NihontoWatchStock number:TA-090325Paper(Certificate): [N.B.T.H.K] Hozon TokenCountry・Era:Izumo(Shimane)・Meiji era 1869Blade length(Cutting edge): 24.8cmCurve(SORI): 0cmHabaki: One part, Gold foil HabakiSword tang(Nakago): Unaltered, Kesho file patternRivet Holes(Mekugiana): 1Shape(Taihai): Hirazukuri, IorimuneJigane(Hada): ItameTemper patterns(Hamon): SuguhaTemper patterns in the point(Bohshi): Sugu then togari komaru round tipRegistration Card: Tokyo【Additional Information】藤原長信は、文化十四年に出雲郡三分市村に生まれ、高橋理兵衛と称し、若州冬廣十五代幸之助冬廣の門人となって後に同家十七代目の名跡を継いで松江藩松平家に抱えられます。師の没後、江戸へ出府し、新々刀の名匠で米沢上杉家藩工の長運斎綱俊に師事します。師に似た作風で、剣巻龍などの彫物も上手でありました。幕末期の鬱屈、殺伐とした当時の世相にあっては、刀剣の需要も高まりをみせ、同工も松江へ帰郷し、鍛刀に専心したと云われます。また試し斬り役を務める「山田家」から一定の評価もあり、裁断銘を添えた作品も残っています。長信の技量の高さと同藩への献身的な働きに応じて、士分が与えられており、明治十二年五月に六十三歳で歿します。本刀刃長は八寸一分半。身幅尋常、重ね厚く、手持ちズシリと重量感のある立派な刀姿の短刀です。地鉄は板目肌が良く練れて詰み、杢目交じり、一部流れごころ、地沸付き、肌目に沿って地景が入り、澄んで整った肌合いとなります。刃文は直刃で、処々鼠足等を交え、小沸がふんわりと良く付き、沸匂明るく冴えます。帽子はそのまま直ぐで、先尖りごころとなり小丸に返ります。茎は生ぶ、丁寧に化粧鑢で整え、刀工銘と年紀を切ります。拵は印伝塗鞘に、桐図の鉄地一作金具で揃えられた、上々の品が附いております。松江藩抱工 藤原長信の一口。綺麗に整った上品な出来栄えの秀作としてご紹介いたします。白鞘、金着一重はばき、印伝塗鞘合口短刀拵、保存刀剣鑑定書。
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Wakimono · Izumo · around 1830-1860
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 31%
1 piece on the market now
Where Naganobu 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
Wakimono · Izumo
1 piece on the market now
The Unshū grouping gathers smiths of Izumo province (Unshū), and the blades carrying this attribution do not form one continuous lineage so much as two widely separated moments in the province's work. The earlier is Unshū Tadazane, a signed katana placed around the Eishō era (1504 to 1521) in the late Muromachi period. The later is Takahashi Naganobu, also recorded as Unshū Naganobu and Takahashi Rihei, a late-Edo smith dated by his own inscriptions to Ansei 3 (1856) and Man'en 1 (1860). Naganobu styled himself the seventeenth-generation successor of Wakasa Fuyuhiro; around the close of the Tenpō era he went to Edo and studied under Chōunsai Tsunatoshi, and after gaining recognition he served as a retained smith (kakae-kō) of the Matsudaira house of Matsue in Unshū until his death in Meiji 12 (1879). Because the two hands belong to different centuries and different stylistic worlds, the group reads as a provincial wakimono gathering rather than a school of fixed transmission. Across these blades the shared ground is a tightly forged ko-itame-hada with ji-nie adhering, after which the two hands diverge. Tadazane's ko-itame packs closely and flows toward the edge with masame mixed in, carrying a wide suguha mingled with small gunome, ashi and yō entering well, ko-nie and sunagashi, and a subdued (shizumi) nioiguchi; his bōshi runs straight to ko-maru with a long kaeri, and the overall effect was read by the NBTHK as sharing features with the Bizen smiths Kiyomitsu and Tadamitsu.
Naganobu instead builds bold, long sugata of wide mihaba with little taper, his ko-itame often taking on an almost plain (muji) look with abundant chikei. His preferred temper is neatly aligned chōji mixed with gunome in nioi-deki, though one of his katana hardens a flamboyant gunome-midare of round heads with a deep, bright nioiguchi and yubashiri. The most reliable signpost to his hand lies in the nakago: reverse ō-sujikai filemarks with keshō, named in the setsumei as a characteristic feature. For kantei the group resolves to its named smiths rather than a collective signature. Tadazane is recognized by his Bizen-leaning suguha-gunome and subdued nioiguchi, his example preserved with a Higo-style shuhen-nuri handachi koshirae. Naganobu is identified through his reverse ō-sujikai tang finishing, his Tsunatoshi-derived chōji, and on occasion a vigorous midare whose assertive spirit the setsumei likens to superior works of the Yamaura lineage; his commissioned blade names Tomono Shigenari of the Matsujō domain and records its making at Kōji Street in the eastern capital. The standing of the group rests on these two distinct workmanships, each documented within the records of its own province. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Naganobu長信 | 1830-1860 | 2 |
| Tadasada忠貞 | 1492-1501 | 1 |
The Shinshintō revival
Around 1800 Suishinshi Masahide argued in his writings that the craft must return to the old masters’ methods: the fukkotō revival. His greatest successor Naotane worked convincingly in Bizen and Sōshū manners that had been dead for centuries.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
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.
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