Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThis wakizashi is engraved with the name Bushu Ju Yasushige and is equipped with an uchigatana with a kozuka. Speaking of Yasushige, he belonged to the Shimohara school, a group of swordsmiths active in the Bushu area. This area is now Hachioji, Tokyo. The Shimohara school flourished from the Muromachi period (1333-1573) to the late Edo period (1603-1868), with Yamamoto Chikashige as its founder and the Yamamoto family as its core. Chikashige, Yasushige, Kunishige, and Tershige are especially famous. This work features itame mixed with mokume, which looks like a whirlpool. The hamon is very beautiful with hososoguha, and the boshi is hakikake-like. There are no fatal flaws and it is in good condition, but there is a trace of umegane on the sashiomote, about 19 cm from the habakimoto. The sword fittings are all original, with no ornate decorations, giving the sword a robust impression. The scabbard is equipped with a kozuka. Blade length: 43.0 cm Curvature: 1.0 cm Number of Mekugi hole: 2 Sakihaba: 21.1 mm Sakikasane: 4.3 mm Motohaba: 29.4 mm Motokasane: 6 .0 mm Signature: Bushu ju Yasushige Era: Koto Structure: Shinogi-zukuri, Iori-mune Jitetsu: Nashiji Hamon: Toran Boshi: Nakamaru Weight(without Saya): 580 g Nakago: Ubu Koshirae: Black silk tsuka wrappping with black Shinobue lacquered saya Please contact us if the katana you are looking for is not listed here.
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Shinto · Musashi · around 1558-1570
Tōken Taikan top 60%
1 piece on the market now
Where Yasushige 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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Shinto · Musashi
7 pieces on the market now
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. " 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 sets gunome, ō-midare and angular elements into a notare, its bōshi sweeping off in 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. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Terushige照重 | 1558-1570 | 2 |
| Terushige照重 | 1596-1615 | 1 |
| Yasushige康重 | 1558-1570 | 1 |
| Morishige盛重 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
| Yasushige康重 | 1661-1704 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
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