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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchWith a wide motohaba and a strongly tensed monouchi area, this is a wakizashi with a healthy body and solid kasane, featuring a refined yakiba with shallow notare reminiscent of the Shizu school from the Nanbokucho period, showing the prominent characteristics of Harima no Kami Teruhiro. The sugata has a strong sori with sakizori, and is given strength and sharpness by the carved slender hi. The itame kitae jigane mixed with mokume appears clearly due to the naturalistic chikei covering the entire surface like a mesh, filled with a moist feeling from fine jinie, with the yakiba running through areas that become masagakari toward the ha. The notareba mixed with gunome is bright and clear with beautifully uniform grains of konie, and is shallow as it approaches the hasaki in consideration of practicality, with a composition that increases strength by placing tobiyaki around the monouchi area. Within the ha filled with nioi, konie spreads out, and hotsure following the hadame flows along the habuchi, with some parts crossing the hazakai and flowing into the ji side; the shallowly midare-komi boshi also has a hotsure tip and returns in a long yakisage in komaru. Harima no Kami Teruhiro was from Owari and was a pupil of Higo no Kami Teruhiro. Along with his master, he moved from Owari Kiyosu to Aki Hiroshima following the transfer of Fukushima Masanori, later succeeded as the second generation and received the title of Harima no Kami during the Keicho era; he produced sharp-edged katana and wakizashi with high skill that is also ranked among the wazamono, and after the attainder of Masanori, he became a smith for the Asano family, passing his techniques down to his descendants.
NihontoWatchAki Teruhiro School安芸輝広派
Offered by Choshuya
9 on the market
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Mino-den · Aki
9 pieces on the market now
The Teruhiro line takes its place in Hiroshima, in Aki province, where its swords were forged from the close of the Momoyama period into early Edo. The first generation (shodai) is recorded in the setsumei as a native of Mino, a later descendant of Kanetsune of Seki, who signed at first as Kanetomo (兼友 or 兼伴) before studying under Umetada Myōju, taking the name Teruhiro, and receiving the court title Higo no Kami. A katana dated Tenshō 17 (1589) and inscribed Nōshū Seki-jū Teruhiro saku[[c:1]] shows, as the registers note, that he already used the Teruhiro name while resident in Mino and had reached full stature before entering Myōju's circle, a point the NBTHK records leave open for further study. He followed Fukushima Masanori to Kiyosu in Owari and, in Keichō 5 (1600), relocated to Hiroshima. The second generation, Harima no Kami Teruhiro, came from Owari; the setsumei give his surname as Kanie, his common name Jinpachi, and his earliest signature Kanehisa (兼久). He studied under the shodai, was valued enough to become his son-in-law, served the Fukushima house, and, after that family's forfeiture, entered the service of the Asano. A wakizashi dated Keichō 15 (1610) places his active years close to those of the first generation, with further dated works cited from Kan'ei 5 (1628) and Kan'ei 9 (1632). Across the line the kitae is itame mixed with mokume and flowing nagare-hada, the grain tending to stand (hada-dachi) and turning toward masame near the edge, with ji-nie and chikei throughout and steel that the registers repeatedly call clear (saeru).
The signature temper is a notare base, often ko-notare, mixed with gunome and pointed (togari-gokoro) elements, carrying deep nioi, thick nie, kinsuji, sunagashi, and scattered tobiyaki; the first generation's Tenshō and Keichō katana broaden this into large, hako-leaning undulations with muneyaki, while the second generation favors deep-nioi ko-notare held at a high level. The bōshi commonly runs notare-komi into ko-maru, at times deeply yaki-sage into muneyaki or showing hakikake. To tell the hands apart, the setsumei observe that the nidai's gunome stands out more strongly than the shodai's, and that nagare-hada in the forging, togari blades in the ha, and a bōshi of Sanbon-sugi or sanpin flavor mark his Mino descent; both generations also worked suguha-toned and masame yari and naginata in a quieter key. The setsumei treat the line as a Mino-rooted hand carrying a strong Sōshū current, and several blades are read as deliberate evocations of older models. The second generation's tantō and wakizashi are described as aiming at Sadamune, "whom Teruhiro most admired," with one kanmuri-otoshi wakizashi bearing naginata-hi read as a study of old Yamato, particularly Taima; a wide notare katana with hardened koshi-ba is likened to Kanemoto and Muramasa. The named registered works span the formats: the shodai's Nōshū Seki-jū katana and Higo no Kami yari and naginata, and the nidai's Harima no Kami katana, wakizashi, naginata, and tantō, several signed Fujiwara Teruhiro. The records stress that surviving pieces are few, numbering fewer than twenty across swords, tantō, yari, and naginata, which lends the ōmi-yari and the carved examples particular documentary value; one note holds that the nidai equals or surpasses the shodai. Kantei rests on the notare core with deep nioi and thick nie, the standing itame with nagare and chikei, the recurrent tobiyaki, and the long thick-chisel signatures on ubu tangs that fix this Aki workshop and its place under Fukushima and Asano patronage. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Teruhiro輝廣 | 1624-1644 | 27 |
| Teruhiro輝廣 | 1589-1615 | 17 |
| Teruhiro輝廣 | 1624-1644 | 0 |
| Teruhiro輝廣 | 1748-1751 | 0 |
| Teruhiro輝廣 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
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.
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 siteIf, due to our fault, the item differs significantly from its proper condition, the item may be returned. Cooling-off is within one week of the item's arrival.
¥1,200,000