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About the maker

Shinto Kanesada包貞

A katana dated Kanbun 4, the eighth month, stands among the ten Echigo no Kami Kanesada blades the published record gathers under one signature, and it is the kind of dated piece that lets the two hands behind that name be told apart. Echigo no Kami Kanesada is an Osaka art name carried across two generations. The first was Yamada Heidayu, born in Yamato, a smith of the Monju group whom the published sources trace to Iga no Kami Kanemichi in the line of the first Mutsu no Kami Kaneyasu, the smith called Sa Mutsu; he signed Sesshu Fujiwara Kanesada at first and, on receiving the court title, Echigo no Kami Kanesada, working from the Keian years to the start of Kanbun. The second was his pupil and adopted son Sakakura Gonnoshin Terukane, who succeeded to the name, then ceded it when the founder's biological son Iwamatsu came of age, and signed Terukane from about Enpo 8. Within Osaka Shinto the line stands beside Tsuda Sukehiro, whose surging-wave temper the second generation made his own; the published sources rank him among the foremost masters of the school. The most recognizable feature of the line is the second generation's toran-midare, the rolling-wave temper modeled on Tsuda Sukehiro. Over a base of large gunome the hamon surges in waves, the long ashi reaching down into it, the nioi deep and the ko-nie adhering well, with sunagashi running through the tempered area and a somewhat long yakidashi opening the edge at the base. Half the blades on record carry this manner and every securely second-generation piece does, a katana of the twentieth session showing the o-gunome roll in full. The published sources read it directly against its model: one katana, they say, with its toran tempering reaches the level of Tsuda Sukehiro, 「津田助広に迫る」, and they hold that the second generation came even closer to Sukehiro than the first. Where the wave alone might pass for the model, the published sources locate his own individuality in particulars, a tendency for the large gunome to take a yahazu, an arrow-nock, flavor, conspicuous sunagashi within the temper, and a robust, sturdy construction; a wakizashi of the twenty-seventh session, they note, shows these tells well, 「彼の見どころをよく示した」. The jigane under both hands is a tightly forged ko-itame with ji-nie, the steel bright and clear, at times a fine chikei entering and the surface taking on the lustre Osaka work is known for. The nioiguchi over it is the constant of the school, deep in nioi and bright, clear and crisp at the habuchi, the quality the published sources name as saeru. The boshi runs straight and turns back in ko-maru, often tending to hakikake at the point, on occasion turning long. The first generation's hand is the more varied of the two: he places a short straight yakidashi at the base and forges above it suguha, choji, and a gunome-midare mixed with choji, the nioi deep and sunagashi present, the nie well developed. A hira-zukuri wakizashi of the fifty-second session shows this manner at full strength, a broad, slightly elongated, sun-nobi build with round-headed gunome, conspicuous sunagashi and kinsuji, a single tama-yaki burned above the monouchi on each side, and a standing Fudo carved with bonji, the published sources calling the tama-yaki a foretaste of the second generation's tempering, 「後の二代包貞の刃文のさきがけ」. The two generations are told apart by the published sources along three lines. The temper is the first: the first generation's choji-leaning gunome over a yakidashi, against the second's surging toran-midare after Sukehiro, his forte the manner they call 「本領は助広に倣った濤瀾乱れ」. The signature is the second: the first generation's inscription is linear and angular, a calligraphy the texts connect to the founder Sa Mutsu, while the second's is rounded, often a large five-character signature boldly cut with a thick chisel. The succession is the third and the matter the published record returns to most often, since it bears on which hand a blade is by. The second generation, the pupil and adopted son, took the Echigo no Kami Kanesada name and later gave it back when Iwamatsu came of age, reverting to Sakakura Gonnoshin Terukane; the published sources date the change to about Enpo 8 from an extant blade inscribed Terukane with the first generation recorded as retired. Extant first-generation works being comparatively few, a dated piece such as the Kanbun 4 katana is the more valued, the more so as its workmanship recalls the second generation and may, the texts allow, be a daisaku of that hand. The line's whole bearing is read against Tsuda Sukehiro, the master who reshaped Osaka tempering, and the resemblance runs from the start. Already the first generation, with his deep nioiguchi and a gunome carrying a choji feeling, is read as close to Sukehiro, 「津田助広と近似」 in the words of the published record; the second generation followed the toran-midare so faithfully, and with such control, that the published sources set him beside the model and within the front rank of Osaka Shinto. His individuality is drawn not by departing from that manner but by the precise variants named above, the yahazu turn in the gunome, the visible sunagashi, the stout build, so that the kantei rests on his own grounded tells rather than on the borrowed wave. A representative wakizashi of the seventeenth session is called by the published sources a typical and representative work, 「典型的且つ代表作」, the workmanship in both ji and ha excellent. The Kanesada name is held in ten Juyo blades on the record, seven katana and three wakizashi, all signed and none unsigned, a wholly signed corpus for a smith whose succession is otherwise a tangle of yielded names. He has no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties, and none of the ten carries a recorded provenance, so the line is encountered through its designated Juyo blades rather than through any famous holding. Within that compass the second generation is the more sought, his toran-midare the manner collectors look for, his output judged even across pieces, the published sources observing that his work shows no unevenness and ranking him for it among the foremost masters of Osaka Shinto, 「作品に叢がなく」 and 「屈指の名工」. A signed Echigo no Kami Kanesada of either generation comes to market only from time to time, a katana or wakizashi at Juyo level being the realistic encounter, and the rarer prize is a dated or hira-zukuri piece, or one whose angular early signature and yakidashi-led choji mark it as the founder's own work rather than the celebrated second-generation wave.

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