The school of the single stroke. Across three phases its smiths signed not with a name but with one character — 一, "ichi" — cut into the tang. From the earliest Ko-Ichimonji masters through the flamboyant Fukuoka peak and into the Yoshioka continuation, Ichimonji forged the most exuberant chōji-midare of any Bizen lineage, and more National Treasures than almost any line in Japan.
Era
1175 — 1394
Members
388
Kokuhō
15
Jūbun
47
Jūbi
83
Tokujū
81
Jūyō
222
For Sale
8
Phase 01
古一文字Ko-Ichimonji1175 – 1249
18smiths1Kokuhō8Jūbun15Jūbi10Tokujū23Jūyō
Other smiths of this phase— students & parallel lines
Phase 02
福岡一文字Fukuoka Ichimonji1207 – 1288
303smiths12Kokuhō38Jūbun63Jūbi66Tokujū166Jūyō
Other smiths of this phase— students & parallel lines
Phase 03
吉岡一文字Yoshioka Ichimonji1288 – 1394
67smiths2Kokuhō1Jūbun5Jūbi5Tokujū33Jūyō
Other smiths of this phase— students & parallel lines
Sub-schools— branch houses of the Bizen Ichimonji School
Branch片山一文字Katayama Ichimonjifrom 助房32 smiths
Branch岩戸一文字Iwato Ichimonji21 smiths
Branch鎌倉一文字Kamakura Ichimonjifrom 助吉2 smiths
The Bizen Ichimonji School (一文字) Lineage
The The Bizen Ichimonji School (一文字), active 1175–1394 in Bizen Province across 388 documented smiths: 15 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 47 Jūbun, 83 Jūbi, 81 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 222 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · Ko-Ichimonji (古一文字) · 1175 – 1249
The Ko-Ichimonji -- the "old Ichimonji" -- designates the earliest phase of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen Province, encompassing the generation of smiths active from the late Heian through the early Kamakura period before the school's celebrated mid-Kamakura flowering into flamboyant *choji-midare*. The founder of the lineage is Norimune, who stands at the precise transitional moment between the older Ko-Bizen tradition and the emerging Ichimonji idiom. Around him gathered a constellation of closely related smiths -- Muneyoshi, Narimune (transmitted as Norimune's second son), Sukemune, Munetada, Shigehisa, Sadazane, Yukikuni, and Sukenori -- several of whom were appointed as *goban-kaji*, swordsmiths in the personal service of Retired Emperor Go-Toba during the Shoji era. The NBTHK consistently observes that the workmanship of these smiths differs markedly from the splendid, ornate style of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji masters: in *sugata* and in the workmanship of *jigane* and *hamon*, they strongly preserve the flavor of Ko-Bizen, presenting what the designation records describe as "an older and more antique range of expression."
The Ko-Ichimonji collective style is defined by a classical *tachi sugata* of slender build with pronounced *koshizori*, evident *funbari*, and compact *ko-kissaki* -- an "unmistakably graceful tachi silhouette" in the language of the designating body. The *kitae* characteristically displays tightly knit *ko-itame* or *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, bearing minute *ji-nie* and fine *chikei*, with conspicuous *midare-utsuri* standing out in the ji. The *hamon* is built on a *suguha*-based foundation into which *ko-choji*, *ko-midare*, and *ko-gunome* are mixed, with abundant *ashi* and *yo*, *ko-nie* adhering well, and frequent *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. This constitutes the school's prevailing mode -- restrained, archaic, and technically accomplished. Yet the group also encompasses a second, somewhat more assertive tendency visible in certain works by Muneyoshi and Munetada, where larger-clustered choji heads become conspicuous and occasional *tobiyaki* introduce greater fluctuation in the *yakiba* height. The *boshi* consistently finishes in *ko-maru* or *sugu* with return. When compared with Ko-Bizen, the Ko-Ichimonji manner tends toward somewhat more conspicuous and orderly choji with clearer utsuri, yet it remains fundamentally distinct from the brilliant flamboyance of the mature Fukuoka Ichimonji expression. An additional point of diagnostic interest is that *utsuri* behavior varies within the group: while most members display vivid midare-utsuri, Sadazane's works are notable for subdued or absent utsuri, a distinguishing feature the NBTHK has specifically identified.
The Ko-Ichimonji tradition occupies a foundational position within the Bizen canon as the school from which the entire Ichimonji lineage would develop. Norimune's restrained yet technically accomplished manner established the base upon which the school's later, more exuberant choji-midare style would be built. Muneyoshi, whose finest works are ranked among the foremost achievements of the tradition, presents the additional scholarly complexity of multiple hands behind a single name -- a plurality the NBTHK has consistently documented. Narimune's blades, calm in feeling yet vividly revealing the appearance of Ko-Ichimonji, include examples bearing distinguished provenance from the Tokugawa shogunal house and the Imperial Collection. Sadazane, praised for *jigane* that is "truly of excellent quality," inherited the style of Ko-Bizen while adding further novelty. Across the group, signed works are uniformly described as rare, lending pronounced documentary significance to each surviving example. The collective achievement of the Ko-Ichimonji smiths lies in having forged a coherent transitional idiom -- neither the austere archaism of Ko-Bizen nor the dazzling ornament of mid-Kamakura Ichimonji, but a distinct aesthetic of restrained classical grace that the NBTHK regards as among the most prized expressions of early Bizen swordsmithing.
Muneyoshi (宗吉) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Muneyoshi is a smith of the Ko-Ichimonji, the earliest generation of the Bizen Ichimonji, working in the opening years of the Kamakura period. The published sources place him at the threshold of the school: drawing on the *Kotō Meizukushi Taizen*, they record that 'Muneyoshi belonged to the Ko-Ichimonji'[[c:1]], that he was a son of Munekuni and married into the house of Norimune, 'son-in-law of Norimune, founder of the Ichimonji'[[c:2]], and that he served alongside Norimune and Sukemune as one of the ban-kaji, the swordsmiths in monthly attendance on Retired Emperor Go-Toba. One Jūyō Bijutsuhin entry identifies him with the smith the Meikan places around the Jōkyū years (1219-22) and records him as a ban-kaji of Go-Toba's seventh-month rotation; a Jūyō tachi gives him the Shōji-era rotation.
His blades are tachi, slender and well-proportioned, several retaining a high *koshizori* and strong funbari even where shortened. Over an *itame*, at times a closely packed *ko-itame* and mixed with *mokume*, the steel carries a thick *ji-nie* and a vivid *midare-utsuri* that stands out clearly on every blade whose *jigane* is described. The temper is the tell of his hand: not the full clove-flower of the later school but a *suguha*-toned small *midare*, into which he sets *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, with abundant *ashi* and *yō*, *ko-nie* well adhered, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running through. The *bōshi* runs straight into a small *ko-maru* or finishes in a *yakizume*-like sweep.
The *jigane* is the constant. *Itame* with *ji-nie* and a bright *midare-utsuri* appears on each fully described blade, sometimes with *chikei* entering frequently and the grain standing a little, and on one Jūyō *tachi* the forging tightens into *ko-itame* with *mokume*. Over that *jigane* the hamon stays comparatively calm. Where one Jūyō piece widens into a more flamboyant *midare* toward the middle with *tobiyaki*, the body of the temper remains a small irregular line, deep in *nioi* and ko-nie, the activity carried in *ashi* and *yō* rather than in towering clusters.
The published sources draw a careful distinction within his own work. Examining extant signed pieces, they find that the manner of the signature differs from blade to blade, and that the workmanship divides in two: some are archaic and classical in a Ko-Bizen mode, others mix in *chōji* for a somewhat more decorative feeling. From this they infer that 'there were multiple smiths'[[c:3]] using the one name Muneyoshi. The point recurs across his entries and is the central scholarly question around him, left open for further study. The commentary on the two *tachi* recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection reaches the same view, that he was "not one man, but that there were others of the same name"[[c:4]]. Of that pair, the shortened blade has a brilliant *midare-utsuri* over *ko-itame* and a *ko-midare* mixed with *chōji* and *kinsuji*, for this smith a work of good *jigane* and flamboyant execution. The *ubu* blade is quieter, a *chū-suguha*-toned temper with *ko-chōji* and *ko-midare*. The two signatures look much alike, yet on close inspection "differ considerably in the handling of the chisel"[[c:5]].
What separates the Ko-Ichimonji Muneyoshi from both his neighbours is exactly what the judges name. He is set apart from the flamboyant chōji-midare of the mid- to late-Kamakura Ichimonji, his temper read instead as 'an archaic register, unlike the flamboyant chōji-midare of the mid-Kamakura, with the old colour of its period'[[c:6]]. His own marks are the bright *midare-utsuri* in the *ji* and the *ko-chōji* gathering on a *suguha*-toned edge, the features the published sources sum up as making the Ko-Ichimonji character plain[[c:7]].
For the collector he is a rare early name. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record runs instead through Important Cultural Properties, Jūyō Bijutsuhin and the higher modern tiers, and the published commentary calls one shortened tachi 'foremost among works by the same hand'[[c:8]]. His blades are preserved in long-held collections and institutions grounded in their own provenance, the Mōri family among the daimyō houses, the Seikadō Bunko from the Iwasaki collection, and the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, with a pair held at Atsuta Jingū. Two more signed *tachi*, presented to the Emperor Meiji by the Matsukata and Sagara families, are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. Those two signed *tachi* are Important Cultural Properties, known by their plates, one tempered in *suguha* mixed with *ko-midare*, the other in *chōji-midare*. Honma noted that the signature of one of them is almost the same as that of the Seikadō *tachi*[[c:9]]. Only a small number fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, so a signed Ko-Ichimonji Muneyoshi comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how the Ichimonji began.
Sadazane (貞眞) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sadazane is one of the earliest of the Ichimonji smiths of Bizen, working in the early Kamakura period about the Hoji era of 1247 to 1249. The Meikan records him as a son of the Fukuoka Ichimonji founder Munetada, a line of descent the published sources repeat in their commentary on his blades, while a second tradition makes him a son of the Ko-Bizen smith Takatsuna. The published record sets the parentage against the work and finds them at odds: his surviving tachi, the commentary says again and again, fire a well-nie-laden ko-midare with no prominent reflection in the ji, so that they look more archaic than Munetada, "older in feeling than Munetada"[[c:1]]. For that reason some judges classed him not with the Ichimonji at all but with the older Ko-Bizen group, and the question of which side a given blade belongs to runs through his whole record. The point was settled by direct observation. The reference texts preserve Honma's note that he had examined examples carrying the character *ichi* above the two-character signature, "and so it is beyond doubt Ko-Ichimonji"[[c:2]], placing Sadazane at the very head of the school.
His characteristic hand is the quiet, archaic register the published sources treat as typical. Over a fine *ko-itame* the temper is a *suguha*-based *ko-midare* with *ko-choji*, *ashi* and *yo* entering freely, the *nioiguchi* bright, *ko-nie* gathering with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* coming and going, and the *boshi* running quietly to a small *ko-maru* turnback or burning out without one. What sets him apart is what is missing. Where the Ichimonji norm is a *midare-utsuri* standing vividly in the ji, the commentary records of Sadazane that the reflection is not prominent, and one Juyo note draws the contrast as his individuality: the Ko-Ichimonji blades mostly show a standing *utsuri*, "yet this smith has many works in which the reflection is not conspicuous"[[c:3]], and from this his own character can be read. The suguha base under the small *midare*, the restraint of the temper, and the absence of the showy reflection are the marks that the published sources return to as his typical work.
The *jigane* is the other half of the picture. The forging is a *ko-itame*, at times a *itame* with a standing tendency and flowing passages, very well knit, with *ji-nie* lying thick and fine and *chikei* entering through it. Through that *jigane* the published sources repeatedly note patches of *jifu*, the speckled steel of old Bizen and Aoe, and on one Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* the commentary writes that the *itame* stands a little and carries *ji-nie* thickly with "*jifu* mixed in that at a glance recalls Aoe"[[c:4]]. That speckled steel, rare among the brilliant Fukuoka and Katayama hands, is the most particular thing in his ji. On the finer-grained blades the same feature reads as a faint *jifu*-toned *utsuri*, present but never the bright, billowing reflection of the later Ichimonji.
His work falls into two registers of one manner. The typical one is the subdued *ko-midare* described above. A minority of his *tachi* show a somewhat showier hand, and the published sources flag the difference explicitly: of one Juyo *tachi* with a *midare-utsuri* standing and a *choji-midare* crossed with *gunome*, the commentary says it is "somewhat flamboyant for Sadazane"[[c:5]]. Of a Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* in the same fuller voice, the published record observes that it "carries on the manner of Ko-Bizen and adds a further freshness to it"[[c:6]], and finds in that the very thing worth seeing in the Ko-Ichimonji school. The signature itself is part of his identity. The mei is a two-character *Sadazane* cut large near the *mune* in a thin chisel, "large in thin strokes"[[c:7]], and the published sources name this *hosotagane* large two-character signature as one of the smith's own tells, a help in attribution given how few signed works survive.
The difficulty that defines his place in the school is the homonym. The published sources record that there is a Sadazane in both the Ko-Bizen group and the early Ichimonji "whose work and signature so resemble each other that they cannot readily be told apart"[[c:8]], and individual blades are judged to one side or the other case by case. Several of his Juyo tachi are read as Ko-Bizen work, others firmly as Ko-Ichimonji; the *ichi*-marked examples Honma saw anchor the Ichimonji end. The commentary frames his restraint as the school's virtue rather than a want of fire, noting of one blade that the subdued character is not Sadazane's alone but belongs to the whole early group, "and that everything is understated is itself a point to see"[[c:9]]. He stands at the threshold where Ko-Bizen passes into Ichimonji, his archaic *ko-midare* preceding the brilliant Fukuoka *choji* of Yoshifusa and the Katayama hand of Norifusa, and his blades are valued as records of the school at its very beginning.
Sadazane is rated *Jo saku* by Fujishiro, with a Toko Taikan valuation of 1,200,000 yen. Almost his whole surviving record is signed, an unusual circumstance for so early a Bizen master: twelve of his designated works carry his two-character mei against a single unsigned attribution. The designations stand at four Tokubetsu Juyo and seven Juyo, eleven blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, with one Important Cultural Property among them. The earliest, a *tachi* designated Juyo Bijutsuhin in 1939, is the blade the reference texts cite under Honma's *ichi*-mark note; it was held by Kazama Yokichi of Niigata. Among his Juyo the published sources single out one as "the foremost of the Ko-Ichimonji within the Important Sword rank"[[c:10]], and of his finest Juyo *tachi* the commentary calls it, "a valuable blade by which to know this smith's real ability, signed works by him being few"[[c:11]]. Recorded whereabouts of his blades include the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Tokyo National Museum and the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, the rest held in long-private hands. With one Important Cultural Property preserved as patrimony and never traded, his market is the small body of Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tachi; a signed Sadazane comes to light only rarely, and when one does it is a record of the earliest Ichimonji generation that few collectors will encounter.
Munetada (宗忠) — Mainline · 1211-1213. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The Juyo Bijutsuhin commentary identifies Munetada (宗忠) with the smith the *meikan* record under the Fukuoka Ichimonji around the Kenryaku era, 1211 to 1213, and the published sources place him among the Ko-Ichimonji, the earliest generation of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen. He is counted with Sukemune, Naomune, Muneyoshi, Narimune, Shigehisa and Sadazane among the early hands whose work keeps the flavour of Ko-Bizen. His tachi form is fixed in one sentence repeated across his designations: his tachi shapes "are limited to those of slender build with a compact ko-kissaki, possessing an old-fashioned charm"[[c:1]].
The fullest description belongs to a suriage tachi of the Tokubetsu Juyo, standard in *mihaba* with a marked difference between base and tip widths, still high in *koshizori*, drooping slightly toward the tip and closing in a *ko-kissaki*. Its *jigane* is *itame* mixed with *mokume*, standing overall, with *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and a *jifu-utsuri* stands out across it. The published sources make a particular point of that reflection: the dark banded areas of the *jifu-utsuri* "reliably rise high, clearly crossing over the shinogi"[[c:2]], and it is on this point that they accept an early Kamakura date. The temper is a *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-gunome* and a slight *ko-midare* tendency. Above the *monouchi* it becomes a straighter tone, with *ashi* and *yo*, *ko-nie* adhering, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The *boshi* runs in a shallow *notare-komi* with a *ko-maru* tendency.
His other blades are described more briefly, yet they hold to the same small scale. A greatly shortened Juyo tachi, narrow in *mihaba* with a small, compact point, is forged in *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume*, leaning slightly to standing grain, with *ji-nie* and *chikei*. Its temper is a *ko-notare* with *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome*, the *nioi* deep and *ko-nie* adhering well, *kinsuji* appearing here and there, and the slightly slender *boshi* runs straight to a *ko-maru*. Of the two prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi, one shows an *itame* of moist *urumi* quality with a distinct *midare-utsuri* and a *suguha*-toned *choji-midare* in *ko-nie*; the other shows *ji-nie*, a standing *midare-utsuri* and a *suguha* feeling mixed with *choji*, the *yakihaba* wide. The Important Cultural Property tachi at Mishima Taisha is catalogued as *shinogi-zukuri* with a *mitsu-mune*, an *itame* kitae and a *ko-choji* temper, 73.6 cm long.
Within this small body the published sources read two manners. The Tokubetsu Juyo tachi is a flamboyant interpretation, "with somewhat larger choji heads being conspicuous"[[c:3]], a manner they call occasionally seen among the Ko-Ichimonji, citing the Tokubetsu Juyo tachi by Shigehisa as a parallel. Beside it stand the quieter *suguha*-toned pieces of the prewar designations and the shortened Juyo tachi. Of one Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi the commentary records that it is "by the same hand as the Munetada listed above" (前掲(重美番号四五七番)の宗忠と同作である), so that two of his blades are tied together in the record itself. The Tokubetsu Juyo signature has a lower character that cannot be read with certainty, and the blade is appraised to Munetada from the form of the upper character Mune.
What places him is drawn from his own features. His clove pattern stays small in scale and tightens toward *suguha* above the *monouchi*, his tachi are slender with a compact point, and on his finest blade the *jifu-utsuri* crosses the *shinogi*. The published sources gather these into one judgment: in both *ji* and *ha* the Tokubetsu Juyo tachi "well displays the characteristics of Ko-Ichimonji"[[c:4]], and the same reflection fixes the generation to which he belongs.
Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku, and five designated works stand on record: one Important Cultural Property, the tachi at Mishima Taisha; one Tokubetsu Juyo; one Juyo; and two Juyo Bijutsuhin recognized in 1947. There is no National Treasure. The published sources state that "reliably authentic signed work of Munetada survives in only two or three examples"[[c:5]], and call the manner of his signature exceptionally fine; the Tokubetsu Juyo tachi they rank "an excellent work of Munetada showing superior workmanship"[[c:6]]. The provenance recorded against his blades is distinguished. One Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi is handed down in the Shimazu family, and the other was among the cherished swords of Suga Saneshu, a Shonai-domain retainer on close terms with Saigo Takamori. The Important Cultural Property is patrimony held at the shrine. With only two blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, a signed Munetada comes before a private collector only seldom, and such an encounter is a notable event.
Shigehisa (重久) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Shigehisa is one of the earliest Bizen Ichimonji smiths, an Ichimonji hand of the early Kamakura period whose surviving work the published sources call few. His name sits across a line the swordbooks themselves are unwilling to draw. The Meikan carries Shigehisa in both the Ko-Bizen lineage and the early Ichimonji, and a Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi names him plainly as "Ko-Ichimonji Shigehisa of Bizen Province"; yet a Jūyō piece records that in the reference works he is treated as a Fukuoka Ichimonji smith "while the workmanship is rather that of Ko-Bizen, the period appraised as early Kamakura"[[c:1]]. The published sources go further and say that the matter cannot be settled by the signature, that "from the manner of signing alone it is difficult to decide at a glance whether a piece is Ko-Bizen or Ichimonji"[[c:2]]. To know Shigehisa is to read a smith who stands at the very root of the school, before its school-name had hardened into a manner.
His recognized work is the slender, two-character signed tachi. Most surviving examples have been shortened, yet they keep an old-fashioned early-Kamakura shape: a narrow body with a *ko-kissaki*, the *koshizori* running high and the curvature shallowed by the shortening, one Jūyō blade showing a clear taper from base to point. Over a *ko-itame* well packed, at times mixed with *mokume*, lies the feature the judges return to. A *midare-utsuri* stands distinctly above the *jigane*, and the published commentary on his Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi notes that on his steel the reflection "appears more clearly than on Ko-Bizen pieces"[[c:3]]. That clarity of *utsuri*, over so closely knit a forging, is what lifts him out of the plainer Ko-Bizen hands and toward the Ichimonji.
The temper is a quiet one, and it is the second half of his tell. It is not the towering clove-flower of the school's later prime but a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare* into which *ko-chōji* is mixed to a considerable degree, the published sources naming the *ko-nie-deki ko-midare* with its abundant *ko-chōji* as the very mark of Ko-Ichimonji. *Ashi* and *yō* enter well, the *habuchi* is deep in *nioi* with *ko-nie* laid along it, and on one Jūyō blade *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run within the temper. The *jigane* itself carries thick *ji-nie*, and where the forging stands a little, mixing *nagare-hada*, the reflection only grows more visible. The *bōshi* runs straight to a small round. On one Jūyō tachi the *chōji* is held back so far that, in the judges' words, "the chōji does not stand out, and there is an antique flavour"[[c:4]].
There is variety within the few blades, and the published sources read it carefully rather than smooth it over. The Jūyō Bijutsuhin pieces divide between a well-knit *itame* with thickly applied *ji-nie* and a *ko-midare* mixing *chōji* and *sunagashi*, and a broader-tempered tachi with a wide *yakihaba* and *ko-chōji*. The judgment of a single blade has moved between the two. When his best-known tachi was first designated Jūyō in 1958, the commentary, citing its rather bold signature and *ko-nie*-based archaic elegance, judged it probably a Ko-Bizen work; at Tokubetsu Jūyō in 1976 the same blade was designated as Ko-Ichimonji Shigehisa. The Ibaraki Jūyō tachi, with its standing *midare-utsuri* and restrained *chōji*, is read the other way: the reference works place him in the Fukuoka Ichimonji line, but the commentary finds its workmanship rather that of Ko-Bizen, of the early Kamakura period. One wide Jūyō Bijutsuhin tachi carries a carved *bonji* at the koshimoto, which the judge Honma calls exceptional: "the carving of a bonji is rare not only among Shigehisa's works but among Ichimonji blades generally"[[c:5]].
What sets the Ko-Ichimonji Shigehisa apart from his neighbours is exactly what the judges name. From the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths he is divided by the brightness of his *midare-utsuri* and the gathering of *ko-chōji* on the edge; from the flamboyant mid-Kamakura Ichimonji of Norimune, Sukezane and Yoshifusa he is divided by the quietness of his hand, his *suguha*-toned small temper standing before the school's full flowering of full-size *chōji*. He keeps the flavour of Ko-Bizen in his shape and in his *ji* and *ha* alike, one of the early hands the swordbooks call Ko-Ichimonji beside Sukemune, Naomune, Munetada and the rest. He is a document of how the Ichimonji began, the quiet root from which the most brilliant of the Bizen traditions grew.
For the collector he is a rare early name held almost entirely outside the market. Fujishiro grades him Jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record runs instead through one Important Cultural Property, a tachi preserved at Hie Shrine in Tokyo, together with a Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi once held by Ikeda Nagamasa, a further Jūyō tachi, and two prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin pieces that passed through the Tokyo collector Itō Tarō and the Hyōgo collector Seto Yasutarō. One more signed tachi, outside the designation lists, is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The published sources call the extant works few, and signed Shigehisa tachi number no more than a handful in all. Only two fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, and those, like most designated blades, are held rather than traded. A signed Ko-Ichimonji Shigehisa comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a witness to the first generation of the Bizen Ichimonji.
Narimune (成宗) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Jūbi, Jūyō. Narimune signed his tachi with a two-character mei, and the published sources state that he and Sukemune used no other form[[c:1]]. He is one of the Ko-Ichimonji smiths, the first generation of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school that Norimune founded in Bizen at the opening of the Kamakura period. The records place him close to the founder but do not agree on the relation. The Juyo commentaries of 1961 and 1963 write that he "is handed down as the second son of Norimune"[[c:2]], a Juyo Bijutsuhin entry calls him simply Norimune's son, and both a later Juyo commentary and the entry in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection record him as Norimune's younger brother. The NBTHK names him with Sukemune, Naomune, Muneyoshi, Munetada, Shigehisa and Sadazane among the early hands set apart as Ko-Ichimonji.
His signed tachi keep the early Kamakura shape. They are slender, with a small *kissaki*, the *koshizori* high and *funbari* at the base, and one *ubu* tang still carries its own curve. Of the signed tachi passed at the seventh Juyo session the published sources write that "the slender tachi form with high koshizori and funbari is typical of the early Kamakura period"[[c:3]]. The temper is quiet and narrow: a *ko-midare* mixed with *ko-choji* in *ko-nie*. On the three tachi raised to Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war it is read as a *ko-nie suguha* into which *ko-midare* and *ko-choji* are mixed. *Ashi* and *yo* enter, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* in places, and on one tachi *tobiyaki*.
The *jigane* is a *ko-itame* that packs well with fine *ji-nie*, at times an *itame*. One blade is a little *zanguri*, and two carry some *o-hada*. Over it a *midare-utsuri* stands, often faintly. On the tachi designated at the sixty-second session the *ko-itame* is mixed with *mokume*, with fine *chikei* and a *jifu-utsuri*. Its commentary calls it a work in which "the points of interest proper to Ko-Ichimonji can be fully savoured"[[c:4]]. The *boshi* runs straight, or with a slight undulation, to a *ko-maru*; on that late tachi the ura turns in an *o-maru*. The suriage tachi in Honma's inventory shows the plainer side of the same idiom. Its *itame* tends to flow, with *o-hada* mixed in, and a *ko-midare* with *ko-choji* and plentiful *ashi* and *yo* turns showy at the middle of the omote. The whole is somewhat tired and the *nioiguchi* soft, yet the commentary calls the cut of the mei truly good[[c:5]].
Beside the signed tachi stand two *o-suriage* mumei katana judged to him. The published sources accept both as early Fukuoka Ichimonji without hesitation, the tachi shape of each showing the age of the period even after shortening. They caution that the personal attribution cannot be pressed: there are "few decisive points by which it must positively be Narimune"[[c:6]]. The reading therefore rests on period and school.
The NBTHK sets the whole group against the school's later brilliance. The Fukuoka Ichimonji school flourished most in the middle Kamakura period, but the work of the Ko-Ichimonji smiths differs from that ornate manner, and "in shape and in the make of the ji and ha the flavour of Ko-Bizen strongly survives"[[c:7]]. Honma's commentary gives the measured verdict that his skill does not reach Norimune or Sukemune, yet his work shows the features of the early Ichimonji well[[c:8]]. Another Juyo commentary finds an archaic flavour in his *ko-choji* and *ko-midare* in *ko-nie*.
Fujishiro rates him Jo-jo saku, and the Toko Taikan values his work at 1,300 points. His designated record lies wholly in the prewar and Juyo tiers. It comprises three signed tachi designated Juyo Bijutsuhin in 1940 and 1942, five Juyo blades, three signed and two mumei, and the signed tachi in Honma's inventory. The published sources observe that "the extant tachi of this name number no more than a few"[[c:9]]. One of the mumei katana "descended originally from the Tokugawa shogunal house"[[c:10]]. A Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi was owned at its designation by Date Muneoki. A signed Narimune comes to light only from time to time, and an attributed katana of his school appears a little more often, though never as a matter of course.
Sukemune (助宗) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Jūbun, Jūyō. Sukemune of the Ko-Ichimonji is recorded as a son of Norimune, the founder of the Fukuoka Ichimonji, and as one of the smiths who served in the *goban kaji* rota of Go-Toba-in. The published sources state that 「助宗は則宗の子で御番鍛冶の一人として知られるが、その遺例は極めて少なく」 (Sukemune is known as a son of Norimune and one of the *goban kaji*, but his surviving works are extremely few), and until the 1990s the only signed works accepted with confidence were a tachi at Matsugasaki Shrine in Yonezawa, an Important Cultural Property handed down from Uesugi Kagekatsu, and a tachi in the Tokyo National Museum. His record now comprises two Important Cultural Properties and two Juyo blades.
The sources place him within a group whose manner they define against its neighbours: 「同派の作風は古備前に比してやや丁子が目立って整い、映りが鮮明となるが、鎌倉中期のものに見るような絢爛たる丁子乱れの作風とは趣をかなり異にしている」 (compared with Ko-Bizen, the group's *choji* is somewhat more prominent and orderly and the *utsuri* clearer, yet the feeling differs considerably from the splendid *choji-midare* of mid-Kamakura work). The Matsugasaki tachi, 77.8 cm with a *maru-mune*, is recorded with *ko-itame* forging and a *suguha*.
The tachi designated Juyo in 1998 came to light only recently, and its signature differs in hand from the two older examples; the sources nonetheless find it 「いかにも古朴で雅味があり」 (truly archaic, simple and elegant) and 「古一文字以外には紛れることのない古様にして格調高い作品である」 (an old-style work of high dignity that could not be mistaken for anything but Ko-Ichimonji). It is *ubu*, narrow, with a high *koshizori*, *funbari* and a *ko-kissaki*; the *jigane* is *itame* mixed with *mokume* with a vivid *midare-utsuri*, and the *hamon* is *suguha* in character with small irregularities, *ko-ashi*, slight *hotsure* below the *yokote*, fine *ko-nie* and *kinsuji*. It is accompanied by an iron tachi mounting thought to be contemporary with the blade, and it was long kept as a sacred treasure of the Izuo Hachiman Shrine in Higashi-Yoshino, Nara, with storage boxes made in Shōhō 3 (1646) and Kaei 6 (1853).
The katana designated Juyo in 1994 is *suriage*, slender with a high *sori* and a *chu-kissaki*, its *jigane* *itame* with *ji-nie* and *midare-utsuri*. The *hamon* is *suguha* in character with small *gunome* and *ko-midare*, *ko-ashi* and *yo*, *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* adhering well, and the sources judge that 「総じて技巧味が目だたぬ穏やかな乱れとなり、古一文字の特徴がよく表示されている」 (overall the irregular temper is quiet, without conspicuous artifice, and shows the features of Ko-Ichimonji well). Its *kiritsuke-mei* breaks off at the shortening and is read as having stated that the blade was a shortened Sukemune, so that 「所伝は充分に首肯し得るものである」 (the traditional attribution can be fully accepted).
The second Important Cultural Property, a 70.0 cm tachi held by the Kinsei Corporation of Osaka, is recorded with *ko-itame* forging and a *juka-choji-midare*, a fuller *choji* than the restrained temper the sources describe for the Ko-Ichimonji blades above.
Nobufusa (信房) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Kokuhō, Jūyō. The National Treasure at the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka is a tachi signed Nobufusa saku (信房作), received by Sakai Tadatsugu from Tokugawa Ieyasu for military merit and handed down thereafter in the Sakai family, lords of the Shonai domain[[c:1]]. It is one of two designated works now placed under this Nobufusa, a smith of the early Ichimonji school at the turn of the Heian into the Kamakura period. He is not the Nobufusa who signed with the characters 延房, a separate smith with his own entry. The published sources record two master smiths of the name in Bizen, one of Ko-Bizen and one of Ichimonji, and the tradition they cite gives the two-character signature 信房 to the Ko-Bizen smith and the three-character Nobufusa saku to the Ichimonji smith.
The National Treasure was itself first designated as Ko-Bizen Nobufusa, on the strength of an archaic, elegant temper based on *ko-midare* mixed with *choji*. Its commentary records that the attribution has since been reopened: 「近年二字銘信房の新資料の発見にともない再検討されており、古来の伝えのように一文字の信房であるとの見方が強い」 (with the recent discovery of new material bearing the two-character signature it is being re-examined, and the view is strong that, as the old tradition holds, it is the Ichimonji Nobufusa). The tachi is slender, with high *koshizori* and *funbari* and a small *kissaki*. Its *jigane* is a well-packed *ko-itame* thick in *ji-nie*, with a faint *midare-utsuri* and *yubashiri* here and there. The hamon is a shallow *notare* tone mixed with *ko-midare* and *ko-choji*, with frequent *ashi* and *yo* and strong *nie*, the temper widening in the upper half. The *boshi* is deeply hardened and well covered in *nie*, a *ko-maru* in style on the omote and with *hakikake* on the ura. The nakago is *ubu* in a *kijimomo* shape, and the three characters are cut above the *mekugi-ana* toward the *mune*.
The second work is an *ubu* tachi signed Nobufusa saku, designated Juyo Token at the 25th session in 1977. The published sources date it no later than the late Heian to early Kamakura period, note that 「信房は古備前派と古一文字派に同名がある」 (there are smiths of the name Nobufusa in both the Ko-Bizen and the Ko-Ichimonji groups), and resolve it by the signature: 「本作は古刀銘尽大全にある三字銘の古一文字にほぼ見合うものと鑑せられ」 (this work is judged to correspond closely to the three-character Ko-Ichimonji signature recorded in the *Koto Meizukushi Taizen*). They single out its form: 「腰反り高く踏張りつき、先にうつむくこころあり、小鋒という太刀姿が美しく古調である」 (with high *koshizori* and *funbari*, a slight downward tendency toward the tip and a *ko-kissaki*, its tachi shape is beautiful and archaic). Its *jigane* differs from the National Treasure's, an *itame* with *nagare-hada*, mixed with *o-hada* and standing out, with a *midare-utsuri*; *umegane* is present and some *ji-are* is noticeable. The hamon is based on *suguha* and mixed with *ko-midare*, with *choji-ashi* and *ko-ashi* entering well, the *ha* richly covered in *nie* with frequent *sunagashi* and *kinsuji*. The *boshi* undulates gently and turns back in *ko-maru*, and a *suken* is cut on the *haki-omote* above the signature.
Both works are therefore three-character tachi, and both are placed with the Ichimonji smith by the same reasoning, the tradition that assigns the sanjimei to Ichimonji. The two designated works on record divide plainly. The National Treasure at the Chido Museum is preserved as patrimony and will not trade; the Juyo tachi is the only one of his works in a tier that can change hands, and a blade of this name and period reaches the market only rarely.
Naomune (尚宗) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukikuni (行國) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Tokujū. Yukikuni was an early swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group in Bizen Province, active during the early Kamakura period around the Jogen era (c. 1207--1211). He is counted among the smiths summoned as *ban-kaji* -- smiths in appointed service -- to forge for the Retired Emperor Go-Toba. Tradition further relates that he later resided in Ishikawa in Kawachi Province. The *Hidansho*, written by Utsunomiya Mikawa Nyudo, describes his workmanship as bold and somewhat rustic, with rounded steel and thick *ha*. Extant signed works by Yukikuni are extremely few.
Yukikuni's tachi present an elegant and classical form: slender, with *ko-kissaki* and high *koshizori* in which the curvature advances toward the tip, producing a restrained *fushi-gokoro* impression characteristic of the period. The forging is fine *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume*, with *ji-nie* adhering thickly and fine *chikei* entering. Vivid *midare-utsuri* stands out distinctly in the *ji*. The *hamon* is composed of small-pattern elements -- *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare* -- with small *ashi* and occasional *tobiyaki* interspersed in the upper half, while *ko-nie* adheres well. The *boshi* is typically *midare-komi*, turning back in *ko-maru*. Compared with Ko-Bizen, this work reveals greater technical sophistication and refinement, making the characteristic features of Ko-Ichimonji conspicuously manifest.
Yukikuni's blades survive in *kenzen* condition with *ubu nakago* bearing crisp, clearly legible signatures -- a circumstance of the highest desirability given the rarity of his signed work. Each example constitutes precious documentary material for research into Yukikuni, the early Fukuoka Ichimonji school, and the broader Bizen tradition in the early Kamakura period.
Other smiths
Sukenori (助則) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Sukenori (助則) was a swordsmith of the Ko-Ichimonji group active in Bizen Province during the early Kamakura period, traditionally placed around the Jōkyū era (1222–1224). Reference works record him as the son of Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukemune. He is counted among the smiths appointed as imperial *ban-kaji* in the service of Emperor Go-Toba, a distinction shared with Sukenari — the only two Ko-Ichimonji smiths for whom extant blades bear the prefixed character "ichi"[[c:1]] above the individual name.
Sukenori's work represents the earlier phase of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, before the flamboyant, large *chōji-midare* that would characterize the school's mid-Kamakura flowering. His tachi typically show a slender *mihaba* with *ko-kissaki*, preserving a strong Ko-Bizen flavor in both *sugata* and *jiba*. The *kitae* is *itame*, sometimes with a moist tendency, producing a clear *jihada* in which *midare-utsuri* appears distinctly. His *hamon* ranges from *suguha*-based compositions intermingled with *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome* — described as archaic in feeling with thickly applied *ko-nie*, *kinsuji*, and gentle utsuri — to *chōji-midare* with plentiful *ashi* and *yō* and a somewhat wide *yakiba*. The NBTHK characterizes his earlier-mode work as possessing "a restrained, understated appeal," noting that the utsuri remains "gentle and faint" in contrast to more pronounced later Ichimonji examples.
Surviving signed works by Sukenori are exceptionally rare. The three blades bearing his name show minor differences in signature style, but expert opinion holds them to be by the same hand, with the finest among them achieving "workmanship not inferior to Sukemune." His output constitutes valuable material for the study of the Ko-Ichimonji school and the transitional character of early Kamakura Bizen swordsmithing, bridging the archaic Ko-Bizen idiom and the brilliant Ichimonji tradition that would follow.
Muneyori (宗依) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Muneyori is transmitted as a smith of the Ko-Bizen school, listed in the *meikan* as "Bizen Genryaku-zen" — that is, active before the Genryaku era (1184–1185) — placing him at the boundary of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. His precise lineage within the Ko-Bizen group remains a matter of scholarly uncertainty; the designation records note that his school affiliation "is not entirely clear." His workmanship and the manner of his signature (*mei*) are regarded as similar to those of Kageyori, suggesting a close working relationship or shared workshop tradition within the broader Ko-Bizen milieu. Extant works bearing his signature are extremely few, lending considerable rarity to any authenticated example.
Muneyori's tachi are rendered in *shinogi-zukuri* with *iori-mune*, exhibiting pronounced *koshi-zori* with *fumibari* and *chu-kissaki* — a classical Ko-Bizen silhouette. The forging is an *itame-hada* that stands out with a tendency toward *hada-dachi*, with *ji-nie* adhering and faint *utsuri* appearing in the ground. The *hamon* is characteristically a *chu-suguha* base into which *ko-midare* and *ko-choji* intermingle, tempered with *ko-nie*; *ashi* and *yo* enter, and *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* are observed within the temper line. The *nioiguchi* is noted as deep and clear. The *boshi* tends toward a straight form, either tightening in (*sugu ni tsumeru*) or turning in *ko-maru* with *hakikake*. The *nakago* bear bold, large two-character signatures executed in a confident hand.
The NBTHK characterizes Muneyori's work as possessing an antique charm — *koko* — that is the hallmark of early Bizen workmanship. At the same time, the records acknowledge a somewhat provincial quality that "lacks refinement," distinguishing his hand from the more polished output of later Bizen masters. This combination of archaic dignity and forthright rusticity places Muneyori among the earliest identifiable personalities of the Bizen tradition, a smith whose rare surviving blades preserve the austere character of Ko-Bizen craftsmanship before the school's celebrated refinement of subsequent generations.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1190-1220. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ietada (家忠) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagasuke (長助) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sadanori (定則) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Phase 2 · Fukuoka Ichimonji (福岡一文字) · 1207 – 1288
Centered at Fukuoka in Bizen across the middle Kamakura decades, this window is the loud heart of the Ichimonji school, the moment when the *ichi*-mark workshops pushed their *chōji* tempering to its showiest extreme. The setsumei repeatedly name the same triad as its representative hands: Norifusa, Sukezane, and Yoshifusa, a grouping cited again and again as the smiths who forged the most flamboyant *chōji-midare* of the period. Around them work Sukefusa, recorded as a two-character-signature smith from whom Yoshifusa, Norifusa, and Sukezane are transmitted as sons, together with Sukemori, Sukehide, Hirotoshi, Narichika, and a Fukuoka Yoshiie whose two-character blades are at times hard to separate from the Sanjō line. Norifusa, son of Sukefusa, later relocated to a place called Katayama and so came to be styled Katayama Ichimonji, a branch reading often left an open question between Bitchū and a Katayama near Fukuoka itself. Where the earlier Ko-Ichimonji generations still carried a Ko-Bizen character, with *ko-midare* more prominent than *chōji*, this phase resolves that older quietness into full, deliberate spectacle as Bizen rose to supply the Kamakura warrior demand.
The defining temper here is *chōji-midare* worked at large scale: *ō-chōji*, layered *jūka-chōji*, and tadpole-shaped *kawazu-ko chōji* that climb and drop in tall waists across the *ha*. The blades named Norifusa show wide *mihaba*, high deep *koshizori*, retained *funbari*, and a generous *chū-kissaki*, the broad mid-Kamakura sugata that carries such a busy temper. The ground is a well-packed *ko-itame*, sometimes standing into *hada-dachi* with mixed *mokume*, carrying densely applied *ji-nie*, fine *chikei*, and a vivid *midare-utsuri* that rises clearly against the steel; the *jigane* reads bright and clear. *Ashi* and *yō* enter in profusion, the *nioiguchi* runs soft and *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie*, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* play through the hardening. This separates the phase on both sides. Against the calmer Ko-Ichimonji *ko-midare*, the Fukuoka work is taller and more exuberant; against the later Yoshioka Ichimonji, whose temper narrows into smaller-motif *chōji-midare* with conspicuous *gunome* and a frequent *saka-gakari* lean, the Fukuoka temper is broader, deeper, and less regular. The Katayama-attributed blades within this phase already foreshadow that reverse tendency, hardening flamboyant but reverse-inclined *chōji*.
For kantei, the combination to read is wide mid-Kamakura sugata, large undulating *chōji-midare* with *jūka* and *kawazu-ko* mixed in, a soft *nioi*-dominant *nioiguchi*, and standing *midare-utsuri* over bright *ko-itame*. Two-character signatures cut boldly with a thick chisel recur across Norifusa, Sukemori, Sukehide, and Norinawa, and many surviving blades are *suriage* or *ō-suriage* tachi. The named masters carry weight beyond style: a Narichika tachi descends through the Date family of Sendai, a Norifusa passed through the Yanagisawa family, and Hon'ami appraisals by Kōtsune and Kōchū accompany Sukemori and Norifusa works. One *den* Norifusa katana bears a *kinpun-mei* reading *Tenka Daiichi*, "Best Under Heaven," a measure of how the connoisseurs of later centuries ranked this Fukuoka peak among Bizen production.
Sukezane (助眞) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The published sources name Sukezane of the Bizen Fukuoka Ichimonji school as one of the smiths who represent the peak flourishing of that school in the mid Kamakura period, and they place him beside the celebrated National Treasure "Nikkō Sukezane"[[c:1]], the favored sword of Tokugawa Ieyasu, as the archetype of his hand. Tradition holds, the same descriptions record, that he later moved to Kamakura in Sagami at the order of the shogunate, together with Bizen Saburō Kunimune and Awataguchi Kunitsuna of Yamashiro; his name appears in the Sagami-smith genealogy of the *Kanchiin-bon Meizukushi*, and from old times the appellation "Kamakura Ichimonji" has been applied to this line. One of the published descriptions goes further and calls him a forerunner of the Sagami smiths[[c:2]], so that he stands at the point where Bizen *chōji* turns toward Sōshū.
The characterization the sources return to, blade after blade, sets him within a trio and then apart from it. When one names the representative Ichimonji makers of this era, the published descriptions write, one names Yoshifusa, Norifusa, and this Sukezane; all of them develop a flamboyant *chōji-midare*[[c:3]]. Sukezane, however, shows a *ji* and *ha* that are, in the recurring formula, distinctly stronger than those of the other smiths[[c:4]], so that even amid their brilliance his work overflows with a sense of power[[c:5]]. The mark the sources single out as his own is the *nie* of the hardened edge: especially in the *yakiba*, they write, fine *ko-nie* adheres well[[c:6]], revealing a manner unique to this smith.
The forging the descriptions assign to him is an *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing in places (*hada-dachi*), with *ji-nie* thickly applied and *chikei* entering, over which a *midare-utsuri* rises vividly. On that *jigane* he tempers an exuberant *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome*, carrying large-cluster *ōbusa-chōji*, *jūka-chōji*, and the tadpole-headed *kawazu-ko chōji*, the yaki-height rising and falling so that the temper is flamboyantly animated; *ashi* and *yō* enter freely, the *nioiguchi* is deep, and *ko-nie* adheres. What the sources record as the consistent measure of his hand is the activity that fills the edge: *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run vigorously, with *nie-suji* mixed in, and the *bōshi* runs *midare-komi*, often turning to a point or to *hakikake*, at times taking on a flame-like form. Where it does not point it settles to a quiet *ko-maru*, the two readings of one restless hand. His nine Important Cultural Properties are catalogued more briefly, most of them with a *ko-itame* kitae and a *choji-midare*, often an *o-choji-midare*; the signed katana in the Tokugawa Art Museum is recorded as an *itame* with *juka-choji* mixed with *tobiyaki*.
The descriptions divide his work into two registers, read from the *nakago* and the *mei* together. Blades whose signature is cut high and toward the *mune* with a slightly finer, sharper chisel tend, they write, to a wide *mihaba* and a large-pattern *chōji-midare* with conspicuous rises and falls and deep *nioi*, and are the most quintessentially Sukezane in manner; blades whose signature is cut lower and toward the center with a thicker, rounded chisel run to a standard or slightly slender, gentle *tachi* form with the *chōji* worked smaller. The sources note an outlier to both: a slender, elegant *tachi*, *suguha*-based with *ko-midare*, *ko-chōji*, and *ko-gunome*, vigorous *sunagashi* and frequent *kinsuji*, which differs from his usual flamboyant *chōji-midare* and, at a glance, recalls the *Ko-Bizen* school. They prize it as documentary material for the breadth of his range. Most of his surviving great blades are *ō-suriage* and *mumei*, attributed by the Hon'ami and at times carrying their gold-inlay appraisals; where he signed, it is the two-character *mei* 助真.
From the rest of the Fukuoka Ichimonji the sources tell him by the deeper, more active *nie*, by the *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* that thread the edge, and by the pointed, *hakikake* *bōshi*. Toward Sagami they read the same forcefulness forward: one of the published descriptions, weighing a blade thick in *ji-nie* and rich in *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, finds in it a Sōshū-den coloration[[c:7]] and says it convincingly explains why the term "Kamakura Ichimonji" came into use. The National Treasure text of the Nikkō Sukezane, finding its large pattern violently disordered and laden with *nie*, records for that blade too that there is a theory it was made in Kamakura[[c:8]]. It is by his Bizen *chōji* base and the bright *midare-utsuri*, which the Sagami work to come would lose, that he remains an Ichimonji master even as his power points beyond the school.
He is *Sai-jō saku* in Fujishiro's grading, and the weight of designation behind his name is heavy: two of his blades are National Treasures and nine are Important Cultural Properties, with twelve Tokubetsu Jūyō and twelve Jūyō beneath them, some twenty-four blades standing in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers together. About half of what survives is unsigned attribution accepted as his work, much of it *ō-suriage*; signed pieces make up roughly the other half, and every reliable *mei* is the two characters the sources make a point of recognition. The provenance recorded against his blades runs through the men who held the country: Taikō Hideyoshi, Katō Kiyomasa, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi the fifth shogun, with the Owari Tokugawa Family, the Kishū Tokugawa Family, the Uesugi Family, the Chōfu Mōri Family, the Ikeda Family, the Ōkubo Family lords of Odawara, the Okudaira Family, and Hachisuka Tadataka. His finest are kept now in the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Mitsui Memorial Museum, the Hayashibara Museum of Art, and Itsukushima Jinja, and only a small number can ever trade. Some twenty-four blades stand across the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, so that a Sukezane is not wholly beyond a private collection, yet most of these are held rather than offered, and one reaching the market is a rare event.
Yoshifusa (吉房) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. In the mid-Kamakura period the swordsmiths of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen collectively developed a style of splendid, sumptuous large-pattern o-choji-midare, and within that company the published sources single out Yoshifusa, together with Sukezane and Norifusa, as the smith who "forged especially large-patterned midareba" and stands as "a leading master representing the school"[[c:1]]. The NBTHK measures his standing by the designations themselves, writing that, as his National Treasures attest, "his technical ability is especially outstanding"[[c:2]]. Five of his blades are National Treasures today, a count exceeded by only two smiths in the entire record, with three Important Cultural Properties beside them, and Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku.
The hand the published record assigns to him is the apogee of the Ichimonji manner. "Yoshifusa is characteristically distinguished," one designation text states, "by a hamon of large choji-midare showing variation in the height of the hardening, into which fukuro-choji and kawazu-ko choji are intermingled"[[c:3]]. The fukuro-choji, a vertically elongated and slightly angular cluster, is named his specialty[[c:4]], and the sources find his character plainly declared wherever it appears. Across the blade the large clusters rise and fall in a flamboyant midare, set somewhat lower around the monouchi and near the base. Ashi and yo enter vigorously, the temper is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi run through the ha, with tobiyaki in places. Again and again the descriptions close on a nioiguchi that is "bright and clear"[[c:5]].
Beneath that temper lies an itame jigane mixed with mokume, recorded in nearly every blade and in places taking on a standing-grain tendency. Ji-nie adheres, frequently in a minute, dust-fine layer, and fine chikei are woven through it. Above all the published sources record the midare-utsuri, present in the great majority of his work; on his finest pieces it "stands vividly"[[c:6]]. The boshi keeps no single habit: it runs midare-komi, at times with a pointed tendency, or holds straight and turns back in ko-maru, the point often swept with hakikake.
That flamboyance is the center of a wider range. The published sources note repeatedly that his workmanship runs from the brilliant hand to calmer constructions in a suguha-toned manner mixing ko-choji and ko-gunome, and they judge one such restrained tachi close to the work of Osafune Nagamitsu. Another blade, a small-pattern midare with thick nie, is finished in an archaic style that "at first glance evokes the manner of Ko-Bizen"[[c:7]]. A third, kept to a low yakiba over ko-choji, is said to "call to mind, in a continuous vein, Ko-Ichimonji"[[c:8]], and stands near the National Treasure Yanome Yoshifusa of the Shimazu family in both workmanship and signature. At the other end of the range, an ubu tachi built on suguha with ko-midare and ko-gunome, nioi-dominant with ko-nie, "recalls the Osafune work of the late Kamakura period"[[c:9]], and because its signature is also cut somewhat smaller than usual its making is placed at the very end of the Kamakura period. One Tokubetsu Juyo blade carries coarse ha-nie thick enough that the commentary calls it "a strength that may be described as nie-deki"[[c:10]]. Signed works survive in comparative abundance, thirty-six signed against five unsigned in the present record, almost all in a two-character mei cut with a thick chisel, and more than a dozen tachi keep their ubu nakago. The signatures fall into several distinct manners, and from that breadth of mei and of style the sources allow, without deciding the matter, that "there is also a theory proposing the existence of multiple smiths using the same name"[[c:11]].
His place in the school is drawn in those same terms. At the head of the great choji manner the record sets Yoshifusa, Sukezane and Norifusa, and of the three it is Yoshifusa whose name the commentaries bind to the fukuro-choji and to the marked rise and fall of the yakiba. A bright, nioi-dominant choji over a vivid midare-utsuri is the image of the Fukuoka Ichimonji at its peak, and his rendering of it became the model against which later Ichimonji and Osafune smiths were measured. The calmer register, judged close to Nagamitsu, shows how short the step was from this manner to the Osafune mainline that followed it.
Forty-four works are recorded under his name. The five National Treasures and three Important Cultural Properties are patrimony preserved beyond the market, and the published record names among the former the Yanome Yoshifusa transmitted in the Shimazu family, the celebrated Okadakiri, and the tachi handed down in the Matsudaira family of Saijo in Iyo. Fourteen blades carry a recorded history, and the roll of former owners runs through the first houses of the country: Oda Nobunaga and Oda Nobukatsu, the Tokugawa shogunal house and Tokugawa Ietsuna, the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa, the Mori of Chofu, the Satake of Akita, with one blade treasured by Togo Heihachiro and others passing to the Imperial Family in the era of Emperor Taisho. Of recorded whereabouts his blades rest with the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Seikado Bunko, the Hayashibara Museum of Art, Meiji Jingu, Ise Jingu and Nikko Toshogu. The field a private collector may realistically encounter is the thirty-one blades of the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, and most of these are held rather than traded; a signed Yoshifusa comes to the market only rarely, and is a landmark when it does.
Norifusa (則房) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Kokuhō, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Norifusa worked in the middle of the Kamakura period and is one of the masters who carried the Ichimonji school to its height. The published sources place him with Yoshifusa and Sukezane[[c:1]] as the smiths who tempered the most flamboyant choji-midare of their day, and read him as one of the representative hands of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji[[c:2]]. He is held to be the son of Sukefusa of the Fukuoka Ichimonji, and because he later moved to the district of Katayama[[c:3]] his line is called the Katayama Ichimonji.
Where that district lay is itself unsettled. The older view placed Katayama in Bitchu, but the published sources now raise the possibility that it was a Katayama near Fukuoka in Bizen[[c:4]], and leave the question open for further study. The name carries a second complication. The signatures show several distinct hands and the workmanship covers a wide range[[c:5]], so that the name is thought to have run for several generations rather than belonging to a single man. The surviving signed pieces are limited to tachi, yet he was famed from of old as a master of the naginata[[c:6]], and many of the mumei works attributed to that form carry his name.
The forging is an itame, well packed in the finer pieces and standing in the bolder ones, with mokume mixed in and fine chikei entering. Over it stands the feature the school is read by: a clear midare-utsuri, the steel bright and cold, the ji-nie laid down to a fine mist. This vivid utsuri over a lively itame is the floor on which everything else is built, and it is named again and again in the published sources as the first thing that marks a Norifusa.
The hamon is a choji-midare with gunome mixed in, ashi and yo entering well, in deep nioi with ko-nie, a little sunagashi and kinsuji, and here and there tobiyaki and muneyaki along the upper half. The recognition point is set out plainly: his merit lies in a jigane that is strong and clear, a choji-midare that leans back, and fine ashi within the ha[[c:7]]. The back-leaning saka-gakari is what parts him from his peers, for his choji tends to a somewhat smaller pattern than that of Yoshifusa and Sukezane[[c:8]], and that reverse tendency, set against the short fine ashi, is the surest tell of his hand.
The boshi is the point a careful eye holds to. It runs midare-komi to a small round, often turning back with a pointed tendency and brushing out in hakikake, the published sources recording on one blade a boshi that is midare-komi with hakikake, the point of the omote turning back with a pointed tendency[[c:9]]. On the bolder pieces the omote can show a yakitsume tendency while the ura turns in ko-maru and sweeps; the swept, pointed tip is as much his mark as the leaning choji below it, and a flat ko-maru without that brushwork should give the kantei pause.
For the collector Norifusa stands among the least attainable of the koto masters. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku, and his work counts National Treasures and a high tally of Tokubetsu Juyo blades among it, set with the histories of the great houses: a tachi that descended to the Yanagisawa daimyo of Yamatokoriyama, blades held by the Tokugawa shogun house and by Tokugawa Yoshimune and Tsunayoshi, others through the Ikeda and the Takasu Matsudaira, and a naginata recorded in the treasure inventory of the Uesugi. One of the Yanagisawa tachi still carries the memory of a Honami Koshu origami. Almost nothing he made ever reaches the market: the named pieces sit in institutions such as the Kyushu National Museum, the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, the Tokyo Fuji Museum and the Fukuyama Art Museum, and a blade by his hand coming to trade is closer to a once-in-a-career event than a purchase to be planned for.
Norimune (則宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū. Norimune of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school in Bizen is named by the published sources as the founder of that line, and, according to the Meizukushi (Kanchiin-bon) cited in the National Treasure commentary, one of the goban-kaji who served the retired Emperor Go-Toba in the early Kamakura period. The published commentary states the matter of him plainly: that he is "renowned as the founder of the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage, and extant signed works by him are extremely few.[[c:1]]" Because so little signed work survives, the standard against which he is known is set by a small number of *ubu*, signed *tachi*, and the published sources rank such a piece as a representative record of the master himself. He stands at the head of the Ichimonji tradition before its later flamboyance.
The characteristic hand is restrained and archaic. The *sugata* is slender with high *koshizori* and clear *funbari*, the *kissaki* a compact *ko-kissaki*, the whole, in the words of the published sources, "an unmistakably graceful tachi silhouette.[[c:2]]" Over a well-packed *ko-itame*, the temper is built on a *suguha* base into which *ko-choji* and *ko-midare* are mixed, with *ashi* and *yo* entering well and *ko-nie* along the habuchi. This is the calm root of the school, the quiet manner that precedes the exuberant *choji* of the Fukuoka mainline. The published sources call the result the archetypal style of the early Ichimonji masters and return to it as the type by which the school's beginning is read.
The *jigane* is *ko-itame-hada* tightly forged, carrying fine *ji-nie*, and across it a *midare-utsuri* stands out clearly. On the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* the *nioiguchi* tends slightly *shizumi*, subdued rather than brilliant, and a *kinsuji* runs in the lower-middle of the blade; the *boshi* runs *sugu* with only a faint disturbance and turns back in a small *ko-maru*. The National Treasure at Hie Jinja shows the same *ko-itame*, well forged and packed with fine *ji-nie* and a *midare-utsuri*. Its temper of *ko-choji* and *ko-midare* on a *suguha* tone carries frequent small *ashi* and *yo* with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, and there the *nioiguchi* is tight and bright, the *boshi* running *sugu* to *ko-maru* with a slight *hakikake*. The published sources judge the *ji* and *ha* a typical example of early (Ko-) Ichimonji. The National Treasure commentary separates that style from Ko-Bizen: the form keeps the high, graceful *koshizori* of the late Heian, but where Ko-Bizen work is based on *ko-midare*, his temper is based on *choji-midare*, "with the utsuri appearing vividly"[[c:3]].
The surviving record is narrow, and it turns on a single point the published sources stress more than once: signed work is scarce. The National Treasure commentary lists the few that exist, among them a blade then listed as Gyobutsu and blades formerly of the Shimazu, Tsuchiya and Kishu Tokugawa houses, and judges the Hie Jinja *tachi* "especially excellent"[[c:4]] among them, "one of the outstanding masterpieces of Fukuoka Ichimonji"[[c:5]]. Its *mei* is cut toward the *mune* on the *haki-omote* with a fine chisel over an *ubu*, *kijimomo*-shaped *nakago*. A second fully described signed piece is an *ubu*, two-character *mei* *tachi* signed "Norimune," raised to the first session of the Tokubetsu Juyo and earlier to the eighth Juyo session as records of one and the same physical blade. The *nakago* is *ubu* with *kurijiri* and *yasurime katte-sagari*, the signature cut high on the *haki-omote* near the *mune*. Of it the published sources write that "among extant signed works by Norimune, examples executed to such a high level are exceedingly rare.[[c:6]]" A third, an heirloom of the Asano of Aki presented to the Emperor Meiji, is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, where it is called, with the Hie Jinja *tachi*, the twin peak of his signed work[[c:7]]. Of his style that entry writes that it "hardly differs from Ko-Bizen work"[[c:8]], the *choji* a little more evident and the *midare-utsuri* more intense, and it rejects as mid-Kamakura work the flamboyant *o-choji* *tachi* of grand form that are often given his name, as it rejects the popular name Kiku-Ichimonji. A further entry, a *mumei katana* attributed (*den*) to Norimune, survives only as an old Juyo Bijutsuhin certification whose physical particulars the editors could no longer confirm, a reminder of how thin the documentary trail for so early a master has become. The four Important Cultural Properties are known from their plates, which give only the forging and the *hamon*. Two signed *tachi*, one at the Okayama Prefectural Museum and one from the Mitsui family, are *ko-itame* with *ko-midare*, the second mixing in *chōji*. A *katana* attributed to him at Iminomiya Shrine is an *itame* with *chōji-midare*. The blade of a leather-wrapped *tachi* mounting at Atago Shrine in Kyoto, signed Norimune, is an *itame* with a *suguha*.
His place in the school is fixed at its source. From his restrained founding manner descend the brilliant Fukuoka *choji* of Yoshifusa and the wider Ichimonji line, while the quieter side, on which *utsuri* is rarely recorded, is carried by the Ko-Ichimonji hand of Sadazane; against both, Norimune's combination of a clear *midare-utsuri* and a *suguha*-based temper marks the calm beginning from which the two diverge. His *sugata* still keeps the high *koshizori* of the late Heian, while his *choji*-based temper and vivid *utsuri* already separate him from Ko-Bizen, which places him at the moment one tradition becomes another. That is why the published sources reach for him as the type-specimen of early Ichimonji rather than as one master among many.
In Fujishiro's grading he is *Sai-jo saku*, and the *Toko Taikan* values his work near the very top of the field. Eight designated works are on record. They are led by the National Treasure *tachi* at Hie Jinja, dedicated in 1646 by Tokumatsu, the fourth son of Tokugawa Iemitsu and later the fifth shogun Tsunayoshi, together with its *itomaki-no-tachi* mounting. Four further works are Important Cultural Properties (Juyo Bunkazai). The list is completed by the *tachi* recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, the signed Takahashi *tachi* of the first Tokubetsu Juyo session, and the old Juyo Bijutsuhin certification. The blades that bear his attribution have passed through the hands of those who held the country, recorded against the Tokugawa, the Shimazu, the Ashikaga, the Asano and Mori houses, the Asano heirloom passing to the Emperor Meiji as a gift; the few of recorded whereabouts are held by shrines and museums, among them Hie Jinja, Atago Shrine, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Sano Art Museum, the Mitsui Memorial Museum and the Okayama Prefectural Museum. The published sources record that the most famous signed examples of his hand are designated cultural property, one of them listed in its day as Gyobutsu, so that the scarce signed pieces are heritage rather than property in trade. A signed, *ubu* Norimune coming into private hands is among the rarest things a collector of early Bizen could encounter, a landmark when it appears and a landmark only rarely.
Yoshihira (吉平) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The published sources count Yoshihira (吉平) among the smiths who represent the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen at its height in the mid-Kamakura period, and most genealogies record him as a grandson of Muneyoshi (宗吉) and a son of Yoshiie (吉家), which places him in the same brilliant generation as Yoshifusa, Sukezane and Norifusa. The swordsmith registers date his activity to around the Kangen era (1243 to 1247), while one designation text gives around Bun'o (1260). His standing within that company was fixed by Honma's judgment, preserved in the record of one of his Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi*: among mid-Kamakura Bizen work, "the most flamboyant *choji* are tempered by Yoshifusa and this Yoshihira"[[c:1]]. Several signed *tachi* survive, and the same sources note that one of them holds the rank of Kokuho.
For his characteristic hand the published sources repeat a single formula: beside Yoshifusa or Sukezane his work shows less of the grand *o-choji-midare*, yet it abounds in change, and "one often sees examples in which the interior of the *ha* becomes laden with *nie*"[[c:2]]. That variation has a precise vocabulary. Into his *choji-midare* enter *kawazuko-choji* and *fukuro-choji*, *gunome* and occasional slightly pointed forms mix in, and the *yakiba* rises and falls conspicuously. *Ashi* and *yo* enter well, the *nioi* runs deep with fine *ko-nie*, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* work through the *ha*. His grandest pieces are described as "a style rich in variation, mixing *fukuro*, *juka* and *kawazuko choji*"[[c:3]], and on the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* of the twenty-first session the temper even turns *saka-gakari* over the lower half, a feature of which the NBTHK writes that there are "no comparable examples among Yoshihira's works"[[c:4]].
The *jigane* is an *itame*, in places mixed with *mokume* and flowing *hada*, and its inclination to stand is stated outright: compared with his contemporaries of the school, the published record observes, "the *jigane* also tends somewhat to stand"[[c:5]]. *Ji-nie* adheres, on the finest blades thickly and with *chikei* entering, and a *midare-utsuri* rises distinctly on nearly every recorded work. The *boshi* runs *midare-komi* and returns in *ko-maru*, at times taking a pointed tendency with *hakikake*; on some blades it is *sugu* with a *yakitsume* feeling.
Within this one manner the judges distinguish two registers. The quiet, small-patterned pieces lean from *ko-choji* toward *suguha*, with a tighter *nioiguchi* and an unusually even *yakihaba*; of one such Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi* from the Hachisuka family, Honma remarks that it is "unusual for this smith in that the *yakiba* shows little difference in height, yet it is genuine"[[c:6]]. The grand register stands at the opposite pole, "as bustling as Yoshifusa"[[c:7]], and the *mumei* katana of the first Tokubetsu Juyo session was judged "even more flamboyant than the signed works"[[c:8]]. His *mei* is normally the two characters Yoshihira, cut with a thick chisel toward the *mune* of the *nakago*; the *tachi* handed down in the Ii family is signed instead with a fine, small chisel and is singled out as "prime material for the study of Yoshihira"[[c:9]]. Among his works at the Kokuho rank there is one tempered with *koshiba*, though the published record adds that "this is not his usual practice"[[c:10]].
What separates him inside the school is carried by his own documented traits: a *jigane* that stands where his fellows' runs tighter, the *kawazuko-choji* that recurs through his grand register at a frequency none of his fellows matches, and a *yakiba* whose rises and falls are the form his variation takes. The published record also notes the general scale, observing that compared with contemporaries of the school "works of comparatively small scale are numerous"[[c:11]]. No pupils are recorded under his name; with Yoshifusa, his grandest works define the flamboyant peak of Fukuoka Ichimonji *choji* against which the later branches of the school and the Osafune *choji* smiths came to be measured.
Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku, and seventeen designated works stand on record: one National Treasure, two Important Cultural Properties, three Tokubetsu Juyo, seven Juyo and four Juyo Bijutsuhin. The National Treasure is an *ubu* *tachi* with its *itomaki-tachi* *koshirae*, handed down in the Kishu Tokugawa family, which the commentary calls the finest of his works, its *nioiguchi* bright and clear beyond the school's, with a sixteen-petal chrysanthemum crest engraved under the *habaki*[[c:12]]. The Important Cultural Properties are patrimony in shrine keeping, at Futarasan Jinja and Tanzan Jinja. Nine blades carry recorded provenance. The roll runs through the Ii family of Hikone, whose almost *ubu* *tachi*, published in the *Kozan Oshigata* and the *Umetada Meikan*, keeps on its *mune* a *kirikomi* that speaks of service in battle, and onward through the Shimazu, Hachisuka, Maeda, Ikeda and Kishu Tokugawa families; the *sayagaki* of one *mumei* katana records it "presented by an old lord of Yamashiro"[[c:13]]. For a collector the realistic field is the ten blades of the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, and even there most pieces of recorded whereabouts rest in long-held private collections; a signed master of the Fukuoka Ichimonji at this rank reaches the open market only rarely, and a Yoshihira coming into open hands is a rare event.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū. Sukekane of Bizen province is a name the published sources approach as one of the school's standing problems, and the surviving record that anchors him is two signed *ubu* tachi: the National Treasure handed down in the Ikeda family of Inshū, and the tachi designated Tokubetsu Jūyō in 2024, a blade preserved in the form it had at manufacture. He worked in the middle Kamakura period within Fukuoka Ichimonji, the Bizen school descending from Norimune. The difficulty the published sources keep returning to is the name itself: the Meikan records a Sukekane under both Ko-Bizen, dated about the Genryaku era, and Ichimonji, dated about the Jōei era, and one account holds the signature comes in as many as five distinct patterns. Most surviving signatures are the two characters 助包; only a very small number of long inscriptions reading "Bizen no Kuni Sukekane saku" are confirmed. The conventional view assigns the small-character hand to Ko-Bizen and the large-character hand to Ichimonji, "the small signature taken as Ko-Bizen and the large hand as Ichimonji"[[c:1]], but the sources state that this division "is not necessarily easy from the calligraphy and the manner of the signature, and requires careful scrutiny"[[c:2]], since a small-mei Sukekane, the National Treasure of the Inshū Ikeda family, is itself judged Ichimonji[[c:3]]. Whether that small-mei smith is a different man from the large-mei hand, the same commentary says, cannot yet be stated, and the swordbooks differ.
The hand the sources single out as quintessentially his belongs to those signed tachi, and it is a flamboyant one. The National Treasure is a long, wide tachi with a high *koshizori*, *funbari* and an *ikubi-kissaki*, the imposing form of the mid-Kamakura period. Its temper is a *chōji-midare* mixed with *kawazuko-chōji* and *gunome*-like *midare*, *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the *nioiguchi* tight and bright. Its commentary assigns it to the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukekane, flamboyant in its *chōji* "though not to the degree of Yoshifusa or Norifusa"[[c:4]], and calls it a tachi with composure within its flamboyance[[c:5]]. On the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi, over a well-packed *ko-itame* *jigane*, he sets a temper that runs high from base to tip, *chōji* the principal tone, mixed with *ko-gunome*, *gunome* and pointed *togariba*, the *ashi* and *yō* entering well. The published commentary on the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi writes that what especially draws the eye is its high, "flamboyant *chōji-midare*"[[c:6]] reaching from the base through the *monouchi*, the composition richly varied through clusters of differing size. The *nioiguchi* is laid with *ko-nie* gathering unevenly, and around the *koshimoto* and *monouchi* a *yubashiri*-like effect runs in the edge. The same sources place this flamboyance beside the small-mei National Treasure and say it "expresses to the fullest the essential appeal of *chōji-midare*"[[c:7]]. It is the showy Fukuoka manner held at full height, the opposite pole from his schoolmate Yoshimochi, whose hand the published record treats as the deliberately quiet one.
The *jigane* beneath that temper is as much a part of his recognition as the *hamon*. The forging on the signed tachi is a refined *ko-itame*, densely packed, with *ji-nie* applied, and from the *machi* a *mizukage* rises; above it patches of dark band become *jifu*, settling into a clear *midare-utsuri*. This rich Ichimonji *midare-utsuri* stands on three of his seven blades, as plainly on the *ō-suriage* mumei katana as on the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi. The National Treasure records none: its *ko-itame* is packed, with *ji-nie* and *jifu*. On the slender, shortened tachi held in the Mōri and Tokugawa houses the *jigane* is a well-packed *itame* with *ji-nie* and *chikei*, the same Fukuoka *ji* in a quieter register. The *bōshi* of the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi is deeply tempered, almost a single sweep, running straight to a *yakizume*-toned point with *hakikake* and a long turnback, which the sources read as further evidence that it keeps nearly its original form. At the *koshimoto* he carves *bonji* with a *sankō-tsuka-ken* on one face and *bonji* with *gomabashi* on the other; the published commentary calls these later additions that nonetheless do not detract from the appearance and rather set off the blade.
His record divides cleanly into two faces. The first is the *ubu* signed tachi just described: the National Treasure, with a small *mei* cut on the omote, and the two-character Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi, standard in width with the taper slight, *koshizori* high with curvature added toward the point, a *chū-kissaki*: the recognized prime. Signed tachi survive in only a few, the slender shortened pair of the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin among them. Two more signed tachi are Important Cultural Properties, known from their plates: one forged in *itame* with a *chōji* mixed with *gunome*, the other in *ko-itame* with a *chōji-midare*. The second is the *ō-suriage* mumei katana attributed to him as mainstream Fukuoka Ichimonji. These run wider in body, one taking an *ikubi*-leaning *chū-kissaki*, over a standing *itame* that flows in places, with *ji-nie* and the same *midare-utsuri*; the temper is a *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome* and pointed-*ha*, *ashi* and *yō* entering, *ko-nie* forming, and fine *kinsuji* frequent, the *bōshi* straight to a small round over a *bō-hi*. The published sources affirm these from every point as mid-Kamakura Ichimonji work, dignified in shape and excellent in *ji* and *ha*, while granting that the attribution rests on era and school rather than a personal hallmark.
That candor is itself part of how the sources place him. On one of the mumei katana the commentary states that "there is no decisive feature that compels the name Sukekane"[[c:8]] and no point prominent enough to single out as his alone, yet that "there is no dispute it is a fine sword"[[c:9]]. What sets the signed tachi apart from the rest of Fukuoka Ichimonji is read through his own traits rather than by contrast: the high, *chōji*-dominant flamboyance, the bright *midare-utsuri* with its *mizukage* and *jifu*, and the devotional *bonji*, *sankō-tsuka-ken* and *gomabashi* carving that the suriage attributions, showing only a *bō-hi*, do not carry. The National Treasure commentary measures his *chōji* against the showier hands of Yoshifusa and Norifusa; Sukekane keeps the flamboyant Fukuoka manner while Yoshimochi turns quiet, and so the published record affirms his mumei pieces from the period and the school.
Fujishiro grades him *Jō-jo saku*, a high rank among the Ichimonji smiths, and the weight of designation behind his name is concentrated rather than vast: seven designated works are on record. At their head is the National Treasure, the small-mei tachi of the Inshū Ikeda family, with two more tachi designated Important Cultural Property; two of his blades are Tokubetsu Jūyō, and two hold the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, the Important Art Object designation. The provenance recorded against his tachi runs through houses of consequence, the Ikeda of Inshū, the Mōri by way of Mōri Motomichi, the Tokugawa line through Tokugawa Iesato, and the Asano family. The National Treasure is in a private collection, and his two Important Cultural Properties are held in the Tokyo National Museum and at Shinonome Jinja, kept as patrimony rather than anything that trades. Genuine signed Sukekane tachi survive in only a handful, and an *ubu*, signed example in its original form is among the rarer things a Kamakura Bizen collector could hope to encounter. Of his recorded whereabouts almost nothing can ever come to market, and the one tier that might, very occasionally, is the Jūyō or Tokubetsu Jūyō mumei attribution, a landmark when it appears.
Tamekiyo (爲清) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū. Tamekiyo is an early-Kamakura swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, working in Bizen and known today chiefly by two-character signed *tachi*; a *ken* signed Tamekiyo is also held at Atsuta Jingu as an Important Cultural Property. The sword-name registers enter his name in several places, under Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, Karakawa and Osafune. The published sources observe, however, that no surviving signed piece reads as other than Ichimonji, 「現存する有銘作は一文字派と目されるもの以外は未見」, so most authenticated Tamekiyo are judged to that school. His dating is unsettled. It is given as the Kenpo era of about 1213 to 1219 or the Tenpuku era of about 1233 to 1234, and because the signatures are all two-character with no dated example among them, the published sources leave a firm placement to later study.
In most respects his work does not separate from that of his Ichimonji contemporaries. The published sources locate his personal tell in one feature of the temper: from time to time he shows a *koshiba*, a temper flaring low at the base, and it is there that 「時折腰刃を見せるところに同工の特徴が見いだせる」, his distinguishing feature is found. The same feature carries weight in the prewar record. Of three signed tachi certified as Juyo Bijutsuhin, the commentary there says that the three differ somewhat in make but agree in signature, that it is hard to decide at once whether they are Ko-Bizen or Ichimonji, and that the one whose *koshiba* stands out is the Ichimonji of the three.
His finest blade, designated Juyo and later Tokubetsu Juyo, shows the type. It is a strong, rather wide *tachi* with a clear taper, *funbari* at the base, a high *koshizori* with *sori* added toward the point, and a compact *chu-kissaki*, on an *ubu* tang signed in small, fine characters. The *jigane* is a well-packed *itame* with *ji-nie* and fine *chikei*. A high, vivid *midare-utsuri* stands in the dark band, toning here and there to a *jifu-utsuri*. The temper is built in two parts. The lower half is a small-patterned *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-gunome* and pointed or slightly angular *ha*, and the upper half a *chu-suguha* tone with *ko-gunome* mixed in. *Ashi* and *yo* enter well throughout, the work almost wholly in *nioi* with a little *ko-nie*, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run in places. The *boshi* is nearly straight on the front and turns back from a small *midare* on the reverse, and a *bo-hi* is carved through.
The same blade is read differently at its two designations, and both readings stand. At the Juyo stage the published sources set its lower half of *choji* with *gunome* against a quieter upper half, and called it 「比較的に華やかな出来である」 among the several works of this name. At the Tokubetsu Juyo stage they stress the small-patterned *choji* below and the straight tone above, the two-part construction they take, with the *koshiba*, as a feature of his temper. The three prewar tachi show the range. One, nearly *ubu*, has an *itame* with some standing grain, *midare-utsuri*, and a *choji-midare* in *nioi* with *ashi* and *yo*. Another, also nearly *ubu*, wide with *koshizori* and *funbari*, carries a *bo-hi* with *soe-hi* and a *choji-midare* with deep *gunome* and the *koshiba*. The third is *suriage*, yet keeps a high *sori* and a good shape, with *midare-utsuri* over a slightly standing *itame* and a *gunome* mixed with *choji-midare*.
The published sources tie his best work to that prewar group. They write that the Tokubetsu Juyo blade is very close in style to one of the three, and that together with the *koshiba* this points to a characteristic construction of his temper. Among the Ichimonji work of the period and the signed Tamekiyo, they rank it outstanding, 「同工の技量の高さを顕現する一口」, a piece that shows the high level of his skill. His early-period *ko-choji*, set in two parts and marked by the low flare at the base, is the standard against which the other blades bearing his name are read.
The Fujishiro appraisal rates him at Jo-jo saku, and the record of his survival is slight. Two works are Important Cultural Properties, one tachi is Tokubetsu Juyo, and three signed tachi were certified Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war. Of recorded whereabouts, one of the prewar tachi passed from Kurokawa Fukusaburo to the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, and the signed *ken* is held at Atsuta Jingu, recorded by its plate as an *itame* with *ko-midare*, its blade carrying a later inscription naming the Atsuta Daijingu and one Munehisa. The other Important Cultural Property, a signed *tachi* in private hands, is recorded as a *ko-itame* with *choji-midare*. Another prewar tachi is recorded as one that 「山形藩主水野家が将軍家より拝領したものである」, received by the Mizuno lords of Yamagata from the shogunal house. These are designated cultural property and long-held heritage rather than blades that come to market. A signed Tamekiyo 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.
Norikane (則包) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Norikane of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school worked in mid-Kamakura Bizen, and the published sources are consistent about both his origin and his rarity: the swordsmith references record him as a son of the Fukuoka Ichimonji smith Sukefusa, in the line of the founder Norimune, his active dates variously transmitted as around the Ryakunin era (1238) or the Kenchō era (1249–1256). The same commentaries note in entry after entry that his extant works are comparatively few, so that a signed Norikane is scarce material in its own right. The two great Bizen currents of the age, the published record frames, were the Ichimonji and the Osafune schools, the Ichimonji flourishing into the Nanbokuchō period at Fukuoka, Yoshioka and Iwato; within it Norikane belongs to the mature Fukuoka manner. The clearest single witness to his hand is the *tachi* descended in the Uesugi house, recorded as one of the "Thirty-five Swords Selected by Kagekatsu"[[c:1]], of which the NBTHK writes that as a signed work by the rarely encountered Fukuoka Ichimonji Norikane it is "exceptionally valuable as documentary material"[[c:2]].
The hand the published descriptions assign to his signed *tachi* is the flamboyant mid-Kamakura Fukuoka work at its fullest. The shape runs broad and long, thick in the *kasane*, the curvature high with pronounced *koshizori* carried toward the point, the *kissaki* tightened to a stout *ikubi* cast, the powerful, imposing *sugata* the sources call *gōsō*. Over this he fires a *chōji-midare* of wide *yakihaba*, flamboyant and full of height variation, the upper blade marked by large tufted *chōji* (*fusa chōji*), with *ō-chōji* and *jūka-chōji* mixed in, *ashi* and *yō* entering freely, the temper *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie*. The *bōshi* runs *midare-komi* with a *yakizume* tendency and only a slight turnback. On the finest the *nioiguchi* is deep and bright, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* playing within the temper. These, the NBTHK states, display the characteristics of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school strongly in both *ji* and *ha*, the typical style of the mid-Kamakura branch as Norikane represents it.
Beneath the temper the forging is *itame* mixed with *mokume*, at times tending to *hadadachi*, a standing grain; on the more refined pieces it tightens to a dense *ko-itame*, the *ji-nie* adhering, fine *chikei* entering. Across nearly all of his work, signed and attributed alike, stands a clear *midare-utsuri*, the bright reflection over the *jigane* that anchors the attribution to Bizen and to this branch. It is the trait the published sources name first in almost every entry, and it is what the archaic Ko-Ichimonji cousins lack, so that its presence separates his hand from theirs. The carving on his signed *tachi* is elaborate and devotional: double grooves finished in *marudome* with a *bonji* beneath, and below that, on one face the characters "Hachiman Daibosatsu" incised, on the other a *suken* in layered relief, a *horimono* program that recurs on both of the fully described signed *tachi* and ties them as one hand.
His surviving body of work divides into two registers that the published sources themselves set side by side. The signed *tachi* are the broad, flamboyant, large-*chōji* pieces described above, and the signed *tachi* designated an Important Cultural Property is likewise recorded with a *chōji-midare* over *ko-itame*. Against them stand the *ō-suriage mumei* blades transmitted as his, and the two *katana* to which Hon'ami Kōchū attached gold-inlay attributions (*kinzogan-mei*); by the NBTHK's own contrast these run smaller in pattern, with *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome* mixed in and a tendency to turn *saka-gakari*, the *nioiguchi* softly clouded toward *urumi*. The *nagamaki* transmitted as his, the other Important Cultural Property, is recorded with a *ko-chōji* over *itame*. The 16th-session Tokubetsu Jūyō *mumei* blade states the comparison directly: among Norikane's signed works there are pieces of wide *yakihaba* and richly undulating, flamboyant *chōji-midare*[[c:3]], whereas this one shows a temper "generally smaller in pattern, and moreover turning reversed"[[c:4]], demonstrating one facet of the same smith's range. The signatures that survive are two-character (*nijimei*) on the *ubu tachi*; on the shortened *katana* the original *mei* is preserved as a *gaku-mei*, the panel inlaid back into the tang. The *kinzogan* and the older *origami* it once carried are later attributions, not his own cutting.
The relation between the two registers is itself the substance of the connoisseurship. Of the gold-inlay *katana* the NBTHK writes that its style "connects directly to the signed works, so that Hon'ami Kōchū's attribution to Norikane is entirely appropriate"[[c:5]], making the signed *tachi* the standard against which the *mumei* pieces are read. The quieter register also carries the most candid self-criticism. The 14th-session *mumei katana* is judged to show "a slight suggestion of *tsukare*, fatigue, without losing its aesthetic appeal"[[c:6]]; of a *gaku-mei katana* the commentary observes that, the *chōji* hamon being relatively flamboyant, "the blade as a whole is poor in overall brilliance"[[c:7]], the *nioiguchi* clouded to *shimi*. The reversed temper and the moist *nioiguchi* meet in the 14th-session note that "the *nioiguchi* tends slightly to *urumi* and turns reversed"[[c:8]], the personal tell of his mumei hand against the brighter Fukuoka mainline of Yoshifusa. He stands, in short, as the utsuri-rich mature Fukuoka Ichimonji, beside the flamboyant Yoshifusa line and apart from the utsuri-less Ko-Ichimonji.
He is graded in the upper reach of the *Tōkō Taikan* valuation, and the weight of designation behind his name reflects how little of him survives: two of his works are Important Cultural Property and four are Tokubetsu Jūyō, with a further blade at Jūyō, the signed *tachi* prized as scarce documentary material for the whole Fukuoka Ichimonji. Provenance gathers around the great houses. The signed *tachi* descended in the Uesugi family as one of Kagekatsu's thirty-five selected swords and is recorded with Uesugi Jinja; the gaku-mei *katana* presented to the shogunal house in Kyōhō 2 (1717) as a relic of Honda Shinano-no-kami Tada-nao of Kōriyama, and another piece, came through the Tokugawa shogunal family. Of recorded whereabouts a Norikane is held, not traded: the two Important Cultural Properties, the signed *tachi* at the Tōshōgū in Ibaraki and the *nagamaki* at Uesugi Jinja, are patrimony that will not move, while the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō blades number only a handful. For so rare a Fukuoka Ichimonji name a privately held signed example is among the scarcer things a collector could hope to encounter, coming to light only seldom.
Yoshimochi (吉用) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Yoshimochi worked in the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen about the middle of the Kamakura period, and the reference works on signatures record him as the son of the Fukuoka Ichimonji smith Sukeyoshi, placing him around the Bun'ei era (1264-1275). The school Norimune founded was the flamboyant wing of Bizen, its name taken from the single character *ichi* its smiths cut above the signature, and within it Yoshimochi is the quiet hand. The published sources return to one verdict across his blades: that many of his surviving works show a calmer manner in which the rise and fall of the *choji* is not conspicuous, and they name this restraint as the individuality of his workmanship[[c:1]]. He is graded *Jo-jo saku* by Fujishiro.
His characteristic temper is a small-patterned *midareba* worked low to the edge. The published descriptions build it from *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare*, the *yakiba* showing little overall undulation so that the whole reads as a gentle, small-scale variation; *ashi* and *yo* enter freely, *ko-nie* adheres, and fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run through. On a number of blades the base itself is *suguha*-toned, the small *choji* set into a straight *ji* rather than rising in the tall heads of mainstream Fukuoka, and on one Juyo *tachi* the NBTHK records the temper as "*suguha*-based, mixed with *ko-choji*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare*"[[c:2]] giving "overall a gentle and restrained manner"[[c:3]]. This is the trait the sources point to when they call his *choji* subdued[[c:4]]; the calm lies in the hamon, not in a bare or quiet jigane.
The forging is *itame* mixed with *mokume*, well refined, with fine *ji-nie* gathering and *chikei* entering delicately and often. Over that jigane the school's rich *midare-utsuri* stands clearly, the published sources calling it on the best pieces vivid and sharply defined; one Juyo *tachi* shows a straight *sugu*-form *utsuri* in the lower half passing into *midare-utsuri* above. The *nioiguchi* runs tight and bright, *nioi* deep, and the *boshi* goes straight into a small round turnback, at times with a faint *hakikake* at the point. So the reflection that places him squarely in Bizen is kept at full strength while the temper above it is held back, and his individuality is read against that rich jigane rather than from any thinness of it.
The sources draw a clear exception to the calm hand. A minority of his works are flamboyant, the named example being the *tachi* preserved at Taiseki-ji, an Important Cultural Property, *ubu* and of commanding presence, with tightly packed *ko-itame*, prominent *utsuri* and a *choji-midare* temper; its Important Cultural Property plate records a signed *tachi* forged in *itame* with a *choji-midare*, 74.9 cm long. The same showy register governs the *mumei* Hatajima *wakizashi*, which Hon'ami Kochu appraised as Yoshimochi with an *origami* dated Hoei 7 (1710); set against his signed work, its *hamon*, the early designation records, "is conspicuously large in pattern and flamboyant"[[c:5]], though period and lineage are not in doubt. The Owari Tokugawa *kodachi* carries the showy mode furthest, its *yakiba* wide and mixing the tadpole-headed clove, "a flamboyant work with a wide *yakiba* and *kaeruko* mixed in"[[c:6]]. His signature is consistent and small. The published sources name a vertically elongated two-character *mei*, the character *yo* (用) running long (「用」の字は縦長となる), as typical, and add that the signature is always a small one[[c:7]].
Within the school Yoshimochi is the restrained voice, and the published sources set his subdued small *choji* against the Taiseki-ji *tachi*, the flamboyant pole his ordinary blades stand apart from. His own *tachi* keep deep *koshi-zori* and a slender build with marked *funbari*, the silhouette the records repeatedly call elegant. The dating is debated within the corpus. The *Meikan* line of descent from Sukeyoshi places him about Bun'ei, but one judge holds that too early, reasoning from the work itself that he is "probably to be regarded as active in the same period as Osafune Nagamitsu and related makers"[[c:8]]. Either way the published sources accept the attribution where it is *mumei*, as on the Sekiguchi *katana*, whose *nioi-deki choji* and well-defined *midare-utsuri* they find consistent with his hand.
In Fujishiro's grading he is *Jo-jo saku*. The designation record behind his name is small but high: one Important Cultural Property, two of his blades raised to Tokubetsu Juyo and five more to Juyo, ten works on official record in all, against which a private collector should weigh the published note that signed Yoshimochi are "probably fewer than ten"[[c:9]] and that most of those are subdued small-*choji* pieces. The provenance recorded against his blades runs through the great houses: the Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation, the Owari Tokugawa family, who received the *kodachi* as a betrothal gift for Princess Haru, daughter of Asano Yukinaga, the Mori family, and Mitsui Takayasu, who held the Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi* at its 1939 designation. Of recorded whereabouts two are in institutional hands, the Sano Art Museum and the Tokugawa Art Museum, with one in a private collection. With no National Treasures and the Important Cultural Property held as patrimony, what may realistically be encountered is one of the Tokubetsu Juyo or Juyo *tachi*, a signed example of the calm Fukuoka Ichimonji hand, and these come to market only rarely, a notable event when one does.
Suketsuna (助綱) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Suketsuna is a Fukuoka Ichimonji smith of the middle Kamakura period whose name belongs to the moment the Bizen clove-flower temper began turning into Sōshū steel. The published sources relate that he was, by tradition, a son of Fujigenji Sukezane, that he went down from Bizen to Kamakura in Sagami together with his father, and that he became one of the smiths who laid the foundations of Sagami swordmaking. Like Sukezane he carries the separate appellation Kamakura Ichimonji. The prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin entry on one of his signed tachi puts the relationship in a sentence the school never improved on: "Suketsuna resembles his teacher Sukezane in producing many tachi of bold, robust shape, and he tempers a midare full of strong nie"[[c:1]].
His hand is recognized through a single, visible contradiction. He forges a chōji-midare in the manner of Bizen Ichimonji, the showy clove pattern of his school, but he forges it in *nie-deki* rather than the nioi of Bizen, mixing *gunome* and pointed-ha, the temper at times tending *saka-gakari*, the *nie* strong within the *ha*. Into that edge run frequent *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, with *tobiyaki* in places and a bright *nioiguchi*. The published sources name the result plainly: while he tempers chōji in the Bizen Ichimonji style, the *nie* is markedly stronger[[c:2]], so that the usual Ichimonji flavour is faint and the work departs from typical Bizen. On the same point his record is read against his father: he is the more Sōshū of the two, the one who, the judges write, "more frequently than Sukezane produces a hamon that has left Bizen behind"[[c:3]].
The *jigane* carries the other half of the tell. Over a wide, robust body he forges an *itame*, mixed with *mokume* and standing open in places, the grain set with thick *ji-nie* and threads of *chikei*; on several blades a *midare-utsuri* still rises, faint on some and clear on others. Where mainstream Fukuoka Ichimonji forges a tightly packed *jigane*, Suketsuna's stands more open, and the judges make that standing grain the very point on which he is separated from his father. The *bōshi* is the third sign: it enters in a disturbed *midare-komi* and sweeps to a small round or a brushed, flame-tinged point, more active than is usual for Ichimonji work, with a *bō-hi* carved through on both faces.
Two registers run through the record. The first and rarest is the signed tachi: "extant signed works are extremely few"[[c:4]], and they are the documentary anchor of the name. These are powerfully built, resembling Sukezane, tempering a flamboyant *nie*-laden *midare* the sources call quintessential of his hand; one late example mixes *kuichigai-ba* into a strongly *nie*-based temper, and from the *normally sized* two-character signature it carries the judges read late Kamakura, since many of his works bear large, bold signatures and this one is taken as a difference of period within the same man. The second and predominant register is the o-suriage mumei katana attributed to him, broad and dignified in mid-Kamakura tachi shape, several given the red appraisal inscription reading "Kamakura ichi." One of these the published sources call the work that shows, even among his own pieces, "the strongest Sōshū-den character"[[c:5]], its flame-like swept bōshi giving the blade an imposing, spirited presence.
What sets him apart from his neighbours is exactly what the judges name. From his father he is divided above all by the open, standing grain with *chikei*, and by *sunagashi* that runs more freely through the *ha*; *kinsuji* alone does not part them, for Sukezane's edge carries it as often. From the quieter Bizen Ichimonji line he is divided by the strength of the *nie*, the *chikei* in the *jigane* and the *sunagashi* that carries into the edge. He stands beside Sukezane as one of the bridges by which the Bizen Ichimonji idiom passed into Sōshū-den at Kamakura, a Bizen-trained hand reading itself, blade by blade, toward Sagami. Two katana papered more recently restate the pairing: the sources write that tempering chōji in the Ichimonji manner with a markedly stronger *nie*, *chikei* in the *jigane* and abundant activity such as *kinsuji* in the *ha* is "the characteristic of both smiths"[[c:6]], father and son. On one of them the *bōshi* "becomes flame-like, more violent than the usual Ichimonji"[[c:7]], and on the other the good *nie* in *ji* and *ha* is named the point by which the blade is judged his. The judges treat one of his signed tachi as "excellent reference material for the study of Suketsuna"[[c:8]], the scarcity of his signed work turned into method.
For the collector he is a rare early Kamakura name, recorded mostly in mumei attribution. He has no National Treasures; his record runs through one Important Cultural Property, two prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi, both signed, and the higher modern tiers. Ten of his blades fall in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo ranks, two of them Tokubetsu Juyo, his Toko Taikan valuation set at 1,200,000 yen. His blades carry the provenance of long-held houses and collections: the Sakai family of Himeji in Harima, and the prewar owners Hashimoto Torakichi of Osaka and Saitō Shigeichirō of Tokyo on the two signed tachi, with one example now in the Hayashibara Museum of Art. A signed Suketsuna comes to light only seldom, and even his attributed katana reach the market rarely; a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how the Ichimonji passed into Sōshū.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Jūbun, Jūyō. A tachi designated Juyo at the 20th session in 1971 sets out what this body of work is: an ubu blade, somewhat slender, with high *koshizori* and marked *funbari*, and on its tang nothing but the single character ichi (一). The published sources explain the name from that mark. In Bizen there are blades with the one character cut on the tang, and "such works have broadly been termed the Ichimonji group"[[c:1]]. Within the lineage they distinguish the Fukuoka Ichimonji, flourishing from the early through the late Kamakura period, from the Katayama and Yoshioka branches of the mid-Kamakura onward and the Iwato group active into the Nanbokucho period. Of that first tachi they conclude that, though it shows a slight fatigue, "it is a work that does not descend later than the mid-Kamakura period"[[c:2]]. Seven designated works on record carry this bare signature, and the published commentary notes that an Ichimonji mei may be the 一 alone, the 一 above a personal name, or a personal name alone. Because these blades carry only the character, the individual smith cannot be fixed, and the attribution rests on period, school and the manner of the inscription; the blades of mid-Kamakura date are placed in the Fukuoka Ichimonji.
The temper is a *choji-midare*. On the 1971 tachi the published sources describe a flamboyant *choji-midare* into which *gunome*, small *choji* and somewhat pointed elements are mixed, with a slight *saka* tendency, *ashi* and *yo* abundant and *ko-nie* adhering. An ubu kodachi designated in 1989 is said to "exhibit a brilliant, highly changeful *choji-midare*"[[c:3]], worked in *nioi-deki*. On the shortened examples the same pattern reads deeper: a *choji-midare* with a little *gunome* mixed in, *ko-ashi* and *yo*, the *nioi* deep and in places subdued. The *boshi* runs straight to a small round return (*ko-maru*), on one tachi slightly irregular before turning back shallowly.
The forging is *itame*, on two of the tachi showing an overall tendency to *nagare* and on the first standing slightly, with *ji-nie* noted on the 1989 kodachi. A *midare-utsuri* stands in the *jigane* of each of the four blades that have a full published description, faintly on that kodachi and distinctly on the others. On a slightly shortened tachi designated in 1982 the published sources call the work mid-Kamakura Fukuoka Ichimonji, with a deep-*nioi* *choji* inclined to *ko-nie*, *ashi* and *yo* entering well, and "a clearly appearing *midare-utsuri* in the *ji*"[[c:4]]. The three Important Cultural Property plates record only form, forging, temper and length, and say nothing of the reflection.
The works divide into blades kept in original form and blades shortened but still bearing the character. The ubu pieces show the fuller, more varied temper, and of the 1989 kodachi the published sources write that it "fully demonstrates the distinctive features of the Ichimonji school, and the workmanship is good"[[c:5]]. The shortened kodachi of 1974, its *choji-midare* mixed with a little *gunome*, is judged an orderly, well-balanced work and appraised as Bizen Fukuoka Ichimonji from the style of its inscription as well. Two of the blades are kodachi, and here the published sources leave a question open: kodachi are numerous in the Kamakura period and seen above all in Bizen and Yamashiro, but "what kinds of people wore them and for what purposes"[[c:6]] is a matter they set aside for further research. The corpus also holds a naginata, the one example of that form.
The judgments return to the same pairing. A deep-*nioi* *choji-midare* with *ashi* and *yo* is set over an *itame* *jigane* carrying a distinct *midare-utsuri*, on a tachi with *koshizori* and *funbari*. These are the features the published sources name when they place a bare 一 blade in the Fukuoka Ichimonji, and they place the slightly shortened tachi of 1982 at mid-Kamakura.
Three of the seven are Important Cultural Properties held at shrines: a tachi at Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima, 87.6 cm long, in *itame* with a *choji-midare*; a tachi at Takeda Shrine in Yamanashi, 64.2 cm long, of the same forging and temper; and a naginata at Tanzan Shrine in Nara, in *naginata-zukuri* with a *mitsu-mune*, its temper recorded as *gunome*. They are patrimony kept in the shrines' care. The other four are Juyo blades, of which one, of recorded whereabouts, is in private hands. There are no National Treasures among the works under this signature, and none at the Tokubetsu Juyo level. A Juyo blade signed only 一 appears on the market seldom, and a privately held example is a rare thing for a collector of early Bizen to encounter.
Naganori (長則) — Mainline · 1293-1301. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Naganori is the late-Kamakura smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school whose work is the school's great exception, and his blades are the documentary anchor of its geography. He held the court title Saemon-no-jo, and the published sources record that among all the smiths of the line only his signature explicitly cuts Fukuoka-ju, resident of Fukuoka: as one entry puts it, among works bearing the inscription Fukuoka, "the practice begins with Naganori" (「福岡住」と銘したものは長則に始まり). On several pieces he cut the full signature Bizen no Kuni Fukuoka-ju Saemon-no-jo Naganori with a date, and extant examples carry the Einin, Shoan and Kagen eras of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, placing him a generation below the school's mid-Kamakura masters Yoshifusa and Sukezane. For reasons the published sources admit are not understood, he came to be nicknamed "Ko-ryu Naganori"[[c:1]]. He is the smith one cites when the question is who, within so flamboyant a school, made quiet swords.
The heart of his recognition is a contradiction the judges state outright. When one speaks of Fukuoka Ichimonji one thinks at once of brilliant o-choji-midare, the published sources note, "yet Naganori, differing in spirit from the usual manner of his group, was particularly noted for tempering a suguha-toned hamon mixed with small choji"[[c:2]]. His tachi are slender and well-shaped, with high koshizori and pronounced funbari, the curvature often increasing toward the point. Over a steel of well-packed ko-itame to itame he tempers low, a suguha-cho into which ko-choji and ko-gunome run continuously from base to tip, the ashi and yo entering abundantly, the nioiguchi bright and tending to tighten, with fine kinsuji and sunagashi and patches of hotsure along the habuchi. The boshi runs straight to a ko-maru, at times entering with a slight midare-komi. It is a calm, even subdued hand, and the sources call one such tachi "a uniformly subdued construction in which the midare-utsuri is especially vivid"[[c:3]].
The jigane is the constant of his work. His jigane is a ko-itame or itame, at times mixed with mokume and standing a little, with fine ji-nie and chikei, and over it stands an Ichimonji midare-utsuri the judges single out as conspicuously clear; on his finest dated tachi the upper half can deepen into a mottled jifu-utsuri. Against that bright ji the hamon stays deliberately low. The activity is carried not in towering clove clusters but in the small choji and ko-gunome of the suguha line, the ashi and yo, the ko-nie and bright nioi. A small number of his blades lean into a reverse tendency, the choji turning saka-gakari with saka-ashi entering and the nioiguchi clear, and a naginata appraised to him keeps a faint reverse-slanting gunome within its suguha, placing him within the late-Kamakura Bizen taste for reverse work without his ever leaving that calm base.
His record divides cleanly in two. There are the ubu, signed and dated tachi, the documentary core, prized for preserving an original form together with an era name: a Shoan-dated tachi is called a typical work of Saemon-no-jo Naganori, conspicuous for its bright nioiguchi and sound condition, the date itself excellent reference material. Set against them are the o-suriage mumei tachi and katana appraised to him as den Naganori, which keep the same quiet suguha-cho with ko-choji and the same vivid utsuri, the attribution resting on era and the calm temper rather than on a long signature. Of his roughly seventeen designated works on record, nine are signed and seven unsigned, a near-even split that lets the signed, dated pieces serve as the yardstick by which the mumei ones are judged.
What sets him apart is exactly the affinity the judges draw. They align his late-period manner with the Osafune work of Kagemitsu and Chikakage, noting that his style "shares common features with Kagemitsu and Chikakage of Osafune"[[c:4]] while his choji stands a touch more prominently than theirs. Read from the other side, his bright midare-utsuri and the linked small choji on a low suguha base hold him apart from the plainer Osafune smiths, just as his calm temper holds him apart from the flamboyant o-choji of Yoshifusa, Sukezane and Norimune within his own school. He is the quiet exception at the school's late edge, the Fukuoka name a collector reaches for to show that the line could forge restraint as surely as splendor.
For the connoisseur he is a rare and well-documented name. Fujishiro grades him Jo saku. He has no National Treasures; his record runs instead through an Important Cultural Property, the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, a Tokubetsu Juyo and some thirteen Juyo blades, with around fourteen pieces falling in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers in all. His blades carry the provenance of warrior houses with documented descent: a Tokubetsu Juyo tachi was transmitted in the Naruse family of Inuyama, and a long ubu tachi with its black-lacquer mounting was preserved in the Oyama family of Innai, senior retainers of the Satake lords of Akita, while a Kotsune origami of Kyoho 2 attests another as genuine Naganori. Most of his designated work is held rather than traded, and a signed, dated Naganori in particular comes to market only seldom; a privately held example, signed Fukuoka-ju or appraised to his calm hand, is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, and a document of the one smith who made the great showy school quiet.
Nobufusa (延房) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Nobufusa signed one *tachi* in three characters, Nobufusa saku, with a fine chisel set toward the *mune* of an *ubu* *nakago*, and that blade, from the Ōmura family of Hizen, is one of the six designated works on which he is known. He is an early smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen. The published sources count him 「後鳥羽院番鍛冶の一人」 (one of the *ban-kaji* of the Retired Emperor Go-Toba), and the registers place him about the Kenpō era (1213 to 1219). The Meikan also enters a Nobufusa under Ko-Bizen about Genryaku, but the published sources read the surviving signed blades as the Fukuoka Ichimonji hand, of the Ko-Ichimonji generation after Norimune. They also record the old view that the smith signing 延房 is the same as the one signing 信房, and follow the view, stronger today, that the two are separate men.
His recognized work is a slender *tachi* of high *koshizori* with *funbari*, the upper half inclining forward to a *ko-kissaki*, an elegant shape the published sources read as characteristic of its age. Over it he tempers a calm *suguha*-toned *hamon* mixed with *ko-midare*, *ko-choji* and small *gunome*. *Ashi* and *yo* enter well, the temper is *nioi*-dominant with a little *ko-nie*, and the *nioiguchi* is at times subdued. The NBTHK says of this temper that it 「古様さや優雅なる味わいを湛え」 (holds an archaic and graceful savour). Of a nearly *ubu* two-character *tachi* it concludes from the ji and ha together that the blade 「古一文字派の刀工と鑑せられる」 (is to be judged the work of a smith of the Ko-Ichimonji lineage). The *boshi* runs straight to a small round, on one *omote* ending in *yakizume*. Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection adds a comparison of its own: beside Norimune and Sukemune his manner 「小丁子を主調としてやや華やかなものがある」 (is based on *ko-choji* and is somewhat more flamboyant).
The *jigane* is an *itame*, well forged, at times mixing *mokume* and packing into *tsumi-gokoro*, with *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and an *utsuri* stands on five of his six designated works. On the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* it is a *jifu-utsuri*, and the published sources write that 「地斑映りの立った精妙なる地鉄は本工の鍛造の技の高さを示している」 (the exquisite *jigane* with its standing *jifu-utsuri* shows the height of his forging). On the two Kujō-family blades and on the *tachi* of Honma's inventory it stands as a *midare-utsuri*, and on one *tachi* it is only faint. The activity of the *ha* lies in the *ashi*, the *yo* and the small *choji* rather than in large clusters. On the *gaku-mei* katana the published sources find the work within the *ha* especially rich, so that 「地刃に古一文字の古雅な美点がよく表示されている」 (the archaic virtues of Ko-Ichimonji are well shown in the ji and ha).
Within the signed work the published sources draw a distinction. The body of it is the *suguha*-toned *tachi*, but the pair of Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi*, one from the Kujō family and one from the collection of Kazama Yōkichi, open into something fuller. On the first a *koshiba* is tempered at the *habaki* and the whole runs as a *choji-midare* with *ashi* and *yo* entering well; the second is a *ko-nie-deki* *ko-midare* mixed with *choji*. Honma held the two to be by one hand, and noted as a point of the pair that 「焼出しが区際にある」 (the *yakidashi* sits at the *machi*). The remaining face of the record is an *o-suriage* katana whose signature survives as a *gaku-mei*. The published sources value it, with a Hon'ami Kōchū origami of Kyōhō 1 (1716), as 「遺例の少ない延房有銘の作」 (a signed Nobufusa, of which few examples survive). Honma, by contrast, called the *tachi* in his inventory comparatively plain in workmanship though a sound, fine sword, and counted his surviving works comparatively many among the early Fukuoka Ichimonji smiths.
He stands at the threshold of the school, before the flamboyant *choji-midare* of the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka Ichimonji. His own marks are the slender high-*koshizori* *tachi*, the *suguha*-toned temper gathering small *choji* and *ko-midare*, and the *utsuri* standing over a refined *itame*. Reliably signed works, the NBTHK writes, are 「頗る少なく」 (exceedingly few): it names the *tachi* at Hie Jinja, a *tachi* formerly an Imperial possession and now in the Tokyo National Museum, and the Hayashibara *tachi*, beside only a few others. On the Tokubetsu Juyo *tachi* it notes that the mei closely resembles that of the Kujō-family Juyo Bijutsuhin, which makes it 「資料的価値の高い一口」 (a blade of high documentary value), and it calls that *tachi* 「同工屈指の作」 (among the foremost works by the smith).
Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku, and the Toko Taikan values his work at 2,500. Six designated works stand on record, all of them signed: one Tokubetsu Juyo and two Juyo blades, three in the two tiers together, two prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, and the *tachi* recorded in Honma's inventory. He has no National Treasure. Provenance runs through the Kujō family, the Kishu Tokugawa, the Senge of Izumo and the collector Kazama Yōkichi, whom Honma called one of the leading collectors of the Showa era. The Ōmura of Hizen presented the inventory *tachi* to the Emperor Meiji. Of recorded whereabouts, examples rest at Hie Jinja, the Tokyo National Museum and the Hayashibara Museum of Art. With so few signed pieces, and most of them held rather than traded, a signed Nobufusa comes to light only rarely, and a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector of early Ichimonji to encounter.
Yoshimune (吉宗) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Yoshimune is a Fukuoka Ichimonji smith of mid-Kamakura Bizen whose surviving signed work is so scarce that the published sources treat each designated blade as a record of a hand otherwise known chiefly through one famous piece. The best-known of his works is the *tachi* preserved at Tsukubasan Jinja, an Important Cultural Property, and the institution names it expressly as such, observing that he "is represented by few extant works, the most famous being the tachi held at Tsukubasan Jinja" (現存する作刀が少なく ... 最も著名なものとして筑波山神社蔵の太刀). The plate of that tachi records it as signed Yoshimune, forged in *itame* and tempered in *chōji-midare*. The school itself, founded by Norimune, arose in the early Kamakura period and flowered through the middle of it, and the published sources place this signature with the Fukuoka branch at exactly that peak, when the school reached its most brilliant and dynamic large *chōji-midare*. The name was carried by more than one smith, which is the central problem of his identity, but the blades judged his own are read consistently as the mature Fukuoka manner brought to full flamboyance.
His characteristic hand is a full *chōji-midare* with no quieter base beneath it. Over an *itame* jigane he tempers a clove pattern mixed with small *chōji* and *gunome*, and on his finest works it rises into large tassel-headed *ō-busa-chōji* and sack-shaped *fukuro-chōji* with pointed *togari-ba* mixed in, the *yakiba* undulating with marked height variation. *Ashi* and *yō* enter the *ha* freely, the *nioi* runs deep with *ko-nie*, and fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* play through it, the *nioiguchi* bright. The Tokubetsu-Jūyō *tachi* gathers this into the school's defining statement, that at the mid-Kamakura peak "the magnificently developed style, brilliant and full of dynamism, of large *chōji-midare* is displayed in splendid fashion"[[c:1]]. It is this temper, never a *suguha*-toned hand, that the appraisers use to part his blades from the quieter members of the same school.
The *jigane* is the proper Ichimonji steel and the constant that holds across all of his signed work. The forging is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, tending a little toward standing grain (*hada-tachi*), with *ji-nie* well risen and, on the most tightly forged pieces, fine *chikei* entering. Over this stands a vivid *midare-utsuri*, the speckled reflection of old Bizen steel, which appears on every blade the published record describes in full and is as much a part of the recognition as the temper above it. The *bōshi* answers the *ha*. On the Tokubetsu-Jūyō and Jūyō *tachi* it is a small round (*ko-maru*), at the point sometimes turning with a pointed tendency or a little *hakikake*, while on the flamboyant gaku-mei blade and on one further *tachi* it runs into the point as a *midare-komi*. Carving is rare but present, the Jūyō *tachi* of 2003 bearing a *bonji* and a short *bō-hi* with accompanying *soe-hi*, and below them a *suken* cut *kaki-nagashi*.
The corpus draws a single mature manner pitched at two levels of display rather than a sequence of periods. On his prime works the clove pattern breaks into the large tassel-headed forms, and the gaku-mei *wakizashi* shows the same large *chōji-midare* with *fukuro-chōji* and pointed elements over an *itame* with thick *ji-nie* and fine *chikei*; the published sources judge such a blade to express the workmanship of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school at its height, finding that "the style of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school at its peak is well displayed"[[c:2]] in its splendid "flamboyant midare of *chōji* mixed with *ō-busa-chōji*"[[c:3]]. On the Tokubetsu-Jūyō *tachi* the same hand runs at a smaller pitch, the *chōji-midare* mixed with *ko-chōji* and small *gunome* rather than large clove, the *ji* and *ha* complete. A *tachi* recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection runs at the same smaller pitch: a *chōji* temper mixed with *ko-midare* and *gunome* over a slightly standing *itame* with *midare-utsuri*, the *bōshi* running in with *kinsuji* and *hakikake*. The inventory finds its manner "wholly that of the early Ichimonji school"[[c:4]], and reads the slightly extended *bōshi* and the *chōji*-led temper as signs that he worked later than Norimune and Sukemune. It dates him to the Jōkyū era and records the tradition that he was one of the smiths who forged in rotation for the cloistered emperor Go-Toba[[c:5]]. The question of how many generations carried the name is left open: the published record states that registers list smiths of this name in the Jōkyū, Shōgen and Kōan eras and that "the precise division by generation remains a topic for further study"[[c:6]].
His standing in the school is fixed by the kantei reasoning that recovers his blades from the crowd of namesakes. Because the name was shared among Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, Yoshioka Ichimonji and Osafune smiths, the appraisers sort each blade by its own workmanship and the manner of its signature, and they assign this signature to the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka hand whose individuality showed most clearly in the brilliant large *chōji-midare* of the period. The judgment is made on the work itself: of the Jūyō *wakizashi* the published sources find that "both *ji* and *ha* strongly display the distinctive features of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school"[[c:7]], the *midare-utsuri* clear in the *itame* and the large *chōji* sharp with height variation. He stands among the brilliant mid-Kamakura masters of the mature Fukuoka school alongside Yoshifusa and Norikane, his bright *utsuri* and showy *ō-busa-chōji* setting him with the flamboyant rather than the restrained side of the school, against the deliberately quiet *chōji* of his schoolmate Yoshimochi.
Fujishiro grades him *Jō-jō saku*. The connoisseurship of Yoshimune is governed by scarcity: his signed work is genuinely few, and the designated blades that survive are valued, in the words of the published record, as rare material for understanding the scope of his craftsmanship. A handful of his blades stand in the Tokubetsu-Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, with the Tsukubasan Jinja *tachi*, an Important Cultural Property, the most famous of all and held as patrimony in the shrine that has long kept it. Where provenance is recorded it runs to institutional rather than private hands, and the published commentary names the Tsukubasan Jinja blade as the reference point against which his other works are read. For the collector this is a smith met rarely. A signed Yoshimune is not held in perpetuity in the way the school's most exalted designations are, and so it is not wholly beyond reach; but with so small a signed corpus, and most of it long settled, an example comes to market only from time to time, and an *ubu*, signed *tachi* in sound condition is a landmark when one appears.
Norinari (則成) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Norinari is a Bizen smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, placed by tradition around the Kenchō era of the early-to-mid Kamakura period. He is one of the rarest names the school records: of his signed work the published sources observe that extant examples are extremely few, and that the number of securely authenticated signed *tachi* examined to date amounts to scarcely four. The signature reading 則成 is itself a problem of the books. The *meikan* enter the name across three Ichimonji-related lines, the Fukuoka Ichimonji, the Yoshioka Ichimonji and Osafune; the examined blades, however, are appraised as the work of the Fukuoka man active around Kenchō, and the later designations increasingly read him as Ko-Ichimonji, the early-Kamakura wing of the school whose work, in the words of the published commentary, keeps the old colour of Bizen. He stands at the threshold between Ko-Bizen and the great flowering of Fukuoka Ichimonji under Norimune, Sukezane and Yoshifusa.
His characteristic hand is a *suguha*-based irregular temper that has not yet opened into the school's full clove-flower. Over the *hamon* the published sources describe a mixture of *chōji*, *ko-chōji*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare* that nonetheless holds to a *suguha* foundation, with *ashi* and *yō* entering densely, *ko-nie* well adhered, the *nioiguchi* tight or soft, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running through the lower half. The tell is where the cloves gather. The judges note that around the *koshimoto* the *chōji* are conspicuous[[c:1]], and that just here the edge takes on a fresher note than the old province allows, so that in this point the distinctive character of the Ko-Ichimonji wing is clearly displayed[[c:2]]. It is the smallest of advances on Ko-Bizen, but the published commentary reads it as the nascent emergence of the full Ichimonji to come[[c:3]].
The *jigane* is the steadier half of the picture and the more obviously Bizen. His *tachi* are forged in *itame*, generally well-packed and at times mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing a little and *chikei* entering where the forging opens; over it lies a fine *ji-nie*, on the slender pieces a dust-fine *ji-nie* (*ji-nie mijin*), and a *midare-utsuri* that stands out clearly on the signed work. On a *tachi* of around the Kenchō era the reflection can fall faint and the construction turn wholly to *nioi-deki*, the *nioiguchi* gentle, demonstrating the virtues of Bizen steel without the *nie* of the later school. The *bōshi* follows the quiet manner: a shallow *notare* turning in a *ko-maru*, or running straight to a *yakitsume*.
His few blades divide into two grades of the one manner. The slender signed *tachi*, several of them *suriage* yet keeping a high *sori* and *koshizori* and ending in a *ko-kissaki*, carry the *suguha*-based, archaic register at its most refined; the published sources call these of an older *tachi-sugata* than the mid-Kamakura type, and value them for the way the *chōji* about the waist lift them past Ko-Bizen. A second, showier grade widens the *yakihaba*: on a standard-width *tachi*, *ubu* or only slightly shortened and keeping its *funbari*, the temper runs as *gunome* mixed with *chōji*, in places becoming *suguha*-like, with round-topped *gunome* and *saka-ashi* set in here and there. Of one such Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the published commentary judges the workmanship excellent and the blade a valuable example for understanding the smith's high level of ability and the scope of his work.
What sets Norinari apart his neighbours name precisely. From the brilliant *chōji-midare* of the mid- to late-Kamakura Ichimonji he is held apart, his manner read as one that differs from the splendid mid-Kamakura style[[c:4]] and in which the character of Ko-Bizen is strongly preserved in both shape and the workmanship of *ji* and *ha*[[c:5]]. From the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths he is held apart by the gathering of *chōji* on his edge and the brightness of his *midare-utsuri*. On one shortened *tachi* the older commentary granted only that there was no doubt it was the work of a superior Bizen smith[[c:6]] while adding that its precise lineage warranted further examination[[c:7]], a caution that the later attribution to Fukuoka Ichimonji around Kenchō has since refined rather than overturned. He is, in the end, a documentary figure: the quiet root from which the most brilliant of the Bizen traditions grew.
For the collector he is a scarce early name rather than a market presence. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his designated record runs instead through the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō ranks, with a handful of pieces, and through the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, one of which descended in the Maeda family of Kaga. The published sources value each signed blade for exactly what it documents, calling it one of Norinari's few extant signed works, of high value as reference material[[c:8]]. With securely signed *tachi* numbering only about four, a privately held example is among the rarer encounters in the Bizen field, coming to light from a long-held collection only seldom and with patience, and prized when it does as a witness to how the Ichimonji began.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukemori is a Fukuoka Ichimonji smith of the middle Kamakura period, signing the bare two characters of his name on the tachi that carry it, and one of these the published sources call "one of the foremost superior works among Sukemori's pieces"[[c:1]]. He worked in Bizen within the Ichimonji school that arose in the early Kamakura under Norimune, when the school had already moved past its classical opening into the broad, robust tachi for which it is remembered. The published record is careful with his name from the outset, for the Meikan carries a Sukemori under Ko-Bizen, under Ko-Ichimonji and under the Fukuoka Ichimonji, and the manner of signing differs from blade to blade. From this the judges conclude that "it is thought there were multiple smiths working under the same name"[[c:2]], so what survives under the one signature is read as the output of more than one hand across two or three generations.
His recognized prime is the o-suriage two-character signed tachi of mid-Kamakura shape, the body of standard width, the *koshizori* high and carried on toward the point, ending in a *chu-kissaki*. Over a *jigane* of *itame* that mixes in a flowing tendency and stands a little in places, with *ji-nie* and a clear *midare-utsuri*, he forges an extremely brilliant *choji-midare* into which enter *gunome*, *ko-gunome* and angular *kakubaru* elements. The *ashi* and *yo* are abundant, the *nioiguchi* deep and *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* gathering unevenly, and in the lower half a *sunagashi* runs; on one tachi the whole pattern leans into a reverse *saka-gakari* slant. It is this florid temper that the judges measure against the school's best, finding his finest *choji-midare* "extremely brilliant and gorgeous" and holding that it "connects to the quality seen in the same line as Yoshifusa"[[c:3]]. The *boshi* runs *midare-komi* and turns in a small *ko-maru*, *hakikake* at the point, one example finishing pointed.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath the flame. On the prime tachi the *itame* is read as standing a little, the grain tending toward *hada-dachi*, with *ji-nie* and the bright Ichimonji *midare-utsuri* over which the temper sits; one Juyo piece mixes *mokume* into the *itame*. Where the forging is allowed to tighten, as on his slender early work, it closes into a well-packed *ko-itame* with *ji-nie* and the *jigane* grows quieter. The hamon over it on those early pieces is correspondingly restrained, a wind-swept *ko-midare* mixing in *ko-choji*, deep in *nioi* with *ko-nie* well adhered, *ashi* entering well, *sunagashi* running and *kinsuji* seen here and there, with a *bo-hi* carved through both faces. So the same name spans a wide *jigane* under a brilliant temper on one side and a tight *ko-itame* under a calm *ko-midare* on the other.
These are the two faces of his record. The first is the broad mid-Kamakura tachi, suriage but keeping a high *koshizori*, in the flamboyant *choji* the published sources tie to Yoshifusa. The second is the slender, small-built early signed tachi, *ubu*, with high *koshizori* and pronounced *funbari* and a *ko-kissaki*, which the judges appraise as an early-Kamakura Ichimonji work close to the Ko-Bizen manner. They note of these early pieces that the name and workmanship are "so similar in both signature manner and style"[[c:4]] to Ko-Bizen that a given blade cannot always be assigned at a glance, and that with extant works few and none dated, the question is the harder. The two-character signature itself becomes part of the kantei: on the mid-Kamakura tachi it is boldly cut with a fine chisel toward the *mune* near the tang, a manner the published sources record as "without other example"[[c:5]].
What sets Sukemori within his school is exactly what the judges name. His brilliant *choji-midare* over a standing *itame* and a clear *midare-utsuri* places him in the mainstream Fukuoka manner of the mid-Kamakura, the school then forging its splendid large-clove-flower *choji* in *nioi-deki*; his finest tachi is set beside Yoshifusa, and his early slender pieces look back to the classical Ko-Bizen from which the school grew. He is held apart from the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths by the brightness of his *midare-utsuri* and the gathering of *choji* on his edge, and apart from his own quiet early register by the flame of his prime. The published sources judge both *ji* and *ha* intact, and of one shortened tachi they write that "its tachi form with pronounced *koshizori* combines elegance and strength"[[c:6]].
For the collector Sukemori is a rare and problematic early Bizen name. Fujishiro grades him Jo saku, and the *Toko Taikan* values his work in the middle range. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through two blades at the Tokubetsu Juyo rank, three at Juyo, and a folded-mei katana at the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin. Of recorded whereabouts his blades sit in long-held collections grounded in their own provenance: the Tokubetsu Juyo tachi transmitted in the Wakisaka family of Tatsuno in Harima, and the Juyo Bijutsuhin katana that passed from Kurokawa Fukusaburo to the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, with a piece recorded at Ise Jingu. Only a small number fall in the tradeable tiers, and most designated blades, in private hands or not, are held rather than traded; a signed Sukemori comes to light only seldom, so a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how brilliantly, and how variously, the one name was worked.
Sukemura (助村) — Mainline · 1201-1204. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Sukemura is a smith of the Ko-Bizen group, active from the late Heian period through the early Kamakura period, whose works belong to the earliest stratum of the Bizen forging tradition. The Ko-Bizen smiths and their works from this era are collectively distinguished from later Bizen production by their classically archaic character, termed *koko* by the NBTHK. Within this lineage, Sukemura is consistently described as a smith of whom comparatively few extant signed works survive, lending each authenticated example a heightened documentary significance. Sword signature references record the name Sukemura in both the Ko-Bizen group and the Ichimonji school; however, the NBTHK distinguishes his work on the basis of its characteristic tempering, firmly placing him within the Ko-Bizen affiliation.
Sukemura's style is defined by a *nie-deki* temper grounded in *suguha* with small irregularity — a *suguha-cho* mixed with *ko-midare*, *ko-gunome*, and at times small *choji*-like elements. The NBTHK identifies as particularly characteristic the presence of *nijuba* running along the *hamon*, the appearance of *yaki-otoshi* near the *machi*, and an overall subdued and austere quality described as *shibumi*. His *jihada* is typically *itame-hada* with *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and a clearly defined *utsuri* — whether *midare-utsuri* or the distinctive *jifu-utsuri* particular to this period — stands out vividly in the *ji*. In certain works, *tobiyaki* form in concert with the *utsuri*, creating additional points of scenic interest, while *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appear within the temper. The *hamon*, though it does not show striking rises and falls, is rich in variation and internal activity.
The NBTHK's evaluative language positions Sukemura as a smith of high technical accomplishment whose works, though rare, reward close study. His unshortened tachi are praised as imposing and dignified, and even heavily shortened examples are recognized for preserving the essential characteristics of his manner. The board repeatedly emphasizes the excellence of both *jigane* and *hamon*, noting that his works allow one to discern the high level of skill of this smith. Each surviving piece is valued not only for its superior workmanship but equally as precious reference material for understanding the earliest flowering of the Bizen school.
Yasunori (安則) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Jūbun, Jūbi, Jūyō. Yasunori is a swordsmith whose name appears across several traditions of Bizen Province, including Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, Osafune, and further among lineages such as Senjuin and Hoki. The most prominent Yasunori is traditionally regarded as a son of Fukuoka Ichimonji Norimune, active around the Hoji era (1247--1249) in the early Kamakura period. In sword reference works, Yasunori is also recorded as the teacher of Noriyoshi, who resided in Nitta-sho of Bizen Province. He is documented in sources such as the *Kanchiin-bon Meizukushi*, the *Chokyo Meizukushi*, and the *Koji Meizukushi*, though signed works extant today are few.
Yasunori's blades characteristically present slender *tachi* forms with high *koshizori* and *ko-kissaki* to *chu-kissaki*, retaining an elegant archaic character even when shortened. The forging shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, tending toward *hada-dachi*, with fine *ji-nie* adhering thickly and *chikei* entering profusely. Vivid *midare-utsuri* stands out prominently in the ground. The *hamon* ranges from *suguha*-based *ko-choji-midare* mixed with *ko-midare* and *ko-notare* to quieter *ko-nie-deki* *suguha* with gentle undulations; *choji-ashi* and *ko-ashi* enter, the *nioiguchi* is bright with *ko-nie*, and fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run through the tempered edge. While at a glance his work preserves an archaic flavor reminiscent of Old Bizen, the intermingling of *ko-choji* and *choji-ashi* allows one to discern points characteristic of the Ko-Ichimonji group[[c:1]].
As a smith whose extant works are rare, Yasunori's blades are invaluable for understanding the scope of his craftsmanship and the stylistic transition from Ko-Bizen to the Fukuoka Ichimonji group. His work displays abundant *hiraniku* and an overall robust build, with a forging quality that, in its standing *itame* with antique flavor, has been compared to the tachi by Ko-Ichimonji Sukemune preserved at Matsugasaki Shrine in Yonezawa. Each surviving example permits a deeper appreciation of the early Kamakura-period Bizen tradition and the nascent characteristics that would come to define the Ichimonji school.
Sukeshige (助茂) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Jūbun, Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumasa (信正) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Nobumasa is transmitted as a son of Nobufusa of the Bizen Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage, with his working period placed around the Joei era (c. 1232-1233). Sword-signature reference works (*meikan*) further record a theory identifying him with Ensho, though this remains a matter requiring continued examination. Classified among the so-called Ko-Ichimonji smiths of the early Kamakura period, Nobumasa is also noted as having served as a *ban-kaji* (guard smith) during the Jokyu era. Reliably authenticated extant works bearing his signature are extremely few, and examples that retain an *ubu nakago* and are preserved in essentially complete condition are exceedingly rare.
Nobumasa's tachi characteristically display high *koshizori* with pronounced *funbari* and terminate in *ko-kissaki*, producing a graceful and dignified *sugata* possessing a high classical tone. The *kitae* is worked in *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, with fine *ji-nie* adhering and *chikei* present; *midare-utsuri* stands out prominently in the *ji*. The *hamon* is typically *suguha*-based with mixed *ko-choji* and *ko-midare*, executed in *ko-nie-deki* with *ashi* and *yo* entering and fine *sunagashi* running through the temper. The *boshi* enters straight, turning back in *ko-maru*, sometimes showing *hakikake* at the tip. Where *horimono* appear, a *suken* is carved at the base of the *shinogi-ji*.
Throughout the *jihada* and *hamon* of his surviving works appear the archaic, richly evocative aesthetic virtues associated with the Ko-Ichimonji tradition, and the *ji* and *ha* are notably *kenzen*. Among the observed manners of signature carving, examples range from diminutive two-character inscriptions to three-character signatures reading "Nobumasa saku," sometimes placed unusually on the *ura* -- a feature considered atypical for works of this period. That blades of such exceptional preservation and unaltered form survive at all places Nobumasa among the rarest documented smiths of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school.
Chikafusa (近房) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Jūbi, Tokujū. Nobukane (信包) was a smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school in Bizen Province, traditionally transmitted as the son of Nobufusa (信房) — who bore the epithet "Bizen Saburō" — and the younger brother of Nobumasa (信正). His working period is placed around the Tenpuku era (1233–1234) in the early Kamakura period. Extant signed works by Nobukane are extremely few, which lends surviving examples particular documentary importance. Several of his tachi retain their *ubu* (unshortened) nakago in *kijimomo-gata* (pheasant-thigh) form, preserving original tang geometry that is itself a valuable point of reference.
Nobukane's forging characteristically shows *itame-hada*, at times with standing grain, well-condensed and well-knit, with *ji-nie* and prominent *midare-utsuri*. His *hamon* is typically a *chōji*-flavored temper mixed with *gunome* featuring comparatively conspicuous rounded heads, together with areas tending toward pointed and angular forms; *ashi* and *yō* enter well, and the construction is almost entirely *nioi-deki*. In one notable example, the *hamon* is a *ko-nie-deki* *chōji-midare* richly furnished with *ashi* and *yō*, with *kinsuji*, *sunagashi*, and *tobiyaki* appearing within the tempered area. The NBTHK has observed that Nobukane's temper — with its *gunome* heads and moderate undulations — yields a construction reminiscent of Osafune Nagamitsu of the following generation, and "deserves attention as an early forerunner of that approach."
Nobukane's blades consistently present the characteristic Fukuoka Ichimonji style while exhibiting a workmanship described as possessing an archaic (*koko*) flavor. The NBTHK evaluates his work as conveying both clarity of *jihada* and *hamon* with "activities within the tempered area, resulting in a well-made work." Because signed works are scarce, surviving blades — particularly those retaining *ubu* nakago with original signatures — are assessed as possessing "extremely high documentary value" and are considered precious reference material for the study of the early Fukuoka Ichimonji tradition.
Sukehisa (助久) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukehisa is transmitted in the *meikan* as the son of Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukenobu, a smith who later relocated to Osafune in Bizen Province. His active dates are variously given as the Tenpuku era (1233–1234) or the Ryakunin era (1238–1239), firmly situating him in the mid-Kamakura period. Judging from the style of his workmanship and the manner of his signature, the NBTHK considers him to precede the Osafune Nagamitsu lineage, positioning Sukehisa as a transitional figure between the Fukuoka Ichimonji tradition and the great Osafune mainline that would follow. His early Ichimonji heritage — the so-called Ko-Ichimonji manner — is evident in tachi that share with Ko-Bizen an old-fashioned, slender form with small *kissaki*, pronounced *koshi-zori*, and noticeable *funbari*.
Sukehisa's technical range encompasses both tachi and *ken*, the latter form being particularly well represented among his designated works. His *ken* are rendered in *ryo-shinogi-zukuri* with high *shinogi*, producing a refined and elegant form in which the tip does not flare — a *sugata* the NBTHK compares directly to *ken* by Nagamitsu of the same province and by Awataguchi Kuniyoshi of Yamashiro. The forging is a well-refined, densely packed *ko-itame-hada* with finely adhering *ji-nie* and occasional *chikei*. The *hamon* is a *ko-nie-deki* *suguha* base, at times showing shallow *notare* tendency with slight *hotsure* and *kinsuji*; the *nioiguchi* is characteristically tight and notably clear (*saeru*). In his tachi, *ko-choji* mixed with *ko-midare* predominates, with *ashi* entering well and *midare-utsuri* appearing in the ground.
The designation records repeatedly describe Sukehisa's work as *kenzen* — sound and well-preserved — a condition that, combined with the quality of both *ji* and *ha*, draws consistent praise. His blades are characterized as possessing "a substantial presence and a lofty, dignified tone," and in multiple evaluations the NBTHK singles out the exceedingly fine quality of the steel and temper. Sukehisa thus occupies a distinguished position within the early Bizen tradition: a bridge between the Fukuoka Ichimonji heritage and the Osafune school's ascendancy, whose surviving works demonstrate skilled workmanship of the highest order.
Sukenari (助成) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助重) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Jūbun, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshinobu (吉信) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Jūbun. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Hirotoshi (弘利) — Mainline · 1249-1293. Tokujū, Jūyō. Hirotoshi was a swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group in Bizen Province, active during the mid-Kamakura period. Sword reference compendia place him in two separate temporal ranges: one around the Kencho era and another around the Bun'ei to Shoo eras. The Hirotoshi placed around Kencho is said to have been the son of Tameri or Moritoshi, while a later smith of the same name is recorded as having styled himself Sakon Shogen. Whether these represent distinct generations or a single smith active over a long period remains a subject for future research, though the close resemblance of signature character forms across varied works — a pattern also observed in Masatoshi of the same group — suggests the possibility of a single hand.
The forging and tempering of Hirotoshi's works display the characteristic features of Bizen Province and the Ichimonji lineage to excellent effect. The *kitae* is *itame-hada* with places showing a tendency toward *hada-dachi*, accompanied by thickly applied *ji-nie* and fine *chikei*; prominent *midare-utsuri* stands in the ground, with portions taking on a *jifu-utsuri*-like appearance that conveys an archaic flavor. The *hamon* is chiefly *choji-midare* mixed with *ko-choji*, *ko-gunome*, and *ko-midare*; *ashi* and *yo* enter frequently, *ko-nie* adheres, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appear throughout. The *nioiguchi* is soft and *nioi*-dominant, yielding a calm and settled impression in which the rises and falls of the *choji* forms, while exhibiting considerable variation, are not conspicuous.
Extant signed works by Hirotoshi are extremely few, and those that survive — though typically *suriage* — preserve the dignified tachi form of the mid-Kamakura period, retaining high *koshizori* with remaining *funbari*. The two-character signature is characteristically cut with a thick chisel. These blades serve as important reference material for the study of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, and their documentary value is particularly high in illuminating questions of lineage and generational transmission within this celebrated group of Bizen smiths.
Hisamune (久宗) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Tokujū, Jūyō. Hisamune is transmitted in the *meikan* as a grandson of Ko-Ichimonji Norimune, the founder of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group, and as a swordsmith active around the Kan'gen era (1243--1247) in the early Kamakura period. The Fukuoka Ichimonji school arose in the early Kamakura period and flourished most greatly in the mid-Kamakura period; those smiths of the group active in the earlier phase -- beginning with Norimune -- are separately designated as Ko-Ichimonji. Their manner differs from the splendid and brilliant style of the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji: in both the *sugata* and the workmanship of *ji* and *ha*, they preserve strongly the flavor of Ko-Bizen works. Few celebrated works by Hisamune survive today.
Hisamune's forging shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, with minute *ji-nie* adhering, fine *chikei* entering well, and faint *midare-utsuri* standing in the ground. His tempering is based on *suguha*, mixed with *ko-midare*, *ko-gunome*, and *ko-notare*, with *ko-ashi* entering; the *nioi* is somewhat deep, and *ko-nie* adheres well. The *habuchi* displays *hotsure* in places, with *nijuba* suggested, together with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. In these features, the classical and dignified character distinctive to Ko-Ichimonji is made plainly evident. His *boshi* follows a straight form turning back in *ko-maru* with a shallow return. His signatures are rendered in rather large, bold two-character strokes cut with a somewhat thick chisel, and their crisp clarity is especially praised in designation records.
Hisamune's importance rests on his position within the earliest phase of the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage, bridging the archaic Ko-Bizen manner and the increasingly dynamic style that would define the school's mid-Kamakura zenith. Because extant works by Hisamune are rare, surviving pieces possess high documentary value for understanding his workmanship range and signature. Designation records commend the beauty of his nearly unaltered *tachi sugata*, the soundness of preservation in both *ji* and *ha*, and the refined, dignified quality of workmanship that places him firmly among the distinguished early masters of the Ichimonji tradition.
Kagenori (景則) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Tokujū, Jūyō. Kagenori (景則) is a Bizen smith of the Kamakura period whose exact lineage has long resisted definitive resolution. Sword reference works variously place him among the Ko-Bizen makers of the Bun'o era and within the Fukuoka Ichimonji group of the Koan era, with second and third generations further associated with the Bunpo and Gentoku periods. Additional sources record that the Koan-era Kagenori "is said to have been the founder of the Yoshii group,"[[c:1]] though whether this attribution is correct remains a subject for future research. The name also appears in Yoshii genealogical records and alongside Kagehide and Kageyasu in the *Kokon Meizukushi*, yet surviving signed works do not clearly belong to either the Osafune lineage or the old Yoshii lineage, leaving the precise affiliations of smiths bearing this name a matter of continuing scholarly inquiry.
Extant works by Kagenori encompass pieces appraised as both Ko-Bizen and Ichimonji, reflecting the breadth of stylistic territory associated with the name. The Ichimonji-attributed blades characteristically display *choji-midare* as the principal motif, rendered in a flamboyant manner mixed with *ko-gunome*, small *choji*-like elements, and *togari-ba*. The *jigane* is forged in *ko-itame* mixed with *itame* and *mokume*, with *ji-nie* adhering and *chikei* entering in places. Prominent *midare-utsuri* stands in the ground steel, and the temper line presents a softening tendency in the *nioiguchi* that produces a brilliant, showy effect. Other works show *gunome* with a *choji-gokoro* character accompanied by vigorous *nie* activity within the *ha*, demonstrating range within a consistently high standard of forging and tempering.
Because so few signed works by Kagenori survive, each authenticated example carries particular importance as reference material for understanding his individual style and its relationship to the broader evolution of the Ichimonji and Yoshii traditions. The existence of a dated blade inscribed Koan 4 (1281) provides a critical chronological anchor, while calligraphic comparison of signatures across surviving pieces has enabled scholars to identify works by the same hand. Collectively, these blades constitute precious evidence for tracing stylistic change within the Bizen schools during the mid-to-late Kamakura period and into the early Nanbokucho era.
Narichika (成近) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Tokujū. Narichika (成近) was a smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group, the celebrated lineage that flourished in Bizen Province from the early Kamakura period through the Nanbokuchō era. The Ichimonji school prospered in such locales as Fukuoka, Yoshioka, and Iwato, producing many excellent craftsmen. According to sword-signature compendia, Narichika's period of activity is recorded as around the Jōei era (c. 1232--1233). Extant signed works by him are rare, making each surviving example of particular importance for the documentary record. A separate smith reading Narichika is also known among the Ko-Hōki group descending from Yasutsuna, active from the late Heian into the early Kamakura period in Hōki Province; the two should not be confused.
The tachi bearing Narichika's signature presents an elegant *ubu* form -- somewhat slender, of long dimensions with a *ko-kissaki*, marked taper from base to tip, and pronounced *koshizori*. The forging shows well-refined *itame* with extremely fine *ji-nie* in *mijin* particles and delicate *chikei*; *midare-utsuri* stands out clearly, and the steel is bright and clear. The *hamon* begins with *yakiotoshi* above the *machi*; in the lower half the *yakihaba* is taken wide, forming large *chōji* mixed with *gunome* in a flamboyant, large-scale *midare* with conspicuous rises and falls. In the upper half the pattern becomes calmer, mixing *ko-chōji* with *ko-gunome* and *ko-notare*. Throughout, *ashi* and *yō* enter well; *nioi* predominates with adhering *ko-nie*; and such activities as *kinsuji*, *sunagashi*, *tobiyaki*, and *muneyaki* appear -- revealing an excellent *dekiguchi*. The *bōshi* is *midare-komi* with a small *maru* tendency, turning back.
The work superbly demonstrates the Fukuoka Ichimonji school's brilliant, richly varied style at a level of outstanding workmanship[[c:1]]. Both *ji* and *ha* are bright and clear, and the state of preservation is exceptionally good. As one of the few surviving *ubu* examples by this smith, the blade is extremely valuable as reference material for the study of early Kamakura-period Bizen craftsmanship. The tachi was transmitted in the Sendai Date family during the domain-administration era, further attesting to its historical standing among connoisseurs of the sword.
Norinawa (則繩) — Mainline · 1150-1220. Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sanetoshi (眞利) — Mainline · 1185-1220. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sanetoshi, the name read Mari and cut as the two characters 真利, is a Bizen swordsmith of the early Kamakura period, placed by the published sources among the Ko-Ichimonji, the founding generation of the Fukuoka Ichimonji that the school's progenitor Norimune leads. The Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi that is the centre of his record carries that two-character signature on an almost untouched tang, cut with a somewhat thick chisel above the original mekugi hole, and the judges read it from form and steel as a Ko-Ichimonji work of the period's first decades. The published commentary describes these earliest Ichimonji hands as standing apart from the school's later splendour, holding instead 'an old Bizen character strongly preserved' in both shape and the workmanship of ji and ha. Sanetoshi belongs at that root, before the great flowering of the school at Fukuoka.
The characteristic hand sits deliberately between two poles. Over an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing a little toward *hada-dachi*, he lays a temper that is no longer the plain *ko-midare* of old Bizen yet not the high clove-flower of the mid-Kamakura school: a *chōji* and a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare* into which he mixes *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, *ashi* and *yō* entering well, *ko-nie* adhering, with fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* threading through. The published sources name this balance exactly. Set beside Ko-Bizen, they write, 'the *chōji* stands out more and shows a slight air of technical sophistication'[[c:1]]; set beside the mid-Kamakura Ichimonji, the same work 'is calmer, presenting an archaic and elegant taste'[[c:2]]. The conspicuous *ko-chōji* on a quiet base is the tell of the hand.
The *jigane* is the constant beneath that temper. On the signed tachi the *itame* and *mokume* carry fine *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and a *midare-utsuri* stands out clearly across the *ji*; on the kodachi the *ji-nie* gathers dust-fine and thick and the *utsuri* rises a little fainter. The reflection of old Bizen steel is the feature he keeps on both blades, the Fukuoka *jigane* he shares with the school. The *bōshi* runs nearly straight to a *ko-maru*, on the kodachi finishing as a *yakizume* with *hakikake* on one face, a quiet ending that suits the archaic register.
His surviving work divides into two manners that the judges read as one hand's range rather than two careers. The prime is the *ubu*, two-character signed tachi, dignified and rather wide, the *chōji* at its most pronounced over the standing *itame*; the Tokubetsu Jūyō piece, its signature clear and its *ji* and *ha* sound, the commentary calls 'a fine work, rich in points of appreciation'[[c:3]]. The other manner is the quieter work of the slender, *suriage* kodachi, fundamentally a *chū-suguha* with *ko-chōji*, *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome* and frequent *ashi* and *yō*, archaic in taste, yet with the *ko-chōji* conspicuous enough to show a degree of technical artifice. That kodachi the judges find 'appropriate to appraise as the work of Mari of Ko-Ichimonji', a particularly distinguished piece for the strength of its *nie* and the variety of its activity.
The central scholarly question is the name itself. The *Meikan* records 真利 across four groups, Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, Katayama Ichimonji and the Osafune line, and a comparatively substantial number of works survive, yet the published sources caution that 'it is difficult to distinguish these clearly on the basis of signature style alone'[[c:4]]. Signed Mari blades whose own published texts place them with Ko-Bizen or with the Osafune hand are kept under those smiths, and his Ko-Ichimonji attributions therefore rest on era and school manner, on the *sugata* and the ji-ha, not on the shared mei. The judges set him apart from the later school by exactly the words they use of the early generation, that their work, 'unlike the splendid style of the mid-Kamakura period'[[c:5]], keeps 'an old Bizen character strongly preserved'[[c:6]]; and apart from the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths by the brightness of his *midare-utsuri* and the gathering of *chōji* on his edge.
For the collector he is a rare early Bizen name. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku, and the Tōkō Taikan value of 900 places him among the well-regarded Ko-Ichimonji hands. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties. Two designated works are on record, both in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers: the *ubu* signed tachi, designated Jūyō in 1992 and raised to Tokubetsu Jūyō in 1994, and the signed kodachi, designated Jūyō in 2006. His provenance reaches into the great northern daimyō house, for the Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi descends from a branch family of the Yonezawa Uesugi count household. No current institutional holder is on record. A signed Ko-Ichimonji Mari comes to light only seldom, and most of what survives is held rather than traded; a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a document of how the Ichimonji began.
Sukefusa (助房) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukefusa is recorded in sword-signature reference works (*meikan*) as a two-character-signature smith of the Bizen Fukuoka Ichimonji group, with entries placing him in the Genryaku era[[c:1]] and, separately, as a second generation active in the Kenpo era[[c:2]]. Three smiths -- Yoshifusa, Norifusa, and Sukezane -- are transmitted as his sons, situating him at a pivotal generational node within the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage during the early to mid-Kamakura period. Almost no signed works survive today, and the great majority of blades bearing his name do so through traditional attribution (*den*) or later gold-inlaid inscription (*kinzogan-mei*).
Blades attributed to Sukefusa display a finely forged *ko-itame-hada* that is extremely well packed, with *ji-nie* forming clearly and *midare-utsuri* standing out in the *ji*. The *hamon* characteristically features *ko-choji* mixed with layered *juka-choji* and *kawazuko*-like *gunome*, worked in deep *nioi* with *ko-nie* and well-entering *ashi*. A diagnostic trait considered central to his attribution is a slightly reverse-slanting *hamon* near the base on the *sashi-omote*[[c:3]], often accompanied by *kinsuji* appearing on the *ura* near the *moto*. The *boshi* tends toward *midare-komi* turning back in *ko-maru* with a slightly pointed feeling. While the *hamon* is comparatively small in scale relative to the flamboyant *choji-midare* of some Ichimonji contemporaries, it is exceedingly rich in variation, and both *ji* and *ha* are strongly enlivened by *nie*.
While the question of whether a specific personal attribution to Sukefusa can be sustained in individual cases remains a matter requiring further study, there is no dissent from the view that works so attributed should be regarded as products of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, the workmanship placing them somewhat earlier in date than his documented sons. Blades carrying his attribution are further distinguished by exceptionally good *nikuoki* and outstanding *kenzen* preservation[[c:4]], confirming their standing as *meito* of the highest order within the Ichimonji tradition.
Sukehide (助秀) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukehide was a swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school in Bizen Province, active during the mid-Kamakura period. According to the sword reference compendia (*meikan*), the name Sukehide appears among Ko-Bizen, Fukuoka Ichimonji, and Yoshioka Ichimonji lineages, with several smiths using this name recorded as active in eras such as Kencho, Kenji, and Einin. The Sukehide to whom designated works are attributed is identified as a son of Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukemori and is placed around the Kencho era (1249--1256). Extant signed works by this smith are extremely few, making each surviving example valuable as documentary material for understanding his working range.
Sukehide's tachi display the hallmarks of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school at its peak. The forging is characteristically *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, producing a clearly standing grain with a distinct surface pattern. Fine *ji-nie* adheres in dense layers and fine *chikei* enter well, while vivid *midare-utsuri* rises in the *ji* to striking effect. In tempering, his work encompasses both *choji-midare* compositions mixed with *gunome* and *ko-gunome* in a *nioi-gachi* manner, and quieter *chu-suguha*-based patterns mixed with shallow *ko-notare* and *ko-choji* rendered in *ko-nie-deki*. In either mode the *nioiguchi* is bright and tight, producing a superb contrast between *ji* and *ha*. The *boshi* tends toward *midare-komi* or gently *notare*-tinged forms, turning back in *ko-maru*.
Sukehide's surviving blades preserve the classic Kamakura-period *sugata* with firm *nikuoki*, high *koshizori*, and *chu-kissaki*, whether encountered in *ubu* or *suriage* condition. The interplay between the captivating forging surface -- with its boiling *nie* and vivid *utsuri* -- and the disciplined temperament of the *hamon* produces works of particular interest. Because signed examples are so rare, each blade constitutes outstanding source material for the study of this smith and the broader Fukuoka Ichimonji tradition of the mid-Kamakura period.
Other smiths
Sukeyoshi (助吉) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Sukeyoshi is a Bizen Ichimonji smith of the Kamakura period, working in the school that flourished at Fukuoka, Yoshioka, Katayama and Iwato under the single character ichi. The name is not borne by one hand alone: the published sources note that Sukeyoshi occurs in both the Fukuoka and the Yoshioka Ichimonji[[c:1]], and the five works on record under this entry are two Juyo pieces the published sources read as Fukuoka Ichimonji, an early signed tachi and a gold-inlaid attribution, and three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll that its commentary presents together.
The signed two-character tachi reads archaic. The published sources call its ji and ha old in manner at a glance and identify it as an early-Kamakura Ko-Ichimonji work, one that comes immediately after Ko-Bizen[[c:2]]. Though suriage it keeps koshizori with funbari and a small kissaki. Over a ko-itame with fine ji-nie, a midare-utsuri stands vividly[[c:3]]. The temper is calm for an Ichimonji blade: a suguha-toned base in ko-nie, broken into small midare and ko-choji, with ashi and yo working well in nie, sunagashi laid in and kinsuji running through, the boshi a ko-maru. The two characters are cut large at the tang tip, and the published sources find both the manner of the signature and the workmanship of ji and ha good[[c:4]].
The second manner is the flamboyant one for which Fukuoka Ichimonji is named. The published sources describe the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka work as developing the most splendid and varied large-pattern choji-midare of the school[[c:5]], and it was on such a temper that Hon'ami Tadaaki cut a gold-inlaid attribution to Sukeyoshi on a greatly shortened wakizashi. That blade shows an itame mixed with mokume, closely forged, with ji-nie, chikei and a midare-utsuri, under a choji-midare mixed with togariba and tobiyaki, ashi and yo, ko-nie, kinsuji and sunagashi, the boshi a notare-komi tending to ko-maru with hakikake. From the brilliant large-pattern choji-midare the published sources read the attribution as meaning the Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukeyoshi, and judge the work excellent[[c:6]].
The three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll show how the name runs on. The roll's commentary cites the swordbooks that make Sukeyoshi a son of the Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukefusa and, by one account, the founder of Yoshioka Ichimonji[[c:7]]. Two of the tachi, one signed with the upper character 上 and keeping its funbari, the other shortened yet of good shape, share a close-forged itame with midare-utsuri[[c:8]] under a choji-midare with ashi and yo working well. The third has a signature that differs from these two, and the published sources think it the work of a somewhat later Fukuoka Ichimonji smith[[c:9]]. Though shortened it remains somewhat wide with a point tending to ikubi, over an itame standing a little with a midare-utsuri, and its temper is a nioi-based choji-midare with a little ko-nie, inclining to saka-gakari[[c:10]], kinsuji mixing in. Honma, commenting on the three together, holds all of them probably Fukuoka Ichimonji yet hard to settle as the work of one man, reads the character 上 above the two-character mei as tatematsuru, meaning the maker presented the blade to its patron, and finds the tachi signed simply Sukeyoshi the most archaic of the three in ji and ha[[c:11]].
What holds the record together is the Bizen jigane. On every piece a midare-utsuri stands over the steel, on the archaic signed tachi over a fine ko-itame, on the later work over an itame mixed with mokume or standing a little. Against that constant the two tempers are read: the quiet suguha-toned small midare of the early-Kamakura Ko-Ichimonji and the varied large choji-midare of the Fukuoka flowering. The published sources keep the identities separate rather than force them into one biography, settling the school and the period with confidence while leaving the name to more than one hand.
For the collector Sukeyoshi is a rare early name. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku and the Toko Taikan values him high among the old Bizen smiths. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; five designated works are on record, two in the Juyo tier and three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll, one of them recorded at its designation with Tokumoto Yuzo of Saga. The published sources praise the signed early-Kamakura tachi for its archaic ji and ha and the pleasing manner of its signature. With so few pieces on record, a signed Sukeyoshi comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing to encounter, a document of the Ichimonji school between its archaic beginnings and its great Fukuoka flowering.
Moritomo (守友) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Motochika (基近) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naganao (長直) — Mainline · 1324-1326. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumasa (延正) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuyoshi (延吉) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sadatoshi (定利) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Sadatoshi (定利) is transmitted as a Kyōto smith who resided on Ayakōji around the Bun'ei era (1264–1275) of the Kamakura period. His position within the Ayakōji tradition — a lineage of capital-based smiths — places him among the Kyōto-mono makers whose works are prized for their refined character and distinctive forging. The NBTHK sources describe Sadatoshi as an established smith with a recognizable individual style, one whose works are sufficiently numerous and consistent to permit meaningful comparison between examples. Published references to his blades appear in *Kunzan Nichinisshō*, *Kyō-mono no Komeisaku*, *Tōken to Rekishi*, and *Tōken Bijutsu*, reflecting sustained scholarly attention.
Sadatoshi's characteristic forging is an *itame-hada*, at times with a slight *nagare* (flowing) tendency, in which *chikei* are visible and *ji-nie* is abundant. Both the jihada and the hardened edge retain what the NBTHK describes as an archaic, old-style taste — termed *kōchō* in character. His hamon is a *nie-deki* composition of ko-chōji mixed with ko-midare[[c:1]], and the *nioiguchi* characteristically takes on an *urumi* — a moist, softly diffused quality — that is identified as a distinguishing feature of this smith. In certain works, the nioiguchi is noted as being especially bright and clear relative to his broader output[[c:2]]. The bōshi may show a tendency toward nie becoming disordered (nie-kuzure). The shinogi is sometimes broader and set higher than is ordinarily seen among his peers, and the curvature can vary, with some tachi displaying shallower sori than is typical. While hi (grooves) are occasionally encountered, horimono of other types are described as uncommon on Sadatoshi's works.
The NBTHK evaluations consistently emphasize that Sadatoshi's works "clearly express the characteristic features of this smith," with the archaic ko-chōji and ko-midare composition and the urumi quality of the nioiguchi serving as reliable points of attribution. His blades are valued both as accomplished works of the Kyōto tradition and as documentary material for the Ayakōji school, a lineage where securely signed examples carry particular scholarly weight.
Sanetoshi (眞利) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tameto (爲遠) — Mainline · 1278-1317. Tameto is a late-Kamakura swordsmith of Karakawa in Bizen, a locality on the border with Bitchu, attached to the Fukuoka Ichimonji line. Two signed works of his carry the same year. A *tachi* signed Bizen no Kuni Karakawa-ju Saemon no Jo Fujiwara Tameto is dated on the reverse the third month of Bunpo 1 (1317), and a *hira-zukuri* tanto signed Bizen no Kuni-ju Tameto is dated the sixth month of that year. The published sources note that the *Koto Meizukushi* treats him 'as drawing on the line of Fukuoka Ichimonji Korekuni, but in fact'[[c:1]] this is not clearly established. His name also carries a question of transcription. The dated tachi reads Fujiwara, the Juyo paper gives Sugawara, and the Meikan, as cited for the tanto, records a Bunpo 1 work signed Kuchikawa-ju Sugawara Tameto, admitting that where Kuchikawa lay is unclear.
His is a quiet hand within a school better known for flamboyant *choji*. Every blade on his record is built as a *suguha*. On the two signed tachi the published sources describe the *jigane* in the same plain phrase, 'forged in ko-itame, tightly packed, with utsuri rising'[[c:2]]. The temper on the ubu tachi is 'a nioi-deki suguha with small gunome mixed in, ashi entering'[[c:3]], and the dated tachi breaks the same line into *notare*. The dated tachi, though shortened, keeps 'a somewhat broad mihaba and a healthy figure'[[c:4]]. The ubu tachi, judged the same hand, is slender, with a slightly extended point and a pleasing *koshizori*.
The tanto shows the same restraint at a smaller scale. It is a *hira-zukuri* blade with *uchizori* and wide grooves on both faces. The *ko-itame* is tired overall and somewhat rough, with a straight *utsuri*, and the temper is a slender *suguha* shallowly undulating, with *ko-ashi* and *ko-nie*, the *boshi* a normal small round. Its entry says plainly that 'it does not make his lineage or anything else clear, but it is a rarity'[[c:5]], and adds that 'it is a pity that it is tired'[[c:6]].
The other face of his record is the *o-suriage* mumei katana attributed to him. Here the *itame* is mixed with *masame-gokoro* and stands overall, the *utsuri* faint. The slender *suguha* undulates shallowly with *ko-choji*, *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome*, *ko-ashi* entering well and *sunagashi* running, and the *boshi* is straight to a small round. The published sources accept the attribution on the basis the signed work sets. 'Extant signed works are extremely few'[[c:7]], and they are 'for the most part suguha with an admixture of choji and ko-midare'[[c:8]]. In that sense, the paper concludes, 'the traditional attribution may be accepted'[[c:9]].
For the collector he is a rare and carefully documented late-Kamakura Bizen name. Fujishiro grades him Jo saku, and the Toko Taikan places him in the upper middle of the koto field. No National Treasure or Important Cultural Property stands to his name. His official record is four works: the two signed tachi designated Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war, the dated tanto, and one Juyo katana. At certification the dated tachi was owned by Nomura Hisatsuna of Kagawa and the ubu tachi by Ninomiya Kojun of Niigata. The tanto, formerly of Tanzan Jinja, is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. These are long-held pieces of heritage rather than blades that pass through the market. A signed Tameto of recorded whereabouts is among the rarer things a student of Bizen work could encounter, and one comes to light, when it does, only with patience.
Yoshimochi (吉用) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Yoshimochi (吉用) worked within the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage of Bizen Province during the Kamakura period. The Fukuoka Ichimonji group represents one of the most celebrated schools of the Bizen tradition, and Yoshimochi is recognized as a smith whose temperament distinguishes him from his peers through a comparatively restrained approach to the flamboyant *choji* style for which the school is renowned. Among his works, examples rendered in *suguha* are also encountered, setting him apart from the more exuberant output typical of the Fukuoka Ichimonji mainstream.
Yoshimochi's blades characteristically present an *itame-hada* forging, at times mixed with *mokume*, upon which *midare-utsuri* stands out distinctly -- a hallmark of high-quality Bizen workmanship. His *hamon* tends toward *nioi-deki*, often taking a *suguha*-based pattern enriched with *ko-choji-midare* elements, into which *ashi* and *yo* enter abundantly. In his more ornate works, the temperline broadens into a wide *yakihaba* with *kaeruko* ("tadpole") features that produce a decorative, showy effect. The *nioiguchi* in his suguha-oriented works tends toward tightness (*shimari-gokoro*), yielding a refined and controlled impression. Signed examples retain elegant tachi proportions with pronounced *koshizori* and *funbari*, finished with a compact *kissaki*.
Yoshimochi occupies a distinctive position within the Fukuoka Ichimonji school as a smith whose versatility bridges the restrained and the flamboyant. His works demonstrate that the school's mastery extended beyond the bold *choji-midare* for which it is most famous, encompassing quieter modes of expression executed with equal technical command. Blades bearing his name have been transmitted through notable collections, including the Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation and the Mitsui family, attesting to the esteem in which his work has long been held.
Yoshimoto (吉元) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Yoshimoto is a Bizen smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group whose readable record is small and uncommonly distinguished: three blades at the Juyo rank, including a katana carrying a kiwame gold-inlaid signature, and two tachi designated Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war, one of them published in the Kozan Oshigata. The Fukuoka Ichimonji was the Bizen school that arose in the early Kamakura period with Norimune as its founder and that, by the mid-Kamakura, brought the choji temper to its most consciously decorative maturity, mixing large choji, layered double-flower choji and frog-spawn choji with abundant ashi and yo. The name Yoshimoto sits across two lineages in the Meikan, one strand among the Fukuoka Ichimonji and one among the Osafune smiths, and the published sources note that the second generation later relocated to Osafune, recording of the first that "its second generation is said to have moved to Osafune."[[c:1]] One tradition transmits the first generation as a son of Yoshifusa, the school's foremost master of the flamboyant choji.
His hand is read in two manners. The first is an archaic, somewhat subdued early-Kamakura tachi: over a slender body with high koshizori and clear funbari, ending in a ko-kissaki, he forges an itame that runs in places and tends slightly to stand, a faint midare-utsuri rising over it. The temper is a ko-choji mixed with small irregularity and ko-gunome, hotsure breaking the line in places, ashi entering well throughout, ko-nie adhering and sunagashi running, the boshi straight with a yakitsume tendency. On the slenderer of the signed tachi the lower half settles toward a suguha base and a chiba-utsuri, the speckled reflection of old Bizen steel, is discerned in the ji. The published sources read this restrained early work as archaic in ji, ha and form alike, holding that "its workmanship and shape are archaic in character and it is appraised to the early Kamakura period."[[c:2]]
The ji carries his recognition as much as the temper. The forging is an itame, in one piece mixed with mokume and running here and there, tending a little to stand, with ji-nie attaching, and over it the midare-utsuri rises. It is faint on the early tachi and discerned as a chiba-utsuri on the shortened one, and it stands vividly on his mature katana, where a densely forged ko-itame carries fine ji-nie and chikei beneath a clear reflection. The published sources call that jigane bright in steel and well refined, writing of the katana that "the forging, with its vivid midare-utsuri standing, is bright in steel color and well worked."[[c:3]] The hamon enters in nioi with ko-nie attaching, the fine kinsuji and sunagashi of his developed hand running through it, the boshi straight or very shallowly midare-komi and turning back in a small round.
His kinzogan-mei katana shows the school's mature manner at its developed height and supplies the second of his two registers. Greatly shortened, the body somewhat wide with little difference between base and tip width, it retains koshizori with added curvature toward the tip and a chu-kissaki, with bo-hi carved through on both sides. The temper is a choji-midare mixed with ko-choji and togariba; in the upper half it rises high and varies in height to a splendid effect, ashi and yo entering well, the nioiguchi bright and nioi-dominant. This is the flamboyant choji the school is known for, where his early tachi keep the calmer ko-choji of the old Bizen tone, so a collector reads the two pieces as one smith working at the two ends of his school's range. The kinzogan attribution itself rests on a connoisseur's judgment of manner, and the published sources locate it in the temper, holding that "compared with Yoshifusa, the slightly more restrained setting of the habuchi accords convincingly with the kiwame to Yoshimoto."[[c:4]]
That last judgment places him within the Fukuoka Ichimonji rather than apart from it. His own grounded tells are the bright midare-utsuri over a well-worked itame, the ko-choji-toned early temper and the slightly calmer habuchi that the appraisers weighed against Yoshifusa's more exuberant hand, and these set him within the school without naming a rival's features. The recognized signed work belongs to the Fukuoka Ichimonji Yoshimoto, distinguished from the Osafune namesake by the archaic ji, ha and form of his early-Kamakura tachi, while the Meikan's double entry and the recorded move of the second generation carry the name forward into the rising Osafune school. The published sources resolve the homonym on a Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi by style and signature, judging that of the two Yoshimoto smiths "this one is thought to correspond to the former,"[[c:5]] the son of Yoshifusa in the Fukuoka line.
Yoshimoto is graded Jo-saku by Fujishiro, and his designated record, though small, is high: a kiwame gold-inlaid katana and two signed tachi at the Juyo rank, and two signed tachi recognized as Juyo Bijutsuhin in the prewar years, five designated works on record in all. One Juyo tachi is published in the Kozan Oshigata; the Juyo Bijutsuhin pair appears in the Shinto Koto Taikan, the Token Mei Taishu and the Shinko Meito Zufu. The blades whose owners are recorded passed through private hands, Kikuchi Takashi of Kyoto and Honma Yusuke of Yamagata holding the two Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi at the time of their designation, the early Juyo tachi recorded with private owners in Tokyo and abroad. No National Treasure or Important Cultural Property bears his name, so his work is not held out of reach in museums and shrines but survives in long-held private collections. A signed Yoshimoto tachi is a rare thing, the more so an ubu-mei example, which the published sources prize as reference material; one reaches the market only seldom, and a piece in this archaic Fukuoka Ichimonji hand rewards the patience of the collector who waits for it.
Yoshizane (吉眞) — Mainline · 1185-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Hiroyuki (弘行) — Mainline · 1312-1317. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Iemura (家村) — Mainline. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ienobu (家信) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kuniyuki (國行) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Morikuni (守国) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobufusa (信房) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobukane (信包) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsuna (則綱) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sanesada (眞貞) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sanetada (眞忠) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Saneyuki (眞行) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suenori (末則) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukehide (助秀) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukemune (助宗) — Mainline · 1240-1243. A tachi designated at the 61st Jūyō session in 2015 carries near the tip of its ubu tang the two characters 助宗, cut boldly with a fine chisel, and stands eighty-three centimeters with a wide body, deep koshizori and an extended chū-kissaki. It is one of only a handful of signed works that secure the name Sukemune within the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, the great Bizen line that arose in the early Kamakura period and reached, by the middle of the thirteenth century, the most flamboyant chōji-midare the tradition ever produced. The published sources are careful to separate two smiths who bear this name. One is the Ko-Ichimonji Sukemune counted among the attendant forging group[[c:1]] of the Retired Emperor Go-Toba, traditionally a son of the founder Norimune and called Ō-Ichimonji (大一文字); the other is the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukemune to whom every one of the surviving designated blades is appraised. Each designation states the distinction outright before placing its blade with the latter, a smith who worked a generation or more after the ban-kaji namesake, at the school's most luxuriant peak.
His hand is the mature Fukuoka manner carried at full strength. Over an itame mixed with mokume he tempers a chōji-midare in which the discriminating compounds gather in profusion: large chōji, the layered double-flower jūka-chōji, and the frog-spawn kawazuko-chōji, the published record describing the school of this period as the stage where 大丁子・重花丁子・蛙子丁子が入り乱れ. The yakihaba broadens in places, ashi and yō enter abundantly, kinsuji and sunagashi run freely through a deep nioi with ko-nie, and on the finest of the signed tachi the temper reads 匂口明るく冴える, bright and clear along its whole length. This is not the bare chōji of school boilerplate but its fullest elaboration, the temper the published sources call 豪華で絢爛たる刃文の成熟, the luxuriant and brilliant ripening of the Fukuoka style.
The jigane is the Ichimonji steel that anchors the kantei. An itame, often with mokume worked in and a slight tendency to standing grain, carries ji-nie, and the signed tachi show chikei entering frequently across a robust body of ample nikuoki. Above it stands a midare-utsuri, twice called vivid on the signed pieces, the speckled reflection of old Bizen steel that the published record describes as 乱れ映りが鮮やか. The bōshi answers the temper below it, running midare-komi and turning in a rounded ko-maru, on one piece leaning toward suguha with slight hakikake before its rounded turnback. Where the school's chōji is its voice, the vivid utsuri over a refined itame is its accent, and the two read together place a blade in the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka workshop before the personal name is reached.
The small corpus divides into two registers the texts themselves draw. The prime is the signed flamboyant manner, an imposing tachi of broad mihaba, thick kasane and deep koshizori, the chōji broadening and undulating, the whole effect splendidly ornate, the workmanship that one shortened mumei wakizashi bearing a kiritsuke-mei reading 一助宗刀上ル is judged to share when the appraiser writes that it 華やかな作風を示し、よい出来である. Beside it runs a quieter register: an ubu, slenderer tachi with a narrow body and ko-kissaki, high koshizori and pronounced funbari, the ko-itame leaning slightly to standing grain, the omote bōshi running sugu into ko-maru. Of this piece the published record judges its workmanship more brilliant in feeling than Sukemune's own signed work, with a wider hardened area, yet fully 古一文字として首肯し得る, acceptable as the Ko-Ichimonji tradition, marking precisely the boundary at which the two Sukemune meet. The signatures follow the school's own three forms, which the texts set out plainly: the single character 一 alone, the 一 set above an individual name, or the personal name by itself.
What distinguishes Sukemune within the school is the proportion of these features rather than any one of them in isolation. His chōji-midare is the school's flamboyance brought to its mid-Kamakura ripeness, his midare-utsuri stands vividly where a quieter Ko-Ichimonji jigane would only faintly show it, and his nioiguchi on the best work is bright and clear rather than subdued. The mune of the 43rd-session tachi preserves kirikomi, the battle notches the published record reads as 武勲をものがたる切込み, speaking to martial use. The line he belongs to ran on from the mid-Kamakura period into the Nanbokuchō, flourishing at Fukuoka, Yoshioka and Iwato and producing many fine smiths, and the published sources reckon it with Osafune one of the two great Bizen lineages of the Kamakura age. Sukemune's flamboyant chōji belongs to the Fukuoka stage of that arc, the school's most luxuriant manner before the Yoshioka makers carried the line forward.
The record under this name is small and entirely high in pedigree. Four blades hold official designation, all at the Jūyō level, with no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property among them, and the smith's standing in the reference literature is registered by a Tōkō Taikan valuation of 2,000, among the higher figures for a Bizen master. Signed examples are so few that the published sources call this signed mid-Kamakura Fukuoka tachi 数少ない鎌倉中期の福岡一文字派助宗の有銘作として資料的にも貴重, valuable as documentary material in its own right. The blades that can be traced are heritage rather than merchandise: examples are preserved at Ise Jingū, at Akiha Shrine in Tōtōmi, at a Hachiman shrine, and at the Tokyo National Museum, the last a blade that descended through Emperor Meiji to the statesman Tanaka Mitsuaki. A privately held Sukemune is among the rarest things a collector of Kamakura Bizen could encounter, and when one does surface it is most often a Jūyō tachi of the flamboyant manner rather than the slenderer Ko-Ichimonji register, a landmark when it appears and a sword that places its owner directly at the school's most brilliant moment.
Sukesada (助貞) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Sukesada is a Fukuoka Ichimonji smith of Bizen Province, traditionally transmitted as a student of Sukezane and active during the mid-Kamakura period around the Bun'ei era (c. 1264–1275). Sword compendia also record a Sukesada of the Sukezane lineage active around the Einin era, said to have worked at Yamauchi in Sagami, and a further Sukesada described as a descendant of Yukikuni active around the Tokuji era. The precise distinction among these entries remains difficult to resolve with certainty; however, the surviving body of work attributed to this maker is consistent with the flourishing period of the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage, one of the major schools that prospered in localities such as Fukuoka, Yoshioka, and Iwato from the early Kamakura through the Nanbokucho period. Because the characters of Sukesada's signature closely resemble those of Sukezane, his blades are readily mistaken for the work of his master.
Sukesada's tachi preserve the elegant *sugata* characteristic of mid-Kamakura production: slender in build with a pronounced difference between *moto* and *saki* width, a strong sense of *funbari*, high *koshizori*, and *ko-kissaki*. His forging exhibits tightly worked *ko-itame-hada* with *ji-nie*, and vivid *midare-utsuri* appears clearly — a hallmark of the Fukuoka Ichimonji tradition. The *hamon* ranges from flamboyant *choji-midare* intermingled with *ko-choji*, *gunome*, and *ko-gunome* — producing a brilliant, highly varied, and exuberant midare — to quieter compositions in which a shallow *notare*-flavored *choji-midare* is mixed with *gunome*, displaying *ashi* and *yo* with a clear *nioiguchi*. In both modes, the workmanship closely resembles that of Sukezane, and both *jihada* and *hamon* are notably clear.
Extant signed works by Sukesada are exceedingly rare, and the NBTHK has repeatedly emphasized that each surviving example constitutes valuable documentary source material for the study of the Ichimonji school. Those blades that retain *ubu-nakago* with their original signatures are regarded as especially desirable. The superlative preservation of both *jigane* and *hamon* observed in the finest examples further elevates his work, which, taken together with the scarcity of signed pieces, secures Sukesada's position as a smith of considerable scholarly importance within the broader Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage.
Sukeshige (助重) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyasu (助安) — Mainline · 1311-1312. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyori (助依) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yasuyuki (安行) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yorizane (依眞) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiie (吉家) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Yoshiie was a smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school in Bizen Province, active around the Kenryaku era (1211–1213), placing him as a comparatively early figure within that celebrated lineage. Sword reference works position him in the first generation of Fukuoka Ichimonji production, predating the mid-Kamakura masters Yoshifusa and Norifusa. From the end of the Kamakura period he is also associated with the designation "Iwato Ichimonji," having served as *jito* (estate steward) of Iwato-sho in Bizen; works bearing the longer inscription "Ichibishu Iwato-sho jito Saemon-no-jo Minamoto Yoshiie" and dated examples from the Gentoku era (1329–1331) confirm his documentary presence across a broad span of Kamakura-period swordmaking.
The *jihada* characteristic of Yoshiie's work is an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, with *ji-nie* adhering well, *chikei* present, and *midare-utsuri* standing distinctly — hallmarks of the Bizen Ichimonji tradition. His *hamon* typically begins with a *koshi-ba* at the base, above which *choji-midare* develops in a somewhat restrained pattern featuring pointed-headed *choji*, with *ashi* and *yo*, *ko-nie*, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* appearing throughout. The NBTHK observes that compared with Yoshifusa and Norifusa, "the *choji* here is of a slightly smaller scale, and the blade shows a stronger presence of *nie*" — features that "vividly manifest the characteristics of an earlier-period smith within the Fukuoka Ichimonji school." Some works attributed to Yoshiie display a dense *ko-itame* with ornate *ko-choji* into which *ashi* enter plentifully and *kinsuji* are intermingled, contributing to a lively and decorative effect.
Yoshiie's designated works are consistently praised for the quality of both *ji* and *ha*. The Juyo panel describes his finest tachi as *kenzen* — "sound and well-preserved" — with "excellent" workmanship, while his JuBi examples are valued both for their ornate *choji-midare* tempering and for their documentary significance, several bearing dated inscriptions that serve as important reference material for the Ichimonji chronology. His position at the intersection of the Fukuoka and Iwato branches of the Ichimonji school, together with the early dating of his work, makes him a pivotal figure in understanding the development of the flamboyant *choji* tradition that would reach its zenith in the generations that followed.
Yoshikane (吉包) — Mainline · 1243-1247. The name Yoshikane is found among both the Ko-Bizen group and the Ko-Ichimonji group, and distinguishing between them has long required careful attention to workmanship and signature style. As the NBTHK has observed, "pieces in which *choji* is especially prominent are regarded as products of the Ichimonji school," while those with quieter tempering may suggest Ko-Bizen origins. The present maker is identified with the Ichimonji lineage, active during the Kamakura period in Bizen Province. One blade carries an *origami* by Hon'ami Kochu dated the eleventh month of Hoei 1 (1704), valuing the work at thirty *mai* of gold and attributing it to "Bizen Province Yoshikane," while another bears the authentication of Hon'ami Koson in *shusho* (red inscription) -- appraisals the NBTHK has judged reliable.
Yoshikane's workmanship centers on a *ko-choji-midare* temper base, with *ko-midare* and *gunome* mixed in, *ashi* and *yo* entering frequently, and *ko-nie* forming alongside *sunagashi* and traces of *kinsuji*. The *nioiguchi* may show a subdued *shizumi* tendency, and around the *monouchi* the *yakihaba* can widen with *tobiyaki* appearing. Distinct *midare-utsuri* is a consistent feature across his productions and serves as one of the principal grounds for Ichimonji attribution -- a diagnostic criterion that separates this Yoshikane's hand from that of the Ko-Bizen smith of the same name, whose works tend toward quieter temperwork without the vivid *utsuri* pattern. The *kitae* is *itame-hada* with a flowing tendency, the grain standing somewhat with thick *ji-nie* and *chikei* appearing. The *boshi* is typically straight, turning back in *maru* or *ko-maru*, though one piece finishes with *notare-komi* and *hakikake*. His blades, though all greatly shortened, retain characteristics of their original form -- somewhat high *koshizori*, traces of *funbari* at the base, and proportions ranging from *ko-kissaki* to *chu-kissaki* that speak to the generous tachi *sugata* of the Kamakura period.
All of Yoshikane's designated works survive as *o-suriage mumei* or *orikaeshi-mei* katana, their tangs bearing evidence of significant shortening with as many as five *mekugi-ana*. Despite this, the NBTHK notes that the *jigane* and *hamon* are "comparatively *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved)" and the workmanship is "consistent with early Ichimonji." One piece retains its *orikaeshi* three-character signature reading "Yoshikane saku," providing direct physical evidence of authorship. Another preserves a black-lacquered *uchigatana koshirae* -- a mounting that speaks to the blade's continued use and esteem across the centuries. That these greatly shortened blades have been recognized as Juyo on the strength of their forging and temperwork alone, without recourse to original signatures, testifies to the distinctiveness of Yoshikane's hand within the broader Ichimonji tradition.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1311-1312. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimori (吉守) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimoto (吉元) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Yoshimoto was a swordsmith of the Bizen Fukuoka Ichimonji school, active from the early to mid-Kamakura period. According to the sword signature compendia (*meikan*), several smiths signed the name Yoshimoto, recorded both within the Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage and among the Osafune school. One tradition transmits that the first generation was a son of Yoshifusa; another holds that the first generation was a son of Sukeyoshi. It is said that the second generation later relocated to Osafune, and an Osafune-line Yoshimoto is placed in the time around the Bunei and Enkyo eras. Extant signed works by the Osafune-line smith are few, and tachi by the Fukuoka Ichimonji Yoshimoto that retain their original *ubu* tang with signature are of the utmost rarity, making such pieces important examples for the study of this maker.
The forging of Yoshimoto's work characteristically shows *ko-itame* or *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, densely and tightly packed, with fine *ji-nie* adhering well and *chikei* appearing throughout. A prominent *midare-utsuri* stands out in the ji, and the steel color is bright and well refined. The *hamon* takes *choji-midare* as its foundation, mixed with *ko-choji*, *gunome*, *ko-gunome*, *ko-notare*, and *togariba*; in certain works the temper rises high in the upper half, showing pronounced height variation and becoming splendidly decorative. Abundant *ashi* and *yo* enter well, and the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear, nioi-dominant with attached ko-nie. Fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run throughout the ha. The *boshi* tends toward straight with a *ko-maru* turnback. In works of the Osafune lineage, the hamon shifts to a *suguha*-based temper mixed with ko-gunome, ko-choji, and *ko-midare*, with elements of *saka-ashi*, presenting a more restrained character. Compared with Yoshifusa, Yoshimoto's manner of setting the *habuchi* is slightly more restrained, a distinction that accords convincingly with attributed and kiwame works.
The NBTHK consistently praises Yoshimoto's work as bright and clear in character, with ji and ha that are *kenzen* — sound and well preserved — and workmanship of superior quality. The forging, with its vivid midare-utsuri, is described as well refined and bright in steel color, while the hamon shows lively nioi and an elegant, height-varying midare. Works attributed to the Fukuoka Ichimonji line are appraised as upper-level works of that tradition, and the abundance of internal activity within the tempered edge — such as kinsuji — is singled out as truly splendid. One celebrated blade, the tachi bearing the *go* "Kanekiri" (Bell Cutter), resides in the Imperial Collection. As a maker whose signed works are exceptionally scarce, each authenticated example carries particular value as reference material for the study of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school at the height of its development.
Yukikane (行包) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Yukikane was a swordsmith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, the major tradition that flourished in Bizen Province from the early Kamakura period through the Nanbokuchō era, prospering in locales such as Fukuoka, Yoshioka, and Iwato. According to signature reference works, he was the son of Nobukane of the Fukuoka Ichimonji group, placing him within the old Ichimonji lineage. His period of activity is recorded as around the Kenchō era of the mid-thirteenth century. Extant signed works by Yukikane are comparatively few, making each surviving example precious as documentary material.
Yukikane's forging shows tightly worked *itame-hada* -- at times tending toward *ko-itame* with a *masame* tendency -- in which *ji-nie* adheres and vivid *midare-utsuri* stands out with striking clarity, displaying what the NBTHK describes as the characteristic *okuni-buri* of Bizen. His *hamon* is typically *chōji-midare* mixed with *gunome* and *ko-notare*, with well-formed *ashi* and *yō* and adhering *ko-nie*. The tempering can be gentle and restrained near the *monouchi* while becoming flamboyant in the middle sections, and in places a *yubashiri*-like quality at the *yakigashira* imparts an archaic flavor. One setsumei observes that intermittent spot-like *tobiyaki* forms continue above the crests of the temper. The *bōshi* is consistently *sugu* with *ko-maru*, at times tending toward *yakizume*.
The NBTHK notes that Yukikane's work "clearly displays the characteristics of the Ichimonji tradition," with the brilliant chōji-midare and pronounced midare-utsuri serving as hallmarks of his school. His signed tachi are highlighted as especially valuable given their rarity, with crisp and distinct signatures considered favorable points alongside sound *jiba*. As one of the few documented smiths of the early Fukuoka Ichimonji lineage with extant signatures, Yukikane occupies a position of significance both as a craftsman of considerable skill and as a source of important reference material for the study of the Bizen tradition.
Akiyoshi (觀善) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Akizane (章實) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Arisue (有末) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Aritada (有忠) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ariyuki (有行) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikafusa (近房) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikafusa (近房) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikakane (近包) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikamura (近村) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikamura (近村) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikanobu (近信) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikayoshi (親善) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikayuki (親行) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Fuminaka (文仲) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Fusanori (房則) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Hiroie (弘家) — Mainline · 1326-1329. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Hirotsune (弘恒) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Hisamune (久宗) — Mainline · 1332-1334. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Iemune (家宗) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ietada (家忠) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ietada (家忠) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ietsugu (家次) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kage (景) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageshige (景重) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyasu (景安) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyasu (景安) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyoshi (景吉) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyuki (景行) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyuki (景行) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanechika (包近) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kaneie (包家) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanemichi (包道) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanemori (包守) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanemori (包守) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanenaga (包永) — Mainline · 1204-1206. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanenobu (包信) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanesada (包貞) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanesue (包末) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanesuke (包助) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanesuke (包助) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanetomo (包友) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanetomo (包友) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Koreshige (是重) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Koresuke (是助) — Mainline · 1201-1204. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kunizane (國眞) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Masatsugu (正次) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Mitsusuke (光助) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Mitsusuke (光助) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Morichika (守近) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Morimune (盛宗) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Muneie (宗家) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Munekuni (宗國) — Mainline · 1156-1159. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Munenaga (宗長) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Munesuke (宗助) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Munetada (宗忠) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Munetaka (宗隆) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagafusa (長房) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagafusa (長房) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagakane (長包) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagakane (永包) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagakane (永包) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagamori (永守) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagamoto (長元) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagamoto (長元) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagamune (長宗) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naganori (長則) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagashige (永重) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagasuke (長助) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nagayuki (長之) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naomune (直宗) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naomune (直宗) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naotoshi (直利) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Narikane (成包) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Narimune (成宗) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Narimune (成宗) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Narisuke (成助) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naritsugu (成次) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuchika (信近) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuhiro (延弘) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuie (延家) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobukuni (延國) — Mainline · 1441-1444. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobukuni (延國) — Mainline · 1171-1175. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobukuni (延國) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumasa (信正) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumasa (信正) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumitsu (延光) — Mainline · 1182-1184. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobumitsu (信光) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobunao (延直) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobunari (延作) — Mainline · 1460-1466. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (信貞) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (延貞) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (信貞) — Mainline · 1306-1308. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (信貞) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (延貞) — Mainline · 1110-1113. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobusada (信貞) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobutsugu (延次) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuyasu (信安) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuyasu (信安) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuyori (延依) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuzane (信眞) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuzane (延眞) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuzane (延眞) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuzane (延眞) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Nobuzane (信實) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norichika (則近) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norifusa (則房) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norifusa (則房) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norihira (則平) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norihisa (則久) — Mainline · 1225-1227. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriie (則家) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriie (則家) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norikage (則景) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norikage (則景) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norimune (則宗) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norimune (則宗) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norimura (則村) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinao (則直) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinao (則直) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinobu (範宣) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisada (則貞) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisada (則貞) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritaka (則高) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritaka (則高) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritaka (則高) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriteru (則輝) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriteru (則耀) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritoki (則時) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsugu (則次) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsuna (則綱) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsuna (則綱) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyori (則依) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyori (則依) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyoshi (則吉) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyuki (則行) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyuki (則行) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriyuki (則行) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norizane (則實) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norizane (則眞) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norizane (則實) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sadatoshi (定俊) — Mainline · 1317-1319. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sanemune (眞宗) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suenori (末則) — Mainline · 1321-1324. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukechika (助近) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukefusa (助房) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukefusa (助房) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukefusa (助房) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukehira (助平) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekore (助是) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukemori (助守) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukemura (助村) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukenobu (助延) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助茂) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助重) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助茂) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketada (助忠) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketada (助忠) — Mainline · 1234-1235. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketada (助忠) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketoki (助時) — Mainline · 1256-1257. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketoshi (助俊) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketsuna (助綱) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketsuna (助綱) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketsuna (助綱) — Mainline · 1321-1324. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tadachika (忠近) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tadakuni (忠國) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tadakuni (忠國) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Takakane (高包) — Mainline · 1238-1239. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tamekiyo (爲清) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tamemori (爲守) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tametoshi (爲利) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tametoshi (爲利) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tameyoshi (爲吉) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tokizane (時眞) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tokizane (時眞) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tomonori (友則) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tomosuke (朝助) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tomosuke (朝助) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tomosuke (朝助) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tomosuke (朝助) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Toyohara (豊原) — Mainline · 1240-1243. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Toyohara (豊原) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguie (次家) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguie (次家) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguie (次家) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsugunobu (次信) — Mainline · 1257-1259. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsugunobu (次信) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsugutoshi (次俊) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsugutoshi (次俊) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguyori (次頼) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguyoshi (次吉) — Mainline · 1224-1225. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuguyoshi (次吉) — Mainline · 1293-1299. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsunemitsu (經光) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsunemoto (恒本) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsuneyoshi (經義) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tsunezane (恒眞) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yasuhiro (安弘) — Mainline · 1306-1308. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yasuie (安家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yorimune (依宗) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshifusa (吉房) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshifusa (吉房) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshifusa (吉房) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiie (女家) — Mainline · 1312-1317. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiie (吉家) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshikage (吉景) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshikuni (吉國) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimoto (吉元) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshinaga (吉長) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshinaga (吉長) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshisada (吉貞) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshisue (吉末) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitomo (吉友) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitomo (吉友) — Mainline · 1260-1261. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiyuki (義行) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiyuki (義行) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukinobu (行信) — Mainline · 1428-1429. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukisue (行末) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukitoshi (行利) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukitoshi (行利) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
When the Fukuoka workshops gave way at the close of the thirteenth century, the Ichimonji line carried on at Yoshioka in Bizen, and the setsumei place this branch "in place of the Fukuoka Ichimonji," flourishing from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō era. The Yoshioka smiths shared the character *suke* (助) as a generational element, and the records name Sukemitsu, Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu, Sukeyuki, Sukehide, and a second Sukeyoshi (助義). Sukemitsu is identified as the leading hand of the group, with dated work surviving across the Einin, Gen'ō, Genkyō, and Karyaku eras; Sukeshige left blades dated to Enkyō and to Jōwa 2 (1346), and Sukehide a *wakizashi* dated Shōhei 18 (1363). Suketsugu, dated Eitoku 2 (1382), is the smith whose recorded move from Yoshioka to Osafune marks the point where this branch fed into the Osafune tradition. Allied groups resident nearby, the Iwato Ichimonji of Yoshiie and Muneuji and the Nitta-shō smith Chikatsugu, belong to the same late-period current.
What separates Yoshioka work from the Fukuoka apex is a matter of scale and temperament. The setsumei state plainly that large-pattern, splendid *chōji-midare* in the Fukuoka manner survives only rarely; the customary mode is "a somewhat smaller-scale workmanship in which *gunome* stands out within the *midare*." Several blades rest on a *suguha* or *chū-suguha* base carrying *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome*, the undulations showing little conspicuous rise and fall, as on Sukeshige's tachi where the *chōji* are "aligned and uniformly tempered." A reverse-slanting (*saka*) tendency appears at times, and the temper often tightens toward the *monouchi*. The forging is a tightly grained *ko-itame*, sometimes with *nagare-hada*, carrying fine *ji-nie*, *chikei*, and a clearly standing *midare-utsuri*. Where Fukuoka layered *jūka-chōji* and *fukuro-chōji* in flamboyant rise and fall, Yoshioka holds the pattern to a quieter register, and the setsumei repeatedly note that the *bōshi* in *notare-komi* with a round turn and the calm, regular tone "resemble contemporaneous Osafune work," the Osafune manner of the period drawing the branch toward *kozumu* regularity.
The kantei value lies in reading that restraint correctly. Against Fukuoka, the discriminators are the reduced scale of the clove pattern, the *gunome* asserting itself within the *midare*, the *suguha*-leaning compositions with entering *ashi*, and the bright, *nioi*-dominant *nioiguchi* with accompanying *ko-nie* and occasional *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The named masters anchor these readings: Sukeyoshi's *chōji* mixed with *gunome* and narrowing temper, attested by a Hon'ami Chōshiki gold-inlaid *kiwame*; Sukemitsu's more flamboyant *chōji-midare* with *togariba* and *tobiyaki*, carried on an *ō-suriage* katana held by old tradition; Sukeshige's round-headed *gunome* with even undulation. Suketsugu's late tachi, hardening open, waisted *gunome*, points ahead to the Ōei-Bizen style that followed. Among the documented provenances, the Iwato smith Minamoto Yoshiie's tachi of Mototoku 2 (1330) was bestowed on Yoshikawa Hiroie as a memento of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and several Yoshioka and Tsunetsugu blades carry Hon'ami origami, a reminder that earlier appraisal sometimes folded such work into "Aoe" before the modern separation of the two Tsunetsugu lines.
Sukemitsu (助光) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūyō. Sukemitsu held the court title Sakon-no-shogen and signed in full beneath the school's single character *ichi*: Bizen no Kuni Yoshioka-ju Sakon-no-shogen Ki-no-Sukemitsu. He is the representative smith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji, the Bizen Ichimonji branch that, as the published sources put it, prospered from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokucho period second only to the Fukuoka Ichimonji. The school takes its name from the character *ichi* cut on the tang, and its representative hands share the *suke* element, Sukemitsu named first among Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu and Sukeyoshi. The dates the published sources record on his works run through Einin, Gen'o, Genko, Karyaku and Gentoku, the last decades of the Kamakura period, and several of his tachi keep part of the long signature legible.
His hand has two faces, and the published sources keep them apart. The fundamental Yoshioka manner is the calmer, smaller-scale temper. On a long-signed tachi of the 26th session the *jigane* is an *itame* mixed with *masame* in which an *utsuri* stands. Over it he sets a *suguha*-toned line into which *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome* are mixed, *nie* adhering, the *boshi* running straight to a *yakizume* finish. The published sources read this blade as showing the true Yoshioka workmanship, 「吉岡本来の出来を示したもの」, even though his work also includes large-pattern *choji* that can be mistaken for Fukuoka. A tachi dated Karyaku 2 shows the same restraint: a calm temper of *choji* mixed with *gunome* over a *jigane* where *midare-utsuri* stands, which they say shows the Yoshioka Ichimonji style well. The National Treasure naginata dated Gen'o 2 keeps the same line, ubu and of the wide, unswelling shape typical of Kamakura naginata: a wide *choji* mixed with *gunome* over a *ko-itame* with *midare-utsuri*, turning to *suguha* toward the *monouchi*, the *nioiguchi* tight, a temper its text calls plainer than Fukuoka with the *gunome* prominent, 「福岡一文字より地味で互の目が目立つ」.
The *jigane* is the constant across his work. A well-forged *itame*, at times tightening into *ko-itame* or mixed with *mokume*, carries *ji-nie*, and on the finest piece *chikei* enter frequently. A clear *midare-utsuri* is named on three of his four Juyo blades, signed and attributed alike. The fourth, the 26th-session tachi, has the *utsuri* standing over its *itame* mixed with *masame*. The *nioiguchi* is bright and tends to tighten, the activity carried in *ashi* and *yo*, and a *bo-hi* is carved on three of the four. Of the Karyaku 2 tachi the published commentary writes that both *ji* and *ha* are healthy and well made and that the signature is good reference material, 「地刃共に健全で出来がよく、銘は好資料」.
The other face is the high, flamboyant *choji-midare*. The published sources record that some of his work carries large-pattern *choji* that at a glance can be mistaken for the Fukuoka Ichimonji, 「一見福岡一文字派に紛れるような大模様の丁子」. For the school as a whole they call that large-pattern *midare* the rarer manner, and the usual one 「乱れの中に互の目が目立ち、やや小出来となるもの」, a slightly smaller pattern in which *gunome* stands out within the *midare*. Its signed exemplar is the National Treasure tachi dated Genko 2 (1322), long and grand, a large *choji-midare* mixing *kawazuko-choji*, *fukuro-choji* and *gunome* over an *itame* with *midare-utsuri*; its text writes that the Yoshioka generally lack Fukuoka's splendour but that this blade is unusually flamboyant, 「珍しく福岡一文字に紛れるほどに大模様に乱れた華やかな作」. In his Juyo record the flamboyant face belongs to the two attributed katana, while the two signed tachi keep the calmer line. The *kinzogan-mei* katana, greatly shortened and inlaid in gold with his name, shows it on a dense *ko-itame* with standing *midare-utsuri*, *choji* mixed with *gunome*. The published sources call its workmanship 「華麗な丁子の出来が頗る見事」, a splendid *choji* that is superb. The mumei katana attributed to him goes further. Its *itame* mixed with *mokume* carries very fine, thick *ji-nie* and abundant *chikei*. The *choji-midare* mixes *gunome* and pointed *ha* in a lively pattern, with fine *tobiyaki*, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, and the *yakihaba* narrows a little toward the *monouchi*.
What sets Sukemitsu apart within his lineage is this division, and the fact that both faces rest on the same Yoshioka *jigane*. He is held apart from Fukuoka by scale rather than by kind. His bright *midare-utsuri* and his small, *gunome*-marked *choji* are the Yoshioka norm, and he reaches back toward the large pattern of the parent house only in part of his work. Of the attributed mumei katana the published sources write that its *ji* and *ha* support the old attribution, judging it a superior work of the Yoshioka Ichimonji, 「吉岡一文字の上作」, the meticulous forging especially noted. His dated and signed tachi anchor the school's standard, the fixed points against which the mumei attributions are measured.
Sukemitsu's record reaches the highest ranks of the designation system. Two signed works are National Treasures: a naginata dated Gen'o 2 (1320), recorded with Maeda family provenance, and the long-signed tachi dated Genko 2 (1322), which carries a provenance through Tokugawa Iemitsu and Abe Tadaaki. His Important Cultural Property is a *kinzogan-mei* katana shortened by Hon'ami Kotoku. The Tokugawa Art Museum is also recorded among the holders of his work. Four blades carry the Juyo rank: the two signed tachi, the gold-inlaid katana with its mid-Edo gold *nashiji* mounting bearing *aoi* crests, and the attributed mumei katana. A signed hira tanto dated Genko 4 (1324) is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection: an *itame* flowing into *masame* with *midare-utsuri*, a *gunome* mixed with *choji* and covered in *nie*. Honma notes that tanto by any Ichimonji smith, not only Sukemitsu, are exceedingly rare[[c:1]], and calls this one, though somewhat tired, good reference material. The National Treasures and the Important Cultural Property are heritage held in trust, not blades a collector encounters. The Juyo pieces are few, and of recorded whereabouts most are long held rather than traded. The Fujishiro appraisal places him at Jo-jo saku. A signed Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukemitsu coming to light is a landmark when it happens, a document of how the Yoshioka kept the Ichimonji manner alive at the close of the Kamakura age.
Tsunetsugu (恒次) — Mainline · 1321-1324. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sakon Shōgen Tsunetsugu is a Bizen smith of the late Kamakura period whose identity is the kantei problem before his blades are. The published sources fix his place through two facts: an extant tachi clearly signed "Bizen no Kuni jū Sakon Shōgen Tsunetsugu," and a surviving blade carrying a Genkō 2 (1322) date, from which his period of activity is read at the very end of Kamakura. Beyond that the record is sparse. Several smiths named Tsunetsugu worked across Bizen and Bitchū in the Kamakura age, the famous one being the Ko-Aoe Tsunetsugu said to have served as a *ban-kaji* to the retired sovereign Go-Toba, and a later Bizen Tsunetsugu bore the title Saemon-no-jō. The man who signs "Sakon Shōgen" is the Bizen hand, but the published sources caution that his lineage within Bizen is not clarified, that he was not of the main Osafune line, and that he probably came from a district close to the Bitchū border, named in the same breath as a maker like Bairai Tsuguyoshi.
His hand divides into two recognized manners, as the published sources put it, into "works fundamentally based on *suguha*, and works in which *gunome* and *chōji* stand out"[[c:1]]. The first is his core. Over a well-forged *itame*, at times a packed *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume* that stands a little, he tempers a *suguha*-toned line, narrow on the smaller pieces and widening to a *hiro-suguha* on his finest tachi, into which run *ko-gunome*, small *chōji*, abundant *ashi* and *yō*. The *nioiguchi* is laid tight or a touch subdued, with *ko-nie* adhering; on the best blades the *nie* gathers and grows moist in places. What the judges single out as the constant across both his manners is the one feature that holds his work together, that the interior of the temper takes *nie* richly, "the point that the *ha* is richly endowed with *nie*"[[c:2]], with fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* threading through it.
The *jigane* is the Bizen surface that decides the question of school. *Ji-nie* lies finely dispersed over the *itame*, *chikei* enter, and a clear *midare-utsuri* stands on the steel, often with a mottled *jifu* tendency and patches of *ji-mura*. It is this bright, well-forged *itame* with its Bizen *utsuri* that separates him from the close-grained Aoe *jigane* his blades were once taken for. The second manner sets the same forging beneath a livelier edge: on a wide Tokubetsu Jūyō tachi the *suguha* base broadens and gathers *ko-chōji* and *ko-gunome* with a faint *ko-midare* feeling; on a broad late-Kamakura katana the temper takes *gunome* and small *chōji*, the *yakihaba* widening toward the *monouchi*, falling into *notare* below the *yokote*, the *bōshi* turning round. The published sources read this *bōshi* and *jigane* as resembling contemporaneous Osafune work in certain respects, while noting elsewhere that the whole of his manner differs from the main Osafune line.
The central question around him is not style but attribution, and it shapes every entry. The published sources state plainly that "surviving signed works are few"[[c:3]], and that besides his long signature he used a two-character *mei*, and that "in cases of two-character signatures he is sometimes confused with the Aoe school"[[c:4]]. His preference for *suguha* is exactly what made the confusion easy, since the calm straight temper reads as Bitchū. The point is sharpened by the history of connoisseurship itself: the published commentary records that "the clear distinction between Bitchū Aoe Tsunetsugu and Bizen Sakon Shōgen Tsunetsugu was only achieved in the modern era"[[c:5]]. A Kanbun 2 (1662) origami by Hon'ami Kōon that once accompanied one of his katana still calls the blade Aoe Tsunetsugu, which the commentary keeps as a document of how "the appraisals of the Hon'ami house continued to exert a strong and lasting influence within the field"[[c:6]].
What sets him apart, then, is read off his own blades rather than borrowed from a neighbor. His is a bright Bizen *midare-utsuri* over a refined *itame*, carrying a *suguha*-based edge whose interior is unusually *nie*-laden and threaded with *kinsuji*, the personal tell that lifts him above a flat Aoe straight temper while keeping him distinct from the showy clove-flower of mainstream Ichimonji and from the orthodox Osafune line of his own day. He stands at the close of Bizen's great Kamakura age, a careful, individual hand working at the edge of the province, more often disguised as a Bitchū smith by later owners than recognized as the Bizen master he was. On his shortened pieces the published sources note that owners filed away the three characters "Bizen no Kuni" above the character *jū* precisely to make the tachi appear Bitchū, even as the Hon'ami papers read it correctly as Bizen.
For the collector he is a rare late-Kamakura name. Fujishiro grades him Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the modern designations, four blades reaching Tokubetsu Jūyō and seven Jūyō, eleven in the two highest tiers in all, against the handful of signed works that survive. The published sources call his finest tachi "an outstanding work by Tsunetsugu"[[c:7]] and another "an outstanding blade by Sakon Shōgen Tsunetsugu, sound in both *ji* and *ha*"[[c:8]]. His blades passed through daimyō houses, the Yamauchi of Tosa, the Arima and the Sakai among the recorded provenance, several preserved in their original mounts. Because signed Sakon Shōgen Tsunetsugu blades are so few, one comes to light only seldom, and most of those on record are held rather than traded; a Tokubetsu Jūyō or Jūyō example from a private collection is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, valued as much for the riddle of its name as for the quiet excellence of its steel.
Muneuji (宗氏) — Mainline · 1326-1329. Jūbi. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyoshi (助吉) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Jūbi, Jūyō. Sukeyoshi is one of the smiths the published sources name as representative of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school of Bizen, with Sukemitsu and the Sukeyoshi written 助義, a school that "flourished after the Fukuoka Ichimonji, from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokucho"[[c:1]]. His record is small: four Juyo tachi and a prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin naginata.
The published sources set the school inside the larger Bizen picture. The two great currents of Kamakura Bizen were the Ichimonji and the Osafune, and the Ichimonji went on to flourish into the Nanbokucho at Fukuoka, Yoshioka and Iwato. The name comes from the character ichi carved on the tang, and the signatures take three forms: the ichi alone, the ichi with a personal name below it, or the personal name alone. His own tachi carry the last two kinds, which is why a gakumei that keeps the ichi at the tang end matters for placing a blade in the school.
The published sources define the Yoshioka manner against Fukuoka. They write that the school seldom shows the flamboyant large *choji* of Fukuoka, that within its choji "gunome stand out"[[c:2]], and that elements slanting in the reverse direction or bunching together are its point. His tachi follow that description closely. Over an *itame* that is closely packed or flows in places, with *ji-nie* and a rising utsuri, often a *midare-utsuri*, the temper is choji mixed with *gunome*, *ashi* and *yo* entering, slanting in places and at times nioi-dominant, or a suguha-based line touched with gunome that slants here and there, the *nioiguchi* tightening on the monouchi. The *boshi* turns in a *ko-maru*.
All four tachi are shortened. One keeps a two-character mei, two a three-character mei, one of them reading Sukeyoshi zō at the tang tip and the other cut large with a fine chisel and somewhat worn, and on the fourth only the character ichi survives at the tang end, the rest of the signature set into the ura as a gakumei. Of that tachi the published sources write that its ji and ha "may be called typical of the school, and it is sound as well"[[c:3]]; of the three-character one at the tang tip, that it shows the features of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school in full; and of the other, an itame mixed with mokume under a vivid midare-utsuri and a small-patterned temper of ko-gunome with ko-notare and ko-choji, that the comparatively prominent gunome and the somewhat small-patterned midare show the Yoshioka character. The sources add that its signature, though somewhat worn, is valuable simply for surviving, that ji and ha are sound with good niku, and that the forging is notably fine.
The fifth piece is a large naginata "handed down in the Uesugi family and said to be the work of Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukeyoshi"[[c:4]], with a long tang pierced by four peg holes and a mounting recorded in the Uesugi treasure register.
Yoshioka Ichimonji tachi with a surviving signature are uncommon, and a designated Sukeyoshi comes to market only rarely; his interest lies in how clearly his few blades show the school's restrained, gunome-led choji.
Sukeyoshi (助義) — Mainline · 1331-1349. Jūbi, Jūyō. Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukeyoshi was a swordsmith of the Bizen Yoshioka Ichimonji group, active from the late Kamakura period into the Nanbokucho period. According to the sword reference books, Sukeyoshi is described as a son of Sukekichi, and is also recorded with the longer signature "Bishu Yoshioka-ju Saemon-no-jo Sukeyoshi," with his period of activity given as around the Gentoku and Jowa eras. The Yoshioka Ichimonji branch prospered following the decline of the Fukuoka Ichimonji, and its representative smiths — Sukemitsu, Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, and Suketsugu — all share the character "Suke" as a common element in their names. Within the broader Ichimonji lineage, the Yoshioka group occupies a transitional position, carrying the tradition forward from the Kamakura period's greatest Bizen mainstream into the Nanbokucho era.
Sukeyoshi's characteristic manner, as identified by the NBTHK, departs from the bold, large-patterned *midare* of the earlier Fukuoka Ichimonji in favor of a somewhat smaller-scaled workmanship in which *gunome* stands out more than *choji*. The *kitae* shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* or *nagare*, bearing fine *ji-nie* with delicate *chikei*, while a prominent *midare-utsuri* stands out in the ground. The *hamon* is chiefly *choji* mixed with *gunome*, with abundant *ashi* and *yo*; it is *nioi*-dominant with accompanying *ko-nie*, and slight *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* are seen. The *nioiguchi* is described as bright and clear. Features to be appreciated include areas where the temper shows a reverse-slanting tendency, or where a compacted appearance is mixed into the edge. In addition to tachi in the characteristic compact *choji* style, Sukeyoshi also produced works in *suguha*, and the rare *kanmuri-otoshi-zukuri* tanto dated Gentoku 3 (1331) attests to a breadth of form unusual for Bizen smiths of his era.
The NBTHK consistently affirms that Sukeyoshi's works clearly display the distinctive features of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school, with the bright and clear *nioiguchi* singled out as evidence of notably fine workmanship. Extant signed works with reliable inscriptions are described as few and precious, and those bearing dated inscriptions — such as the Ryakuo 2 (1339) and Sadawa 5 (1349) tachi — are accorded high value as reference material. In that the *gunome* is comparatively prominent and the overall pattern is somewhat small in scale, one can perceive the distinctive features of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school. Sukeyoshi's oeuvre, spanning signed tachi, gold-inlaid attributions by Hon'ami Choshiki, and documentary dated examples, confirms his standing as a principal representative of this important Bizen lineage.
Yoshiie (吉家) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Jūbi, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助茂) — Mainline · 1308-1311. Tokujū, Jūyō. Sukeshige was a representative swordsmith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji group, active from the late Kamakura period into the Nanbokuchō period in Bizen Province. The Yoshioka branch rose to prominence as the earlier Fukuoka Ichimonji line waned, and Sukeshige ranked alongside Sukemitsu and Sukeyoshi as one of the school's principal craftsmen. His full signature, recorded as Bizen no Kuni Yoshioka-jū Saemon-no-jō Ki Sukeshige, appears on blades bearing date inscriptions from the Enkyō (1308-1311) and Sadawa (Jōwa, 1345-1350) eras, attesting to a working life that spanned several decades. He followed the Ichimonji convention of incising the character "ichi" on the *nakago*, sometimes above his personal name, sometimes alone.
Sukeshige's forging displays a *jigane* of *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* and a tendency toward *nagare* (flowing grain), frequently becoming *hada-dachi* (standing grain), with fine *ji-nie* and *chikei* producing distinct *midare-utsuri* in the steel surface. His *hamon* typically centres on *chōji-midare* mixed with round-headed *gunome*, undulating with restrained variation in height and enlivened by vigorous *ashi* and *yō*. The *nioiguchi* is characteristically bright and *nioi*-dominant, with adhering *ko-nie*, fine *kinsuji*, and *sunagashi* running through the tempered edge. This manner exemplifies the Yoshioka Ichimonji style, which favoured a more controlled and compact expression of the *chōji* tradition compared with the flamboyant grandeur of the earlier Fukuoka masters.
Sukeshige's surviving signed works are scarce, and those retaining *ubu* tang form with legible date inscriptions are especially prized as documentary evidence for the chronology of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school. His blades range from full-length *tachi* with pronounced *koshizori* and *funbari* to stout *kodachi* of broad construction, reflecting both the elegant Kamakura aesthetic and the emerging Nanbokuchō taste for imposing proportions. Across this range, the consistent quality of workmanship and the clarity of his inscriptions confirm his standing as one of the foremost smiths of the Yoshioka lineage.
Other smiths
Ietsugu (家次) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyuki (助行) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinari (則成) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukehide (助秀) — Mainline · 1346-1370. Sukehide of the Yoshioka Ichimonji is known through a single dated wakizashi, designated Juyo at the 60th session in 2014, whose tang reads Bishū Yoshioka-jū Sukehide below a large character *ichi*, with a date in the seventh month of Shōhei 18 (1363) on the reverse. The published sources place the branch in the history of the Ichimonji: 「吉岡一文字派は、福岡一文字派に次いで鎌倉時代末期から南北朝期にかけて繁栄した」 (the Yoshioka Ichimonji flourished after the Fukuoka Ichimonji, from the end of the Kamakura period into the Nanbokuchō period), its smiths sharing the character *suke* in their names. Large patterned *midare* recalling Fukuoka Ichimonji appear only rarely in the branch; as a rule 「乱れの中に互の目が目立ち、やや小出来となるものが通例である」 (*gunome* stand out within the *midare*, and the work is usually on a somewhat smaller scale).
The wakizashi is *hira-zukuri* with an *iori-mune*, broad and thin, with a shallow *sori* and *sakizori*, and *bo-hi* cut through on both sides. The *jigane* is *itame* with *ji-nie* adhering well and *chikei* entering frequently; the *utsuri* rises in a *midare* manner on the *omote* and as a broad, rod-like band on the *ura*. The *hamon* is a *midare* led by small *gunome*, with *ko-ashi* and *yo*, *ko-nie*, and fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, and the *boshi* turns in with a very shallow *notare* and returns in *ko-maru*. The sources conclude that in these points 「地刃に前記の吉岡一文字の特色が明示されている」 (the features of Yoshioka Ichimonji described above are clearly shown in both *ji* and *ha*).
They value the blade on two counts, 「数少ない同派の脇指の作例として、また正平十八年の年紀を有する有年紀作として資料的に貴重な作である」 (as one of the few wakizashi of the school, and as a work dated Shōhei 18, it is valuable documentary material). This dated piece is the whole of his present record, and it fixes Sukehide of Yoshioka in the Nanbokuchō period.
Suketsugu (助次) — Mainline · Late Kamakura. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketsugu (助次) — Mainline · Late Nanbokucho. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshinobu (吉信) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiuji (吉氏) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiyasu (吉安) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Chikakane (近包) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1324-1326. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ichi (一) — Mainline · 1342-1345. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Ienori (家則) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Iesada (家貞) — Mainline · 1338-1342. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Iesada (家貞) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kagehide (景秀) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyasu (景泰) — Mainline · 1326-1329. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kageyasu (景安) — Mainline · 1312-1317. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanenaga (包永) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Kanesuke (包助) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Naritaka (成高) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noriie (則家) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinari (則成) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norinobu (範宣) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsuna (則綱) — Mainline · 1312-1317. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1326-1329. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Noritsune (則常) — Mainline · 1243-1247. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeaki (助明) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukefusa (助房) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukehide (助秀) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeie (助家) — Mainline · 1321-1324. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukekane (助包) — Mainline · 1345-1350. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukemitsu (助光) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukemitsu (助光) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeshige (助重) — Mainline · 1342-1345. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Suketake (助武) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyoshi (助義) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Sukeyoshi (助吉) — Mainline · 1342-1345. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Takakane (高包) — Mainline · 1319-1321. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Tokisuke (時助) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshichika (吉近) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshihisa (吉久) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshikuni (吉國) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshikuni (吉國) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimori (吉守) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimori (吉守) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshimori (吉守) — Mainline · 1338-1342. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshisada (吉定) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitomo (吉友) — Mainline · 1332-1334. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitomo (吉友) — Mainline · 1387-1389. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitoshi (吉利) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshitsune (吉恒) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yoshiuji (吉氏) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.
Yukiuji (行氏) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Ichimonji School.