NihontoWatchThis blade was signed by Omi no Kami Takagi Ju Sukenao (近江守高木住助直) during the mid-Edo period, in the late 17th to late 18th century. He was an apprentice of Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro (津田越前守助広), one of the most famous swordsmiths during the early Edo period in Osaka. Sukenao, born in the 16th year of the Kan-Ei era (1639) in Omi province (Today’s Shiga prefecture), learned the art of sword-forging from Sukehiro. In 1675, he married Sukehiro’s daughter and was given the Tsuda family name. Returning to Omi province, he continued to forge blades. However, after Sukehiro’s passing in 1682, he moved back to Osaka and took over Sukehiro’s school. It is said that he was active by the end of the 17th century. His exceptional craftsmanship was recognized by the imperial court, and he was honored with the title of Omi no Kami, adding to the prestige of this signed blade. Osaka Shinto The blades forged by Sukenao are categorized as Osaka Shinto. Shinto is Japanese Sword terminology that refers to the swords forged during 1596-1781. The blades made in the Osaka area during this period are called Osaka Shinto. There are many famous swordsmiths in this Osaka Shinto era. After Hideyoshi Toyotomi built Osaka Castle, Osaka City flourished as a castle town and became a business center. Many swordsmiths moved to Osaka to look for better opportunities. They not only forged swords for those Samurai who lived in Osaka but also for feudal lords nationwide. Ikanshi Tadatsuna (Awataguchi Omi no Kami Tadatsuna), Inoue Shinkai (his son), and Tsuda Sukehiro are the most famous among many swordsmiths. One of the most striking features of Osaka Shinto swords is the beauty of their Jigane, a visible steel surface pattern created by folding and hammering during the forging process. This beauty was made possible by the unique geographical advantage of Osaka. The city had direct access to the Tamahagane production sites, which provided the high-quality carbon steel necessary for crafting these exceptional swords. This proximity to the source of their raw materials speaks to the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the swordsmiths of Osaka It is appraised as a Tokubetsu Hozon Token (特別保存刀剣) issued by NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Touken Hozon Kyokai: 日本美術刀剣保存協会). *Please keep in mind that there are a couple of Kitae Kizu on this blade. *Please keep in mind that the Koshirae for this Wakizashi is much longer than the blade and we presume its size is one made for a Katana. Fuchi-Kashira This fuchi-kashira features a horse (馬, Uma) design. For samurai, the horse was not only an essential companion in battle but also held significant cultural meaning in Japan. The horse symbolizes strength, nobility, and loyalty, reflecting qualities that were highly valued by the samurai. In Japanese culture, the horse is also seen as a symbol of grace, freedom, and connection to nature, often appearing in various forms of art and tradition. Tsuka and Menuki Tthe motif of this Menuki is the dragon (龍, Ryu). Initially, the dragon is an imaginary creature found in ancient Chinese traditions or myths. Furthermore, it is regarded as a symbolic beast of auspicious signs. Its body is likened to nine animals: antlers are deer, the head is a camel, eyes are demons, the neck is a snake, belly is Mizuchi (蛟, mythical animal in Japan which looks like a snake and have a horn and four legs), scales are fish, claws are falcons, palms are tigers, and ears are cows. It was thought that the dragon would reign at the top of all animals because of its odd-looking appearance. In ancient China, the dragon pattern was used for emperors’ clothing so that people strictly defined its shape or even the number of nails. On the other hand, the dragon pattern does not have detailed rules to represent classes in Japan. However, still, it maintains its meaning as the all-purpose auspicious pattern. Also, in Japan, there is a belief that worships dragon as a water god and is called Ryujin Shinkou (竜神信仰). Since rice cultivation flourished in this country, water is always an essential resource. Therefore, the dragon motif has been familiar to Japanese people since a long time ago. Tsuba and Habaki Considering its appearance, we believe this tsuba can be categorized as a Nanban tsuba (南蛮鐔). Nanban tsuba are typically circular or mokkō-shaped (木瓜) and often feature dragons, foreign scripts, or arabesque designs (唐草文様, karakusa-monyō) engraved and inlaid with gold or silver on thin iron. The karakusa (唐草) pattern is a traditional Japanese motif symbolizing good fortune (吉祥, kisshō). Introduced from China via the Silk Road, it has been widely used in Japanese crafts, including sword fittings. This continuous vine pattern represents longevity, prosperity, and the unbroken lineage of samurai families. It was also believed to ward off evil and provide protection, making it a favored design among samurai. Authentication Paper They authenticated the blade on February 21st in the 7th year of Reiwa (2025). They appraised it as Tokubetsu Hozon Touken, the blade especially worth preserving for Japanese society.
Offered by Samurai Museum
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Tsuda Sukehiro line, Osaka Shinto (Settsu / Omi) · Settsu · around 1668-1693
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 14%
7 pieces on the market now
Sukenao was born in Kan'ei 16 (1639) at Takagi in Yasu District of Ōmi Province, known by the common name Magotarō or, in other entries, Magodayū, and his dated blades run from Kanbun 8 (1668) to Genroku 6 (1693), the year he turned fifty-five. The published sources record that he first entered the school of the first-generation Soboro Sukehiro and then perfected his craft under the second, Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro, that he became Sukehiro's brother-in-law and so prefixed the Tsuda surname to his signature, and that after the master died in Tenna 2 (1682) he settled permanently in Osaka as his successor. Through the Enpō years many of his blades are signed Takagi-jū, which the published sources read as a return to his native village once his training was complete. Among the Tsuda pupils his hand stands closest to the master, and the commentary on a Tokubetsu Jūyō katana from his last years calls it so well made as to be "difficult to tell apart from his master Sukehiro"[[c:1]], a work of fully matured technique.
The manner for which Sukenao is known is the tōran-midare, the surging large-wave temper that the published sources say Sukehiro originated and Sukenao faithfully inherited. He opens the edge at the base with a straight yakidashi, then raises large gunome mixed with chōji and ko-notare that roll into the wave. Long ashi enter, the nioi is deep, and ko-nie adheres thickly, with sunagashi and fine kinsuji running through and at times a few tobiyaki above the line. The published record describes the usual result in nearly the same words on blade after blade: deep in nioi, well covered in ko-nie, the nioiguchi bright and clear, and among the works some that approach Sukehiro[[c:2]].
The jigane beneath the wave is a tightly packed ko-itame in which fine ji-nie gathers densely and chikei enters, the steel clear. On the finest pieces it tightens almost to nashiji. A Tokubetsu Jūyō of his maturity shows exactly this forging under a tōran-midare mixed with gunome, deep in nioiguchi with thick ko-nie, fine kinsuji and sunagashi, and the commentary concludes that "the distinctive features and merits of Sukenao are fully displayed in both ji and ha"[[c:3]]. The bōshi across his work runs straight to a ko-maru with a small return, at times with hakikake at the tip.
Beside the full tōran the published sources name further registers, so that his work is read in more than one face. One is a gunome-midare and notare, the large gunome standing without rising fully into the wave. Another is a calm suguha or broad suguha, which he handled with skill even as the wave remained his renown. A Jūyō katana of Enpō 3, made while he was still at Takagi, is tempered in a broad suguha, and the commentary, granting it is quiet, adds that "it is a dignified work all the same"[[c:4]]. Of a dated wakizashi the judges write that besides the wave he "handles a suguha like this one with great skill"[[c:5]]. His own carving stays to a simple bō-hi; on a blade of Jōkyō 3 the kurikara and hataboko were cut, as an inscription records, by the carver Nagasaka Yūhōken.
Where his hand parts from the master's, the published sources say so plainly. His katana tend to be broader in body, and one Tokubetsu Jūyō is called his typical work, "broader than Sukehiro, a dignified shape"[[c:6]] with a deep nioiguchi that approaches the master's best. His tōran can carry sunagashi along the edge and somewhat coarser nie than Sukehiro's[[c:7]]. Two blades recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection show both sides of this judgment. A katana of Genroku 3, made at fifty-two, is called a masterpiece of his work that "nearly reaches the level of his master"[[c:8]]. A wakizashi of Enpō 5, signed Takagi-jū and inscribed as forged from refined steel, shows that he excelled in suguha as his master did, yet Honma adds that "the quality of its jigane falls far short of the master"[[c:9]].
Sukenao is graded Jō-jō saku by Fujishiro and ranks among the leading names of Osaka Shintō. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties. His record runs through the modern tiers instead, with four blades at Tokubetsu Jūyō and fifty-nine at Jūyō, sixty-three across the two tiers, every one of them signed and many of them dated. Provenance is recorded for only a few, among them a katana from a Matsudaira line and another once owned by a retainer of the Matsumoto domain in Shinano. Most designated work of his standing is held rather than traded, so a signed and dated Sukenao comes to market only from time to time, and a katana in his full tōran-midare is the more sought when it does: the work of the pupil who came closest to Tsuda Sukehiro.
Where Sukenao stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Shinto · Settsu
26 pieces on the market now
The Sukehiro line worked in Osaka through the middle decades of the Edo period, its center of gravity in the Kanbun and Enpō years when the city's swordsmiths set the fashion for the age. The first generation, traditionally said to have begun as a kazūchi (mass-production) smith of Tsuda in Kokuga-shō, Harima, went to Osaka and studied under the first-generation Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke; from the added inscription sōhorō on his signed blades he is commonly called Soboro Sukehiro. Because Kunisuke came from the Ishidō lineage, the first generation's chōji-midare, with a tendency toward a tight nioiguchi and ko-nie mixing ashi and yō, reads at a glance as Ishidō work, though the brightness of his nioiguchi already surpasses that of other Ishidō smiths. The second generation, Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro, was born in Kan'ei 14 (1637) at Uchide in Settsu, common name Jinnojō; he became his master's adopted son, received the title Echizen no Kami in Meireki 3 (1657), and in Kanbun 7 (1667) entered the service of Aoyama Inaba no Kami Munetoshi, castellan of Osaka Castle. His chief pupil, Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao of Takagi in Ōmi, later married into the family and carried the manner forward. Across the line the jigane is a tightly forged Osaka ko-itame-hada in which fine, dust-like ji-nie adheres thickly and minute chikei enter, the steel reading clear and bright. The second generation's career describes a single arc through the setsumei: early chōji-midare in the Ishidō manner, then gunome-midare, and finally the tōran-midare he originated, the billowing-wave temper for which the name is known. His mature blades open with a straight yakidashi at the base and rise into a large gunome and chōji in the tōran sweep, ashi entering, the nioi deep, ko-nie adhering thickly, kinsuji and sunagashi running, the nioiguchi bright and clear.
His suguha drew equal regard, set beside that of Inoue Shinkai as the twin peak of Osaka shintō: here the nie particles fall finer and more evenly than Shinkai's, the temper carries a shallow five-fold notare and broadens from below the yokote, and the habuchi shows minute activity likened to the fine tearing of hōsho paper. Muneyaki and bead-like tobiyaki appear in places. The progress of the signature, from the angular kaku-Tsuda gyōsho to the rounded maru-Tsuda sōsho adopted from Enpō 2 (1674), itself marks the deepening conviction of his tōran. Sukenao inherited the tōran-midare faithfully and also worked in gunome-midare and notare-suguha, his best pieces approaching the master so closely that they call him to mind at a glance. A collector reads a Sukehiro blade by these points: the cleanly packed Osaka ko-itame without the least looseness, the suguha yakidashi at the base, the deep and luminous nioiguchi, and, above all, the regular cadence of the tōran wave with its evenly seated nie. The line carries documentary as well as aesthetic weight. The great Enpō 6 tachi called Murasame, forged at Aoyama Munetoshi's command and kept by the Aoyama house for rain-prayer rites, bears Buddhist bonji and horimono attributed to the carver Nagasaka Yū, Hōken; a surviving gassaku with Inoue Shinkai, praised in Kamata Gyomyō's Shintō Bengi, stands among the essential documents of Osaka shintō. Ranked in his own day beside Nagasone Kotetsu of Edo and Shinkai of Osaka, the second-generation Sukehiro gave the shintō period one of its enduring signature styles, and the line of his pupils kept the bright Osaka hand and the tōran wave in circulation after his death in Tenna 2 (1682). Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sukehiro助廣 | 1657-1682 | 103 |
| Sukenao助直 | 1668-1693 | 65 |
| Takato高任 | 1673-1681 | 0 |
| Hirosuke廣助 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
| Sukehiro助廣 | 1684-1688 | 0 |
Ōsaka: swords for the merchant capital
Ōsaka was the merchant capital, and its swords followed the money: luxury wakizashi for townsmen permitted no more than one, and the brilliant showpieces of Sukehiro’s tōranba and of Shinkai, called the Ōsaka Masamune. Swords made, frankly, to be looked at.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
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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