Mumei katana, attributed to Taira Takada — Bungo Province, Eiroku era (1558–1570)NTHK kanteishō, no. 1925, issued 23 June 2024 — shōshinNagasa68.8 cm (2 shaku 2 sun 7 bu)KitaeItame with masame-nagareHamonNotareBōshiSugu, ko-maruHorimonoBō-hi with maru-dome, omote and uraNakagoTwo mekugi-ana, yasurime katte-sagariHabakiGold foil, nugget-textured groundMountingsKoshiraePrice$6,500 + shippingThe Takada school of Bungo occupies a particular place in the affections of collectors who care about swords as swords. The distinction that dates a Takada blade is one of signature: kotō smiths of the line signed with the Taira clan name, adopting Fujiwara only from Keichō onward. A blade judgedTairaTakada is therefore a kotō piece by the school’s own convention — and the NTHK has narrowed it further, to the Eiroku era, which places this katana in the hardest-used decade of the school’s history. Bungo in the 1560s was Ōtomo Sōrin’s province at the height of its ambitions in Kyushu, and Takada forges were supplying the swords those ambitions consumed. This is a blade made when the demand was real.Itame carrying masame-nagare is the Takada jigane — the flowing straight grain drawn through the ji is close to a school fingerprint, and it is what separates Bungo work from the Bizen and Mino idioms it otherwise borrows from. Against that ground the smith has set a notare, an unhurried undulating hamon rather than the gunome-midare that Takada is more often associated with, closing in a sugu ko-maru bōshi. The combination points to the Sōshū-influenced side of the school’s repertoire, and it is the harder choice to bring off: notare gives a smith nowhere to hide behind activity. What it offers instead is breadth and a certain calm in the ha, the temper reading as a slow wave along the length of the blade rather than a series of incidents.Bō-hi with maru-dome cut through both sides does real work here. Beyond lightening a blade meant to be carried, the paired grooves give the sugata a lea

Mumei katana, attributed to Taira Takada — Bungo Province, Eiroku era (1558–1570)NTHK kanteishō, no. 1925, issued 23 June 2024 — shōshinNagasa68.8 cm (2 shaku 2 sun 7 bu)KitaeItame with masame-nagareHamonNotareBōshiSugu, ko-maruHorimonoBō-hi with maru-dome, omote and uraNakagoTwo mekugi-ana, yasurime katte-sagariHabakiGold foil, nugget-textured groundMountingsKoshiraePrice$6,500 + shippingThe Takada school of Bungo occupies a particular place in the affections of collectors who care about swords as swords. The distinction that dates a Takada blade is one of signature: kotō smiths of the line signed with the Taira clan name, adopting Fujiwara only from Keichō onward. A blade judgedTairaTakada is therefore a kotō piece by the school’s own convention — and the NTHK has narrowed it further, to the Eiroku era, which places this katana in the hardest-used decade of the school’s history. Bungo in the 1560s was Ōtomo Sōrin’s province at the height of its ambitions in Kyushu, and Takada forges were supplying the swords those ambitions consumed. This is a blade made when the demand was real.Itame carrying masame-nagare is the Takada jigane — the flowing straight grain drawn through the ji is close to a school fingerprint, and it is what separates Bungo work from the Bizen and Mino idioms it otherwise borrows from. Against that ground the smith has set a notare, an unhurried undulating hamon rather than the gunome-midare that Takada is more often associated with, closing in a sugu ko-maru bōshi. The combination points to the Sōshū-influenced side of the school’s repertoire, and it is the harder choice to bring off: notare gives a smith nowhere to hide behind activity. What it offers instead is breadth and a certain calm in the ha, the temper reading as a slow wave along the length of the blade rather than a series of incidents.Bō-hi with maru-dome cut through both sides does real work here. Beyond lightening a blade meant to be carried, the paired grooves give the sugata a lea