The collective school of Bizen’s other smiths. From the late Nanbokuchō period into early Muromachi, the masters grouped as Kozori — Hidemitsu, Iesuke, Nariie among the dozens — worked in the orbit of Osafune without belonging to its great mainline. Their compact, shallow-curved blades carry one of the largest papered bodies of work in Bizen outside the mainline itself: a school with no single founder, but an unmistakable voice between the Kanemitsu era and the Ōei revival.
The The Bizen Kozori School (古曽利), active 1350–1500 in Bizen Province across 114 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 6 Jūbun, 3 Jūbi, 3 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 129 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Bizen Kozori School (古曽利) · 1350 – 1500
Hidemitsu (秀光) — Mainline · 1387-1389. Jūbun, Jūyō. Hidemitsu signed and dated his blades, and the dates run in an unbroken file from the Ōan era through Eiwa, Eitoku, Shitoku, Kakei, Kōō, Meitoku and into the Muromachi years, so that an ubu, signed and dated tachi survives from almost every reign of the late Nanbokuchō. He is a Bizen Osafune smith, and the published sources count him, in the words of one Jūyō entry, among "the group of smiths known as the Kosori-ha" (いわゆる小反派), the periphery of late-Nanbokuchō Osafune that the institution defines by exclusion: the makers who do not belong to the Kanemitsu line, nor to Chōgi, Motoshige or the Ōmiya group. One account makes him a son of Motomitsu in the Kanemitsu line. The same entries are careful about his generations: the Meikan places a first Hidemitsu around the Kenmu era but notes that works of that earliest generation are scarcely seen, then counts the name across some four generations down into Ōei, while warning that strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter for further research. Each surviving blade is therefore read by its style and its date rather than firmly assigned to one hand.
His characteristic work is a small-patterned irregular temper. The published sources put it plainly: his manner is "in the manner of Kanemitsu, yet with still finer and smaller patterning" (兼光風であるがさらに小模様), and the words name the whole tell of his hand. Where the Kanemitsu line tempers a bolder *gunome*, Hidemitsu reduces the same idea to a small, subdued line, *ko-gunome* mixed with angular elements, pointed *togariba* and open-valley *gunome*, the *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the temper *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* and overall *kozumu*, that subdued, drawn-in quality the entries return to again and again. The *bōshi* follows the edge into a *midare-komi* that points or rounds to a *ko-maru*. His *ko-gunome* often runs in a linked, continuous rhythm, and on one tantō the published sources find him aligning the small *gunome* in the uniform *Yoshii-mono* manner rather than the Kanemitsu one.
The *jigane* is the constant. He forges an *itame*, frequently a well-packed *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume* and a flowing tendency, the grain standing a little, with *ji-nie* laid finely and at times densely, fine *chikei* sunk within it, and a *midare-utsuri* rising clearly on his best blades. The published sources read the standing *itame*, the blackish *chikei*-like iron and the subdued small *gunome* as features common to the whole Kosori category rather than personal to him, and they grant that his finest forging is well-refined and of fine quality, bright and clear in both *ji* and *ha*. On his tantō and hira-zukuri pieces the reflection takes a different form, a *bō-utsuri* or a straight *utsuri* running along the line of the *yakigashira*.
Two further registers complete the picture. The first is the carving. His tantō carry *bō-hi* with *tsure-hi*, *suken*, *futasuji-hi*, and devotional motifs of *bonji*, *gomabashi* and the *gyō no Kurikara*; on one Eiwa tantō the published sources observe that the Kurikara preserves the Osafune carving manner running, in their phrase, from the time of Nagamitsu through the Kamakura and Nanbokuchō periods. The second is a quieter temper. A small minority of his blades abandon the *midare* for a bright, clear *chū-suguha*, the *nioiguchi* somewhat deep with slight *ko-nie*; on one such tachi the *suguha* mixes in *gunome* with a reverse-slanting *saka-ashi* and pale, double-*hamon*-like *nie-suji*, and the published sources liken the manner to "that of the neighbouring Aoe school" (宛ら隣国青江派に近似する作風を示し), calling the blade "an outstanding example among this smith's works" (同工傑出の一口). The entries value such pure *suguha* as documentary material for the working range of the smith and the group.
What sets the Kosori Hidemitsu in his place is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from the Kanemitsu mainstream by the smaller, more subdued scale of his patterning and the somewhat lower rank the published sources assign the whole Kosori group, and apart from the next age by a single forward-looking detail: on a Meitoku tantō the open-valley *gunome* he tempers, in the entry's words, "already suggests an anticipation of the Ōei-period Bizen manner" (既に応永備前の作風を予兆させる). He stands, then, on the threshold between the Nanbokuchō Osafune mainstream and the Bizen that would flower again in Ōei, a maker through whose dated, signed blades the late history of Osafune can be read year by year.
For the collector he is, above all, a documentary name. Hidemitsu has no National Treasures and no Tokubetsu Jūyō; his record runs through three Important Cultural Properties and sixteen Jūyō blades, almost all of them ubu, signed and dated, which is the source of their value, for an ubu Nanbokuchō tachi carrying both signature and a reign date is repeatedly called extremely valuable reference material. The provenance is good: one tachi descended in the Kuroda house with a Hon'ami Kōchū origami of Genroku 13 assessing it at fifteen gold pieces; another was among the personal effects of Tenshin'in, the lawful wife of the thirteenth shogun Tokugawa Iesada, who entered the Tokugawa house from the Takatsukasa family; further blades passed through the Tokugawa, Hōjō and Tani families. Most are held, not traded. Examples in the Jūyō tier do come to light from time to time, more readily than the great mid-Kamakura Osafune names but seldom even so, and a signed, dated Kosori Hidemitsu is a precise and legible document of how the Osafune school closed its Nanbokuchō age.
Iesuke (家助) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Iesuke is a Bizen Osafune smith of the Hatakeda line whose dated tachi run across the Ōei era of the early Muromachi period, and whom the published sources name, beside Morimitsu, Yasumitsu and Tsuneie, as one of the representative swordsmiths of Ōei-Bizen. The earliest dated work on record is a quiet tachi of Ōei 3 (1396); the bolder pieces commonly seen carry dates from the teens and twenties of the era, one signed *tachi* of Ōei 19 reaching Tokubetsu Jūyō. His name and his line are themselves a problem the sources set out plainly. The reference works trace a first generation to a son of Hatakeda Moriie about the Bun'ei era, yet among examined blades none predate the Nanbokuchō, the oldest read as Bunwa-era work; the surviving generations are therefore taken as one continuous Hatakeda hand rather than separated with confidence, the question of whether the early Ōei 3 *tachi* is a predecessor or an early work of the same man left open for further study.
His characteristic hand is the Ōei-Bizen *midare*. Over an *itame* that tends overall to stand a little, mixed in places with *ko-itame*, *mokume* and flowing *nagare-hada*, the steel carries *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and across it rises a *bō-utsuri* or a clear *midare-utsuri*, the bar-like reflection the published sources single out as one mark of Ōei-Bizen. The temper is a *gunome* that opens broadly at the valley, the *koshi-biraki gunome* the sources name as common to the Ōei masters, mixed with *chōji*, *ko-chōji* and pointed *togariba*, at times a small *notare*. *Ashi* and *yō* enter frequently, the construction is *nioi*-based with a *ko-nie* feeling, and in the lower half *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* run through the temper. The *bōshi* turns back in a *midare-komi* with a pointed feeling, sometimes a *ko-maru*, now and then with *tobiyaki* toward the point.
The *jigane* is the feature by which the judges set him a step apart from the leading Ōei names. They find his forging tending a touch more toward standing grain and his *nioiguchi* a touch tighter, at times a little subdued, yet they grant that in technical terms his best blades are "in no way inferior" to Morimitsu and Yasumitsu. The *ji* of his finest pieces is well-refined and moist, with *ji-nie*, *chikei* and *midare-utsuri*, and the work within the temper is its real strength; of the Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the published commentary writes that "the activity within the temper of this tachi is especially splendid." Devotional and practical carving recur in the form of *bō-hi*, with *tsure-hi* or *soe-hi* on the shortened attributions and *bonji* cut into the *shinogi-ji* of one signed *uchigatana*.
The published sources draw his work into two registers explicitly. Beside the typical Ōei-Bizen *midare* they set "a somewhat calmer, *suguha*-toned hamon," a *chū-suguha* mixed with *ko-gunome* over a tightened, flowing *itame* with *ji-nie*, *chikei* and a faint *utsuri*, the *nioiguchi* tight with *nie* and *sunagashi*, the *bōshi* straight to a *ko-maru* with *hakikake* at the tip. His surviving blades divide between the *ubu*, signed and dated *tachi* and the *ō-suriage mumei* *katana* later attributed to him, several of which had passed under other names before being read by period and manner as his late-Nanbokuchō-to-Ōei work; one such blade, once appraised as Sanemori, was returned to him.
What sets the Hatakeda Iesuke apart is exactly what the judges name. His *koshi-biraki gunome* and *bō-utsuri* mark his typical *midare* as Ōei-Bizen rather than mid-Kamakura work, and his standing *itame* and tightened, subdued *nioiguchi* set him beside Morimitsu and Yasumitsu yet a little apart from them; the published sources liken one of his finest dated *katana* to Osafune Masamitsu in its standing *itame*, mottled *ji* and shallow *ko-notare* mixed with open-valley *gunome*. He stands at the Kozori periphery of late Osafune, and the sources judge that, although his name is less widely known than the leading Ōei smiths', works such as his best *tachi* show he "deserves to be evaluated more highly."
For the collector he is a documentary name rather than a household one. Fujishiro grades him Chū-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record reaches instead the Important Cultural Property rank, with two signed, dated *tachi* designated, and the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers above the wider research record. His blades are preserved in collections grounded in their own provenance, the Ōei 19 *tachi* held by the Hayashibara Museum of Art and transmitted through the Kaga Maeda house, one Important Cultural Property at Kasuga Taisha, and a shortened *katana* that was the battlefield sword of Ikeda Katsunyū before later owners had it cut down. Only a small number fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, and these are largely held rather than traded, so a signed and dated Hatakeda Iesuke comes to market only seldom and from time to time; the published sources call such a blade "of high value as reference material," a well-forged document of how Bizen forging carried itself into the Ōei revival.
Iemori (家守) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Jūyō. Iemori is a Bizen Osafune smith whose dated tachi run in an almost unbroken file from Eiwa and Koo through Meitoku into the single-digit Oei years, and the published record opens its account of him plainly: he is a swordsmith of the Oei-era Bizen group, of whom 「作品は少ない」, surviving works are few. He belongs to the loose body of late-Nanbokucho Osafune hands the literature calls Kozori, a category fixed by exclusion rather than by descent, the smiths who fall outside the specific lineages of Osafune Kanemitsu, Motoshige and Nagashige and are gathered under the one name. Iemori is counted within it alongside Hidemitsu, Mitsuhiro and Nariie, and the Meikan reads him in succession: a first generation placed in the Hatakeda group around the late Kamakura Gentoku era, whose work is scarcely ever seen, and the smith of the Koryaku-to-Oei dates counted the third of some four generations under the name. Earlier entries make him a pupil of Yoshikage, and the published sources resolve the disagreement by reading each surviving blade for its style and its year-date rather than assigning it firmly to a generation.
His hand is a small-patterned midare, and the recurring judgment that fixes him is one of scale. The published sources describe his manner as Kanemitsu-style, a ko-notare carrying gunome in the cutting edge, and add at once that 「作位は兼光に及ばない」, the level of execution does not reach that of Kanemitsu, while the features of this same group stand out clearly. Where the Kanemitsu line tempers a bolder gunome, Iemori reduces the same idea to a small ko-gunome that runs connected and threaded, mixed with angular and pointed elements and at the waist with an open koshi-hiraki gunome, the whole running small and subdued, what the reference texts call a ko-gunome-tsure tendency with kozumi. Ko-ashi and yo enter, the temper is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, and faint sunagashi and kinsuji play through it. The boshi answers the temper, a midare-komi that points at the tip with hakikake, or on the quieter blades a straight ko-maru passing into a yakizume.
The jigane is the Osafune steel reduced to the same modest register. He forges itame mixed with mokume and a flowing tendency, the grain standing so that the older descriptions call it hada-tachi, and over it lie ji-nie, fine chikei sunk dark within the steel, at times a jifu-like passage, and the midare-utsuri that places his work squarely in the Bizen tradition even where the temper runs quiet. On his best blades the iron tightens and the reflection rises clearly. The sugata is archaic for its date: a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point, the shape the published sources read as the period character of the late Nanbokucho into early Muromachi, and the signature is cut in the manner shared across the group, a small six-character mei or a longer signature set with a fine chisel toward the mune.
Read across his dated span the work shows a single hand turning slowly toward the next age. The Oei tachi grow heavy in the kasane and add sakizori, and the published sources read this thick-kasane, koshizori, small-pointed shape as the incipient features of the Oei-Bizen style; one Oei 2 tachi is described as forging itame with mokume, fine ji-nie and dark chikei-like lines, a prominent midare-utsuri and a koshi-hiraki gunome of small overall pattern that demonstrates the Kozori character outright. Yet the temper holds to the older vein, the connected gunome retaining, as one wakizashi is read, the lingering traces of the preceding era. A few pieces break the restraint: one wide Oei wakizashi is noted for a midare unusually florid for so early a date, signed with thick, distinctive chisel strokes, which the literature prizes as study material for the smith. The Meikan's four-generation succession and the absence of any securely first-generation work leave the strict generation-by-generation reading, in the words of the published sources, to await further research.
What sets Iemori apart within his group is told best by his own grounded traits rather than by comparison. His bright midare-utsuri and his subdued, small-patterned gunome with pointed and angular elements mark him as Osafune even as they keep him below the Kanemitsu mainstream, and his open koshi-hiraki gunome and heavy late sugata point him forward to Oei-Bizen, so that he stands on the threshold between the Nanbokucho Osafune file and the next age of the school. The published sources name his kinship plainly, the austere hamon 「師光・家助などにみる淋しい刃文」 seen in smiths such as Moromitsu and Iesuke, and they call his best work typical of the whole circle: in his finest dated tachi the jitetsu, hamon and boshi are read as typical for this smith and for his group, a piece they are willing to name 「家守の代表作の一口」, a representative example among Iemori's works. On one folded-signature katana they go further, noting that in comparison with works of the same type 「鉄の鍛えがよく、匂口も明るく冴え」, the forging of the steel is particularly good and the nioiguchi bright and clear, an excellent level of workmanship.
Iemori is rated Chu-jo saku, and his standing is that of a documentary hand more than a market name. His designated works on record number thirteen tachi and wakizashi in the Juyo rank, with no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property among them, so the ubu, signed and dated blades sound in ji and ha that recur in his record are valued as reference material for the Kozori group and for the working of Bizen at the turn into Oei-Bizen. Provenance is thin but real: one blade carries an Imperial line, others descend through the Hojo viscount house and from the collector Shida Sadashige, and recorded current whereabouts include the Hayashibara Museum of Art and the Tokyo and Kyoto National Museums. For the private collector this is a smith encountered chiefly through his dated Juyo tachi, which appear from time to time and with patience rather than readily, prized less for flamboyance than for the legibility of a clearly dated, well-forged blade standing at the edge of the Oei-Bizen age.
Nariie (成家) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Jūbun, Jūyō. Nariie worked at Osafune in Bizen in the later Nanbokucho period, and the dated swords that fix his hand carry year-signatures running from Bunna and Joji through Koan, Oan and Eiwa, with one wakizashi signed and dated Koan 2 (1362). The biographical records make him a descendant of Kagehide, the younger brother of Mitsutada, but the published sources set that pedigree aside and place him by his workmanship among the Kozori smiths, the Osafune hands of the later fourteenth century who stand outside the direct line of Kanemitsu. The term Kozori is itself loosely drawn, the NBTHK allows, a convenience that gathers the late Nanbokucho smiths not tied as pupils to the Kanemitsu workshop. What the commentary returns to, blade after blade, is the relation to Kanemitsu read in both his manner and the script of his signature, a relation it declines to settle: 「兼光との関係も考えられ、今後の検討が俟たれるところである」, that the connection is to be considered and the matter awaits further study. He is a smith known almost entirely from o-suriage mumei katana, his name reaching the published record at Important Cultural Property and twenty Juyo Token.
The hand that distinguishes him is a gunome-based midareba that at first glance is taken for Kanemitsu and is told from him on a closer look. Over the body he tempers small ko-gunome, ko-notare and pointed togariba, square-shouldered gunome and waist-open gunome also entering, the whole running, in the recurring phrase of the published sources, small and crowded (kozumu). The institution describes his favoured temper plainly, 「のたれや互の目交じりの乱れ刃を得意とし」, a midareba of notare and gunome mixed; what individualizes it is the variety of ha packed into a small pattern rather than any single shape. The judges set this against Kanemitsu directly. On one Juyo katana the commentary writes that the blade resembles Kanemitsu at a glance, then adds 「焼刃の互の目がこずむ傾向が窺われ」, that the gunome of the temper is seen to crowd, and finds in that crowding the mark by which it is to be read as Nariie. The work falls a little short of Kanemitsu's breadth, the sources repeat, though not of his skill.
His jigane is an itame carrying mokume and nagare-hada, the grain standing a little, with ji-nie attaching fine and chikei entering of an irregular changing-steel cast, sometimes coarse altered steel running thick through the surface, sometimes a jifu tone crossing it. A midare-utsuri rises, pale, the Bizen reflection of the period; on the most crowded small-pattern blades it reads instead as a straight utsuri, and the ji is carried as much by the standing itame and that kawarigane chikei as by the reflection. Through the yakiba ashi and yo enter well, the temper is nioi-prevailing with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi play finely along it. The boshi runs into the midare and points, returning to a ko-maru or burning out in a yakizume, hakikake brushing the turn. A bo-hi, on several blades carried with a soe-hi or beside the trace of a bonji, runs through the body. The sugata is the broad shape of the late Nanbokucho: a wide body with little taper from machi to point, a large kissaki, the curvature shallow, the build heavy in the hand, most often reached by o-suriage that has left the blade mumei.
The oeuvre divides on the nakago. A small group of ubu pieces keeps the original shape and the long signature with its year-date, the koshizori tachi and the broad, suriage-shortened hira-zukuri wakizashi among them, and these are the documentary anchor for everything else. The far larger part is o-suriage and mumei, attributed to him by the workmanship alone, and it is on these that the kantei argument is made and remade: a blade is read first as Kanemitsu's school, then resolved to Nariie by the smaller, more cluttered pattern, the mixture of many ha-types, and a touch of the rustic in the ji and ha. The year-dates carry their own weight in the scholarship. The records give him dates from Bunna and Koan that run relatively early for a Kozori smith, and the NBTHK marks them, treating the Koan 2 wakizashi as a good document and noting that such comparatively early signatures bear on where, within the loose Kozori grouping, his work should sit.
Within that grouping the published sources rank him high. They hold his skill equal to or above that of Masamitsu, a Kanemitsu pupil of his own generation, 「彼の技術は同年代の兼光一門の政光に比して優るとも劣らず」, and on one blade call him a representative smith of the Kozori group at the height of the Nanbokucho period. The comparison that frames him is therefore never a borrowing but a measure: he is placed beside Kanemitsu to be distinguished from him, his own typical traits leading the reading. His midare crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; his ji takes a changing-steel chikei and a pale utsuri where the Kanemitsu line runs cleaner; his temper gathers many small ha where theirs is more uniform. These are the features the judges name as his, and the resemblance survives in the prose only as the thing they are correcting.
The Fujishiro appraisal places Nariie at Chu-jo saku, and his designated record stands at one Important Cultural Property and twenty Juyo Token, with no National Treasure or Tokubetsu Juyo among them. The Important Cultural Property is patrimony, held outside the market as such designations are; the Juyo blades, almost all o-suriage mumei katana, are what a private collector might realistically hope to meet, and they come to hand only from time to time. Provenance is thinly recorded for his work: one katana is documented as having been carried by Imai Sadahiro, the castle elder of the Nishio domain in Mikawa, at the battle of Toba-Fushimi in the Boshin War, and descended with its red stone-grain lacquer scabbard mounting. Beyond that the owners of his blades are largely unrecorded, and what survives is best described as held in long-private hands. For a Kozori master read always against Kanemitsu, a signed and dated example is the rarer find, the o-suriage mumei katana the more usual one, and either is encountered with patience rather than at will.
Motomasa (基正) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Jūbi, Jūyō. Osafune Motomasa is recorded in sword reference compendia as a swordsmith of the Bizen Osafune school, active during the late Nanbokucho period. The first generation is dated to the Joji era (1362-1368), with a second generation placed around the Shitoku era (1384-1387). His predecessor is said to have been the younger brother of Ko-Motoshige, and from his name it is readily understood that he was a smith close to Motomitsu within the Kanemitsu line. Whether the earliest Motomasa was truly the younger brother of Ko-Motoshige requires further research; however, his lineage places him firmly among the Bizen smiths of the late Kamakura through Nanbokucho periods.
Motomasa's forging characteristically shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* and *nagare-hada*, with an overall tendency toward *hada-dachi*. Fine *ji-nie* covers the surface, dark steel appears in a *chikei*-like manner, and faint *midare-utsuri* emerges. His *hamon* is typically based in *ko-notare* mixed with a wide range of forms — *gunome*, *ko-gunome*, open-waisted *gunome*, angular and pointed elements — producing an overall small-pattern *midare* with *nie*, together with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The small scale of chisel-work in his signatures further emphasizes the defining traits of the kosori style. The open-waisted manner seen in his tempering is noted as suggesting a portent of the transition toward Oei-Bizen. One rare *tanto* in narrow *suguha* demonstrates his range beyond the characteristic midare idiom.
Signed examples by Motomasa are rare, and his works are valued as documentary material for understanding the scope of his craftsmanship. Across the extant body of work, both *ji* and *ha* are praised as *kenzen* — sound and well-preserved — with ample *niku* and especially bright *nioiguchi* in the hardened edge. His blades possess high documentary value not only for their quality of workmanship but also for the date inscriptions they preserve from the Oan era, providing critical reference material for the study of late Nanbokucho Bizen production.
Yoshitsugu (義次) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Jūbi, Jūyō. Yoshitsugu is a Bizen smith of the Nanbokucho period whose line of transmission is not clearly established. Sword compendia record smiths signing this name at Osafune in Bizen Province as well as in Bitchu Province, where the name is associated with the Aoe tradition. A dated tachi bearing the Oan 5 (1372) inscription identifies a Yoshitsugu residing at Osafune, while a Bitchu Yoshitsugu recorded around the Oei era produced a blade dated Koryaku 2 (1380) in the typical style of late Aoe work. A further blade bearing the long signature "Bizen no Kuni ju Yoshitsugu" — notably lacking the toponym "Osafune" — has prompted the suggestion that this particular smith may not have belonged to the Osafune line and may instead be related to the Unrui group, though the form of the character for *kuni* in the inscription diverges from Unrui convention.
The workmanship across the surviving examples reflects the characteristic tendencies of Nanbokucho-period Bizen and Bitchu production. Forging ranges from tightly worked *ko-itame-hada* with faint *utsuri* to *itame-hada* in which the grain stands with *chikei* and *ji-nie* present. The *hamon* encompasses both *notare* mixed with *ko-choji* and *togariba* — where the *nioiguchi* is deep and *ko-nie* adheres — and quieter *chu-suguha* compositions with *notare-gokoro*, *kuichigai-ba*, *ko-ashi*, *saka-ashi*, and *sunagashi*. In the broader-bodied examples the *sugata* is imposing and boldly martial, with wide *mihaba* and an elongated *kissaki*, while other pieces retain a more restrained classical tachi form with high curvature.
Extant signed works by Yoshitsugu are extremely few, and the NBTHK has affirmed that judging from surviving pieces he was quite a capable craftsman whose work clearly reflects the characteristic style of its period. Each signed example possesses high documentary value as source material for the study of both the Osafune and Aoe traditions during the late Nanbokucho era. The celebrated "Nanzan-to," bearing a silver inlay inscription commemorating the slaying of a tiger in Korea, further attests to the historical regard in which blades by this maker have been held.
Iemitsu (家光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Tokujū, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Other smiths
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Hidemitsu (秀光) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Osafune Hidemitsu is recorded in the *meikan* as a lineage of Bizen smiths bearing the same name across four generations, beginning with a first generation placed in the Kenmu era and continuing through the Ōan, Shitoku, and Ōei eras into the early Muromachi period. However, as the NBTHK consistently observes, strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter that must await further research. Hidemitsu belongs to the Koreha branch of the Osafune school and is regarded as a representative smith of the group known as *ko-sori-mono* — makers of "small-curvature" blades active in the late Nanbokuchō period who stand apart from the Kanemitsu lineage and from Chōgi, Motoshige, and the Ōmiya group. Among the Koreha school smiths, Hidemitsu is recognized as one of the most accomplished. At least one generation held the official title Saemon no Jō, as attested by signed works bearing the full inscription Bishū Osafune Saemon no Jō Hidemitsu. Extant dated works span roughly from Ōan through Shitoku and into Meitoku, providing valuable reference material for the chronology of late Nanbokuchō Bizen production.
Hidemitsu's *jitetsu* characteristically presents *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, forged tightly, with fine *ji-nie* adhering and *chikei* entering well. Various forms of *utsuri* appear — *suguha-utsuri*, *bō-utsuri*, and *midare-utsuri* — standing out distinctly in the ground. The *hamon* takes *ko-gunome* as a principal element, frequently mixed with angular forms, *togariba*, *koshi-biraki gunome*, and *ko-chōji*, sometimes showing a reverse inclination described as *saka-gakari* — a manner closely resembling that of the neighboring Aoe school. The temperline overall tends toward *kozumi*, a slightly subdued quality that the NBTHK identifies as a conspicuous characteristic shared across the *ko-sori-mono* category. The temper is predominantly *nioi*-based with *ko-nie* attaching, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appear within. Hidemitsu also produced works in purely straight temper — *naka-suguha* with slight *ko-ashi* — which are regarded as documentary-valuable materials for understanding the working range of this school and this smith. Additionally, certain works show the Yoshii-mono tendency of aligning small *ko-gunome* in a uniform manner, further demonstrating the breadth of Hidemitsu's repertoire. The *bōshi* varies between *sugu* with *ko-maru* turnback, *midare-komi* ending in a pointed tip, and forms showing *hakikake*, with turnbacks generally kept short.
Across the designated corpus, the NBTHK consistently highlights the brightness and clarity of the *nioiguchi* in both *ji* and *ha* as the foremost attraction of Hidemitsu's work, describing it as healthy, bright, and vividly clear. Works in sound condition are praised as *kenzen* — well-preserved blades in which the forging is well-refined and delicate. The dated inscriptions that survive on numerous pieces are repeatedly characterized as excellent reference material and valuable source material for understanding late Nanbokuchō Bizen production. The open-based *gunome* found in certain works is noted as already suggesting an anticipation of the stylistic approach of Ōei-period Bizen, positioning Hidemitsu at a transitional moment within the tradition. While the NBTHK acknowledges that the workmanship of the *ko-sori-mono* group is generally considered not to reach the level of the Kanemitsu faction and similar lines, Hidemitsu's finest examples are singled out as outstanding among this smith's works — blades whose earnest, straightforward craftsmanship and luminous *nioiguchi* secure his standing as the leading figure of the *ko-sori-mono* tradition.
Hidesuke (秀助) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihisa (守久) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Moromitsu (師光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Moromitsu is a Bizen Osafune smith of the late Nanbokucho period, and the published sources hand him down in the Meikan as the son of Rinko and the father of the Oei-Bizen master Morimitsu. Signed and dated tachi survive from the Eiwa, Oan and Shitoku eras through Eitoku and Meitoku, and the references read the present blades as the first generation of the name, a hand earlier than the Oei-dated Moromitsu who carried it on. He belongs to the group of late-Nanbokucho Osafune smiths the published record collectively calls Kozori, the small-curvature makers who worked at the periphery of the great workshop, and the NBTHK names him plainly as one of its leading hands, 「南北朝後期の、所謂小反り物と呼ばれる刀工達の、代表的な一人である」. The line is recorded as continuing for several generations into the Muromachi period, but it is this first Moromitsu whose dated tachi anchor the group, the Eitoku piece of 1381 and the Shitoku and Eiwa blades among the few firmly dated witnesses to Osafune work just before the Oei flowering.
His characteristic hand is a small-patterned midare built on a shallow ko-notare. Into that quiet base he sets ko-gunome, gunome running two by two in sequence, slight togariba and a little choji, the whole kept small and held down so that the temper, as the published sources put it on his most archaic tachi, lies low across the blade. Ko-ashi and yo enter, the temper is carried in nioi with ko-nie adhering, and fine sunagashi run through the pattern, on his best work joined by kinsuji. The reading the NBTHK return again and again is one of restraint: his is the subdued register of Bizen, 「刃文は盛光、康光に比して地味であり、いわゆる小反りの作域のものである」, a manner more reticent than that of his son Morimitsu and of Yasumitsu, who would temper the same Bizen idea in the bolder, more decorative pattern of Oei-Bizen. The scale itself is the tell. Where the mainstream Osafune of the Nanbokucho height reaches for height and flourish, Moromitsu compacts everything, the midare running in small forms that demand to be read closely, and the published sources judge the result, on a dated tachi shortened only a little, 「いかにも師光の持味を発揮した出来の宜しい一口といえよう」.
The jigane is an itame, often standing and flowing toward the edge, mixed with mokume and on the finest blades forged tight with the grain standing finely. Over it lie ji-nie, frequent chikei and patches of ji-madara, and out of that Bizen steel rises the utsuri, sometimes faint, on his best late tachi a conspicuous midare-utsuri, and on one small Eitoku tachi a straight sugu-utsuri standing clear. The published record reads this jigane as the proof of the Bizen-den beneath the quiet temper, and on the Meitoku tachi of 1391 it goes further, praising a jigane bright and clear with a blue-black cast, 「青黒い色調に冴えた地鉄が強く、総じて優れた出来の一口である」. The bearing of these blades is archaic. They keep koshizori with pronounced funbari, the kasane often thick for the width, and on the oldest the chu-kissaki compacts toward an ikubi profile, all of which the NBTHK reads as marks of the late Nanbokucho date. The boshi answers the small midare with a midare-komi that tends to a pointed tip or settles into a ko-maru, the very point often brushed with hakikake; many of the tachi carry a bo-hi, and several add devotional carving, a bonji, a sankoken, a kurikara cut in grass style at the foot of the groove.
The corpus admits a reading in three registers without straining the evidence. The staple is the subdued small-pattern midare just described, the work the published sources call the typical Kozori manner. A second, narrower register is his most varied, set down on the Shitoku-dated tachi: there the temper opens into ko-choji mixed with ko-gunome, ko-notare and pointed elements, a saka-ashi tendency appearing here and there, ko-ashi entering well and the nioiguchi full and rounded, a piece the NBTHK reads as more varied in range while keeping a high degree of completeness. A third register widens past the Kozori norm altogether. On one signed tachi the gunome takes choji into itself with the valleys opening toward the koshi, and the deki turns flamboyant. The NBTHK frames it as the exception that proves the rule, observing first that 「小反り物の作風は総体に小づんだ乱れ刃をあらわすものが一般的である」 and then that this blade instead 「焼きに高低のある華やかな出来口を示しており」, a temper of marked height variation that 「宛ら応永備前を想わせる作風を見せている」. It is on that threshold that the smith is most clearly located, the choji-mixed gunome and the opening midare already foreshadowing the work his son would bring to its flowering.
What sets Moromitsu apart is read best from his own blades rather than by contrast. His bright midare-utsuri over standing itame, his small-pattern ko-notare carrying ko-gunome and slight choji, and his midare-komi boshi place him squarely in the Bizen-den, while the smallness and restraint of the whole separate him from the Osafune mainstream of the Nanbokucho height and from his own bolder successors. The published sources weave his lineage into nearly every entry, the Meikan giving him as 「銘鑑に倫光子、盛光の父とあり」, son of Rinko and father of Morimitsu, and they place him at the hinge of the school's history, the last quiet phase of Nanbokucho Osafune and the first intimation of Oei-Bizen carried in a single hand. The faint dating spread of his signed works, Eiwa through Meitoku in the present blades and on to Oei in the references, gives the group its chronological spine, so that his blades serve the study of the period as much as the eye.
Moromitsu survives almost entirely as signed and dated tachi, and seven of his blades carry the Juyo designation; he holds no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property, so his record runs through the Juyo tier rather than the patrimony preserved in museums and shrines. Fujishiro rates him Jo-saku. The value of the surviving work lies as much in its documentary weight as in its beauty: ubu, signed, dated blades are read in entry after entry as fine reference material for the Kozori group and for the Bizen smiths standing at the threshold of Oei, the rare Eitoku and Shitoku dates singled out as precious, the NBTHK calling the Shitoku tachi 「とりわけ至徳年紀が貴重な同工の優品である」. Provenance is thin and worth stating plainly: of the recorded whereabouts, one of his finest tachi, sound in sugata, ji and ha, is an old treasured piece of the Shonai Sakai family, 「庄内酒井家の旧蔵品である」. For a private collector the Kozori Moromitsu is not beyond reach in the way a National Treasure is, his designated work sitting in the Juyo tier rather than locked in public hands, yet a signed and dated tachi by the first-generation hand comes to market only rarely, a quiet landmark of late-Nanbokucho Osafune when it does.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Osafune Hōkō (法光), customarily referred to as "Hō-Norimitsu" to distinguish him from Norimitsu (則光), was one of the swordsmiths of the Sue-Bizen group active in Bizen Province during the middle to late Muromachi period. Sword reference works list multiple smiths using this name, sometimes with appended common names such as Shinzaemon no Jō and Shirōzaemon no Jō. Among them, the Shinzaemon no Jō who produced dated works in the Eishō era is generally regarded as having been especially skillful, while the Shirōzaemon no Jō was active around the Meiō era. Although extant examples of their work are comparatively few among Sue-Bizen blades, both demonstrate a level of skill comparable to that of Jirōzaemon no Jō Katsumitsu and Yosōzaemon no Jō Sukesada.
In terms of style, Hōkō excelled in *midareba* in which *chōji* are mixed into *gunome*; examples in *suguha* are exceptionally rare. The characteristic forging shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, tending toward slightly standing grain, with thickly adhering *ji-nie* and the presence of *chikei*, and a faint overall *utsuri* or *midare-utsuri* standing out. The *hamon* centers on broadly opened gunome (*koshi no hiraita gunome*) mixed with chōji, *ko-gunome*, and *togariba*; *ashi* and *yō* enter vigorously; the temper is *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* adhering well, fine *tobiyaki* appearing, and a *nioiguchi* that tends toward tightness (*shimarigokoro*). The bōshi is typically *midare-komi* with *ko-maru*.
The NBTHK has noted that Hōkō's works display lively, conspicuous gunome-midare that is fully developed, with variation and vigorous feeling. A katana of the Eishō era is cited as outstanding among the smith's works and a typical, representative example of Sue-Bizen craftsmanship — the midareba centered on chōji being so splendid that at first glance it may be appraised as resembling Ōei-Bizen work, though the strong presence of ji-nie and the *ko-nie-deki* formation distinguish it. Both *ji* and *ha* are consistently found in *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved) condition.
Moriyuki (守行) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1444-1449. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1558-1570. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nariie (成家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Ieshige (家重) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iesuke (家助) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsukage (光景) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsumune (光宗) — Mainline · 1288-1312. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihiro (守弘) — Mainline · 1387-1389. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimasa (守政) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · Middle Muromachi. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morisuke (守助) — Mainline · 1356-1384. Morisuke signs his blades Bishu Osafune Morisuke in six characters, often adding a date, and one of his tachi carries on its reverse a Joji 2 (1363) inscription that fixes him squarely in the late Nanbokucho period. He was an Osafune smith, but his line within that great Bizen workshop cannot be clearly drawn. The published sources count him among the Kozori, the slightly-curved-sword smiths, and place him probably in the lineage of Moriie and the Hatakeda group, with the further note that his work can also be appraised alongside the Yoshii-mono of the same province. The reference books list a Morisuke succession of several generations, the first in Ryakuo, the second in Enbun, the third in Eitoku, then a fourth in Oei and a fifth in Bun'an, and the surviving signed pieces are judged to fall in the late Nanbokucho around Eitoku. Signed work by his hand is exceedingly rare, so each of the blades on record is valued less for fame than as material for knowing a smith of whom little else survives.
The hand that recurs across his blades is a small-patterned temper, and it is this that the published sources name as the clearly expressed mark of Kozori workmanship. Over a ko-notare base he mixes gunome, ko-gunome, ko-choji, pointed teeth and angular squared-off elements, the whole never resolving into the large round gunome of the Kanemitsu-derived mainline but staying compact and busy, a ko-moyo. Into it run ashi and yo; nie gathers well along the edge; in places the habuchi loosens into hotsure, and kinsuji and sunagashi play conspicuously through the tempered area. On his finest tachi, the Eitoku-era piece in particular, the published record calls the result a blade rich in hataraki and 「覇気に充ちており」, filled with vigor, while remaining sound in both ji and ha. The boshi is not fixed to one shape: on the hira-zukuri and naginata work it enters in midare and points at the turn, while on the tachi it runs straight to a small round return, so that the temper of the tip tracks the form of the blade rather than carrying a single signature.
The jigane is read through the standing of the grain. He forges an itame that tends to stand open, mokume and nagare-hada mixing into it, with fine ji-nie attaching, passages of jifu-like texture, and dark chikei-toned steel entering on the best pieces. Over this rises the reflection that places him a Bizen, not a Soshu, hand of the period: a midare-utsuri on the broad tachi, broad and straight low on the blade and breaking into irregularity higher up, and on the wide hira-zukuri sun-nobi tanto a bo-utsuri standing along the edge side. The reflection is named on most of his recorded blades, and on the long tachi it rises clearly enough to be one of the surer tells of his work. It is the jigane and its utsuri, more than any one shape in the yakiba, that anchor the appraisal of so sparsely documented a smith.
His range divides into two registers without changing its essential manner. The first is the Nanbokucho tachi, of which the most arresting is a long o-dachi of wide mihaba, high koshizori and evident funbari running to a chu-kissaki, a piece the published sources call 「南北朝時代の大太刀の典例」, an exemplary model of the great tachi of the age, and prize the more because it survives ubu, signed and dated; on it the temper opens into a gunome-midare with kataochi-style gunome. The second register is the wide hira-zukuri sun-nobi tanto and ko-wakizashi, where the gunome compacts into close-set ko-gunome with togariba and a saka tendency, the nioiguchi tightening or sinking, the boshi entering in midare and pointing. Of one such wakizashi the published record says he was 「互の目を得意としている」, especially proficient in gunome, and on these smaller pieces a bo-hi is carved on both faces close to the mune. The dating of his work carries a historical interest beyond the smithing: his blades bear both the Southern Court Enbun years and the Northern Court Joji and Teiji years, and because many are dated Joji the judges reason that he was at that time a smith aligned with the Northern Court. The published sources draw from this the larger picture that 「当時の備前が、南北両朝の間に右往左往していた」, that Bizen of the day was pulled back and forth between the two courts.
What the Kozori name means has been explained in many ways since old times and resists a clean definition, but the published sources treat it as 「兼光と師弟関係の無い刀工の一括した呼称」, a collective designation for the late-Nanbokucho Osafune smiths who, while not in a master-disciple line with Kanemitsu, worked in a manner descended from his. Morisuke belongs squarely to that body, and the NBTHK observes of his shortened signed tachi that 「この作は此の工のみならず小反りの典型的作風を示している」, that it shows not only this smith's own characteristics but the typical style of the Kozori group as a whole. A Morisuke blade thus reads as a standard of its kind: his bright Bizen utsuri over a standing itame and his small-patterned, busy gunome set him within the Kozori manner rather than the round-gunome line of Kanemitsu proper, and distinguish him in turn from the Soshu-leaning hands of the same decades. His lineage to Moriie and Hatakeda is offered by the published sources only as a probability, and they are candid that his place within Osafune is not securely established.
Morisuke is not a smith of National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties; his record stands at seven blades that have reached the Juyo Token rank, with no Tokubetsu Juyo and no higher designation, and no provenance to a daimyo house is preserved among them. His standing rests instead on the scarcity of his signed work and on the quality of the few pieces that carry it: the dated o-dachi held an exemplary Nanbokucho tachi, the Eitoku tachi a blade of conspicuous vigor, and the small dated wakizashi and tanto valued as documentary evidence of a hand whose signed output is, in the words of the published record, exceedingly few. These are designated cultural property held in private and institutional hands rather than objects of the market, and an authenticated, signed Morisuke comes before a collector only rarely, the more so for being both signed and dated. For the student of Bizen its interest is precise: not a famous name but a clear, datable window onto the Kozori workshops of the late Nanbokucho, and onto a province caught between the Northern and Southern courts.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1489-1492. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1501-1504. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1528-1555. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadamitsu (貞光) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadayasu (貞安) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigehiro (重弘) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigeie (重家) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigeyoshi (重吉) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Osafune Shigeyoshi (重吉), third generation, worked in Bizen Province during the Meitoku era (1390-1394) and belongs to the group of late Nanbokucho-period Osafune smiths commonly referred to as *ko-sorimono* ("small-curvature works"). According to sword catalogs, the first generation was the son of Kagesuke and worked during the Kagen era, the second generation during Genko, and the third generation during the Joji and Meitoku periods. The *ko-sorimono* smiths constitute a distinct group within Osafune that does not belong to the lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige, Morikage, and the like. Besides dated examples from Meitoku, blades dated Oei 1 are also known, placing Shigeyoshi at the transitional phase from the *ko-sorimono* group toward what is termed Oei-Bizen.
The *kitae* characteristically displays *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* and flowing grain, with the texture standing slightly and fine *ji-nie* attaching. A vivid *midare-utsuri* frequently appears. The *hamon* is predominantly *ko-notare*-based, into which *gunome*, *choji*, and pointed (*togari-gokoro*) elements are interwoven; in certain works the *midare* becomes a fine, small-patterned complexity thoroughly characteristic of the *ko-sorimono* manner. The temper is *nioi-gachi* with *ko-nie*, and slight *tobiyaki* may appear, yielding a bright *nioiguchi*. Among the *ko-sorimono* smiths, conspicuous individuality is generally not seen; the forging tends to display a mixture of various *hada* textures, and the *hamon* is at times somewhat uneven, tending to become slightly subdued (*kozumu*).
Shigeyoshi is a smith whose surviving works are extremely rare, making each confirmed piece of considerable documentary importance. Works that are both signed and dated are especially valuable as reference material for understanding the *ko-sorimono* school. The signature is characteristically small in scale, and in at least one instance is presented as a decorative, embellished *tachi-mei* -- a rare treatment for the period that warrants particular attention. Despite the general uniformity ascribed to the *ko-sorimono* group, Shigeyoshi's finest works display notably accomplished workmanship, and the inclusion of a blade in the Imperial Collection further attests to the esteem in which his production is held.
Sueyuki (末行) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sukeyoshi (助吉) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Toshimitsu (利光) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsugumitsu (次光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsuneie (常家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yorimitsu (頼光) — Mainline · 1487-1489. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshihiro (吉弘) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshikiyo (義清) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukimitsu (幸光) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukisada (行貞) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Akinori (顯則) — Mainline · 1384-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Arimitsu (有光) — Mainline · 1460-1466. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Fusanori (房則) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Hidesada (秀貞) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iehide (家秀) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iekane (家包) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kagemitsu (景光) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanekane (兼銅) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼光) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼滿) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanenawa (兼繩) — Mainline · 1467-1469. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kiyomitsu (清光) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kunitsuna (國綱) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsuhisa (光久) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsusue (光末) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihide (盛秀) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · 1350-1352. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Moritsugu (守次) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagahiro (永弘) — Mainline · 1521-1528. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagahisa (長久) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagamori (永守) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagasue (永末) — Mainline · 1384-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimitsu (成光) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimitsu (成光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimune (成宗) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narishige (成重) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narishige (成重) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nariyasu (成泰) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuchika (延近) — Mainline · 1467-1469. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobufusa (延房) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuhiro (信弘) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuie (延家) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuie (延家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunaga (信長) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunaga (信長) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1492-1501. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norihide (則秀) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norihisa (則久) — Mainline · 1350-1352. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimori (則守) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norinari (則成) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norishige (則重) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1375-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadayuki (貞行) — Mainline · 1449-1452. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigetsugu (重次) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Suehisa (末久) — Mainline. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sukesada (祐定) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tamemune (爲宗) — Mainline · 1324-1326. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Tsunehiro (恒弘) was a smith of the Osafune school in Bizen Province, active during the late Nanbokucho period. Although sword reference works place a first generation around the Gentoku era at the end of the Kamakura period, "almost no extant works by that figure are seen." The Tsunehiro whose works survive in appreciable number is the later smith, counted among the group of makers associated with the so-called *ko-sori-mono* — "small-curvature" or "slight-sori" pieces that constitute a distinctive stylistic current of the late Nanbokucho era. While the *Kokon Kaji Biko* advances the theory that Tsunehiro belonged to Chogi's line, the NBTHK observes that "neither the workmanship nor the manner of signing resembles Chogi," and places him instead among smiths whose *jigane* and *hamon* are "characteristic of the small-sori works of the later Nanbokucho period."
The forging in Tsunehiro's blades shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, overall tending toward *nagare-gokoro*, with fine *ji-nie*, thick *chikei*, and *jifu* intermixed; *utsuri* stands out, sometimes with a "whitish tendency." The *hamon* is principally a *gunome* with *kataochi*-like elements — mixed with *togariba*, *ko-gunome*, and pointed forms — tightened down with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji*, producing an overall small-patterned effect. The *nioiguchi* tends toward *shimari-gokoro*, occasionally with a slight *shizumi* tendency, while at the *yakigashira* one observes *yubashiri*-like effects. The *boshi* enters in *midare-komi*, tending toward a pointed feeling with vigorous *hakikake*. Signature characters are "notably small and placed close to the ridge."
The NBTHK characterizes Tsunehiro's finest works as masterpieces in which "the *jigane* is well consolidated, the *nioiguchi* is clear and bright, and both *ji* and *ha* are *kenzen*." His blades share traits broadly with other ko-sori-mono smiths such as Moriyuki and Mitsuhiro, yet Tsunehiro's individual manner — the kataochi-like gunome with its small-patterned, tightened character — is recognized as a distinctive stylistic contribution within the late Nanbokucho Osafune tradition.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsuneie (經家) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (經光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (經光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshikuni (良國) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshitsuna (吉綱) — Mainline · 1340-1346. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshitsuna (吉綱) — Mainline · 1441-1444. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukihisa (行久) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukikage (幸景) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Live·Kozori lineage
古曽利
The Bizen Kozori School
The collective school of Bizen’s other smiths. From the late Nanbokuchō period into early Muromachi, the masters grouped as Kozori — Hidemitsu, Iesuke, Nariie among the dozens — worked in the orbit of Osafune without belonging to its great mainline. Their compact, shallow-curved blades carry one of the largest papered bodies of work in Bizen outside the mainline itself: a school with no single founder, but an unmistakable voice between the Kanemitsu era and the Ōei revival.
The The Bizen Kozori School (古曽利), active 1350–1500 in Bizen Province across 114 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 6 Jūbun, 3 Jūbi, 3 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 129 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Bizen Kozori School (古曽利) · 1350 – 1500
Hidemitsu (秀光) — Mainline · 1387-1389. Jūbun, Jūyō. Hidemitsu signed and dated his blades, and the dates run in an unbroken file from the Ōan era through Eiwa, Eitoku, Shitoku, Kakei, Kōō, Meitoku and into the Muromachi years, so that an ubu, signed and dated tachi survives from almost every reign of the late Nanbokuchō. He is a Bizen Osafune smith, and the published sources count him, in the words of one Jūyō entry, among "the group of smiths known as the Kosori-ha" (いわゆる小反派), the periphery of late-Nanbokuchō Osafune that the institution defines by exclusion: the makers who do not belong to the Kanemitsu line, nor to Chōgi, Motoshige or the Ōmiya group. One account makes him a son of Motomitsu in the Kanemitsu line. The same entries are careful about his generations: the Meikan places a first Hidemitsu around the Kenmu era but notes that works of that earliest generation are scarcely seen, then counts the name across some four generations down into Ōei, while warning that strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter for further research. Each surviving blade is therefore read by its style and its date rather than firmly assigned to one hand.
His characteristic work is a small-patterned irregular temper. The published sources put it plainly: his manner is "in the manner of Kanemitsu, yet with still finer and smaller patterning" (兼光風であるがさらに小模様), and the words name the whole tell of his hand. Where the Kanemitsu line tempers a bolder *gunome*, Hidemitsu reduces the same idea to a small, subdued line, *ko-gunome* mixed with angular elements, pointed *togariba* and open-valley *gunome*, the *ashi* and *yō* entering well, the temper *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* and overall *kozumu*, that subdued, drawn-in quality the entries return to again and again. The *bōshi* follows the edge into a *midare-komi* that points or rounds to a *ko-maru*. His *ko-gunome* often runs in a linked, continuous rhythm, and on one tantō the published sources find him aligning the small *gunome* in the uniform *Yoshii-mono* manner rather than the Kanemitsu one.
The *jigane* is the constant. He forges an *itame*, frequently a well-packed *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume* and a flowing tendency, the grain standing a little, with *ji-nie* laid finely and at times densely, fine *chikei* sunk within it, and a *midare-utsuri* rising clearly on his best blades. The published sources read the standing *itame*, the blackish *chikei*-like iron and the subdued small *gunome* as features common to the whole Kosori category rather than personal to him, and they grant that his finest forging is well-refined and of fine quality, bright and clear in both *ji* and *ha*. On his tantō and hira-zukuri pieces the reflection takes a different form, a *bō-utsuri* or a straight *utsuri* running along the line of the *yakigashira*.
Two further registers complete the picture. The first is the carving. His tantō carry *bō-hi* with *tsure-hi*, *suken*, *futasuji-hi*, and devotional motifs of *bonji*, *gomabashi* and the *gyō no Kurikara*; on one Eiwa tantō the published sources observe that the Kurikara preserves the Osafune carving manner running, in their phrase, from the time of Nagamitsu through the Kamakura and Nanbokuchō periods. The second is a quieter temper. A small minority of his blades abandon the *midare* for a bright, clear *chū-suguha*, the *nioiguchi* somewhat deep with slight *ko-nie*; on one such tachi the *suguha* mixes in *gunome* with a reverse-slanting *saka-ashi* and pale, double-*hamon*-like *nie-suji*, and the published sources liken the manner to "that of the neighbouring Aoe school" (宛ら隣国青江派に近似する作風を示し), calling the blade "an outstanding example among this smith's works" (同工傑出の一口). The entries value such pure *suguha* as documentary material for the working range of the smith and the group.
What sets the Kosori Hidemitsu in his place is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from the Kanemitsu mainstream by the smaller, more subdued scale of his patterning and the somewhat lower rank the published sources assign the whole Kosori group, and apart from the next age by a single forward-looking detail: on a Meitoku tantō the open-valley *gunome* he tempers, in the entry's words, "already suggests an anticipation of the Ōei-period Bizen manner" (既に応永備前の作風を予兆させる). He stands, then, on the threshold between the Nanbokuchō Osafune mainstream and the Bizen that would flower again in Ōei, a maker through whose dated, signed blades the late history of Osafune can be read year by year.
For the collector he is, above all, a documentary name. Hidemitsu has no National Treasures and no Tokubetsu Jūyō; his record runs through three Important Cultural Properties and sixteen Jūyō blades, almost all of them ubu, signed and dated, which is the source of their value, for an ubu Nanbokuchō tachi carrying both signature and a reign date is repeatedly called extremely valuable reference material. The provenance is good: one tachi descended in the Kuroda house with a Hon'ami Kōchū origami of Genroku 13 assessing it at fifteen gold pieces; another was among the personal effects of Tenshin'in, the lawful wife of the thirteenth shogun Tokugawa Iesada, who entered the Tokugawa house from the Takatsukasa family; further blades passed through the Tokugawa, Hōjō and Tani families. Most are held, not traded. Examples in the Jūyō tier do come to light from time to time, more readily than the great mid-Kamakura Osafune names but seldom even so, and a signed, dated Kosori Hidemitsu is a precise and legible document of how the Osafune school closed its Nanbokuchō age.
Iesuke (家助) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Jūbun, Tokujū, Jūyō. Iesuke is a Bizen Osafune smith of the Hatakeda line whose dated tachi run across the Ōei era of the early Muromachi period, and whom the published sources name, beside Morimitsu, Yasumitsu and Tsuneie, as one of the representative swordsmiths of Ōei-Bizen. The earliest dated work on record is a quiet tachi of Ōei 3 (1396); the bolder pieces commonly seen carry dates from the teens and twenties of the era, one signed *tachi* of Ōei 19 reaching Tokubetsu Jūyō. His name and his line are themselves a problem the sources set out plainly. The reference works trace a first generation to a son of Hatakeda Moriie about the Bun'ei era, yet among examined blades none predate the Nanbokuchō, the oldest read as Bunwa-era work; the surviving generations are therefore taken as one continuous Hatakeda hand rather than separated with confidence, the question of whether the early Ōei 3 *tachi* is a predecessor or an early work of the same man left open for further study.
His characteristic hand is the Ōei-Bizen *midare*. Over an *itame* that tends overall to stand a little, mixed in places with *ko-itame*, *mokume* and flowing *nagare-hada*, the steel carries *ji-nie* and *chikei*, and across it rises a *bō-utsuri* or a clear *midare-utsuri*, the bar-like reflection the published sources single out as one mark of Ōei-Bizen. The temper is a *gunome* that opens broadly at the valley, the *koshi-biraki gunome* the sources name as common to the Ōei masters, mixed with *chōji*, *ko-chōji* and pointed *togariba*, at times a small *notare*. *Ashi* and *yō* enter frequently, the construction is *nioi*-based with a *ko-nie* feeling, and in the lower half *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* run through the temper. The *bōshi* turns back in a *midare-komi* with a pointed feeling, sometimes a *ko-maru*, now and then with *tobiyaki* toward the point.
The *jigane* is the feature by which the judges set him a step apart from the leading Ōei names. They find his forging tending a touch more toward standing grain and his *nioiguchi* a touch tighter, at times a little subdued, yet they grant that in technical terms his best blades are "in no way inferior" to Morimitsu and Yasumitsu. The *ji* of his finest pieces is well-refined and moist, with *ji-nie*, *chikei* and *midare-utsuri*, and the work within the temper is its real strength; of the Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the published commentary writes that "the activity within the temper of this tachi is especially splendid." Devotional and practical carving recur in the form of *bō-hi*, with *tsure-hi* or *soe-hi* on the shortened attributions and *bonji* cut into the *shinogi-ji* of one signed *uchigatana*.
The published sources draw his work into two registers explicitly. Beside the typical Ōei-Bizen *midare* they set "a somewhat calmer, *suguha*-toned hamon," a *chū-suguha* mixed with *ko-gunome* over a tightened, flowing *itame* with *ji-nie*, *chikei* and a faint *utsuri*, the *nioiguchi* tight with *nie* and *sunagashi*, the *bōshi* straight to a *ko-maru* with *hakikake* at the tip. His surviving blades divide between the *ubu*, signed and dated *tachi* and the *ō-suriage mumei* *katana* later attributed to him, several of which had passed under other names before being read by period and manner as his late-Nanbokuchō-to-Ōei work; one such blade, once appraised as Sanemori, was returned to him.
What sets the Hatakeda Iesuke apart is exactly what the judges name. His *koshi-biraki gunome* and *bō-utsuri* mark his typical *midare* as Ōei-Bizen rather than mid-Kamakura work, and his standing *itame* and tightened, subdued *nioiguchi* set him beside Morimitsu and Yasumitsu yet a little apart from them; the published sources liken one of his finest dated *katana* to Osafune Masamitsu in its standing *itame*, mottled *ji* and shallow *ko-notare* mixed with open-valley *gunome*. He stands at the Kozori periphery of late Osafune, and the sources judge that, although his name is less widely known than the leading Ōei smiths', works such as his best *tachi* show he "deserves to be evaluated more highly."
For the collector he is a documentary name rather than a household one. Fujishiro grades him Chū-jō saku. He has no National Treasures; his record reaches instead the Important Cultural Property rank, with two signed, dated *tachi* designated, and the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers above the wider research record. His blades are preserved in collections grounded in their own provenance, the Ōei 19 *tachi* held by the Hayashibara Museum of Art and transmitted through the Kaga Maeda house, one Important Cultural Property at Kasuga Taisha, and a shortened *katana* that was the battlefield sword of Ikeda Katsunyū before later owners had it cut down. Only a small number fall in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers, and these are largely held rather than traded, so a signed and dated Hatakeda Iesuke comes to market only seldom and from time to time; the published sources call such a blade "of high value as reference material," a well-forged document of how Bizen forging carried itself into the Ōei revival.
Iemori (家守) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Jūyō. Iemori is a Bizen Osafune smith whose dated tachi run in an almost unbroken file from Eiwa and Koo through Meitoku into the single-digit Oei years, and the published record opens its account of him plainly: he is a swordsmith of the Oei-era Bizen group, of whom 「作品は少ない」, surviving works are few. He belongs to the loose body of late-Nanbokucho Osafune hands the literature calls Kozori, a category fixed by exclusion rather than by descent, the smiths who fall outside the specific lineages of Osafune Kanemitsu, Motoshige and Nagashige and are gathered under the one name. Iemori is counted within it alongside Hidemitsu, Mitsuhiro and Nariie, and the Meikan reads him in succession: a first generation placed in the Hatakeda group around the late Kamakura Gentoku era, whose work is scarcely ever seen, and the smith of the Koryaku-to-Oei dates counted the third of some four generations under the name. Earlier entries make him a pupil of Yoshikage, and the published sources resolve the disagreement by reading each surviving blade for its style and its year-date rather than assigning it firmly to a generation.
His hand is a small-patterned midare, and the recurring judgment that fixes him is one of scale. The published sources describe his manner as Kanemitsu-style, a ko-notare carrying gunome in the cutting edge, and add at once that 「作位は兼光に及ばない」, the level of execution does not reach that of Kanemitsu, while the features of this same group stand out clearly. Where the Kanemitsu line tempers a bolder gunome, Iemori reduces the same idea to a small ko-gunome that runs connected and threaded, mixed with angular and pointed elements and at the waist with an open koshi-hiraki gunome, the whole running small and subdued, what the reference texts call a ko-gunome-tsure tendency with kozumi. Ko-ashi and yo enter, the temper is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, and faint sunagashi and kinsuji play through it. The boshi answers the temper, a midare-komi that points at the tip with hakikake, or on the quieter blades a straight ko-maru passing into a yakizume.
The jigane is the Osafune steel reduced to the same modest register. He forges itame mixed with mokume and a flowing tendency, the grain standing so that the older descriptions call it hada-tachi, and over it lie ji-nie, fine chikei sunk dark within the steel, at times a jifu-like passage, and the midare-utsuri that places his work squarely in the Bizen tradition even where the temper runs quiet. On his best blades the iron tightens and the reflection rises clearly. The sugata is archaic for its date: a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point, the shape the published sources read as the period character of the late Nanbokucho into early Muromachi, and the signature is cut in the manner shared across the group, a small six-character mei or a longer signature set with a fine chisel toward the mune.
Read across his dated span the work shows a single hand turning slowly toward the next age. The Oei tachi grow heavy in the kasane and add sakizori, and the published sources read this thick-kasane, koshizori, small-pointed shape as the incipient features of the Oei-Bizen style; one Oei 2 tachi is described as forging itame with mokume, fine ji-nie and dark chikei-like lines, a prominent midare-utsuri and a koshi-hiraki gunome of small overall pattern that demonstrates the Kozori character outright. Yet the temper holds to the older vein, the connected gunome retaining, as one wakizashi is read, the lingering traces of the preceding era. A few pieces break the restraint: one wide Oei wakizashi is noted for a midare unusually florid for so early a date, signed with thick, distinctive chisel strokes, which the literature prizes as study material for the smith. The Meikan's four-generation succession and the absence of any securely first-generation work leave the strict generation-by-generation reading, in the words of the published sources, to await further research.
What sets Iemori apart within his group is told best by his own grounded traits rather than by comparison. His bright midare-utsuri and his subdued, small-patterned gunome with pointed and angular elements mark him as Osafune even as they keep him below the Kanemitsu mainstream, and his open koshi-hiraki gunome and heavy late sugata point him forward to Oei-Bizen, so that he stands on the threshold between the Nanbokucho Osafune file and the next age of the school. The published sources name his kinship plainly, the austere hamon 「師光・家助などにみる淋しい刃文」 seen in smiths such as Moromitsu and Iesuke, and they call his best work typical of the whole circle: in his finest dated tachi the jitetsu, hamon and boshi are read as typical for this smith and for his group, a piece they are willing to name 「家守の代表作の一口」, a representative example among Iemori's works. On one folded-signature katana they go further, noting that in comparison with works of the same type 「鉄の鍛えがよく、匂口も明るく冴え」, the forging of the steel is particularly good and the nioiguchi bright and clear, an excellent level of workmanship.
Iemori is rated Chu-jo saku, and his standing is that of a documentary hand more than a market name. His designated works on record number thirteen tachi and wakizashi in the Juyo rank, with no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property among them, so the ubu, signed and dated blades sound in ji and ha that recur in his record are valued as reference material for the Kozori group and for the working of Bizen at the turn into Oei-Bizen. Provenance is thin but real: one blade carries an Imperial line, others descend through the Hojo viscount house and from the collector Shida Sadashige, and recorded current whereabouts include the Hayashibara Museum of Art and the Tokyo and Kyoto National Museums. For the private collector this is a smith encountered chiefly through his dated Juyo tachi, which appear from time to time and with patience rather than readily, prized less for flamboyance than for the legibility of a clearly dated, well-forged blade standing at the edge of the Oei-Bizen age.
Nariie (成家) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Jūbun, Jūyō. Nariie worked at Osafune in Bizen in the later Nanbokucho period, and the dated swords that fix his hand carry year-signatures running from Bunna and Joji through Koan, Oan and Eiwa, with one wakizashi signed and dated Koan 2 (1362). The biographical records make him a descendant of Kagehide, the younger brother of Mitsutada, but the published sources set that pedigree aside and place him by his workmanship among the Kozori smiths, the Osafune hands of the later fourteenth century who stand outside the direct line of Kanemitsu. The term Kozori is itself loosely drawn, the NBTHK allows, a convenience that gathers the late Nanbokucho smiths not tied as pupils to the Kanemitsu workshop. What the commentary returns to, blade after blade, is the relation to Kanemitsu read in both his manner and the script of his signature, a relation it declines to settle: 「兼光との関係も考えられ、今後の検討が俟たれるところである」, that the connection is to be considered and the matter awaits further study. He is a smith known almost entirely from o-suriage mumei katana, his name reaching the published record at Important Cultural Property and twenty Juyo Token.
The hand that distinguishes him is a gunome-based midareba that at first glance is taken for Kanemitsu and is told from him on a closer look. Over the body he tempers small ko-gunome, ko-notare and pointed togariba, square-shouldered gunome and waist-open gunome also entering, the whole running, in the recurring phrase of the published sources, small and crowded (kozumu). The institution describes his favoured temper plainly, 「のたれや互の目交じりの乱れ刃を得意とし」, a midareba of notare and gunome mixed; what individualizes it is the variety of ha packed into a small pattern rather than any single shape. The judges set this against Kanemitsu directly. On one Juyo katana the commentary writes that the blade resembles Kanemitsu at a glance, then adds 「焼刃の互の目がこずむ傾向が窺われ」, that the gunome of the temper is seen to crowd, and finds in that crowding the mark by which it is to be read as Nariie. The work falls a little short of Kanemitsu's breadth, the sources repeat, though not of his skill.
His jigane is an itame carrying mokume and nagare-hada, the grain standing a little, with ji-nie attaching fine and chikei entering of an irregular changing-steel cast, sometimes coarse altered steel running thick through the surface, sometimes a jifu tone crossing it. A midare-utsuri rises, pale, the Bizen reflection of the period; on the most crowded small-pattern blades it reads instead as a straight utsuri, and the ji is carried as much by the standing itame and that kawarigane chikei as by the reflection. Through the yakiba ashi and yo enter well, the temper is nioi-prevailing with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi play finely along it. The boshi runs into the midare and points, returning to a ko-maru or burning out in a yakizume, hakikake brushing the turn. A bo-hi, on several blades carried with a soe-hi or beside the trace of a bonji, runs through the body. The sugata is the broad shape of the late Nanbokucho: a wide body with little taper from machi to point, a large kissaki, the curvature shallow, the build heavy in the hand, most often reached by o-suriage that has left the blade mumei.
The oeuvre divides on the nakago. A small group of ubu pieces keeps the original shape and the long signature with its year-date, the koshizori tachi and the broad, suriage-shortened hira-zukuri wakizashi among them, and these are the documentary anchor for everything else. The far larger part is o-suriage and mumei, attributed to him by the workmanship alone, and it is on these that the kantei argument is made and remade: a blade is read first as Kanemitsu's school, then resolved to Nariie by the smaller, more cluttered pattern, the mixture of many ha-types, and a touch of the rustic in the ji and ha. The year-dates carry their own weight in the scholarship. The records give him dates from Bunna and Koan that run relatively early for a Kozori smith, and the NBTHK marks them, treating the Koan 2 wakizashi as a good document and noting that such comparatively early signatures bear on where, within the loose Kozori grouping, his work should sit.
Within that grouping the published sources rank him high. They hold his skill equal to or above that of Masamitsu, a Kanemitsu pupil of his own generation, 「彼の技術は同年代の兼光一門の政光に比して優るとも劣らず」, and on one blade call him a representative smith of the Kozori group at the height of the Nanbokucho period. The comparison that frames him is therefore never a borrowing but a measure: he is placed beside Kanemitsu to be distinguished from him, his own typical traits leading the reading. His midare crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; his ji takes a changing-steel chikei and a pale utsuri where the Kanemitsu line runs cleaner; his temper gathers many small ha where theirs is more uniform. These are the features the judges name as his, and the resemblance survives in the prose only as the thing they are correcting.
The Fujishiro appraisal places Nariie at Chu-jo saku, and his designated record stands at one Important Cultural Property and twenty Juyo Token, with no National Treasure or Tokubetsu Juyo among them. The Important Cultural Property is patrimony, held outside the market as such designations are; the Juyo blades, almost all o-suriage mumei katana, are what a private collector might realistically hope to meet, and they come to hand only from time to time. Provenance is thinly recorded for his work: one katana is documented as having been carried by Imai Sadahiro, the castle elder of the Nishio domain in Mikawa, at the battle of Toba-Fushimi in the Boshin War, and descended with its red stone-grain lacquer scabbard mounting. Beyond that the owners of his blades are largely unrecorded, and what survives is best described as held in long-private hands. For a Kozori master read always against Kanemitsu, a signed and dated example is the rarer find, the o-suriage mumei katana the more usual one, and either is encountered with patience rather than at will.
Motomasa (基正) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Jūbi, Jūyō. Osafune Motomasa is recorded in sword reference compendia as a swordsmith of the Bizen Osafune school, active during the late Nanbokucho period. The first generation is dated to the Joji era (1362-1368), with a second generation placed around the Shitoku era (1384-1387). His predecessor is said to have been the younger brother of Ko-Motoshige, and from his name it is readily understood that he was a smith close to Motomitsu within the Kanemitsu line. Whether the earliest Motomasa was truly the younger brother of Ko-Motoshige requires further research; however, his lineage places him firmly among the Bizen smiths of the late Kamakura through Nanbokucho periods.
Motomasa's forging characteristically shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* and *nagare-hada*, with an overall tendency toward *hada-dachi*. Fine *ji-nie* covers the surface, dark steel appears in a *chikei*-like manner, and faint *midare-utsuri* emerges. His *hamon* is typically based in *ko-notare* mixed with a wide range of forms — *gunome*, *ko-gunome*, open-waisted *gunome*, angular and pointed elements — producing an overall small-pattern *midare* with *nie*, together with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*. The small scale of chisel-work in his signatures further emphasizes the defining traits of the kosori style. The open-waisted manner seen in his tempering is noted as suggesting a portent of the transition toward Oei-Bizen. One rare *tanto* in narrow *suguha* demonstrates his range beyond the characteristic midare idiom.
Signed examples by Motomasa are rare, and his works are valued as documentary material for understanding the scope of his craftsmanship. Across the extant body of work, both *ji* and *ha* are praised as *kenzen* — sound and well-preserved — with ample *niku* and especially bright *nioiguchi* in the hardened edge. His blades possess high documentary value not only for their quality of workmanship but also for the date inscriptions they preserve from the Oan era, providing critical reference material for the study of late Nanbokucho Bizen production.
Yoshitsugu (義次) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Jūbi, Jūyō. Yoshitsugu is a Bizen smith of the Nanbokucho period whose line of transmission is not clearly established. Sword compendia record smiths signing this name at Osafune in Bizen Province as well as in Bitchu Province, where the name is associated with the Aoe tradition. A dated tachi bearing the Oan 5 (1372) inscription identifies a Yoshitsugu residing at Osafune, while a Bitchu Yoshitsugu recorded around the Oei era produced a blade dated Koryaku 2 (1380) in the typical style of late Aoe work. A further blade bearing the long signature "Bizen no Kuni ju Yoshitsugu" — notably lacking the toponym "Osafune" — has prompted the suggestion that this particular smith may not have belonged to the Osafune line and may instead be related to the Unrui group, though the form of the character for *kuni* in the inscription diverges from Unrui convention.
The workmanship across the surviving examples reflects the characteristic tendencies of Nanbokucho-period Bizen and Bitchu production. Forging ranges from tightly worked *ko-itame-hada* with faint *utsuri* to *itame-hada* in which the grain stands with *chikei* and *ji-nie* present. The *hamon* encompasses both *notare* mixed with *ko-choji* and *togariba* — where the *nioiguchi* is deep and *ko-nie* adheres — and quieter *chu-suguha* compositions with *notare-gokoro*, *kuichigai-ba*, *ko-ashi*, *saka-ashi*, and *sunagashi*. In the broader-bodied examples the *sugata* is imposing and boldly martial, with wide *mihaba* and an elongated *kissaki*, while other pieces retain a more restrained classical tachi form with high curvature.
Extant signed works by Yoshitsugu are extremely few, and the NBTHK has affirmed that judging from surviving pieces he was quite a capable craftsman whose work clearly reflects the characteristic style of its period. Each signed example possesses high documentary value as source material for the study of both the Osafune and Aoe traditions during the late Nanbokucho era. The celebrated "Nanzan-to," bearing a silver inlay inscription commemorating the slaying of a tiger in Korea, further attests to the historical regard in which blades by this maker have been held.
Iemitsu (家光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Tokujū. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Tokujū, Jūyō. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Other smiths
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Hidemitsu (秀光) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Osafune Hidemitsu is recorded in the *meikan* as a lineage of Bizen smiths bearing the same name across four generations, beginning with a first generation placed in the Kenmu era and continuing through the Ōan, Shitoku, and Ōei eras into the early Muromachi period. However, as the NBTHK consistently observes, strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter that must await further research. Hidemitsu belongs to the Koreha branch of the Osafune school and is regarded as a representative smith of the group known as *ko-sori-mono* — makers of "small-curvature" blades active in the late Nanbokuchō period who stand apart from the Kanemitsu lineage and from Chōgi, Motoshige, and the Ōmiya group. Among the Koreha school smiths, Hidemitsu is recognized as one of the most accomplished. At least one generation held the official title Saemon no Jō, as attested by signed works bearing the full inscription Bishū Osafune Saemon no Jō Hidemitsu. Extant dated works span roughly from Ōan through Shitoku and into Meitoku, providing valuable reference material for the chronology of late Nanbokuchō Bizen production.
Hidemitsu's *jitetsu* characteristically presents *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, forged tightly, with fine *ji-nie* adhering and *chikei* entering well. Various forms of *utsuri* appear — *suguha-utsuri*, *bō-utsuri*, and *midare-utsuri* — standing out distinctly in the ground. The *hamon* takes *ko-gunome* as a principal element, frequently mixed with angular forms, *togariba*, *koshi-biraki gunome*, and *ko-chōji*, sometimes showing a reverse inclination described as *saka-gakari* — a manner closely resembling that of the neighboring Aoe school. The temperline overall tends toward *kozumi*, a slightly subdued quality that the NBTHK identifies as a conspicuous characteristic shared across the *ko-sori-mono* category. The temper is predominantly *nioi*-based with *ko-nie* attaching, and fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* appear within. Hidemitsu also produced works in purely straight temper — *naka-suguha* with slight *ko-ashi* — which are regarded as documentary-valuable materials for understanding the working range of this school and this smith. Additionally, certain works show the Yoshii-mono tendency of aligning small *ko-gunome* in a uniform manner, further demonstrating the breadth of Hidemitsu's repertoire. The *bōshi* varies between *sugu* with *ko-maru* turnback, *midare-komi* ending in a pointed tip, and forms showing *hakikake*, with turnbacks generally kept short.
Across the designated corpus, the NBTHK consistently highlights the brightness and clarity of the *nioiguchi* in both *ji* and *ha* as the foremost attraction of Hidemitsu's work, describing it as healthy, bright, and vividly clear. Works in sound condition are praised as *kenzen* — well-preserved blades in which the forging is well-refined and delicate. The dated inscriptions that survive on numerous pieces are repeatedly characterized as excellent reference material and valuable source material for understanding late Nanbokuchō Bizen production. The open-based *gunome* found in certain works is noted as already suggesting an anticipation of the stylistic approach of Ōei-period Bizen, positioning Hidemitsu at a transitional moment within the tradition. While the NBTHK acknowledges that the workmanship of the *ko-sori-mono* group is generally considered not to reach the level of the Kanemitsu faction and similar lines, Hidemitsu's finest examples are singled out as outstanding among this smith's works — blades whose earnest, straightforward craftsmanship and luminous *nioiguchi* secure his standing as the leading figure of the *ko-sori-mono* tradition.
Hidesuke (秀助) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihisa (守久) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Moromitsu (師光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Moromitsu is a Bizen Osafune smith of the late Nanbokucho period, and the published sources hand him down in the Meikan as the son of Rinko and the father of the Oei-Bizen master Morimitsu. Signed and dated tachi survive from the Eiwa, Oan and Shitoku eras through Eitoku and Meitoku, and the references read the present blades as the first generation of the name, a hand earlier than the Oei-dated Moromitsu who carried it on. He belongs to the group of late-Nanbokucho Osafune smiths the published record collectively calls Kozori, the small-curvature makers who worked at the periphery of the great workshop, and the NBTHK names him plainly as one of its leading hands, 「南北朝後期の、所謂小反り物と呼ばれる刀工達の、代表的な一人である」. The line is recorded as continuing for several generations into the Muromachi period, but it is this first Moromitsu whose dated tachi anchor the group, the Eitoku piece of 1381 and the Shitoku and Eiwa blades among the few firmly dated witnesses to Osafune work just before the Oei flowering.
His characteristic hand is a small-patterned midare built on a shallow ko-notare. Into that quiet base he sets ko-gunome, gunome running two by two in sequence, slight togariba and a little choji, the whole kept small and held down so that the temper, as the published sources put it on his most archaic tachi, lies low across the blade. Ko-ashi and yo enter, the temper is carried in nioi with ko-nie adhering, and fine sunagashi run through the pattern, on his best work joined by kinsuji. The reading the NBTHK return again and again is one of restraint: his is the subdued register of Bizen, 「刃文は盛光、康光に比して地味であり、いわゆる小反りの作域のものである」, a manner more reticent than that of his son Morimitsu and of Yasumitsu, who would temper the same Bizen idea in the bolder, more decorative pattern of Oei-Bizen. The scale itself is the tell. Where the mainstream Osafune of the Nanbokucho height reaches for height and flourish, Moromitsu compacts everything, the midare running in small forms that demand to be read closely, and the published sources judge the result, on a dated tachi shortened only a little, 「いかにも師光の持味を発揮した出来の宜しい一口といえよう」.
The jigane is an itame, often standing and flowing toward the edge, mixed with mokume and on the finest blades forged tight with the grain standing finely. Over it lie ji-nie, frequent chikei and patches of ji-madara, and out of that Bizen steel rises the utsuri, sometimes faint, on his best late tachi a conspicuous midare-utsuri, and on one small Eitoku tachi a straight sugu-utsuri standing clear. The published record reads this jigane as the proof of the Bizen-den beneath the quiet temper, and on the Meitoku tachi of 1391 it goes further, praising a jigane bright and clear with a blue-black cast, 「青黒い色調に冴えた地鉄が強く、総じて優れた出来の一口である」. The bearing of these blades is archaic. They keep koshizori with pronounced funbari, the kasane often thick for the width, and on the oldest the chu-kissaki compacts toward an ikubi profile, all of which the NBTHK reads as marks of the late Nanbokucho date. The boshi answers the small midare with a midare-komi that tends to a pointed tip or settles into a ko-maru, the very point often brushed with hakikake; many of the tachi carry a bo-hi, and several add devotional carving, a bonji, a sankoken, a kurikara cut in grass style at the foot of the groove.
The corpus admits a reading in three registers without straining the evidence. The staple is the subdued small-pattern midare just described, the work the published sources call the typical Kozori manner. A second, narrower register is his most varied, set down on the Shitoku-dated tachi: there the temper opens into ko-choji mixed with ko-gunome, ko-notare and pointed elements, a saka-ashi tendency appearing here and there, ko-ashi entering well and the nioiguchi full and rounded, a piece the NBTHK reads as more varied in range while keeping a high degree of completeness. A third register widens past the Kozori norm altogether. On one signed tachi the gunome takes choji into itself with the valleys opening toward the koshi, and the deki turns flamboyant. The NBTHK frames it as the exception that proves the rule, observing first that 「小反り物の作風は総体に小づんだ乱れ刃をあらわすものが一般的である」 and then that this blade instead 「焼きに高低のある華やかな出来口を示しており」, a temper of marked height variation that 「宛ら応永備前を想わせる作風を見せている」. It is on that threshold that the smith is most clearly located, the choji-mixed gunome and the opening midare already foreshadowing the work his son would bring to its flowering.
What sets Moromitsu apart is read best from his own blades rather than by contrast. His bright midare-utsuri over standing itame, his small-pattern ko-notare carrying ko-gunome and slight choji, and his midare-komi boshi place him squarely in the Bizen-den, while the smallness and restraint of the whole separate him from the Osafune mainstream of the Nanbokucho height and from his own bolder successors. The published sources weave his lineage into nearly every entry, the Meikan giving him as 「銘鑑に倫光子、盛光の父とあり」, son of Rinko and father of Morimitsu, and they place him at the hinge of the school's history, the last quiet phase of Nanbokucho Osafune and the first intimation of Oei-Bizen carried in a single hand. The faint dating spread of his signed works, Eiwa through Meitoku in the present blades and on to Oei in the references, gives the group its chronological spine, so that his blades serve the study of the period as much as the eye.
Moromitsu survives almost entirely as signed and dated tachi, and seven of his blades carry the Juyo designation; he holds no National Treasure or Important Cultural Property, so his record runs through the Juyo tier rather than the patrimony preserved in museums and shrines. Fujishiro rates him Jo-saku. The value of the surviving work lies as much in its documentary weight as in its beauty: ubu, signed, dated blades are read in entry after entry as fine reference material for the Kozori group and for the Bizen smiths standing at the threshold of Oei, the rare Eitoku and Shitoku dates singled out as precious, the NBTHK calling the Shitoku tachi 「とりわけ至徳年紀が貴重な同工の優品である」. Provenance is thin and worth stating plainly: of the recorded whereabouts, one of his finest tachi, sound in sugata, ji and ha, is an old treasured piece of the Shonai Sakai family, 「庄内酒井家の旧蔵品である」. For a private collector the Kozori Moromitsu is not beyond reach in the way a National Treasure is, his designated work sitting in the Juyo tier rather than locked in public hands, yet a signed and dated tachi by the first-generation hand comes to market only rarely, a quiet landmark of late-Nanbokucho Osafune when it does.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Osafune Hōkō (法光), customarily referred to as "Hō-Norimitsu" to distinguish him from Norimitsu (則光), was one of the swordsmiths of the Sue-Bizen group active in Bizen Province during the middle to late Muromachi period. Sword reference works list multiple smiths using this name, sometimes with appended common names such as Shinzaemon no Jō and Shirōzaemon no Jō. Among them, the Shinzaemon no Jō who produced dated works in the Eishō era is generally regarded as having been especially skillful, while the Shirōzaemon no Jō was active around the Meiō era. Although extant examples of their work are comparatively few among Sue-Bizen blades, both demonstrate a level of skill comparable to that of Jirōzaemon no Jō Katsumitsu and Yosōzaemon no Jō Sukesada.
In terms of style, Hōkō excelled in *midareba* in which *chōji* are mixed into *gunome*; examples in *suguha* are exceptionally rare. The characteristic forging shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, tending toward slightly standing grain, with thickly adhering *ji-nie* and the presence of *chikei*, and a faint overall *utsuri* or *midare-utsuri* standing out. The *hamon* centers on broadly opened gunome (*koshi no hiraita gunome*) mixed with chōji, *ko-gunome*, and *togariba*; *ashi* and *yō* enter vigorously; the temper is *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie* adhering well, fine *tobiyaki* appearing, and a *nioiguchi* that tends toward tightness (*shimarigokoro*). The bōshi is typically *midare-komi* with *ko-maru*.
The NBTHK has noted that Hōkō's works display lively, conspicuous gunome-midare that is fully developed, with variation and vigorous feeling. A katana of the Eishō era is cited as outstanding among the smith's works and a typical, representative example of Sue-Bizen craftsmanship — the midareba centered on chōji being so splendid that at first glance it may be appraised as resembling Ōei-Bizen work, though the strong presence of ji-nie and the *ko-nie-deki* formation distinguish it. Both *ji* and *ha* are consistently found in *kenzen* (sound and well-preserved) condition.
Moriyuki (守行) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1444-1449. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1558-1570. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nariie (成家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Ieshige (家重) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iesuke (家助) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsukage (光景) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsumune (光宗) — Mainline · 1288-1312. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihiro (守弘) — Mainline · 1387-1389. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimasa (守政) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · Middle Muromachi. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morisuke (守助) — Mainline · 1356-1384. Morisuke signs his blades Bishu Osafune Morisuke in six characters, often adding a date, and one of his tachi carries on its reverse a Joji 2 (1363) inscription that fixes him squarely in the late Nanbokucho period. He was an Osafune smith, but his line within that great Bizen workshop cannot be clearly drawn. The published sources count him among the Kozori, the slightly-curved-sword smiths, and place him probably in the lineage of Moriie and the Hatakeda group, with the further note that his work can also be appraised alongside the Yoshii-mono of the same province. The reference books list a Morisuke succession of several generations, the first in Ryakuo, the second in Enbun, the third in Eitoku, then a fourth in Oei and a fifth in Bun'an, and the surviving signed pieces are judged to fall in the late Nanbokucho around Eitoku. Signed work by his hand is exceedingly rare, so each of the blades on record is valued less for fame than as material for knowing a smith of whom little else survives.
The hand that recurs across his blades is a small-patterned temper, and it is this that the published sources name as the clearly expressed mark of Kozori workmanship. Over a ko-notare base he mixes gunome, ko-gunome, ko-choji, pointed teeth and angular squared-off elements, the whole never resolving into the large round gunome of the Kanemitsu-derived mainline but staying compact and busy, a ko-moyo. Into it run ashi and yo; nie gathers well along the edge; in places the habuchi loosens into hotsure, and kinsuji and sunagashi play conspicuously through the tempered area. On his finest tachi, the Eitoku-era piece in particular, the published record calls the result a blade rich in hataraki and 「覇気に充ちており」, filled with vigor, while remaining sound in both ji and ha. The boshi is not fixed to one shape: on the hira-zukuri and naginata work it enters in midare and points at the turn, while on the tachi it runs straight to a small round return, so that the temper of the tip tracks the form of the blade rather than carrying a single signature.
The jigane is read through the standing of the grain. He forges an itame that tends to stand open, mokume and nagare-hada mixing into it, with fine ji-nie attaching, passages of jifu-like texture, and dark chikei-toned steel entering on the best pieces. Over this rises the reflection that places him a Bizen, not a Soshu, hand of the period: a midare-utsuri on the broad tachi, broad and straight low on the blade and breaking into irregularity higher up, and on the wide hira-zukuri sun-nobi tanto a bo-utsuri standing along the edge side. The reflection is named on most of his recorded blades, and on the long tachi it rises clearly enough to be one of the surer tells of his work. It is the jigane and its utsuri, more than any one shape in the yakiba, that anchor the appraisal of so sparsely documented a smith.
His range divides into two registers without changing its essential manner. The first is the Nanbokucho tachi, of which the most arresting is a long o-dachi of wide mihaba, high koshizori and evident funbari running to a chu-kissaki, a piece the published sources call 「南北朝時代の大太刀の典例」, an exemplary model of the great tachi of the age, and prize the more because it survives ubu, signed and dated; on it the temper opens into a gunome-midare with kataochi-style gunome. The second register is the wide hira-zukuri sun-nobi tanto and ko-wakizashi, where the gunome compacts into close-set ko-gunome with togariba and a saka tendency, the nioiguchi tightening or sinking, the boshi entering in midare and pointing. Of one such wakizashi the published record says he was 「互の目を得意としている」, especially proficient in gunome, and on these smaller pieces a bo-hi is carved on both faces close to the mune. The dating of his work carries a historical interest beyond the smithing: his blades bear both the Southern Court Enbun years and the Northern Court Joji and Teiji years, and because many are dated Joji the judges reason that he was at that time a smith aligned with the Northern Court. The published sources draw from this the larger picture that 「当時の備前が、南北両朝の間に右往左往していた」, that Bizen of the day was pulled back and forth between the two courts.
What the Kozori name means has been explained in many ways since old times and resists a clean definition, but the published sources treat it as 「兼光と師弟関係の無い刀工の一括した呼称」, a collective designation for the late-Nanbokucho Osafune smiths who, while not in a master-disciple line with Kanemitsu, worked in a manner descended from his. Morisuke belongs squarely to that body, and the NBTHK observes of his shortened signed tachi that 「この作は此の工のみならず小反りの典型的作風を示している」, that it shows not only this smith's own characteristics but the typical style of the Kozori group as a whole. A Morisuke blade thus reads as a standard of its kind: his bright Bizen utsuri over a standing itame and his small-patterned, busy gunome set him within the Kozori manner rather than the round-gunome line of Kanemitsu proper, and distinguish him in turn from the Soshu-leaning hands of the same decades. His lineage to Moriie and Hatakeda is offered by the published sources only as a probability, and they are candid that his place within Osafune is not securely established.
Morisuke is not a smith of National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties; his record stands at seven blades that have reached the Juyo Token rank, with no Tokubetsu Juyo and no higher designation, and no provenance to a daimyo house is preserved among them. His standing rests instead on the scarcity of his signed work and on the quality of the few pieces that carry it: the dated o-dachi held an exemplary Nanbokucho tachi, the Eitoku tachi a blade of conspicuous vigor, and the small dated wakizashi and tanto valued as documentary evidence of a hand whose signed output is, in the words of the published record, exceedingly few. These are designated cultural property held in private and institutional hands rather than objects of the market, and an authenticated, signed Morisuke comes before a collector only rarely, the more so for being both signed and dated. For the student of Bizen its interest is precise: not a famous name but a clear, datable window onto the Kozori workshops of the late Nanbokucho, and onto a province caught between the Northern and Southern courts.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1489-1492. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1501-1504. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1528-1555. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadamitsu (貞光) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadayasu (貞安) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigehiro (重弘) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigeie (重家) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigeyoshi (重吉) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Osafune Shigeyoshi (重吉), third generation, worked in Bizen Province during the Meitoku era (1390-1394) and belongs to the group of late Nanbokucho-period Osafune smiths commonly referred to as *ko-sorimono* ("small-curvature works"). According to sword catalogs, the first generation was the son of Kagesuke and worked during the Kagen era, the second generation during Genko, and the third generation during the Joji and Meitoku periods. The *ko-sorimono* smiths constitute a distinct group within Osafune that does not belong to the lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige, Morikage, and the like. Besides dated examples from Meitoku, blades dated Oei 1 are also known, placing Shigeyoshi at the transitional phase from the *ko-sorimono* group toward what is termed Oei-Bizen.
The *kitae* characteristically displays *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume* and flowing grain, with the texture standing slightly and fine *ji-nie* attaching. A vivid *midare-utsuri* frequently appears. The *hamon* is predominantly *ko-notare*-based, into which *gunome*, *choji*, and pointed (*togari-gokoro*) elements are interwoven; in certain works the *midare* becomes a fine, small-patterned complexity thoroughly characteristic of the *ko-sorimono* manner. The temper is *nioi-gachi* with *ko-nie*, and slight *tobiyaki* may appear, yielding a bright *nioiguchi*. Among the *ko-sorimono* smiths, conspicuous individuality is generally not seen; the forging tends to display a mixture of various *hada* textures, and the *hamon* is at times somewhat uneven, tending to become slightly subdued (*kozumu*).
Shigeyoshi is a smith whose surviving works are extremely rare, making each confirmed piece of considerable documentary importance. Works that are both signed and dated are especially valuable as reference material for understanding the *ko-sorimono* school. The signature is characteristically small in scale, and in at least one instance is presented as a decorative, embellished *tachi-mei* -- a rare treatment for the period that warrants particular attention. Despite the general uniformity ascribed to the *ko-sorimono* group, Shigeyoshi's finest works display notably accomplished workmanship, and the inclusion of a blade in the Imperial Collection further attests to the esteem in which his production is held.
Sueyuki (末行) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sukeyoshi (助吉) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Toshimitsu (利光) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsugumitsu (次光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsuneie (常家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yorimitsu (頼光) — Mainline · 1487-1489. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshihiro (吉弘) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshikiyo (義清) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukimitsu (幸光) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukisada (行貞) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Akinori (顯則) — Mainline · 1384-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Arimitsu (有光) — Mainline · 1460-1466. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Fusanori (房則) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Hidesada (秀貞) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iehide (家秀) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Iekane (家包) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kagemitsu (景光) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanekane (兼銅) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼光) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanemitsu (兼滿) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kanenawa (兼繩) — Mainline · 1467-1469. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kiyomitsu (清光) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Kunitsuna (國綱) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsuhisa (光久) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Mitsusue (光末) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morihide (盛秀) — Mainline · 1379-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · 1350-1352. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Morimitsu (守光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Moritsugu (守次) — Mainline · 1384-1387. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagahiro (永弘) — Mainline · 1521-1528. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagahisa (長久) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagamori (永守) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nagasue (永末) — Mainline · 1384-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimitsu (成光) — Mainline · 1352-1356. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimitsu (成光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narimune (成宗) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narishige (成重) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Narishige (成重) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nariyasu (成泰) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuchika (延近) — Mainline · 1467-1469. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobufusa (延房) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuhiro (信弘) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuie (延家) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobuie (延家) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunaga (信長) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunaga (信長) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1492-1501. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Nobunao (信直) — Mainline · 1504-1521. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norihide (則秀) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norihisa (則久) — Mainline · 1350-1352. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimitsu (法光) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norimori (則守) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norinari (則成) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norishige (則重) — Mainline · 1361-1362. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Norisuke (則助) — Mainline · 1375-1381. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Noritsune (則恒) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sadayuki (貞行) — Mainline · 1449-1452. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Shigetsugu (重次) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Suehisa (末久) — Mainline. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Sukesada (祐定) — Mainline · 1390-1394. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tamemune (爲宗) — Mainline · 1324-1326. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Tsunehiro (恒弘) was a smith of the Osafune school in Bizen Province, active during the late Nanbokucho period. Although sword reference works place a first generation around the Gentoku era at the end of the Kamakura period, "almost no extant works by that figure are seen." The Tsunehiro whose works survive in appreciable number is the later smith, counted among the group of makers associated with the so-called *ko-sori-mono* — "small-curvature" or "slight-sori" pieces that constitute a distinctive stylistic current of the late Nanbokucho era. While the *Kokon Kaji Biko* advances the theory that Tsunehiro belonged to Chogi's line, the NBTHK observes that "neither the workmanship nor the manner of signing resembles Chogi," and places him instead among smiths whose *jigane* and *hamon* are "characteristic of the small-sori works of the later Nanbokucho period."
The forging in Tsunehiro's blades shows *itame-hada* mixed with *mokume*, overall tending toward *nagare-gokoro*, with fine *ji-nie*, thick *chikei*, and *jifu* intermixed; *utsuri* stands out, sometimes with a "whitish tendency." The *hamon* is principally a *gunome* with *kataochi*-like elements — mixed with *togariba*, *ko-gunome*, and pointed forms — tightened down with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji*, producing an overall small-patterned effect. The *nioiguchi* tends toward *shimari-gokoro*, occasionally with a slight *shizumi* tendency, while at the *yakigashira* one observes *yubashiri*-like effects. The *boshi* enters in *midare-komi*, tending toward a pointed feeling with vigorous *hakikake*. Signature characters are "notably small and placed close to the ridge."
The NBTHK characterizes Tsunehiro's finest works as masterpieces in which "the *jigane* is well consolidated, the *nioiguchi* is clear and bright, and both *ji* and *ha* are *kenzen*." His blades share traits broadly with other ko-sori-mono smiths such as Moriyuki and Mitsuhiro, yet Tsunehiro's individual manner — the kataochi-like gunome with its small-patterned, tightened character — is recognized as a distinctive stylistic contribution within the late Nanbokucho Osafune tradition.
Tsunehiro (恒弘) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsuneie (經家) — Mainline · 1368-1375. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (恒光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (經光) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Tsunemitsu (經光) — Mainline · 1469-1487. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshikuni (良國) — Mainline · 1362-1368. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1375-1379. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshitsuna (吉綱) — Mainline · 1340-1346. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yoshitsuna (吉綱) — Mainline · 1441-1444. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukihisa (行久) — Mainline · 1394-1428. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.
Yukikage (幸景) — Mainline · 1429-1441. Smith of the Bizen Kozori School.