NihontoWatchNihontoWatchA beautiful mounted koto katana in the Yamato tradition. This blade was attributed to the Kanabo school and is stunning. The blade has bohi and the remnants of a soe hi also on one side. This blade is inundated with hataraki. There are many ashi and yo up and down the blade Based in sugu-ha midare with much choji/gunome within. The hada is an itame nagare with utsuri to be found. About the smith: The meikan list one earlier Masasada (see info below) of whom it seems more blades are going round. Also possible that these were the same guy but who just got listed twice.MASASADA (政定), Tenshō (天正, 1573-1592), Yamato – “Kanabō Saemon no Jō Masasada” (金房左衛門尉政定), Kanabō school. MASASADA (政定), Eiroku (永禄, 1558-1570), Yamato – “Yamato no Kuni Fujiwara Masasada” (大和国藤原政定), “Nanto-jū Fujiwara Ason Kanabō Saemon no Jō Masasada saku” (南都住藤原朝臣金房左衛門尉政定作), Kanabō school (金房), ko-itame mixed with masame and ji-nie, the hamon is a suguha or gunome-midare in ko-nie-deki, wazamono The mounts are ensuite with a dragon theme from tsuba to menuki. The Tsuka-ito and sageo are blue with a stunning red ishime style lacquer finished saya. An attractive koshirae this intricately mounted sword is all of dragons, finished in a red lacquer. This is a rare and exciting mounting for a unique blade. This blade is to be enjoyed for its fine activity and rarity as they are seldom found in such good condition. The legend of the Dragon: Many Chinese believed the dragon held, or at least chased, the sun, and many drawings depict this as a flaming red ball. However, over the years, this sun changed color from red to a silvery-pearl color, and gradually the ball came to be considered a flaming pearl, known as the night shining pearl. It is with this that the dragon is almost invariably associated in art. The link between serpentine shaped dragons and the pearl is reflected in a legend that states that Chi Liang, the Marquis of Sui, who was a Minister of State, was out walking one day, and found a wounded snake to which he gave medicine and saved its life. Sometime later, he saw the snake with a brilliant pearl in its mouth. The snake said ‘I am the son of His Majesty the Dragon, and I am indebted to you for the preservation of my life, and I have brought this pearl to thank you for your kindness.’ The Minister accepted the pearl and, being a dutiful subject, presented it to his sovereign, who placed it in his hall. This sword is on consignment. kantei-sho (鑑定書) – Appraisal Den Kanabô Masasada (伝金房政定) shôshin (正真) – Authentic nagasa 2 shaku 3 sun 5 bu kore ari (長さ弐尺参寸五分有之) – Blade length ~ 71.2 cm Heisei 19 nen 4 gatsu 28 nichi (平成十九年四月二十八日) – April 28th 2007 Nihon Tôken Hozon Kai (日本刀剣保存会) – NTHK No 16,319 meibun (銘文) – Signature: mumei kitae (鍛) – Forging: itame mixed with masame hamon (刃紋) – Hardening: sugu-chô mixed with ko-gunome bôshi (鋩子) – Hardening in tip: sugu with hakikake at the tip chôkoku (彫刻) – Engravings: on both sides a bôhi that ends in kakudome nakago (中心) – Tang: mekugi-ana (目釘穴) 2, yasurime (鑢): katte-sagari bikô (備考) – Remarks: around Tenshô (天正, 1573-1592), Yamato province shinsa’in natsu’in (審査員捺印) – Seals of Judges: 5 seals
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The Kanabō (金房) smiths worked in Nanto, the old name for Nara in Yamato province, from the end of the Muromachi period into the early Shintō era. Their relationship to any of the five established Yamato schools is not clearly fixed in the record, and the NBTHK setsumei treat the group as one that rose and flourished in Nara during the late Muromachi decades, with dated examples encountered from the Eishō era onward. The blades here name several hands. Masatsugu (政次), who signed as Kanabō Hyōe no Jō Masatsugu and as Kanefusa Hyōe no Jō Masatsugu, is described as the representative and best-known smith of the line. Masasada (政定), signing Kanefusa Saemon-no-jō Masasada, left an uchigatana dated Eiroku 2 (1559). " Rather than the classical Yamato-den manner of the earlier five schools, the Kanabō hand reads as a Muromachi uchigatana idiom that shares points with the Sue-Bizen and Sue-Seki spheres. The kitae is itame that flows into nagare and tends toward masame, with the grain often standing and growing large, and a whitish utsuri appearing in places. The hamon divides between two registers the setsumei repeatedly cite: a large gunome-based midare, the "hips" of the gunome opening out and mixed at times with togari-ba, chōji, or ko-notare; and a suguha carried on a tight nioiguchi.
Across both, ashi and yō enter well and stand out, ko-nie and ji-nie adhere, and sunagashi with kinsuji run through; the nioiguchi frequently takes a shizumi, subdued cast. The bōshi runs midare-komi, often with hakikake and a pointed or ko-maru return. The build tends to broad mihaba with sakizori on the swords, while naginata are conspicuously common, a production read as answering the demands of the warrior monks (sōhei) of Kōfukuji and the great Nanto temples. For kantei, the line is held by the flowing masame-tending itame, the broad gunome-midare with prominent ashi and yō over a tight or subdued nioiguchi, and the marked presence of naginata and long polearm blades among extant work. The setsumei single out Masatsugu's polearms as typical of his hand, several preserved with their vermilion-lacquer nagamaki mounts (shunuri nagamaki koshirae) and one black-lacquer naginata mounting, the fittings inferred to have been made together with the blade. The records grant that true masterworks within the group are rare, yet they describe individual blades by Masatsugu and Masasada with fine jigane, skillfully cut horimono, and workmanship judged excellent and dignified. Within the wider Yamato sphere the Kanabō stand as a late, utilitarian offshoot whose polearms and serviceable swords carry the group's name into the NBTHK register. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Masatsugu政次 | 1492-1570 | 4 |
| Masazane正眞 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Masasada政定 | 1521-1559 | 1 |
The NTHK’s principal certificate, issued for a blade of considerable quality. It confirms a genuine signature, or, for an unsigned (mumei) work, records the judges’ attribution to a smith or school. The paper carries a detailed worksheet with a numerical point score.
The NTHK (Nihon Tōken Hozon Kai, the Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Sword) is the oldest of Japan’s sword-appraisal bodies, founded in 1910, decades before the NBTHK. After the death of its long-serving head it divided into two successor societies, the NTHK and the NTHK-NPO, both of which continue to hold shinsa. NTHK certificates are known for a detailed worksheet that records a numerical point score alongside the judges’ written opinion, and the society is especially respected for its attribution of unsigned (mumei) work.
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