Skip to content ITEM# UJKA327 – Catalogue 31 – Sold A Jumyô Katana (常陸守藤原寿命) The Jumyô school traces its origins to Yamato province (modern Nara) before relocating to Mino during the Kamakura period, eventually settling in Shimizu in Mino province under the long patronage of the Owari Tokugawa clans. The name Jumyô – written with the characters for kotobuki (congratulations) and inochi (life) – translates as “happy [long] life,” and blades bearing this signature were prized as auspicious gifts to daimyô families. This long, well-proportioned katana dates to the Middle Edo period, circa the Kyôho era, and carries the full signed title of Hitachi no Kami Fujiwara Jumyô – Lord of Hitachi province, of the Fujiwara clan, Jumyô. The blade’s character is thoroughly Mino in tradition: a bright gunome-midare hamon in rich ko-nie deki with rhythmic togari peaks, active ashi, kinsuji formations, and brushed sunagashi threading through the temper line. The jihada is a tight itame-hada with a quality that rewards careful examination under light. The boshi is a refined hakikake with a small turnback (ko-maru), requiring considerable skill from the smith. Despite a slight trim at the nakago-jiri – approximately 2cm removed to fit a desired tsuka at some point in the sword’s history – the full mei survives perfectly intact. The provenance of this katana is exceptional. It carries a sayagaki written personally by Dr. Honma Junji (1904-1991), known as Kunzan, the former director of the NBTHK and the foremost sword scholar of the 20th century. Honma gifted this katana to his brother-in-law Mori Kazuo – an inscription on the shirasaya reads ”Mori Kazuo-kei no tame” (for my brother-in-law Mori Kazuo), with the attribution title Iehisa Yokei Jumyô (Fortunate Family Heredity Jumyô). It was very likely a wedding present, given the auspicious nature of the Jumyô signature. The koshirae is an Edo-period uchigatana mounting lacquered in black with

Skip to content ITEM# UJKA327 – Catalogue 31 – Sold A Jumyô Katana (常陸守藤原寿命) The Jumyô school traces its origins to Yamato province (modern Nara) before relocating to Mino during the Kamakura period, eventually settling in Shimizu in Mino province under the long patronage of the Owari Tokugawa clans. The name Jumyô – written with the characters for kotobuki (congratulations) and inochi (life) – translates as “happy [long] life,” and blades bearing this signature were prized as auspicious gifts to daimyô families. This long, well-proportioned katana dates to the Middle Edo period, circa the Kyôho era, and carries the full signed title of Hitachi no Kami Fujiwara Jumyô – Lord of Hitachi province, of the Fujiwara clan, Jumyô. The blade’s character is thoroughly Mino in tradition: a bright gunome-midare hamon in rich ko-nie deki with rhythmic togari peaks, active ashi, kinsuji formations, and brushed sunagashi threading through the temper line. The jihada is a tight itame-hada with a quality that rewards careful examination under light. The boshi is a refined hakikake with a small turnback (ko-maru), requiring considerable skill from the smith. Despite a slight trim at the nakago-jiri – approximately 2cm removed to fit a desired tsuka at some point in the sword’s history – the full mei survives perfectly intact. The provenance of this katana is exceptional. It carries a sayagaki written personally by Dr. Honma Junji (1904-1991), known as Kunzan, the former director of the NBTHK and the foremost sword scholar of the 20th century. Honma gifted this katana to his brother-in-law Mori Kazuo – an inscription on the shirasaya reads ”Mori Kazuo-kei no tame” (for my brother-in-law Mori Kazuo), with the attribution title Iehisa Yokei Jumyô (Fortunate Family Heredity Jumyô). It was very likely a wedding present, given the auspicious nature of the Jumyô signature. The koshirae is an Edo-period uchigatana mounting lacquered in black with