NihontoWatch(A.D.1387-1389, late Nanboku-cho period) Moto-haba (width at Ha-machi) approx. 3.36cm 足利義満が山名氏清を討ったのが明徳の乱。その顛末を記した『明徳記』には、薙刀が使用された描写がある。例えば四条大宮で山名の大軍を迎えた大内義弘は、家臣に「地上に降りて盾を並べよ、突破を図る武士は馬諸共切れ」と命じ、自身も三尺余りの薙刀を手に「薙では薙ふせ、落る武者をばくびをとり」獅子奮迅の活躍をしている。このように南北朝期の薙刀の多くは実戦で重宝され消耗し、完全な状態で遺されているものは少ない。奇跡的に伝来した薙刀も、江戸期に磨上げて刀や脇差とされることがあり、それら薙刀直しからも、薙刀が活用された実情を窺い知る事ができる。 表題の脇差こそ薙刀直しの典型。南北朝期の武将が打ち振るった三尺を超す刃長の大薙刀を大磨上としたもので、「備州長舩光景」の銘が額銘とされている。今尚、身幅広く先が張り、ふくら枯れごころとなって姿形は鋭利。平肉がたっぷりとし、鎬地の肉が削ぎ落され、鎬筋が強く張って反りも深い威圧感のある造り込み。地鉄は板目肌に太い地景が入って肌目が強く起ち、小粒の地沸と粒が大きめの銀砂のような地沸が付き、指で押したような地斑(じふ)が鮮明に現れ、淡く湯走りが掛かって霞立ち、黒と白の織り成す景色は玄妙。刃文は互の目に小丁子が複雑に組み合わされ、片落ち風の刃を交えて僅かに逆がかり、小沸が付いて刃縁締まりごころに明るく、刃境に湯走り、地中に飛焼が掛かり、匂で澄んだ刃中には金筋が躍動し、小足、葉が入る。帽子は浅く乱れ込み、表は焼き詰めごころに浅く返り、裏はやや突き上げて小丸、長めに返る。銘は長、光、景の横画が右から左に刻されて逆鑚が顕著。躍動する武将の覇気と光景の意気込みを伝える稀有の名品である。 注... 光景は従来小反派や大宮派とされていたが、逆鑚と景の通名から、景秀‐近景‐義景‐光景の系譜が提唱されている(小笠原信夫先生「備前大宮鍛冶の系譜に関する問題」『刀鍛冶考』)。また藤代松雄先生は『名刀図鑑』で本作について「義景と同様の作風をみせ優れた作」と述べて絶賛されている。
NihontoWatchOffered by Choshuya
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Bizen-den · Bizen · around 1379-1381
Fujishiro Chu-jo saku
Where Mitsukage 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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Bizen-den · Bizen
20 pieces on the market now
The Kozori (小反り) form a loose body of Bizen smiths who worked at and around Osafune in the closing decades of the Nanbokucho period and on into early Muromachi, and the NBTHK defines them less by descent than by exclusion: they are the late-Osafune hands who fall outside the specific lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige and the Omiya group, gathered under one name as a convenience. The reading of the name itself has been explained in several ways, and the published sources are candid that it resists a clean definition; the prevailing sense is the ko-sori, the slight or shallow reverse-curvature of the blades, the shape running to a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point in the older pieces and growing heavy in the kasane toward Oei. The body has no single founder. Smiths such as Moromitsu (師光), recorded as the father of the Oei master Morimitsu, anchor the group through dated tachi; Iesuke and Iemori carry Hatakeda blood; Nariie descends from Kagehide; Morisuke, Shigeyoshi, Tsunehiro, Hidemitsu, Motomasa and others fill out the periphery, several of whose lines run several generations and whose precise generation-by-generation reading the institution leaves to further study. Across these hands runs a shared vocabulary, and the recurring word for it is scale. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the grain standing a little (hada-tachi), fine ji-nie attaching, dark chikei-toned and at times jifu-like passages crossing the steel, and over it the midare-utsuri (sometimes a bo-utsuri or straight sugu-utsuri) that places the group squarely in the Bizen-den. The temper is nioi-based with ko-nie, built on a shallow ko-notare into which the smiths set ko-gunome running connected and threaded, pointed togariba, angular squared elements, open-waisted koshi-biraki gunome and modest choji, the whole kept small and crowded (kozumu), with ko-ashi and yo entering and fine sunagashi and kinsuji playing through. The boshi answers in midare-komi, pointing or settling to a ko-maru with hakikake.
Within the shared idiom each hand has its tell: Moromitsu tempers the most subdued, low-lying midare; Nariie's gunome crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; Hidemitsu and Hidemitsu of the Koreha branch lean to a reverse-slanting saka-gakari and saka-ashi near the Aoe manner, and turn now and then to a quiet chu-suguha; Tsunehiro favours a kataochi-like gunome; Iesuke and Iemori, working into Oei, open the valleys toward the early-Muromachi pattern. A collector seeks Kozori for legibility rather than flourish. Many of the best survivors are ubu, signed and dated tachi, and that dated file (Joji, Oan, Eiwa, Shitoku, Eitoku, Meitoku into Oei) gives the late history of Osafune a year-by-year spine, prized as reference material for the period; the names also map a province pulled between the Northern and Southern courts, Morisuke's Joji dates reading as Northern Court alignment. To kantei the group is to read it against its neighbours: the small, crowded, nioi-toned midare and the standing itame with kawarigane chikei separate it from the bolder, more uniform gunome of the Kanemitsu mainline of the Nanbokucho height, while the open koshi-biraki valleys and the heavier, sakizori late sugata point forward to and distinguish it from the more decorative Oei-Bizen of Morimitsu and Yasumitsu (a threshold several Kozori blades, in NBTHK phrasing, already anticipate). Among the members the institution ranks Moromitsu and Nariie high (Nariie held equal to the Kanemitsu pupil Masamitsu), Iesuke beside the leading Oei names, and Hidemitsu the leading hand of the Koreha branch. Provenance, though thinly recorded for some, reaches real houses: blades descend through the Kuroda, Kaga Maeda, Shonai Sakai and Hojo families, with examples in the Hayashibara Museum and the national museums, and the occasional Imperial line. A signed, dated Kozori blade comes to hand only from time to time, a quiet, datable window onto Osafune as it closed its Nanbokucho age. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Hidemitsu秀光 | 1375-1392 | 19 |
| Iesuke家助 | 1394-1428 | 11 |
| Nariie成家 | 1352-1362 | 21 |
| Iemori家守 | 1377-1406 | 15 |
| Morisuke守助 | 1354-1384 | 7 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
A blade of top-grade workmanship and condition, formally judged to rank with a nationally recognized Important Art Object (Jūyō Bijutsuhin). Awarded only at the NBTHK’s competitive annual examination.
Of Japan’s roughly 2.5 million registered swords, only 12,348 (about 1 in 202) have ever attained Jūyō.
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.