In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThe portrait attributed to Minamoto no Yoritomo at Jingo-ji Temple in Kyoto depicts him in jet-black ikan sokutai attire, with a unique decoration applied to the tsuka of the tachi visible at his waist. This is a kenukigata tachi from the Kamakura period. This was a special koshirae worn by bushi who were permitted entry to the imperial court when attending formal ceremonies. The koshirae in the title, featuring a gin nanako-ji tsuka with kenukigata kanagu (menuki), is typical. The silver kabutogane, fuchi-kanamono, kuchigane-monogane, ashikanamono, semegane-monogane, and ishidzuki-kanamono are engraved with twenty-eight hanabishi-mon in kebori, possessing a sense of weightiness in the pale black color unique to silver surfaces aged over time. The kin-ikkanji-nuri saya is slender and taut with high prestige, depicting an elegant celestial world through makie of peonies and ho-o dancing lightly in the air. The accompanying sword is likely a blade passed down through ancestors; although mumei, it is appraised as Soshu Hiromasa from the Sengoku period. The blade has a shin-no-mune, high sori with sakizori, and a beautiful tachi-sugata with a modestly finished kissaki; the niku of the shinogi-ji is thinned so that the shinogisuji stands out overall, vividly reflecting the period style of the Sengoku era. The horimono at the koshimoto consisting of bonji, sankotsuka-ken, gomahashi, and rendai is unmistakably Soshu-bori. The jitetsu of itame-hada mixed with moku is tight and covered thickly with ji-nie. The hamon is ko-gunome mixed with ko-choji, the habuchi is bright with nie like fine snow, kinsan pulses with activity leading to tobiyaki, and ashi and yo enter abundantly; the area near the monouchi is strongly covered in nie with nie activity working from yubashiri into tobiyaki, and the midare-komi boshi also has fierce hakikake before returning and burning long down the mune. The inside of the ha is cold and clear with nioi, giving a sense of excellent sharpness. Hiromasa was a toko around the Bunmei era of the late Muromachi period. He was a superior craftsman of the era when the famous general Ota Dokan was active, utilizing his resourcefulness and military strategy.
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Soshu-den · Sagami · around 1469-1487
Tōken Taikan top 37%
2 pieces on the market now
Where Hiromasa 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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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Soshu-den · Sagami
Phase: Sue-Sōshū末相州· 1356–1868
21 pieces on the market now
When the great Kamakura masters had passed and the country slid into the wars of the late Muromachi, a residual Soshu-den held on in Sagami under a new patron. The Later Hojo, ruling from Odawara castle, kept smiths at hand, and it was from this orbit that the leading name of the window emerged: Tsunahiro, transmitted as a retained smith of the Odawara Hojo who took the character tsuna from Hojo Ujitsuna. The first generation's earliest dated works fall in the Tenbun era, and the line runs forward in the conventional reckoning through Tensho, Keicho, Kan'ei, and Manji, the third generation drawn west to Tsugaru by Tamenobu to forge daisho before returning home. Around him stood a wider Sagami population working the same idiom: Hirotsugu of Kamakura, whose strongest hands cluster near the Meio and Tenbun years; Hiromasa and Soso, names carried across several indistinct generations; Masahiro, reaching back toward Joji; and the Odawara group of Yasuharu, Yasukuni, and Fusamune, the last praised above all for his carving. These smiths inherited the manner of the Nanbokucho apex at a remove of generations rather than by direct descent from the mainline of Masamune and Sadamune. The signature of the phase is the open declaration of the full temper. The forging stays itame mixed with mokume, the grain inclined to stand (hadadachi-gokoro), with ji-nie and chikei; over it the smiths ran a notare-and-gunome ground that climbs the upper half into hitatsura, tobiyaki and muneyaki firing across ji and mune, sunagashi and kinsuji threading the ha. This is the hitatsura and o-midare learned from Hiromitsu and Akihiro, but pushed toward display: the Hirotsugu katana of the 61st Juyo runs its temper so high it reaches the shinogi, mixing choji, togariba, and yahazu-gata into a demonstrative yakidaka pattern.
The contrast with the classic apex is precise and the appraisers mark it. Where Masamune raised nie to its deepest refinement over a bright, clear steel, the Sue-Soshu ji tends to shirake, a whitish cast standing in for that clarity, and the nioiguchi inclines to shizumi, a sunken or subdued quality rather than depth. The 238th Jubi record states the point plainly for the first-generation Tsunahiro: the ji and ha carry abundant nie, yet the very shape of the hamon departs from that of Hiromitsu and Akihiro. The temper is broader and busier across the surface, but it lacks the quiet command and the leaping interior activity of the original. To kantei the window is to separate this demonstrative late temper from the classic Soshu-den it imitates: a standing itame with shirake, a wide hitatsura worked with yahazu and crescent tobiyaki, a nioiguchi that sinks rather than deepens, and signatures reading Soshu-ju with full given names rather than the o-suriage mumei of the great forebears. The named hands carry the distinctions, Fusamune through his dense, precise horimono of kurikara and bonji, Tsunahiro through his crescent tobiyaki and high monouchi fire, Hirotsugu through a hitatsura vigorous enough to recall Hasebe. Provenance keeps these blades close to power: several are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, one bearing the ownership inscription of Akimoto Yoshihide of Kozuke, another the Hachiman Daibosatsu invocation of a Sengoku warrior, the Tsunahiro commission tied by its dated nakago to the Tsugaru house. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Fusamune總宗 | 1504-1521 | 5 |
| Tsunahiro綱廣 | 1532-1555 | 14 |
| Hiromasa廣正 | 1444-1456 | 4 |
| Hirotsugu廣次 | 1492-1501 | 4 |
| Tsunaie綱家 | 1532-1555 | 3 |
Sōshū in the Muromachi period
In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
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