NihontoWatchShinshinto, Satsuma. Late Edo period. Shinogi-zukuri, high shinogi, low iori-mune, chu-kissaki. Bo-hi on both sides are kaki-nagashi below the habaki. Kitae is ko-itame mixed with mokume, well-tightened, with jinie attached minutely and thickly; the jigo is slightly blackish, chikei enters frequently, and the jigane is refined. Hamon is notare mixed with gunome, ko-gunome, and togari-style ha; the habuchi is covered in ara-nie with deep nioi, bright and clear, with kinsuji and sunagashi in the ha, and in places there is nie-kuzure and nie-sake-like formations. Boshi is notare-komi with plenty of nie, yubashiri, and the tip is hakikake-yakizume style. Nakago is ubu, tip is iri-yamagata, yasurime is katte-agari. Copper gold-foil habaki. Period polish. In shirasaya. Masayuki was born in Kyoho 18 as the son of the second generation Masayoshi; he succeeded his father to become the third generation Masayoshi, and when he received the title of Hoki no Kami in Kansei 1, he passed the Masayoshi mei to his legitimate son and changed his name to Masayuki. His period of activity seen in dated works is from the beginning of Meiwa (1764-72) to around the end of Bunka (1804-18), and he died in Bunsei 1 at the age of 86. Along with Oku Motohira, he is a master smith who forms the twin pillars of Shinshinto Satsuma smiths. His style is notare mixed with gunome and togari-style ha, with deep nioi, ara-nie, kinsuji, and sunagashi; he excelled at the O-Shizu style, which could be called the Mino-Soshu den. Mei are signed as "Sasshu Ju Masayoshi", "Satsuma Kanko Taira Masayoshi", "Hoki no Kami Taira Ason Masayuki", and so on. This work was made in Tenmei 5 (1785), when the smith was around 53 years old, and corresponds to his early period before changing his mei to Hoki no Kami Masayuki. The nagasa is slightly over 2 shaku 3 sun 6 bu; the moto and saki mihaba and kasane are solid, with a well-proportioned and beautiful style, and the ji and ha are kenzen. The refined jigane, thickly covered in minute jinie, is abundantly mixed with the thick chikei characteristic of Satsuma swords; the hamon, with its habuchi covered in ara-nie and deep, bright, clear nioi, features kinsuji and sunagashi in the ha with nie-kuzure and nie-sake-like formations in places, showing a workmanship that can be identified as Satsuma Shinshinto even without looking at the mei. Although there are fine kitae-hada in the ha, the fine beauty of the jigane, the spirited and fierce hamon, the clean and sharp nakago, and the sufficient nagasa make this a confident work from the smith's early period.
Offered by Samurai Nippon
32 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Yamato-den · Satsuma
32 pieces on the market now
The Satsuma school gathered the smiths of southern Kyushu under the patronage of the Shimazu, the daimyo house of Satsuma and Osumi, and the published sources read its history in two distinct flowerings rather than one continuous line. Its shinto fountainhead is Izu no Kami Masafusa, a son of the Mino smith Ujifusa who moved to Kagoshima and carried a strongly nie-laden hand into the province; the NBTHK names him the origin of Satsuma forging. From that root the early school rose to its summit in the pair the judges return to whenever they place it, Mondo-no-Sho Masakiyo and Ippei Yasuyo, the twin pillars of Satsuma shinto. Both were summoned in Kyoho 6 (1721) by the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to forge in Edo and were granted the single-leaf hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa for their tangs, and the Ippei line continued through Yasuyo's adopted heir Yasuari. A century later a second summit formed in the shinshinto twin pillars, Oku Yamato no Kami Motohira of the Oku house and Hoki no Kami Masayuki of the Ijichi house, raised to their court titles in the same year of Kansei 1 (1789); Masayuki's name had begun as Masayoshi, and his pupil Masakage carried the manner into the Bunka and Bunsei years. The training the members record runs back through the Naminohira and Yamato roots of the early Ippei smiths, but the working idiom the school is known by is its own. That idiom is a Soshu-den read in coarse nie rather than in clove-flower, and the members describe it in a shared vocabulary. The body is broad in mihaba, thick in kasane, full in hiraniku and stoutly built, the imposing Satsuma sugata. Over a well-forged itame, often a tight ko-itame turning toward nagare or masame and carrying thick ji-nie and dark chikei, the smiths temper a notare-toned gunome-midare into which they set pointed togariba, deep in nioi with thick nie and coarse ara-nie mixed through. The feature the commentary names most often is what streams within that temper, the long kinsuji, nie-suji and sunagashi the sources call imozuru, the yam-vine of the province, vine-like nie-lines running unbroken through the ha.
The jigane takes a markedly blackish cast against which the bright nioiguchi and coarse nie stand out, and the boshi runs in midare-komi or straight, swept with hakikake and on the most vigorous work flaring to a flame-like kaen. Within this one settled manner the members divide. Masakiyo handled the varied Shizu-style midare, his yubashiri gathering at the crests of the temper into a nijuba-like, antique appearance, where Yasuyo tempered a calmer notare-toned suguha whose strength lay in the depth of its nioi and the length of its imozuru; Motohira and Masayuki carried the flamboyant gunome with its kaen boshi into the later period, while a small number of blades lean toward masame and recall the Yamato Hosho grain that the early training laid down. To kantei Satsuma work, the judges read three grounded marks together: the pointed togariba riding a notare base, the deep coarse nie with its running imozuru, and the dark, chikei-laden standing jigane, completed by the swept hakikake or kaen boshi and the broad heavy body. The tang offers further constants, almost always ubu with a bold thick-chiseled signature that frequently carries the smith's age, Motohira's funagata-narrowed kengyo point and Masayuki's bo-hi among them. Among the members the standing is high: Masakiyo and Yasuyo hold the early summit, while Motohira and Masayuki lead the shinshinto generation, the latter's pupil Masakage judged to have inherited the master's hand with notable refinement. The cutting reputation of the province, tied to its Jigen-ryu martial tradition, runs through the bold robust construction the sources call decisive in the hand. The provenance is grand for a domain school: blades presented by the Shimazu house upward to the shogun Yoshimune and to Konoe Iehisa, Minister of the Left, who returned silver and poems to the smiths, with pieces descending through the Tokugawa, the Imperial family and Shimazu branch houses such as the Kabayama. Such blades are held in long-established collections rather than traded, and a signed Satsuma work in its full vigorous Soshu-den comes to a collector only with patience. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Yasuyo安代 | 1716-1736 | 18 |
| Motohira元平 | 1778-1789 | 39 |
| Masayuki正幸 | 1772-1817 | 36 |
| Masakiyo正清 | 1714-1736 | 26 |
| Yasuari安在 | 1744-1748 | 4 |
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.
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 siteFor one-of-a-kind items such as swords, sword fittings and antiques, other customers may be waiting for the item, so please contact us about a return within 3 days of its arrival and ship it back within 8 days. Refunds are made on the day the returned item arrives.
¥1,490,000
Certificate reading — 銘 薩摩官工平正良 天明五年巳二月