Jūyō *tachi*, the Jūyō Bijutsuhin piece having descended through Shigetaka Kinkyō of Toyama. The published commentary calls his finest signed *tachi* "sound in both *ji* and *ha*, a well-made example" (地刃健全で出来のよい一口である), and holds the *ubu* signed blade valuable as reference material for the school. These are designated cultural property and long-held heritage, not blades that pass through the market; the few in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers come to light only seldom. A signed Ko-Bizen Sukemori in private hands is among the rarer things a collector of early Bizen could hope to encounter, and a document, when one appears, of how the Bizen line stood before Ichimonji.
Sukehira (助平) — Mainline · 1151-1200. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukehira is a Ko-Bizen smith of the close of the Heian and the opening of the Kamakura period, and since antiquity he has been named one of the *Bizen Sanbira*, the three '-hira' smiths, alongside Takahira and Kanehira. The published sources put the rarity of his name plainly: of the three, Kanehira is met from time to time, Sukehira is extremely rare, and Takahira has no work that can be regarded with confidence as authentic. The Tokubetsu Juyo tachi, an *ubu* blade signed *Bizen no Kuni Sukehira* in five characters, is the anchor of the small surviving group, and on it the commentary calls the workmanship one that evokes "the antique fragrance and deep flavor characteristic of old Ko-Bizen" (古備前物の古香で深い味わい). His record is one consistent hand, read not as two manners but as a single old-Bizen style seen across a spread of condition.
His characteristic hand is a low, quiet temper rather than a flamboyant one. Over the slender body he sets a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, the *yakiba* deliberately low, into which enter *ko-gunome*, *ko-chōji* and *ko-midare*, with *ko-ashi* and *yō* and thickly adhering *ko-nie*. Fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run throughout, and along the hardened edge intermittent *yubashiri* and *nijūba* are interwoven. On the slighter survivors the same line draws in to a *hoso-suguha* mixed with *gunome*, *ko-notare* and *ko-midare*, the *nioiguchi* tending to *shizumi*, with *uchinoke* appearing. This is the calm root manner of old Bizen, set apart from the high, decorative *chōji* of the Fukuoka Ichimonji that would flower a generation later, and the published sources read on the signed tachi the points by which "the individual traits of this smith can be discerned" (この工の特色が窺える).
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that quiet temper. It is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain well packed, with *ji-nie* well adhering and fine *chikei* entering frequently, and over it a *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly on his best pieces, while the more worn keep only a faint reflection. The *bōshi* runs straight into a *ko-maru*, on the Tokubetsu Juyo blade with *nijūba* and a slight turnback, in one suriage piece showing *hakikake*. On the Juyo 29 tachi a *bō-hi* is carved *kaki-nagashi* through both faces. On the finest examples both *ji* and *ha* are rich in *nie* throughout, the activity carried in the *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* of the temper and the *chikei* of the *jigane*.
The surviving body divides by condition rather than by style. The *ubu* signed tachi, the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo 49 among them, keep the original high *koshizori*, the *funbari* and the *ko-kissaki*, and present what the commentary calls a form "dignified yet graceful" (凜然として優雅); the *midare-utsuri* on these is clear. The shortened survivors carry the same hand more subdued: one Juyo blade, slightly shortened but almost *ubu*, shows the *ji* and *ha* tending overall to fatigue and the small irregularities of the temper a little unsettled, while another is read as a low-tempered *suguha*-based *ko-midare* of "subdued flavor" (焼の低い直刃調小乱れの渋味). A constant tell binds them: every confirmed survivor is cut with the long five-character signature *Bizen no Kuni Sukehira*, none with the two-character *mei*, the reverse of Kanehira, whose long signature is the exception.
What sets him apart within old Bizen is read off his own work rather than by contrast. His is the bright old-Bizen *itame* *jigane* with *ji-nie*, frequent *chikei* and a standing *midare-utsuri*, carrying a low *suguha*-based *ko-midare* enlivened by *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, the calm manner that precedes the school's great flowering at Fukuoka. The published sources draw the comparison directly on the Juyo 29 tachi: extant signed Sukehira survive in the Imperial collection, in the former Imperial holding now in the Tokyo National Museum and in the fire-damaged Nikkō Tōshōgū blade, and the long signatures on these pieces are cut in a strikingly similar manner, so that they at once display the flavor of Ko-Bizen and allow this smith's own traits to be discerned. He stands at the threshold of the Bizen tradition, the quiet root from which its most brilliant hands grew.
For the collector he is among the rarest of early Bizen names. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through a single Tokubetsu Juyo tachi and a small number of Juyo tachi, with related pieces in the Imperial collection, the Tokyo National Museum, the Nikkō Tōshōgū and the Hikone Castle Museum. Provenance is distinguished where it survives: one Juyo tachi descended through the Fushimi-no-miya household with a Hōreki 13 origami and a gold *nashiji* chrysanthemum-crest cord-wrapped *tachi* mounting, and his blades passed also through the Imperial Family, the Iwasaki and the Tōdō houses. The published sources hold an *ubu* signed Sukehira tachi to be "exceptionally valuable as documentary material" (資料的にも頗る貴重). With only a handful of authenticated works in existence and most held in institutions and long-held collections, a signed Sukehira reaches private hands only very rarely. A documented example is among the rarest things a collector of old Bizen could encounter, a witness to how the Bizen tradition began.
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" (その系統は明らかでない). 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" (古様にして格調高い), a piece in which "the characteristic flavor of Ko-Bizen is clearly evident" (古備前物の持ち味が顕然). 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*" (地刃ともに健やか) and "an outstanding example among Shigetsune's work" (重恒傑出の一口), and they hold the *ubu*, signed Juyo tachi "especially valuable for retaining its original tang and signature" (生ぶ茎で有銘であることが特に貴重) 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.
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.
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. 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 — a judgement that, given the extreme scarcity of signed works, underscores the importance of each surviving piece to the study of early Bizen swordmaking.
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. 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. 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.
Suemori (末守) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Jūbun. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
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 recorded in the *meikan* as "Bizen, two characters, before Genryaku," placing him in the late Heian to early Kamakura period as a smith of the Ko-Bizen group. Judging from the workmanship of his *jihada* and *hamon*, as well as the manner of cutting his signature, it is readily accepted that he belongs to the Masatsune (正恒) lineage. His works are exceedingly rare, and signed tachi by Tsuneto represent some of the scarcest survivals among Ko-Bizen smiths. One example is held in the Imperial Collection (Gyobutsu), further attesting to the esteem in which his craft has been held.
Tsuneto's forging exhibits *itame* with a slight *nagare* tendency and somewhat standing grain, upon which *ji-nie* adheres and *nie-utsuri* stands out prominently. His *hamon* typically mixes *ko-choji* and *ko-midare* with frequent *ashi* and *yo*, accompanied by *sunagashi* and well-attached *ko-nie*. The *nioiguchi* often shows an *urumi* tendency characteristic of early Bizen work. In certain examples, however, the *yakihaba* broadens considerably and incorporates large *choji-midare*, resulting in a flamboyant and brilliant workmanship that departs from the narrow, restrained temperament more commonly associated with Ko-Bizen smiths. The *boshi* is typically rendered in *komaru* or with a slight *notare* tendency, and when *horimono* are present they take the form of *bo-hi* carved *kaki-nagashi*.
Tsuneto's surviving oeuvre constitutes valuable reference material for understanding the stylistic range within the Ko-Bizen tradition during the transitional period from late Heian into early Kamakura. His works convey an archaic and elegant flavor while demonstrating that the Masatsune lineage was capable of both restrained *suguha*-based compositions and more vigorous *choji* interpretations. That both *ji* and *ha* in his extant blades remain *kenzen* speaks to the soundness of his forging, and each signed example holds exceptionally high documentary value given the rarity of his authenticated corpus.
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 (高包は一人ではなく古備前と一文字にあり), and they add that extant works are few (現存するものは少い). 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 (同派の特色をよく示している). 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 (古備前物の趣が強く遺存している), 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 (建長年紀の吉包とほぼ同期のものであろう).
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 (高包は古備前と古一文字の双方に存在するが本作はその前者である); 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 (古雅のある銘字). One of his blades is judged to express conspicuously the characteristic workmanship of Ko-Bizen (古備前物の特色を顕著に示した出来口). 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 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.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Sanetoshi (眞利) — Mainline · 1232-1233. 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. 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. 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.
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, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Tsunetsugu (恒次) — Mainline · 1310-1333. 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." 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.
Yasunawa (安繩) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Tokujū. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Yoshinori (義憲) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Tokujū, Jūyō. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Yukimitsu (行光) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Tokujū, Jūyō. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Other smiths
Tsuneto (經遠) — Mainline · 1108-1110. 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.
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 · 1259-1260. Yoshitsuna (吉綱) is a smith of the late Kamakura period whose signed works place him in the Umanori district of Bingo Province, an area on the northern edge of the old Anna District in what is now Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Sword reference works (*meikan*) record a Yoshitsuna regarded as a student of Ko-Bizen Kunitsugu, active from the early Kamakura period onward. The reading of the place-name in his inscription was long debated: the characters were formerly misread as "Maki" and associated with Makimura near the Ukaishō district of Bizen, but subsequent research re-evaluated the second character and established the reading "Umanori." A regional connection to Kokubunji Sukekuni, who was active in Tōjō within the same district during the same period, is strongly suggested by shared stylistic features, further strengthening this identification. Fuller details of his lineage must await future research, as surviving examples and related documentary materials have still scarcely come to light.
The extant work bearing his signature displays *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, with running grain in places, thickly applied *ji-nie* with *chikei*, and a slightly mottled (*jifu*-like) texture within the surface steel; faint *midare-utsuri* appears. The *hamon* is fundamentally *suguha*, mixed with *ko-midare*, *gunome*, and *ko-gunome*, with well-entering *ashi* and *yō*; the *nioiguchi* is deep, with *ko-nie*, accompanied by *hotsure*, *uchi-noke*, and *yubashiri*-like effects, together with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The *bōshi* is straight with *ko-maru* and a very slight turnback. The overall workmanship reveals a blend of Bizen temperament and Yamato coloration consistent with the collateral Bizen lineages of Bingo Province, and shows a thread of affinity with the work of Kokubunji Sukekuni.
Both *ji* and *ha* are *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved), with ample *niku* and a broad, powerful *chū-kissaki tachi* form exhibiting high *koshizori* and clear *funbari* characteristic of the late Kamakura period. The *nakago* is *ubu*, and the dated inscription of Gentoku 3 (1331) is of considerable documentary value. Surviving works by this smith are extremely rare, rendering each example precious both as a study of provincial Bizen-related forging traditions and as primary material for the still-incomplete record of swordsmiths working in Bingo during the late Kamakura period. The blade was transmitted within the Tokugawa family during the domain-administration era.
Yukihide (行秀) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
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.
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.
Kunitsuna (国綱) — 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.
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 (安綱) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Yasutsuna (安綱) is renowned as a master smith of Hōki Province at the close of the Heian period, represented above all by the celebrated Dōjigiri. Older views placed his activity as early as the beginning of the Heian period, around Daidō (806-810), but this dating is now considered mistaken; modern scholarship assigns him to the late Heian era. A separate figure reading "Yasue" (安家) of the Ko-Bizen group is distinguished from the Hōki Yasutsuna, though both names employ overlapping characters. Within the Ko-Bizen lineage, the smith Yasutsuna is considered among the earlier, more archaic examples.
Yasutsuna's forging characteristically shows *o-itame* (large *itame* grain) that stands conspicuously, with *ji-nie* and the presence of *chikei*. The *hamon* is a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji*, executed in *nie* with *ashi* and *yo* entering well. Fine *kinsuji* appears, and a tendency toward *nijuba* is observed, with *sunagashi* running through and becoming intertwined with the surface grain. The NBTHK describes the overall manner as unmistakably archaic (*koko*), conveying a "Yamato spirit" (*Yamato-gokoro*). In the Ko-Bizen-attributed work, the *jigane* shows little conspicuous *utsuri*, while in other examples the archaic elegance of the *midare-ba* and the *kijimomo-gata* (pheasant-thigh) tang profile together convey an old-fashioned character.
A noteworthy point in appraising Yasutsuna's signature, as the scholar Honma observed, is that the character *tsuna* (綱) stands out as conspicuously large in comparison to *Yasu* (安). Surviving works include both *ubu* signed tachi of outstanding form and shortened unsigned blades transmitted through such distinguished collections as the Maeda family. The breadth and antiquity of Yasutsuna's production firmly establish him as a foundational figure in the earliest stratum of Japanese sword-making.
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.
Hidezane (秀真) — Mainline · Mid-Kamakura. 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 · 1110-1113. 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 · 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 · 1264-1275. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Naritsuna (成綱) — Mainline · 1182-1184. 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 (信宗) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobumune (延宗) — Mainline · 987-1596. 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 (延眞) — Mainline · 1154-1156. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Nobuzane (信實) — Mainline · 1182-1184. 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 (則經) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Noriyasu (則安) — Mainline · 1040-1044. 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.
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.
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 (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.
Takamitsu (高光) — Mainline · 1219-1222. 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 · 1225-1227. Smith of the Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) School.
Takatomo (高友) — Mainline · 1243-1247. 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.
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.
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.