The Ōmiya group came to Bizen from Kyoto — Kunimori is said to have moved from Inokuma-Ōmiya in Yamashiro and put down roots at Osafune — and worked there from the late Kamakura through the Muromachi. Its representative smith, Morikage, cut bold long signatures in reverse-chisel strokes; around him the school built a brilliant, florid temper of gunome, ko-gunome, and "open-hipped" koshi-biraki, run through with kinsuji and sunagashi over a midare-utsuri ground. Set beside the mainline Osafune masters, Ōmiya work reads a touch rougher and more rustic — and that vigor, in both ji and ha, is exactly its appeal.
The The Bizen Ōmiya School (大宮), active 1288–1450 in Bizen Province across 35 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 2 Jūbun, 3 Jūbi, 4 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 109 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Bizen Ōmiya School (大宮) · 1288 – 1450
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1356-1390. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Morikage worked at Osafune in Bizen through the height of the Nanbokuchō period, cutting long, dated signatures such as Bishū Osafune Morikage on tachi, naginata and tantō across the Ōan, Jōji, Eiwa and Kakei years. He is the central figure of the Bizen Ōmiya group, a line traced in the published sources to the remote ancestor Kunimori, who is said to have moved to Bizen from Inokuma Ōmiya in Yamashiro Province in the Kamakura period. Works by the early Ōmiya smiths Kunimori and Sukemori are extremely rare, and within the Nanbokuchō group it is Morikage who left by far the largest body of work and the highest reputation. The NBTHK's published commentary states it plainly, that among the smiths of the line in this period "Morikage left the largest number of works and is also the most skilled" (南北朝時代の同派中では盛景が最も作品が多く上手でもある). His Fujishiro grade is Jō-jō saku.
His characteristic hand is a *Sōden-Bizen* temper built not on the clove-flower of mainstream Osafune but on a *ko-notare* base. Into that undulating line he sets *gunome*, angular elements and a pointed tendency, with *ashi* and *yō* entering well, *ko-nie* adhering, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running through the *ha*. The published sources read the temper as distinctly his own. On a converted-naginata of Tokubetsu Jūyō rank they note that the *notare* does not become broadly undulating in the manner of Kanemitsu but keeps short foothills and somewhat angular crests, features that, they say, clearly articulate Morikage's individual character. A quiet tell recurs across his work: the *nioiguchi* tends to a subdued *shizumi* rather than the bright, showy temper of the leading Osafune names of his day.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that range. Over a standing *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain often opening, he lays a fine *ji-nie*, *chikei* entering finely, patches of *jifu* in the steel, and a Bizen *midare-utsuri* that stands on his signed and unsigned blades alike. The strength of the *nie* in both *ji* and *ha* is what the judges call the mark of *Sōden-Bizen* in his work. The *bōshi* runs *midare-komi*, finishing in a pointed or small-round turnback with *hakikake*, and the carvings range from a plain *bō-hi* through *futasuji-hi* to *bonji* and a *sankō-ken* on the finest pieces.
What the published sources stress above all is the breadth of his range. They describe it as wide, encompassing work in which *notare* predominates, a florid and changeful *midare* with *chōji* and *gunome* mixed in, work centred on angular *gunome*, and even a *suguha* in an Aoe manner. The dated, signed pieces are the spine of this picture, since they fix his hand to specific years from the Ōan era onward, while the *suguha* register stands at its quiet extreme. Of one signed *tachi* of Eiwa 2 the commentary remarks that, at a glance, it presents "exactly the kind of *suguha* manner that calls Aoe and the Unrui smiths to mind" (正に青江や雲類を想わせる直刃の作柄), holding it among the very best of his output and a blade that makes his diversity readily understood. A modern scholarly question hangs over the name itself: on shared workmanship and the reverse-chisel forms of his signature characters, the published sources record a theory, now widely entertained, that this long-signature Morikage may belong instead to an Osafune collateral line connected to Chikakage and Yoshikage, and that the smiths who cut bold, large two-character signatures may be the true Ōmiya hands. The matter is left open for further study.
The larger face of his surviving record is the *o-suriage mumei* katana attributed to him. These are wide-bodied, the *sori* shallow and the *kissaki* extended in the archetypal Nanbokuchō shape, the *hamon* a *ko-notare* mixed with *gunome* and at times small *chōji*. The published sources affirm them as unmistakable *Sōden-Bizen*, then place Morikage by contrast: his bright *midare-utsuri* and subdued, *chōji*-mixed temper hold him apart from Kanemitsu, whose temper is broader, and from the box-shaped large *midare* of the Chōgi group. Yet the kinship to Chōgi is real and acknowledged. The commentary on one Tokubetsu Jūyō katana, noting how the Ōmiya line tends to be overshadowed by Kanemitsu and Chōgi, says outright that "his workmanship resembles Chōgi and stands beside it" (作風は長義に似て並ぶ程である). He belongs, in short, to the front rank of Nanbokuchō Sōden-Bizen, a maker whose attribution rests on era, school and these careful distinctions rather than on a single flamboyant trait.
For the collector Morikage is an attainable name among the great Nanbokuchō hands, though one to be met with patience. He has no National Treasures; his designated record runs instead through two Important Cultural Properties, three Tokubetsu Jūyō and a long Jūyō roll, ninety blades in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers in all, with one further Jūyō Bijutsuhin from the prewar designations. His provenance is that of the daimyō houses, his blades carried in the Nabeshima of Hizen, the Uesugi, the Date and the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira, with one piece recorded in Imperial keeping. The published commentary singles out individual works in the strongest terms, calling one converted naginata "an outstanding example among his works of that form" (同作薙刀中出色の一口). Because most designated blades stay in long-held collections, a signed and dated Ōmiya Morikage comes to light only from time to time, and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a securely documented witness to the broad and skilled hand at the centre of the Ōmiya school.
Moritsugu (盛繼) — Mainline · 1308-1311. Jūbi, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Sukemori (助盛) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Jūyō. The earliest blade gathered under this Morikage attribution is a signed tachi the published sources read as no later than the close of the Kamakura period, the oldest-dating work of the Ōmiya Morikage, of which the surviving examples are held extremely few. The commentary states it directly, calling the piece "the most time-ascending work among those of the Ōmiya line's Morikage" (大宮派の盛景の作として最も時代の溯るものである), and adds that its ji and ha "also differ from the later same-school and same-name works" (地刃も後代の同派及び同名作とは異なる), closing that it is "of remarkable documentary value" (資料的にも頗る貴重である). Morikage is the representative smith of the Bizen Ōmiya group, a line the published sources trace to the remote ancestor Kunimori, said to have moved to Bizen from Inokuma Ōmiya in Yamashiro. On this short but distinguished record of six designated blades, signed and mumei, the signed tachi anchors the line's history while the rest carries it forward into the Nanbokuchō height.
His characteristic hand is a *Sōden-Bizen* temper read not as the clove-flower of mainstream Osafune but as a nie-bearing *midare* whose elements shift from blade to blade. The most-cited Nanbokuchō manner is a *nie-kuzure* mixed with *gunome* and a pointed tendency, *ko-ashi* and *yō* entering, *ko-nie* adhering, fine *sunagashi* running through the *ha*. On the wide-bodied katana the judges read this temper, a *kuzure* mixed with *gunome*, as one in which, though unsigned, "Morikage's manner is well discerned" (無銘ながら盛景の一作風がよく窺われるものである), and they call the heavy, imposing build forceful in the hand. A pointed-blade tendency recurs across the range, running through the *gunome-midare* and surfacing again at the florid extreme, a quiet tell that sets the Ōmiya hand apart from the *chōji*-dominant Osafune mainstream of his day.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that range, and on this code it is written from the standing *itame*. Over an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain tending to open and stand, he lays a *ji-nie* and *chikei*, with a Bizen *midare-utsuri* rising on the signed tachi and the mumei katana alike. The signed Kamakura tachi keeps the older, finer measure, a *ko-itame* with *mokume*, *ji-nie* set and the *utsuri* standing, its temper a *ko-midare* with *gunome* and *chōji* intermingled, the *nioiguchi* bright and clear with *ko-nie*, *ashi* entering thickly and *kinsuji* appearing here and there, the *bōshi* turning to a small round. On the later wide-bodied work the same jigane stands but the grain opens further, with *chikei* and patches of *jifu*, and the *bōshi* runs *midare-komi* to a small round or a pointed tendency with *hakikake*. A *bō-hi* is most often carried through both faces.
What the published sources stress is the breadth of the range. They describe Morikage's *saku-iki* as wide, taking in *nie-kuzure*-dominant work, a changeful florid *midare* with *chōji* and *gunome* mixed in, work centred on angular *gunome*, and a *suguha* in an Aoe manner. The florid extreme is well seen on one unsigned katana whose temper is broad and *nioi*-prevalent, *chōji* as the main motif with *gunome* and a pointed tendency lively and undulating, the heads of the *chōji* tempered so high that part of them reach the *shinogi*-line, and there the commentary says "the Ōmiya group's character is well shown" (大宮派の特色がよく現れている), holding the blade sound in both ji and ha and of fine workmanship. The converted naginata gathers the many-kinded temper of his middle range, *chōji*, *ko-gunome* and pointed elements intermingled, of which the judges remark that "Morikage's points of interest are well displayed" (盛景の見どころがよく表示されている). A modern scholarly question hangs over the name itself: on shared workmanship and the reverse-chisel forms of his signature characters, the published sources record a theory, now widely entertained, that the long-signature Morikage may belong instead to an Osafune collateral line connected to Chikakage and Yoshikage, and that the smiths who cut bold, large two-character signatures may be the true Ōmiya hands. The matter is left open for further study.
The other face of this record is the *o-suriage mumei* katana attributed to him. These are wide-bodied, the *sori* shallow and the *kissaki* extended in the archetypal Nanbokuchō shape, the temper a *kuzure* or a *ko-notare* mixed with *gunome* and small *chōji*, the attribution resting on era, school and the standing *itame* with its *midare-utsuri* rather than on a single flamboyant trait. The published sources affirm them as Ōmiya Morikage by these features and place him by contrast, holding his bright *midare-utsuri* and *chōji*-mixed, sometimes subdued temper apart from the leading Osafune names. On the orikaeshi-signed katana, where the *jigane* stands with *jifu* and the *ha* runs to a *notare* with conspicuous *sunagashi*, they call its *jigane* thick in *ji-nie* and frequent in *chikei*, bright and clear, "the best-forged among his works" (同作中でも鍛えのよい一口である), so that the kinship to the front rank of Nanbokuchō Sōden-Bizen is read off the forging rather than asserted.
For the collector this Morikage is a thin but securely documented presence. The six blades gathered under the code are all at Jūyō, signed and mumei together, with no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties on this record. Its weight lies in the signed tachi the commentary calls the oldest-dating Ōmiya Morikage and of remarkable documentary value, a blade carried in the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira house, the line of the Matsuyama daimyō. Because such designated blades stay in long-held collections and the signed early work is, by the judges' own account, of extremely few surviving examples, an Ōmiya Morikage of this rank comes to light only from time to time, and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a securely documented witness to the broad and skilled hand at the head of the Ōmiya school and to its earliest dated reach into the late Kamakura period.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morisuke (盛助) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Other smiths
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Iemitsu (家光) — Mainline · 1492-1501. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1528-1532. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Morishige belongs to the Omiya group, a lineage founded by the smith Kunimori, who is said to have originally resided at Inokuma Omiya in Yamashiro Province before migrating to Bizen around the Bun'o era (1260--1261) during the Kamakura period. The group flourished most notably after the beginning of the Nanbokucho period, and among its members Morikage and Morishige are particularly well known. The name Morishige was carried by successive generations: the first appeared in the late Kamakura period, and smiths bearing the same name continued into the Muromachi period. Among examples on which the smith cut his place of residence, the inscription "Osafune" is seen, firmly establishing the group's association with the Bizen tradition. One later generation bore the common name Shinkuro, and his extant works are considered extremely few.
Morishige's forge work is characterized by *itame-hada*, sometimes with *nagare* tending toward the edge, upon which a faint *midare-utsuri* appears -- a hallmark of the Bizen lineage. The *hamon* takes as its principal motif a large, complex *gunome* described as *koshi-hiraki* -- an opened-waist pattern -- mixed with *choji*, producing bold and flamboyant undulations with *ashi* and *yo* entering throughout. The *nioi* is deep, *ko-nie* adheres well, and activities of *sunagashi*, *kinsuji*, and occasional *tobiyaki* are present. The *nioiguchi* tends toward being tight with *ko-nie* adhering, and the *boshi* is consistently *midare-komi*, turning back in *ko-maru* or with a pointed tip. Later-period works by the Shinkuro generation display none of the characteristic Omiya traits, showing instead no difference from the general Osafune Bizen type termed Sue-Bizen, evidence that the group had by then been fully absorbed into the Osafune school.
The NBTHK consistently praises Morishige's works for their *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved) condition of *ji* and *ha*, and characterizes the workmanship as flamboyant and attractive. His blades clearly demonstrate the characteristic style of the Omiya lineage, and they are recognized as excellent examples of that tradition. The trajectory of the Omiya group as reflected in Morishige's work -- from the distinctive opened-waist *gunome* of the Nanbokucho period to the eventual convergence with mainstream Osafune production in the Muromachi era -- provides valuable material for understanding the absorption of subsidiary Bizen lineages into the dominant school. Works bearing the Shinkuro name and dated inscriptions such as the Kyoroku era (1528--1532) are regarded as precious reference material for the study of this progression.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morokage (師景) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuhide (延秀) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuyoshi (信良) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuzane (信眞) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1381-1384. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1345-1350. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kageyoshi (景良) — Mainline · 1389-1390. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morokage (師景) — Mainline · 1444-1449. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Narimori (成盛) — Mainline · 1345-1350. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuhide (延秀) — Mainline · 1302-1303. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Norifusa (則房) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Suehito (末人) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tomomori (友盛) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1338-1342. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsunetake (恒建) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsuneto (恒遠) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Live·Ōmiya lineage
大宮
The Bizen Ōmiya School
The Ōmiya group came to Bizen from Kyoto — Kunimori is said to have moved from Inokuma-Ōmiya in Yamashiro and put down roots at Osafune — and worked there from the late Kamakura through the Muromachi. Its representative smith, Morikage, cut bold long signatures in reverse-chisel strokes; around him the school built a brilliant, florid temper of gunome, ko-gunome, and "open-hipped" koshi-biraki, run through with kinsuji and sunagashi over a midare-utsuri ground. Set beside the mainline Osafune masters, Ōmiya work reads a touch rougher and more rustic — and that vigor, in both ji and ha, is exactly its appeal.
The The Bizen Ōmiya School (大宮), active 1288–1450 in Bizen Province across 35 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 2 Jūbun, 3 Jūbi, 4 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 109 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Bizen Ōmiya School (大宮) · 1288 – 1450
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1356-1390. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Morikage worked at Osafune in Bizen through the height of the Nanbokuchō period, cutting long, dated signatures such as Bishū Osafune Morikage on tachi, naginata and tantō across the Ōan, Jōji, Eiwa and Kakei years. He is the central figure of the Bizen Ōmiya group, a line traced in the published sources to the remote ancestor Kunimori, who is said to have moved to Bizen from Inokuma Ōmiya in Yamashiro Province in the Kamakura period. Works by the early Ōmiya smiths Kunimori and Sukemori are extremely rare, and within the Nanbokuchō group it is Morikage who left by far the largest body of work and the highest reputation. The NBTHK's published commentary states it plainly, that among the smiths of the line in this period "Morikage left the largest number of works and is also the most skilled" (南北朝時代の同派中では盛景が最も作品が多く上手でもある). His Fujishiro grade is Jō-jō saku.
His characteristic hand is a *Sōden-Bizen* temper built not on the clove-flower of mainstream Osafune but on a *ko-notare* base. Into that undulating line he sets *gunome*, angular elements and a pointed tendency, with *ashi* and *yō* entering well, *ko-nie* adhering, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running through the *ha*. The published sources read the temper as distinctly his own. On a converted-naginata of Tokubetsu Jūyō rank they note that the *notare* does not become broadly undulating in the manner of Kanemitsu but keeps short foothills and somewhat angular crests, features that, they say, clearly articulate Morikage's individual character. A quiet tell recurs across his work: the *nioiguchi* tends to a subdued *shizumi* rather than the bright, showy temper of the leading Osafune names of his day.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that range. Over a standing *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain often opening, he lays a fine *ji-nie*, *chikei* entering finely, patches of *jifu* in the steel, and a Bizen *midare-utsuri* that stands on his signed and unsigned blades alike. The strength of the *nie* in both *ji* and *ha* is what the judges call the mark of *Sōden-Bizen* in his work. The *bōshi* runs *midare-komi*, finishing in a pointed or small-round turnback with *hakikake*, and the carvings range from a plain *bō-hi* through *futasuji-hi* to *bonji* and a *sankō-ken* on the finest pieces.
What the published sources stress above all is the breadth of his range. They describe it as wide, encompassing work in which *notare* predominates, a florid and changeful *midare* with *chōji* and *gunome* mixed in, work centred on angular *gunome*, and even a *suguha* in an Aoe manner. The dated, signed pieces are the spine of this picture, since they fix his hand to specific years from the Ōan era onward, while the *suguha* register stands at its quiet extreme. Of one signed *tachi* of Eiwa 2 the commentary remarks that, at a glance, it presents "exactly the kind of *suguha* manner that calls Aoe and the Unrui smiths to mind" (正に青江や雲類を想わせる直刃の作柄), holding it among the very best of his output and a blade that makes his diversity readily understood. A modern scholarly question hangs over the name itself: on shared workmanship and the reverse-chisel forms of his signature characters, the published sources record a theory, now widely entertained, that this long-signature Morikage may belong instead to an Osafune collateral line connected to Chikakage and Yoshikage, and that the smiths who cut bold, large two-character signatures may be the true Ōmiya hands. The matter is left open for further study.
The larger face of his surviving record is the *o-suriage mumei* katana attributed to him. These are wide-bodied, the *sori* shallow and the *kissaki* extended in the archetypal Nanbokuchō shape, the *hamon* a *ko-notare* mixed with *gunome* and at times small *chōji*. The published sources affirm them as unmistakable *Sōden-Bizen*, then place Morikage by contrast: his bright *midare-utsuri* and subdued, *chōji*-mixed temper hold him apart from Kanemitsu, whose temper is broader, and from the box-shaped large *midare* of the Chōgi group. Yet the kinship to Chōgi is real and acknowledged. The commentary on one Tokubetsu Jūyō katana, noting how the Ōmiya line tends to be overshadowed by Kanemitsu and Chōgi, says outright that "his workmanship resembles Chōgi and stands beside it" (作風は長義に似て並ぶ程である). He belongs, in short, to the front rank of Nanbokuchō Sōden-Bizen, a maker whose attribution rests on era, school and these careful distinctions rather than on a single flamboyant trait.
For the collector Morikage is an attainable name among the great Nanbokuchō hands, though one to be met with patience. He has no National Treasures; his designated record runs instead through two Important Cultural Properties, three Tokubetsu Jūyō and a long Jūyō roll, ninety blades in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers in all, with one further Jūyō Bijutsuhin from the prewar designations. His provenance is that of the daimyō houses, his blades carried in the Nabeshima of Hizen, the Uesugi, the Date and the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira, with one piece recorded in Imperial keeping. The published commentary singles out individual works in the strongest terms, calling one converted naginata "an outstanding example among his works of that form" (同作薙刀中出色の一口). Because most designated blades stay in long-held collections, a signed and dated Ōmiya Morikage comes to light only from time to time, and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a securely documented witness to the broad and skilled hand at the centre of the Ōmiya school.
Moritsugu (盛繼) — Mainline · 1308-1311. Jūbi, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Sukemori (助盛) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Jūyō. The earliest blade gathered under this Morikage attribution is a signed tachi the published sources read as no later than the close of the Kamakura period, the oldest-dating work of the Ōmiya Morikage, of which the surviving examples are held extremely few. The commentary states it directly, calling the piece "the most time-ascending work among those of the Ōmiya line's Morikage" (大宮派の盛景の作として最も時代の溯るものである), and adds that its ji and ha "also differ from the later same-school and same-name works" (地刃も後代の同派及び同名作とは異なる), closing that it is "of remarkable documentary value" (資料的にも頗る貴重である). Morikage is the representative smith of the Bizen Ōmiya group, a line the published sources trace to the remote ancestor Kunimori, said to have moved to Bizen from Inokuma Ōmiya in Yamashiro. On this short but distinguished record of six designated blades, signed and mumei, the signed tachi anchors the line's history while the rest carries it forward into the Nanbokuchō height.
His characteristic hand is a *Sōden-Bizen* temper read not as the clove-flower of mainstream Osafune but as a nie-bearing *midare* whose elements shift from blade to blade. The most-cited Nanbokuchō manner is a *nie-kuzure* mixed with *gunome* and a pointed tendency, *ko-ashi* and *yō* entering, *ko-nie* adhering, fine *sunagashi* running through the *ha*. On the wide-bodied katana the judges read this temper, a *kuzure* mixed with *gunome*, as one in which, though unsigned, "Morikage's manner is well discerned" (無銘ながら盛景の一作風がよく窺われるものである), and they call the heavy, imposing build forceful in the hand. A pointed-blade tendency recurs across the range, running through the *gunome-midare* and surfacing again at the florid extreme, a quiet tell that sets the Ōmiya hand apart from the *chōji*-dominant Osafune mainstream of his day.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that range, and on this code it is written from the standing *itame*. Over an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain tending to open and stand, he lays a *ji-nie* and *chikei*, with a Bizen *midare-utsuri* rising on the signed tachi and the mumei katana alike. The signed Kamakura tachi keeps the older, finer measure, a *ko-itame* with *mokume*, *ji-nie* set and the *utsuri* standing, its temper a *ko-midare* with *gunome* and *chōji* intermingled, the *nioiguchi* bright and clear with *ko-nie*, *ashi* entering thickly and *kinsuji* appearing here and there, the *bōshi* turning to a small round. On the later wide-bodied work the same jigane stands but the grain opens further, with *chikei* and patches of *jifu*, and the *bōshi* runs *midare-komi* to a small round or a pointed tendency with *hakikake*. A *bō-hi* is most often carried through both faces.
What the published sources stress is the breadth of the range. They describe Morikage's *saku-iki* as wide, taking in *nie-kuzure*-dominant work, a changeful florid *midare* with *chōji* and *gunome* mixed in, work centred on angular *gunome*, and a *suguha* in an Aoe manner. The florid extreme is well seen on one unsigned katana whose temper is broad and *nioi*-prevalent, *chōji* as the main motif with *gunome* and a pointed tendency lively and undulating, the heads of the *chōji* tempered so high that part of them reach the *shinogi*-line, and there the commentary says "the Ōmiya group's character is well shown" (大宮派の特色がよく現れている), holding the blade sound in both ji and ha and of fine workmanship. The converted naginata gathers the many-kinded temper of his middle range, *chōji*, *ko-gunome* and pointed elements intermingled, of which the judges remark that "Morikage's points of interest are well displayed" (盛景の見どころがよく表示されている). A modern scholarly question hangs over the name itself: on shared workmanship and the reverse-chisel forms of his signature characters, the published sources record a theory, now widely entertained, that the long-signature Morikage may belong instead to an Osafune collateral line connected to Chikakage and Yoshikage, and that the smiths who cut bold, large two-character signatures may be the true Ōmiya hands. The matter is left open for further study.
The other face of this record is the *o-suriage mumei* katana attributed to him. These are wide-bodied, the *sori* shallow and the *kissaki* extended in the archetypal Nanbokuchō shape, the temper a *kuzure* or a *ko-notare* mixed with *gunome* and small *chōji*, the attribution resting on era, school and the standing *itame* with its *midare-utsuri* rather than on a single flamboyant trait. The published sources affirm them as Ōmiya Morikage by these features and place him by contrast, holding his bright *midare-utsuri* and *chōji*-mixed, sometimes subdued temper apart from the leading Osafune names. On the orikaeshi-signed katana, where the *jigane* stands with *jifu* and the *ha* runs to a *notare* with conspicuous *sunagashi*, they call its *jigane* thick in *ji-nie* and frequent in *chikei*, bright and clear, "the best-forged among his works" (同作中でも鍛えのよい一口である), so that the kinship to the front rank of Nanbokuchō Sōden-Bizen is read off the forging rather than asserted.
For the collector this Morikage is a thin but securely documented presence. The six blades gathered under the code are all at Jūyō, signed and mumei together, with no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties on this record. Its weight lies in the signed tachi the commentary calls the oldest-dating Ōmiya Morikage and of remarkable documentary value, a blade carried in the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira house, the line of the Matsuyama daimyō. Because such designated blades stay in long-held collections and the signed early work is, by the judges' own account, of extremely few surviving examples, an Ōmiya Morikage of this rank comes to light only from time to time, and a privately held one is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a securely documented witness to the broad and skilled hand at the head of the Ōmiya school and to its earliest dated reach into the late Kamakura period.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morisuke (盛助) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Other smiths
Morikage (盛景) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Iemitsu (家光) — Mainline · 1492-1501. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1528-1532. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Morishige belongs to the Omiya group, a lineage founded by the smith Kunimori, who is said to have originally resided at Inokuma Omiya in Yamashiro Province before migrating to Bizen around the Bun'o era (1260--1261) during the Kamakura period. The group flourished most notably after the beginning of the Nanbokucho period, and among its members Morikage and Morishige are particularly well known. The name Morishige was carried by successive generations: the first appeared in the late Kamakura period, and smiths bearing the same name continued into the Muromachi period. Among examples on which the smith cut his place of residence, the inscription "Osafune" is seen, firmly establishing the group's association with the Bizen tradition. One later generation bore the common name Shinkuro, and his extant works are considered extremely few.
Morishige's forge work is characterized by *itame-hada*, sometimes with *nagare* tending toward the edge, upon which a faint *midare-utsuri* appears -- a hallmark of the Bizen lineage. The *hamon* takes as its principal motif a large, complex *gunome* described as *koshi-hiraki* -- an opened-waist pattern -- mixed with *choji*, producing bold and flamboyant undulations with *ashi* and *yo* entering throughout. The *nioi* is deep, *ko-nie* adheres well, and activities of *sunagashi*, *kinsuji*, and occasional *tobiyaki* are present. The *nioiguchi* tends toward being tight with *ko-nie* adhering, and the *boshi* is consistently *midare-komi*, turning back in *ko-maru* or with a pointed tip. Later-period works by the Shinkuro generation display none of the characteristic Omiya traits, showing instead no difference from the general Osafune Bizen type termed Sue-Bizen, evidence that the group had by then been fully absorbed into the Osafune school.
The NBTHK consistently praises Morishige's works for their *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved) condition of *ji* and *ha*, and characterizes the workmanship as flamboyant and attractive. His blades clearly demonstrate the characteristic style of the Omiya lineage, and they are recognized as excellent examples of that tradition. The trajectory of the Omiya group as reflected in Morishige's work -- from the distinctive opened-waist *gunome* of the Nanbokucho period to the eventual convergence with mainstream Osafune production in the Muromachi era -- provides valuable material for understanding the absorption of subsidiary Bizen lineages into the dominant school. Works bearing the Shinkuro name and dated inscriptions such as the Kyoroku era (1528--1532) are regarded as precious reference material for the study of this progression.
Morishige (盛重) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morokage (師景) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuhide (延秀) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuyoshi (信良) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuzane (信眞) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1381-1384. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Arishige (有重) — Mainline · 1345-1350. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kageyoshi (景良) — Mainline · 1389-1390. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Kunimori (國盛) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Morokage (師景) — Mainline · 1444-1449. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Narimori (成盛) — Mainline · 1345-1350. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Nobuhide (延秀) — Mainline · 1302-1303. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Norifusa (則房) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Suehito (末人) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tomomori (友盛) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1338-1342. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsugumori (次盛) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsunetake (恒建) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.
Tsuneto (恒遠) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Smith of the Bizen Ōmiya School.