Antique Japanese Katana Sword by Shitahara - NBTHK Hozon
SOLD
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Specifications
62.27 cm
0.76 cm
2.82 cm
1.78 cm
About the school
Shitahara School下原派
The Shitahara group (下原) worked at Hachiōji in Bushū, the old province of Musashi, from the end of the Muromachi period and carried its forge on into the Edo period. The setsumei place the lineage among the swordmakers of Musashi in the *kotō* age and name Terushige, Yasushige, Hiroshige, and Chikashige as its leading hands, with the *meikan* recording Terushige across three generations: a shodai in Kyōroku, a nidai in Eiroku, and a sandai in Tenshō. Family signatures tie the work to the Yamamoto house, as on the *naginata* inscribed Bushū-jū Yamamoto Genjirō Terushige, dated Tenshō 19 (1591), and on the Yasushige katana cut "Shimohara-jū Yasushige, made by Yamamoto Yogorō." That same blade was made to order, in this case from Hagiwara Kaminao of Kōshū, marking the group as a working provincial forge serving its region. In the forging the setsumei return repeatedly to an *itame-hada* freely mixed with *mokume* that stands up rather than lying flat, the grain described as *hada-datsu*, often running to *nagare* near the edge and taking on an *ayasugi*-like, whorled or vortex-like cast in the *jigane*. The temper is a moderately undulating *notare* into which *gunome* enter, frequently in regular paired sequences, with pointed *togariba*, a *chōji*-like feeling at times, and *ko-nie* clinging along a *nioiguchi* that can settle into a subdued *shizumi* tone; *sunagashi* and *ashi* appear within the *ha*, and the *bōshi* tends to run *midare-komi* and turn back in *maru*. One katana shows a wet-looking *nureba* surface with angular irregularities and *hakikake*. The setsumei read this hand as a synthesis drawing on late Sōshū and the Muramasa line together with late Mino tendencies, which together account for the standing grain and the paired *gunome*. For kantei the markers are consistent: the risen *mokume* with its *ayasugi* turn, the regularly paired *gunome*, and a build suited to the *uchigatana* of the closing Muromachi years, often with pronounced *sakizori* and an extended *chū-kissaki*. Carving recurs, including *bō-hi*, *bonji*, *gomabashi*, and a deeply cut *kurikara-ryū* whose coiling tail the NBTHK singles out as characteristic. Named and dated pieces anchor the group: the Yamamoto Genjirō Terushige *naginata*, uncommon as a double-edged *ryōba* form, and a Terushige katana appraised between Eiroku and Tenshō that the register calls the *hakubi* of the school. The setsumei note that Shitahara work survives in number into the *shintō* period while outstanding examples remain few, which sets these designated blades apart within the lineage.
