Within the shintō of Chikuzen, the setsumei place the Fukuoka Ishidō group beside the Chikuzen Nobukuni line as one of the two pillars of the province. The school took root at Fukuoka under the patronage of the Kuroda house, whom its smiths served as domain craftsmen. The lineage's character was set by Koretsugu (是次), born in Kan'ei 5 (1628), commonly called Hansanbyōe and also Ippei. In Meireki 1 (1655), by order of Lord Kuroda Mitsuyuki, he went up to Edo and studied Bizen-den under Musashi Daijō Sakon Korekazu (Koreichi, 是一) of the Edo Ishidō; three years later he returned to his province and entered Kuroda service. One blade records his aim plainly: the setsumei note that he worked chōji-ba strongly in the manner of the Ichimonji school, a deliberate revival of the old Bizen idiom in the new era. Moritsugu (守次), son of Ishidō Rihei, apprenticed to his cousin Koretsugu after his father's death; because Koretsugu's heir Toshitsugu predeceased him, Moritsugu is said to have succeeded to the main line. He called himself Gonsabē, later Hansabē, and died in Genroku 14 (1701) at sixty-nine. The hand is recognized first in the jihada: a dense ko-itame or itame that flows overall and, in the lower half, runs strongly to masame, carrying fine ji-nie and delicate chikei. Across nearly every blade an utsuri stands out, sometimes a midare-utsuri, sometimes a straight, suguha-like reflection running along the shinogi-suji. The temper is the school's signature: a broad-width chōji-midare mixed with gunome, ko-gunome, angular and pointed (togari) forms, often opening from a suguha or straight yakidashi into a flamboyant, varied midare. It is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, frequently with ashi and yō, sunagashi, kinsuji, tobiyaki, and muneyaki.

The setsumei name two diagnostic traits inherited from Korekazu: a masame tendency in the forging, and chōji-midare that inclines in reverse, the saka-gakari slant. A further idiom recurs throughout the corpus: where the yakigashira climbs so broadly that the crest reaches the shinogi, distinctive forms appear that the records call ika no atama (squid heads), with related pouch-shaped fukuro-chōji and jūka forms also cited. Koretsugu and Moritsugu are named in the setsumei as the masters who represent the group; the cooperative signature "Moritsugu · Morimasa," naming Moritsugu and his son Morimasa, is recorded on a gassaku katana, and Morimasa appears there as a working hand of the line. For kantei, the setsumei set out the school's separable points. The masame-tinged ji with standing utsuri distinguishes these blades from true old Bizen, since genuine kosaku do not show this fine masame; the tightened nioiguchi with ko-nie and sunagashi likewise marks them as shintō rather than koto. The saka-gakari slant, the squid-head crests reaching the shinogi, the deep bōshi, and a signature cut in a distinctive long, thick-chiseled hand blending kaisho, gyōsho, and reisho are read together as the lineage's fingerprint. Sugata is also diagnostic within the group: Koretsugu favored the shallow sori of the Kanbun-shintō form, while Moritsugu's blades are noted as comparatively deeper in curvature. The corpus carries several documentary anchors. Koretsugu's dated works run from Kanbun 6 (1666), including a large hōnōtō votive katana, through Kanbun 9 and Kanbun 11, the last bearing a gold-inlaid futatsu-dō cutting-test inscription naming Shibasaki Denzaemon Masatsugu; one katana commissioned by Buhei-no-jō Fuji Okisuke is tied to the Kōzai line that served the Hosokawa. Moritsugu's Tenna 4 (1684) blades bear the Nanban-tetsu supplemental inscription recording imported iron, and he is recorded executing horimono on works of the same province's Nobukuni Yoshimasa. In the NBTHK register the two cousins stand as the representative makers of the Fukuoka Ishidō, the Chikuzen branch that carried the Ko-Ichimonji chōji into the shinto age. Learn more →

Within the shintō of Chikuzen, the setsumei place the Fukuoka Ishidō group beside the Chikuzen Nobukuni line as one of the two pillars of the province. The school took root at Fukuoka under the patronage of the Kuroda house, whom its smiths served as domain craftsmen. The lineage's character was set by Koretsugu (是次), born in Kan'ei 5 (1628), commonly called Hansanbyōe and also Ippei. In Meireki 1 (1655), by order of Lord Kuroda Mitsuyuki, he went up to Edo and studied Bizen-den under Musashi Daijō Sakon Korekazu (Koreichi, 是一) of the Edo Ishidō; three years later he returned to his province and entered Kuroda service. One blade records his aim plainly: the setsumei note that he worked chōji-ba strongly in the manner of the Ichimonji school, a deliberate revival of the old Bizen idiom in the new era. Moritsugu (守次), son of Ishidō Rihei, apprenticed to his cousin Koretsugu after his father's death; because Koretsugu's heir Toshitsugu predeceased him, Moritsugu is said to have succeeded to the main line. He called himself Gonsabē, later Hansabē, and died in Genroku 14 (1701) at sixty-nine. The hand is recognized first in the jihada: a dense ko-itame or itame that flows overall and, in the lower half, runs strongly to masame, carrying fine ji-nie and delicate chikei. Across nearly every blade an utsuri stands out, sometimes a midare-utsuri, sometimes a straight, suguha-like reflection running along the shinogi-suji. The temper is the school's signature: a broad-width chōji-midare mixed with gunome, ko-gunome, angular and pointed (togari) forms, often opening from a suguha or straight yakidashi into a flamboyant, varied midare. It is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, frequently with ashi and yō, sunagashi, kinsuji, tobiyaki, and muneyaki.

The setsumei name two diagnostic traits inherited from Korekazu: a masame tendency in the forging, and chōji-midare that inclines in reverse, the saka-gakari slant. A further idiom recurs throughout the corpus: where the yakigashira climbs so broadly that the crest reaches the shinogi, distinctive forms appear that the records call ika no atama (squid heads), with related pouch-shaped fukuro-chōji and jūka forms also cited. Koretsugu and Moritsugu are named in the setsumei as the masters who represent the group; the cooperative signature "Moritsugu · Morimasa," naming Moritsugu and his son Morimasa, is recorded on a gassaku katana, and Morimasa appears there as a working hand of the line. For kantei, the setsumei set out the school's separable points. The masame-tinged ji with standing utsuri distinguishes these blades from true old Bizen, since genuine kosaku do not show this fine masame; the tightened nioiguchi with ko-nie and sunagashi likewise marks them as shintō rather than koto. The saka-gakari slant, the squid-head crests reaching the shinogi, the deep bōshi, and a signature cut in a distinctive long, thick-chiseled hand blending kaisho, gyōsho, and reisho are read together as the lineage's fingerprint. Sugata is also diagnostic within the group: Koretsugu favored the shallow sori of the Kanbun-shintō form, while Moritsugu's blades are noted as comparatively deeper in curvature. The corpus carries several documentary anchors. Koretsugu's dated works run from Kanbun 6 (1666), including a large hōnōtō votive katana, through Kanbun 9 and Kanbun 11, the last bearing a gold-inlaid futatsu-dō cutting-test inscription naming Shibasaki Denzaemon Masatsugu; one katana commissioned by Buhei-no-jō Fuji Okisuke is tied to the Kōzai line that served the Hosokawa. Moritsugu's Tenna 4 (1684) blades bear the Nanban-tetsu supplemental inscription recording imported iron, and he is recorded executing horimono on works of the same province's Nobukuni Yoshimasa. In the NBTHK register the two cousins stand as the representative makers of the Fukuoka Ishidō, the Chikuzen branch that carried the Ko-Ichimonji chōji into the shinto age. Learn more →