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About the maker

Ishido Yasuhiro安廣

Bicchu no Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro, whose personal name was Tomita Gorozaemon, is named by the published sources as a representative master of the Kishu Ishido group and the founder of the Osaka Ishido line, active around the Kanbun era of the early Edo period. The Ishido smiths were the Shinto generation that set out to revive the Bizen manner of the old Ichimonji, and Yasuhiro carried that revival as a house specialty: the published commentary describes his style as a Bizen tradition that may be called his hereditary art, a forging over which utsuri rises and on which choji-midare is the temper he particularly excelled in. His name itself records the revival as historical project rather than imitation, for the school sought to recover the bright, utsuri-bearing Bizen steel that most Shinto smiths of his century could no longer produce. He worked first in Kishu under the Kii daimyo and later moved to Osaka, where his manner became the seed of a second Ishido line, so that his blades stand at the head of two branches of the same Bizen revival. The feature that marks his work first is the choji-midare in the revived Bizen manner, set over a forging in which midare-utsuri stands clearly. On the pre-title wakizashi the tightly forged ko-itame carries dust-fine ji-nie and a midare-utsuri, and over it he takes the yakihaba markedly wide and tempers a choji-midare that mixes juka-choji, ko-choji, gunome and ko-gunome, with ashi and yo entering abundantly to produce a florid effect, the whole turned nioi-gachi. The published sources name the school's two Bizen models directly, calling Yasuhiro and the Ishido group masters of the Ichimonji-copy choji-midare and the Sue-Bizen-copy gunome with an opened lower contour, both worked in nioi-deki. Running through his temper is an overall saka-gokoro, a reverse slant in the choji and the ashi that the commentary treats as one of his own tells, most marked in his early pieces. The jigane on which this temper sits is a ko-itame, well packed, on the titled katana mixed with a flowing tendency and at times a masame-leaning grain along the ha, with fine ji-nie and a faint midare-utsuri rising over it. The utsuri is the conspicuous mark of the Ishido revival, the bright Bizen reflection that the published sources take for the foundation of his work and that separates him at sight from the great run of Shinto smiths. The boshi runs straight to a ko-maru with slight hakikake and a long or deep return, and on the early wakizashi he carves a koshi-bi on the omote against gomabashi on the ura, both finished in maru-dome. The result on his best work is a high, bright nioiguchi with a tightening tendency, the hamon broad and full of incident rather than reduced to small repeating patterns. His hand divides cleanly by the moment in his career, read off the signature. Before he received his court title he signed such forms as Oite Kishu Yasuhiro and Kii no Kuni Yasuhiro, at times prefixing Toichi as in Kii no Kuni Toichi Yasuhiro; after receiving the title Bicchu no Kami he cut a long six- or seven-character signature, sometimes dividing the inscription across the two faces, and carved a chrysanthemum crest on the reverse, the mark of his titled work. The published commentary reads the wide, florid pre-title wakizashi as a youthful, vigorous piece, where the strength of the yakiba is felt more than usual and the blade is filled with spirit, and notes that no other wakizashi of such stout and magnificent build had been encountered. Apart from his choji-midare house style stands a kawari-deki centered on large gunome with deep nioi and well-adhering nie; the commentary ties this departure to his earlier name, written Yasuhiro with a different character, recording that in that period he left collaborations with Yamato no Kami Yasusada, so that features reminiscent of Yasusada can be recognized in the boshi, and judging that such a work is therefore not unnatural for him. What sets him apart within the Shinto field is drawn from his own grounded traits rather than from the comparand. His bright midare-utsuri and his choji-midare in the recovered Bizen manner are features most of his Shinto contemporaries could not make, and his recurrent saka-gokoro and the chrysanthemum crest of his titled period mark his blades as his. The published sources judge his titled katana the full, unreserved display of Bicchu no Kami Yasuhiro's strengths and an outstanding work among his production, noting greater height variation in the edge than in his customary pieces. He stands at the junction of two Ishido branches, the representative of the Kishu group and the founder of the Osaka line, and into both he carried the same midare-utsuri jigane and the same Bizen-revival choji. Yasuhiro's signed katana and wakizashi survive in modest numbers, four of them on record at the Juyo level and all of them signed, with no work raised to National Treasure or Important Cultural Property rank, so that none is permanently held out of private hands. His designation factor and his standing in the reference gradings place him among the upper Ishido hands rather than the very first names of the Shinto period, which is the honest measure of a fine school smith rather than a national master. Provenance is recorded for two of his blades: the broad, robust pre-title wakizashi the published sources call beyond anything they had seen was transmitted in the Shimazu house of Satsuma during the domain era, and one of his katana is recorded as held in the Imperial collection. A signed Yasuhiro sits almost wholly within the Juyo tier, held more often than traded, and a securely signed example, dividing between his florid pre-title manner and the chrysanthemum-marked work of his titled years, comes to the serious collector only from time to time, a representative piece of the Ishido Bizen revival when it does.

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