This antique Japanese tanto is signed by Kiyomitsu of the Bizen Osafune school, dated August 1566, placing it in the late Muromachi period. It comes with an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Certificate, confirming its authenticity and high artistic value. The blade is accompanied by both a shirasaya and koshirae, with the koshirae featuring a menuki with a monkey motif.
Certificate reading — 銘 備前国住長船清光 永禄九年八月日
NihontoWatchmei · Osafune · Muromachi · nagasa 27.5cm · sori 0.1cm
Bizen-den · Bizen
26 pieces on the market now
Within the Bizen Osafune workshops of the closing Muromachi period, the body of smiths and their output that scholars group under the heading Sue-Bizen, the name Kiyomitsu (清光) was carried by a large number of hands. The setsumei consistently note that the swords signed in the Tenbun, Kōji, and Eiroku eras issue from Osafune in Bizen Province, and that the Hayami reference work enumerates roughly ten craftsmen who used common names (zokumyō) such as Gorōzaemon-no-jō, Magōemon-no-jō, Yosazaemon-no-jō, Hikobei-no-jō, and Magobei-no-jō. Of these, the registers single out two as the superior masters (jōkō): Gorōzaemon-no-jō Kiyomitsu and Magōemon-no-jō Kiyomitsu, the latter appearing in a Genki 2 example appraised to the second generation of that name. A Jiemon-no-jō Kiyomitsu, dated Genki 3, is recorded as absent from the standard signature references (meikan), and one tang carries the fuller form Fujiwara Kiyomitsu. The blades place the line in the Sengoku world directly: one was forged while the smith stayed in the castle town of Tatsuno in Harima, and several bear commissioning inscriptions naming the Bizen shugodai Uragami (Urakami) Munekage. What recurs across the corpus is a ko-itame ground, often with mokume mixed in, that the setsumei describe as standing somewhat prominently (hada-dachi); ji-nie adheres thickly, fine chikei enter, and a faint utsuri appears. The hardening divides into two registers. The first, named again and again as the hallmark of the line, is a broad suguha into which ko-gunome, angular elements, and pointed (togari) forms are interwoven, with ashi and yō working vigorously, a nioi-based edge carrying ko-nie, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi; the nioiguchi runs bright and clear. The second is a midareba register: a gunome-midare whose waist opens broadly (koshi-no-hiraita / koshi-biraki), mixed with ko-chōji and crab-claw (kani-no-tsume) elements, taken high (yakidaka) with muneyaki, tobiyaki, and yubashiri, at times reaching full hitatsura.
The setsumei stress that, against fellow Sue-Bizen makers Tadamitsu and Sukesada who also worked suguha, Kiyomitsu is told apart by that standing-grain itame-with-mokume texture; one register flatly compares his gunome-midare to Yosaemon-no-jō Sukesada. The form is the late-Muromachi uchigatana sugata: wide mihaba with little base-to-tip taper, thick kasane, deep sakizori, and an extended chū-kissaki (occasionally ō-kissaki), giving a weighty, dignified taihai. To separate the named master from bulk Sue-Bizen, the registers point to refined, tightly-knit grain free of irregular clustering (seiryō), abundant nikuoki, and a clear bright nioiguchi. For kantei the registers fix the discriminators: the standing itame/mokume texture, the suguha carrying yō with the bright edge, and, in the midare mode, the waist-opened compound (fukushiki) gunome with kani-no-tsume. One register observes that when hitatsura is tempered the kasane turns thinner than the usual thick Sue-Bizen build, and that maru-mune surfaces within the group. The setsumei tie the line to the cutting-oriented strength of Sue-Bizen blades and to the martial spirit of the Sengoku age, a tantō in ryōba-zukuri with ample hiraniku and a gunome-midare being read as overflowing with that vigor. Provenance recorded on the blades carries documentary weight: the Tatsuno residence inscription and the Uragami Munekage commission map Gorōzaemon-no-jō's movements, a Gorōzaemon-no-jō work descended in the Matsudaira family of Shinobu, and a Magōemon-no-jō katana entered the Imperial collection. Within the NBTHK register the line stands as the Sue-Bizen suguha master line whose finest signed and dated works, alongside the more numerous mass production, are judged the equal of the Sukesada and Tadamitsu workshops and valued as material for tracing the individual Kiyomitsu hands. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kiyomitsu清光 | 1532-1572 | 19 |
| Kiyomitsu清光 | 1558-1571 | 11 |
Bizen in the Muromachi period
Muromachi Osafune was an export industry: the Ming tally trade carried some 128,000 Japanese blades abroad, and Sengoku armies bought at home. Custom orders, often inscribed with the patron’s own name, were forged beside the bundle swords of the ranks.
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.
NBTHK official siteReturns/exchanges limited to defects caused by shipping (except willful misconduct or gross negligence by the company); customers must contact within 72 hours of receiving the product.
