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About the maker

Satsuma Masayuki正幸

Hōki no Kami Masayuki was the son of the second-generation Ijichi Masayoshi, a smith of the Ijichi house of Satsuma domain artisans, born in Kyōhō 18 (1733). He succeeded as the third generation and at first signed Masayoshi (正良), with works on record from about the Hōreki era; in Kansei 1 (1789), at the same moment that his elder townsman Oku Motohira was made Yamato no Kami, he received the court title Hōki no Kami, ceded the name Masayoshi to his heir, and changed his own name to Masayuki. He worked into great old age, dated and age-inscribed pieces surviving up to his eighty-fifth year, and died in Bunsei 1 to 2 (1818-1819) at eighty-six or eighty-seven. The published sources place him by a single recurring pairing that has held ever since. Together with Oku Motohira he is named one of the twin pillars of Satsuma *shinshintō*, the published commentary saying of him, in its own words, that with Oku Motohira he stands among 「薩摩新々刀中の双璧」, the twin pillars of Satsuma *shinshintō*. He is the one the same sources hold to have surpassed his forebears, celebrated as a smith who out-shone his master. His characteristic hand is a broad, long, robust katana the published sources name his favored *Sōshū-den*, and which he himself called *Sōshū-den*, the commentary recording 「自から相州伝という」, that he himself called it so. The body is wide in *mihaba*, the *kasane* thick, the *kissaki* extended, the construction generally sturdy. Over it he tempers a shallow *notare*-toned *gunome-midare* into which he sets pointed *togariba*, the *gunome* with a pointed tendency being the feature the judges most often single out as his forte, deep in *nioi* with thick *nie* that is somewhat coarse and sprinkled on, *ara-nie* mixed. Through the *ha* run frequent *sunagashi* and long *kinsuji*, the streaming Satsuma *nie*-lines known as *imozuru*, the yam-vine. The pointed teeth and the running vine are the spine of his recognition, a *Sōshū-den* read in coarse *nie* rather than in clove-flower, and the published sources name its model directly, calling his manner one that 「相州伝、就中、志津に倣った作柄を得意としている」, a *Sōshū-den* excelling above all in imitation of Shizu. The *jigane* is the constant beneath. It is a well-forged *itame*, often packed and mixed with *mokume* and *nagare*, carrying thick *ji-nie* and a dark *chikei*-like variant steel, on his finest pieces bright and clear. Over it the *bōshi* runs in *midare-komi* or straight, turning back in *ko-maru* or *ō-maru*, the point swept with *hakikake* and at times breaking into *nie-kuzure*. There is one feature the published sources raise as a *kantei* point on the tang itself. The *nakago* is almost always *ubu*, narrowed to a sword-shaped *kengyō* or *iriyama-gata* tip with *katte-agari* file marks, the long signature cut boldly with a thick chisel and frequently carrying his age; and on the great majority of his blades he carves a *bō-hi*, a habit the sources tie to his wide *mihaba* and thick *kasane*, the groove omitted only when a blade is of more standard width. His record divides by name and by period. The earlier work, signed Masayoshi before the title and the change of name, is read as a quieter register before the full vigorous *Sōshū* hand emerges: a *ko-notare* mixed with *gunome*, *ashi* and *hotsure* entering, thick *nie* with areas of *ara-nie* and *sunagashi*, the *bōshi* tending to *ō-maru* with the point breaking down in *nie-kuzure*. The forging beneath that early temper is already the Satsuma steel he carries into his prime, a wide *itame* with conspicuous *ō-itame* and flowing grain, so the Masayoshi face is the same hand held quieter rather than a separate school. Among his dated pieces the inscriptions run beyond the date: one katana of Kansei 12 (1800) carries a Kōshin-faith inscription, that a sword forged in a year when the Kōshin day falls seven times secures lasting martial fortune, a text the sources call unusual, and another bears the deity invocation 「南無八幡大菩薩」 carved on the tang. What sets him within his province is exactly the pairing the judges name and the manner they return to. He is read first against his elder townsman Motohira, the two held together as the twin pillars of Satsuma *shinshintō*, the one the Oku house and the other the Ijichi, raised to their court titles in the same year. His own grounded traits are what distinguish him, not a borrowed comparison: the broad, robust *sugata*, the pointed *togariba* in a deep-*nioi gunome-midare*, the coarse *ara-nie* feeding a *hakikake bōshi*, and the running *imozuru*. The published sources measure his refinement against that very vine, praising one of his Shimazu-held katana precisely because the 「芋蔓風の金筋・沸筋」, the vine-like *kinsuji* and *nie-suji*, do not crowd it, the absence lending it higher grace. He stands at the head of the Ijichi line, the hand by which a Satsuma *shinshintō* blade of his descent is read. For the collector he is one of the great names of late Satsuma, and Fujishiro grades him Jō saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record on the modern designation tiers runs through the Jūyō rank, where twenty-eight of his works are held, all *ubu* and signed across a working life from the Kansei years to near his death. The provenance among them is distinguished and local to his domain: one katana descends from the Satsuma lord, the Shimazu house, kept as a reserve sword of Tsurumaru castle, and another comes down through the Kabayama house, a Shimazu branch, with a Satsuma *koshirae* whose *fuchi-gashira* and *kojiri* are by Masayuki's own hand. Most designated blades, including those in private hands, are held rather than traded, and a fine signed Masayuki of his characteristic *Sōshū-den* comes to market only from time to time and with patience. His work is, comparatively, among the more findable of the first-rank *shinshintō* masters, more so than the locked heritage of the older traditions, but a dated, age-inscribed katana in his full vigorous manner remains a substantial acquisition, a document of how Satsuma forging reached its late summit beside Oku Motohira.

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