Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchA very unique katana is now available that is very beautiful and in excellent preservation condition, and yet has the names of two completely different swordsmiths engraved on the same katana. The names "Mutsunokami Daidosaku" and "Suruganokami Morimichi" are engraved on the front and back, respectively. Mutsunokami Daido is said to be the grandson of Shizu Saburo Kaneuji nine generations later, and is known as a master swordsmith like Kanetsune and Kanefusa from the late Muromachi period. Originally active under the name Kanemichi, he presented a sword to Emperor Ogimachi in 1569 (Eiroku 12) and was appointed " Mutsunokami" by him, receiving the name "Dai," which he used as an opportunity to change his name to Daido. Morimichi the first was born in the country of Mino in 1558, moved to Kyoto to make swords, and eventually moved to Owari in 1610 when Yoshinao, Ieyasu's ninth son, became the lord of Nagoya Castle, and became the swordsmith at the service of the Owari clan. Both Daido and Morimichi are master swordsmiths representing the Keicho period of the Edo period. This sword is in excellent condition, with no flaws, chips, dents, or rust. The hada is a well-packed koitame like konuka, with yubashiri and chikei clearly visible. Hamon is a large notare with konie mixed with gnome. Hataraki such as kinsen are also active in Ha. The Uchigatana koshirae is in new condition with modern materials. The motif of a dragonfly, called kachimushi in Japan since ancient times, is used. Add this gem to your collection now, which can be called a miraculous katana with the names of two masters engraved on it! Blade length: 69.8 cm Curvature: 1.3 cm Number of Mekugi hole: 1 Sakihaba: 20.5 mm Sakikasane: 5.0 mm Motohaba: 29.4 mm Motokasane: 7.0 mm Signature: Mutsunokami Daido Saku(front)/Suruganokami Morimichi(back) Era: Shinto Structure: Shinogi-zukuri, Iori-mune Jigane: Ko-itame Hamon: Notare Boshi: Nakamaru ni Kaeru Weight(without Saya): 1,030 g Nakago: Ubu Koshirae: Tetsukon c
NihontoWatchOffered by Tozando
This piece has sold
129 on the market
Get an email when new Seki School work hits the market.
Mino-den · Mino
129 pieces on the market now
Seki (関), in Mino Province, grew from two roots set down in the Nanbokuchō period and rose to become the great center of mass sword production in the late medieval age. The published sources trace the wellspring of Mino swordmaking to Kinju (whose name the commentary also reads Kaneshige), counted since antiquity among the Masamune Jittetsu, the ten disciples of Sōshū Masamune, and to Kaneuji of the Shizu line; the Kokon Meizukushi records Kinju as a native of Tsuruga in Echizen who "crossed over to Seki and resided there," carrying the Sōshū-den manner east. Beneath that Sagami inheritance lay a Yamato foundation, legible in the Tegai descent of the Seki Zensada line through Kaneyoshi, so that the Mino-den the Seki workshops forged stands as a fusion of Yamato grain and Sōshū activity in nie. From this Nanbokuchō founding the name multiplied across the Muromachi period into Sue-Seki, the last and largest body of the tradition; its representative masters at the close of the old-sword age were Magoroku Kanemoto, famed for the sanbonsugi, and Izumi no Kami Kanesada, the smith called Nosada, while the Kanefusa, Ujifusa and Daidō hands worked beside them and the move of Wakasa no Kami Ujifusa to Kiyosu carried the Mino body to the threshold of Owari shintō. A common Mino vocabulary binds the Seki body, however widely its members range. The forging is an itame that stands and runs to masame, often mixed with mokume and nagare, over which rises the cool whitish shirake-utsuri of Mino steel rather than the bright midare-utsuri of Bizen; this pale, standing jigane is the constant tell the judges read first, present alike on Kinju's Nanbokuchō katana, Kaneyoshi's Ōei tachi and Nosada's late-Muromachi blades. Over it the smiths temper gunome into which the pointed togariba of Mino enters, with ko-nie clinging to a tight nioiguchi, ashi and yō, and sunagashi streaming through; the bōshi answers in midare-komi turning to a pointed or jizō-cast ko-maru swept with hakikake. From this shared grammar the individual hands diverge.
Kanemoto fixed the regular three-cedar sanbonsugi of pointed teeth; Kanefusa devised the rounded-head, constricted-waist "Kanefusa midare"; Kinju and the early founders held a calmer, rounder gunome away from the restless Shizu line, their work laid with thicker ji-nie and dry, standing grain. The late masters carried the manner to a higher finish: Nosada wove togariba among rounder forms for a broader temper than Kanemoto's one-sided file, and turned at times to a slender Rai-styled suguha with a hidden gunome; Kaneyoshi held instead to a cool ito-suguha, the disciplined Yamato face of late Seki, lightly broken with ko-gunome. A collector seeks Seki because it is the connoisseur's ground for reading Mino-den across a vast body of signed and attributed work. The kantei runs through the jigane first: the standing, masame-leaning itame and the whitish shirake separate a Seki blade from Bizen and Yamashiro, after which the pointed togariba, the dry nie, and the pointed or jizō bōshi confirm the province; the discriminations the judges draw, Kinju held apart from Shizu by his rounder gunome, Nosada parted from Kanemoto by his breadth, give the eye its anchors. Within the school the standing of the best members is settled: Magoroku Kanemoto for the sanbonsugi, Nosada whom the swordbooks call simply "an excellent master" and the most accomplished of the several Kanesada hands, and the early Kinju as a rare and precious founding name, his record running through the Jūyō tier with the signed pieces few and the long blades attributed den. Signature works carry real provenance: a Kinju tantō presented to the Tokugawa shogunal house in 1679, a Nosada katana borne by a chief retainer of the Kii Tokugawa and a tachi forged for the father of Takeda Shingen, a Kaneyoshi tachi transmitted in the Chikuzen Kuroda family. Beyond connoisseurship, Seki's blades earned a battlefield reputation for cutting; the full hiraniku and stout build of the Sue-Seki katana, made to sever, set the wazamono standing that made Mino the working sword of its age. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kinju金重 | 1340-1346 | 42 |
| Kaneyuki金行 | 1350-1352 | 10 |
| Kanekore兼之 | 1504-1555 | 7 |
| Kanenori兼法 | 1579-1615 | 5 |
| Nagasada永貞 | 1862-1866 | 5 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
As a general rule, returns/exchanges are not accepted on Japanese sword orders unless damaged upon delivery. Other items: returns/exchanges accepted within 7 days of delivery. Cancellation for personal reasons incurs a 30% restocking fee (70% refunded). Return shipping must be prepaid and insured by the buyer; shipping/handling fees are non-refundable. Contact katana@tozando.co.jp to initiate a return.