Sōshū was born in a boomtown: Kamakura, seat of the warrior government, dense with elite patrons. Tradition holds that master smiths were summoned east to serve it, and from their students came Shintōgo Kunimitsu and then Masamune.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIt’s here, it’s here! Gisuke—the name has a pleasant ring to it, and because it carries the meaning of "Gi" (one of the five Confucian virtues, "the righteous path one must follow as a human") and "Suke" (to help/uphold morality), Shimada Gisuke was a master smith greatly cherished by samurai since ancient times. This tanto is a work by the famous second generation Gisuke, as extant works by the first generation from around the Taiei era (1521, 505 years ago) of the Muromachi period do not exist. This was a time when Hojo Soun and Takeda Shingen’s father, Takeda Nobutora, were actively flourishing. It is also said that Gisuke counts Soshu Masamune among his ancestors. During the generation of the second head Hojo Ujitsuna, he moved from Shimada in Suruga (Shizuoka Prefecture) to the Odawara castle town (Kanagawa Prefecture), leading a clan and school that included Yasukuni, Yasuharu, and Tsunaie. This tanto displays a tanto sugata with no sori; the jigane is a well-forged ko-itame hada mixed with a significant amount of masame hada. The horimono is skillfully executed with a koshi-hi and soe-hi on the omote, and a slender koshi-hi on the ura. The hamon is a notare-midare in nioi with ko-nie, featuring nijuba and an elegant muneyaki. The Edo period chiisagatana tanto koshirae adds further splendor to this Gisuke tanto. Since ancient times, Gisuke’s tanto have been highly skillful, and many are favored by true connoisseurs (kurouto); this particular tanto is a masterpiece made in the style of Rai Kunitoshi from the Kamakura period of Kyo-Yamashiro. We have received this on consignment from a young lady who requested it be passed on at a low price to someone who will treasure it. Even just the kin-kise habaki and kin-kise seppa would cost 200,000 yen to produce today, but we are offering this at a special, ultra-low price. Please enjoy this precious tanto with a Gisuke mei.
NihontoWatchOffered by Nipponto
Soshu-den · Suruga
10 pieces on the market now
The Shimada school (島田) took its name from its base in Suruga Province, where it worked from the mid-Muromachi period along the Tōkaidō between the Mino hearths and the late Sōshū smiths of neighboring Sagami. The published sources place its founding generation in the Kōshō (or Kyōshō) era and trace its principal names without interruption down into the shintō period, with the same names continuing as late as the shinshintō era. Three smiths stand as the school's central hands: Yoshisuke (義助), held to be the principal mainstream name at the head of all Shimada work; Sukemune (助宗), recorded as the younger brother of the founder; and Hirosuke (廣助), placed as the son of the second-generation Yoshisuke. The oldest extant dated example, an Eishō 2 (1505) tantō by Yoshisuke, fixes the early corpus, and because the signature style does not separate the hands, a signed Shimada blade is read for its workmanship rather than assigned a generation. The Shimada smiths produced the working blades of the Muromachi century; one Hirosuke katana, a Kōshū-uchi work dated Eiroku 2 (1559), was held by Hara Mino Nyūdō Toratane of the Twenty-Four Generals of the Takeda, and the cut struck into the mune at the monouchi of a Yoshisuke katana drew a NBTHK remark that it speaks to martial use. Across the members the school reads in a single Soshu-den idiom inflected by Mino and Ise. The jigane the smiths describe is an itame, well knit and at times dense, that flows and leans toward masame, standing somewhat open in hada-dachi, with fine ji-nie lying through it, chikei entering, and a tonality the commentaries repeatedly call whitish; this flowing, slightly standing steel, rather than a tight Bizen surface, is what marks the Shimada hand for the eye. Upon it the smiths set a notare crossed with gunome, with ko-chōji and pointed togariba entering, ko-ashi, abundant nie, and sunagashi and kinsuji running through, the bōshi commonly midare-komi turning back rounded, at times with hakikake; tobiyaki and slight muneyaki appear, and on the larger blades the activity rises toward hitatsura in nie.
Sukemune's particular register is the connected gunome the NBTHK names the school's hallmark, while Hirosuke shows the most robust make, favoring a wide mihaba with sakizori and an extended kissaki. Against this typical midare every hand keeps a quieter exception: a hoso-suguha the commentary calls comparatively uncommon for Yoshisuke, and a suguha mixed with small gunome on a Sukemune tantō read as made with an eye toward the manner of Shizu. The carving tradition is shared throughout, bonji, suken, gomabashi, relief kurikara, and the figures of Marishiten and Fudō Myōō, with openwork sukashi-bori noted by examiners as an uncommon thing to find; the school also produced comparatively many yari, Yoshisuke's ōmi-yari among them. To kantei a Shimada blade is to read the late Sōshū idiom in a provincial Suruga register: the whitish, standing itame beneath a nie-laden notare-gunome with sunagashi, kinsuji, and frequent tobiyaki, set apart from a tight Bizen jigane and tied by the published sources to Sue-Sōshū, late Seki, the Senju group, and the work of Mino and Ise. Form sorts the manner: the broad Sōshū-leaning katana on one side, the school's tantō and wakizashi (often hira-zukuri with mitsu-mune, thick kasane, and a withered fukura kare) on the other. Among the members Yoshisuke is the name the sources reach for in describing the group, his finest katana and tantō praised for a jihada and hamon of clear, bright result; Sukemune's Osaka katana is judged his finest work; and Hirosuke's best pieces, one called hakubi, the best among its kind, with a suggestion he privately emulated Bizen Chōgi, number among the finest of the whole lineage. Dated and fully signed works such as those inscribed Shimada Hirosuke are particularly valued, the tangs anchoring the chronology of the later generations, and a rare collaborative blade between Hirosuke and Gensuke attests to the collegial working of the shop. Provenance reaches to the Imperial collection, Honma's inventory of which records works by Yoshisuke, Sukemune, and Hirosuke; with the Takeda general's blade and the documentary dated pieces, these holdings mark the standing of a respected one-province school whose hand sits close to the late Sōshū tradition. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Yoshisuke義助 | 1492-1504 | 6 |
| Sukemune助宗 | 1444-1449 | 4 |
| Yoshisuke義助 | 1455-1526 | 5 |
| Yoshisuke義助 | 1573-1592 | 3 |
| Hirosuke廣助 | 1504-1521 | 9 |
Sōshū in the Kamakura period
Sōshū was born in a boomtown: Kamakura, seat of the warrior government, dense with elite patrons. Tradition holds that master smiths were summoned east to serve it, and from their students came Shintōgo Kunimitsu and then Masamune.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
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