NihontoWatchStock number:KA-120325Paper(Certificate):[N.B.T.H.K] Tokubetsu Hozon TokenCountry・Era:Owari(Aichi)・Early Edo period about 1648~Blade length(Cutting edge): about 70.5cmCurve(SORI): about 1.6cmWidth at the hamachi(Moto-Haba): 3.26cmThickness at the Moto-Kasane: 0.74cmWide at the Kissaki(Saki-Haba): 2.45cmThickness at the Saki-Kasane: 0.60cmHabaki: Two parts, gold foil HabakiSword tang(Nakago): Unaltered, Sujikai file patternRivet Holes(Mekugiana): 1Shape(Taihai): Shinogizukuri,Iorimune,Chu-kissakiJigane(Hada): Ko-mokumeTemper patterns(Hamon): Notare, GunomeTemper patterns in the point(Bohshi): Sugu then komaru round tipRegistration Card: Niigata 1956【Additional Information】Hoki no Kami Nobutaka. At the beginning of Keicho, the first generation Nobutaka moved from Mino to the Kiyosu castle town in Owari, and around Keicho 15 when Nagoya Castle was completed, he moved to Nagoya. The mei and techniques of the first generation Nobutaka were inherited by the second generation Nobutaka, and thereafter the lineage flourished as hanko for the Owari Tokugawa family for generations, continuing until the sixth generation. This work is by the second generation, Zen Hakushu Nobutaka Nyudo. His secular name was Kawamura Hoki. He received the title of Hoki no Kami in Kan'ei 10, and in Kanbun 2, he retired at the age of sixty, taking the name Zen Hakushu Sangetsu Koji and calling himself Heiyu Nyudo. He died in Genroku 2 at the age of eighty-seven. He signed mei such as Hoki no Kami Nobutaka, Zen Hakushu Nobutaka Nyudo, Zen Hakushu Sangetsu Nobutaka Koji, and Hoki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka Heiyu Nyudo. This same school is a prestigious lineage of Owari swordsmiths where the first through fifth generations all received the title of "Hoki no Kami". The taihai of this work has a nagasa of slightly less than 2 shaku 3 sun 3 bu. The mihaba is wide with a difference between the moto and saki, the sori is moderate, and it has a chu-kissaki, being a sword in the Kanbun sugata. The kitae is ko-mokume hada mixed with nagare hada in places, with thick jinie, fine chikei, and a well-ordered, beautiful texture. The yakiba starts with sugu yakidashi, followed by small gunome and choji that lead into one another like a mountain range, mixed with togari-ba, yahazu-ba styles, and notare, composing a calm and refined midare. The bohshi is sugu and returns in a komaru tip. The nakago is ubu with sujikai yasurime, and the toko mei is inscribed. This sword is a piece by the master of Owari Shinto, the second generation Hoki no Kami Nobutaka. This sword is a piece by the master of Owari Shinto, the second generation Hoki no Kami Nobutaka. The hamon, which mixes notare with gunome, evokes a landscape like a distant view of a mountain range, making it a sword clad in a deeply tasteful atmosphere. Shirasaya, gold foil double habaki, Tokubetsu Hozon Token Kanteisho.
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Mino-den · Owari · around 1624-1644
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 37%
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Where Nobutaka 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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Mino-den · Mino
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The San'ami line takes its root in Mino Province, where its head smith Kanenori (兼則) worked as one of the so-called Seki Seven Schools. The setsumei place Kanenori from the close of the Nanbokuchō period into the Ōei era of the early Muromachi, alongside Kanemoto and Kanesada among the representative hands of Sue-Seki, and the earliest extant signed tachi of his is appraised as no later than Ōei. A second early smith, Kanekuni (兼国), is recorded as belonging to the San'ami lineage and is judged to predate the Sue-Seki group proper; the remote ancestry given for him runs variously to a disciple of Naoe Kanetomo, to Yamato Kanekuni, or to Kanenori, though the setsumei note that nothing survives to confirm so distant a descent. From this Mino stock came Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka (信高), born at Kami-Ōchi in Mino in 1563 and said to descend from San'ami Kanekuni. After receiving the title Hōki no Kami in Tenshō 9 (1581) he moved to Kiyosu in Owari and, serving Tokugawa Yoshinao, later settled at Nagoya, carrying the line into the early Shintō era through a second generation who took the tonsure in Kanbun 2 (1662). Across the corpus the jigane is itame, often closely forged and tending to nagare-hada or flowing grain along the edge, with ji-nie and a frequent standing of the grain (hada-dachi); a faint whitish cast (shirake) marks the older Mino work of Kanenori and Kanekuni. The temper rests on suguha as a base. In the early hands it is a tight, clear (saete) suguha in nioi-deki, sometimes mixed with small gunome, angular elements and pointed ha, carrying ashi, hotsure and scattered tobiyaki.
The Nobutaka works open this out: a broad suguha shifting to shallow notare, ko-notare with a gunome-flavored edge, deep nioi with nie unevenly applied and partly coarse, nie-kuzure at the yakigashira, kuichigai-ba, kinsuji, sunagashi, yubashiri and tobiyaki that climb into the shinogi-ji until the upper half reads as hitatsura. The bōshi runs to sugu with ko-maru, at times midare-komi, pointed, or hakikake, and the early swords keep a slender, high-sori tachi shape while Nobutaka's carry the wide-bodied, ō-kissaki form of the Momoyama transition. The hand is recognized in this pairing of a flowing Mino itame with a suguha core that, in the descendants, breaks toward bold hitatsura. For kantei, the setsumei fix several anchors. In Kanenori's signature the scooped chisel at the fourth stroke of the character kane (兼) is read as a trait of late Nanbokuchō through Ōei work, matched in dated Kaneyoshi mei; the clear suguha of Kanekuni is likened to a Zenjō Kaneyoshi masterpiece. The jizō-flavored bōshi and the nagare-mixed itame in Nobutaka are named as the surviving stamp of the Mino root beneath his Owari manner, and one of his katana is recorded as an Inabae-utsushi. Provenance runs through the corpus: a Kanekuni bears kinzōgan recording it as the sashiryō of Ōkubo Genban-no-jō Tadanari, lord of Odawara in Sagami, worn at the age of ninety-three; Kanenori's tachi descended in the Yamanouchi family. Among the Owari yari makers beginning with Masatsune, Nobutaka's yari of extraordinary length is held in particular regard, and the second-generation Nobutaka is judged no less skilled than his father, with the finest extant Nobutaka works counted to his hand. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Nobutaka信高 | 1581-1615 | 3 |
| Nobutaka信高 | 1624-1644 | 2 |
| Kanekuni兼國 | 1455-1457 | 1 |
| Kanenori兼則 | 1370-1372 | 1 |
| Nobutaka信高 | 1673-1681 | 0 |
Mino in the Momoyama period
Unification closed the mass market, and Seki’s smiths moved to where the new money was: the Mishina line to Kyōto with court titles, Daidō smiths to castle towns across the provinces. Mino became the great technical ancestor of the Shintō age.
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 siteNo cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).