Introduction Yamamura Yasunobu ( 山村安信 ) was a Japanese swordsmith who was active around the Ōei period of 1394-1428. He was part of the Yamamura school of Echigo province, who were a family of samurai who had taken up swordsmithing. This started with Masanobu was taught by the famous swordsmith Nobukuni of Kyoto. Nobukuni in turn traced his lineage back to the first-generation Nobukuni who was trained by Sōshū Sadamune, Masamune's son and lineage holder. The lineage combined Sōshū characteristics with more typical Kyoto Rai swordsmithing. This example A tantō from the first years of the Muromachi period. It appears to be unshortened ( ubu ) but with two peg holes ( mekugi-ana ). The most striking part of it is the sunken panel with dragon grasping a sacred jewel on the right side of the blade. It has the unusual feature of being blackened, with some elements highligted with pure gold. The style of the dragon indicates it was done in the Shintō period. At the base of the blade are two faint lines, indicative that there was once a different horimono in its place, probably a stylized ken (straightsword) as was commonly seen in the Sōshū line. On the other side is a very crisply carved Sanskrit character invoking Fudō Myōō (the Immovable Wisdom King), probably done around the same time as the dragon horimono . An unusual feature for the school is the very prominent utsuri present on both sides of this blade that is not described in the standard literature describing this school, yet the NBTHK did attribute it straight to this smith. Blade attributes (With plain English below) Sugata: Hira-zukuri , mitsu-mune, muzori . (Overall form: Wedge shaped cross-section with flat sides, tri-facetted spine, and no curvature.) Jigane: Itame mixed with nagare and masame with some ji-nie. Prominent utsuri. (Steel: Regular wood grain mixed with running and straight grain. Some martensite crystals in the area above the temperline.

Introduction Yamamura Yasunobu ( 山村安信 ) was a Japanese swordsmith who was active around the Ōei period of 1394-1428. He was part of the Yamamura school of Echigo province, who were a family of samurai who had taken up swordsmithing. This started with Masanobu was taught by the famous swordsmith Nobukuni of Kyoto. Nobukuni in turn traced his lineage back to the first-generation Nobukuni who was trained by Sōshū Sadamune, Masamune's son and lineage holder. The lineage combined Sōshū characteristics with more typical Kyoto Rai swordsmithing. This example A tantō from the first years of the Muromachi period. It appears to be unshortened ( ubu ) but with two peg holes ( mekugi-ana ). The most striking part of it is the sunken panel with dragon grasping a sacred jewel on the right side of the blade. It has the unusual feature of being blackened, with some elements highligted with pure gold. The style of the dragon indicates it was done in the Shintō period. At the base of the blade are two faint lines, indicative that there was once a different horimono in its place, probably a stylized ken (straightsword) as was commonly seen in the Sōshū line. On the other side is a very crisply carved Sanskrit character invoking Fudō Myōō (the Immovable Wisdom King), probably done around the same time as the dragon horimono . An unusual feature for the school is the very prominent utsuri present on both sides of this blade that is not described in the standard literature describing this school, yet the NBTHK did attribute it straight to this smith. Blade attributes (With plain English below) Sugata: Hira-zukuri , mitsu-mune, muzori . (Overall form: Wedge shaped cross-section with flat sides, tri-facetted spine, and no curvature.) Jigane: Itame mixed with nagare and masame with some ji-nie. Prominent utsuri. (Steel: Regular wood grain mixed with running and straight grain. Some martensite crystals in the area above the temperline.