A katana dated Tenshō 17 (1589) and inscribed Nōshū Seki-jū Teruhiro is the document around which this smith's history was rewritten. Teruhiro is the founding name of an early-Shintō Hiroshima line, and the published sources read it as two closely matched hands set down together: the shodai, Higo no Kami Fujiwara Teruhiro, and his son-in-law the nidai, Harima no Kami Teruhiro. The shodai was a native of Mino, said to descend from Seki Kanetsune, who signed first as Kanetomo, then studied under Umetada Myōju of Kyōto, took service with Fukushima Masanori, changed his name and received the title Higo no Kami, and accompanied his lord from Kiyosu in Owari to Hiroshima in Geishū in Keichō 5 (1600). The traditional account made him a Myōju pupil first and an accomplished smith second. The Tenshō-dated katana overturned the order: the published commentary holds that it proves he was already signing Teruhiro and meijin-class while still in Mino, so that, in their words, he had already reached full stature 「明寿入門以前に既に大成していた」[[c:1]] before entering Myōju's circle, a finding that reopens the question of that teaching and is left to future research.

His recognized work is a broad katana, strong in sakizori and at its largest carrying an ō-kissaki. Over an itame that flows toward the edge into masame and stands somewhat in hada-dachi, the shodai tempers a vigorous notare that boxes up in places into large, hako-leaning patterns, mixing gunome and gunome-chōji, with tobiyaki and muneyaki breaking out, ashi and yō within, a nioiguchi that runs tight or subdued with mura-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi throughout. The bōshi tempers deep and enters midare, turning back in ko-maru with a deep return that joins the muneyaki. The published sources read this notare as an admiration for Shizu workmanship, and of the Tokubetsu Jūyō katana they call it 「放胆な作柄を示した初代輝広の傑出した一振」[[c:2]], a blade that, with its wide body and large point, 「迫力に満ち溢れている」[[c:3]].

The jigane is where the Mino origin shows most plainly. The shodai's jigane is an itame run through with masame, standing in hada-dachi, at times faintly whitish, the ji-nie gathered over a forging that is more vigorous than refined. The nidai's jigane is the more polished of the two: a tightly worked itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the ji-nie laid in minute particles and densely, with chikei woven in frequently, a forging the published sources single out as bright and clear. Across both hands the temper is the constant. The principal manner is a notare, deep in nioi, with gunome set into it, ashi entering, ko-nie thick on the edge, kinsuji and sunagashi running, and tobiyaki breaking out here and there, the nioiguchi bright. A quieter suguha register recurs across both, drawn especially on naginata, yari and a few katana, in a suguha-chō that undulates shallowly with ko-gunome, hotsure and kuichigai-ba along the habuchi.

The nidai, an Owari man of the Kanie family commonly called Jinpachi who first signed Kanehisa, became the shodai's son-in-law and is thought, like his teacher, to have had a connection with Myōju; his earliest dated work is of Keichō 15 (1610). His own manner keeps the deep-nioi ko-notare with gunome, the gunome standing a little more strongly than in the shodai. Beyond it he turns deliberately to older models, and the record of those copies is unusually explicit. One wide kata-kiriba wakizashi the published sources read as modeled on Sōshū Sadamune, the master 「彼が最も私淑した相州貞宗に範を」 taken from[[c:4]]; a kanmuri-otoshi piece in suguha, carved with naginata-hi, they read as an evocation of old Yamato, particularly Taima; a broad katana whose wide, high notare with a hardened koshi-ba they say calls to mind Kanemoto and Muramasa; and a recent tantō they take as a copy after a high Sōshū hand. Through all of them the flowing hada, the angular gunome and pointed elements, and a Sanbon-sugi-like bōshi betray, in their reading, his Mino descent.

What sets the two hands apart from their Mino and Sōshū sources is exactly what the judges name in them. The shodai is read as the bolder, Shizu-touched hand, his notare spirited and large; the nidai as the more refined and various, deep in nioi and bright in the ji, and confident enough to range from Sadamune to Taima to Kanemoto. The published sources hold that the nidai equals or surpasses his teacher, recording that the second-generation Harima no Kami 「二代播磨守は初代に優るとも劣らぬものがある」[[c:5]], and of his finest blades they say his true strength is shown without reserve. The line did not end with him: after the Fukushima house was dispossessed it passed into the service of the Asano daimyō and prospered in Hiroshima for generations, many descendants likewise taking the title Harima no Kami.

For the collector Teruhiro is a scarce early-Shintō name graded Jō-jō saku by Fujishiro. The shodai's surviving production is repeatedly said to number fewer than twenty pieces in all, counting katana, tantō, yari and naginata together, and his work has no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties; the designated record runs instead through one Tokubetsu Jūyō katana, a body of some thirty-five Jūyō blades across both generations, and a prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin. Provenance is thin but real, the recorded names being the Fukushima and Asano daimyō houses the smiths served and the prewar collector Hayashida Shōkei. Of the dated katana the published sources say it is exceptional documentary material, and of the early Jūyō example, that it is 「同作中の優品の一である」[[c:6]]; of the nidai's best, that 「覇気があって出来も優れている」[[c:7]]. Most designated Teruhiro blades are held rather than traded, so an example reaching the market is uncommon and is a notable thing for a private collector to encounter, a record of how a Seki smith carried Mino and Sōshū into the swords of early-Edo Hiroshima.

A katana dated Tenshō 17 (1589) and inscribed Nōshū Seki-jū Teruhiro is the document around which this smith's history was rewritten. Teruhiro is the founding name of an early-Shintō Hiroshima line, and the published sources read it as two closely matched hands set down together: the shodai, Higo no Kami Fujiwara Teruhiro, and his son-in-law the nidai, Harima no Kami Teruhiro. The shodai was a native of Mino, said to descend from Seki Kanetsune, who signed first as Kanetomo, then studied under Umetada Myōju of Kyōto, took service with Fukushima Masanori, changed his name and received the title Higo no Kami, and accompanied his lord from Kiyosu in Owari to Hiroshima in Geishū in Keichō 5 (1600). The traditional account made him a Myōju pupil first and an accomplished smith second. The Tenshō-dated katana overturned the order: the published commentary holds that it proves he was already signing Teruhiro and meijin-class while still in Mino, so that, in their words, he had already reached full stature 「明寿入門以前に既に大成していた」[[c:1]] before entering Myōju's circle, a finding that reopens the question of that teaching and is left to future research.

His recognized work is a broad katana, strong in sakizori and at its largest carrying an ō-kissaki. Over an itame that flows toward the edge into masame and stands somewhat in hada-dachi, the shodai tempers a vigorous notare that boxes up in places into large, hako-leaning patterns, mixing gunome and gunome-chōji, with tobiyaki and muneyaki breaking out, ashi and yō within, a nioiguchi that runs tight or subdued with mura-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi throughout. The bōshi tempers deep and enters midare, turning back in ko-maru with a deep return that joins the muneyaki. The published sources read this notare as an admiration for Shizu workmanship, and of the Tokubetsu Jūyō katana they call it 「放胆な作柄を示した初代輝広の傑出した一振」[[c:2]], a blade that, with its wide body and large point, 「迫力に満ち溢れている」[[c:3]].

The jigane is where the Mino origin shows most plainly. The shodai's jigane is an itame run through with masame, standing in hada-dachi, at times faintly whitish, the ji-nie gathered over a forging that is more vigorous than refined. The nidai's jigane is the more polished of the two: a tightly worked itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the ji-nie laid in minute particles and densely, with chikei woven in frequently, a forging the published sources single out as bright and clear. Across both hands the temper is the constant. The principal manner is a notare, deep in nioi, with gunome set into it, ashi entering, ko-nie thick on the edge, kinsuji and sunagashi running, and tobiyaki breaking out here and there, the nioiguchi bright. A quieter suguha register recurs across both, drawn especially on naginata, yari and a few katana, in a suguha-chō that undulates shallowly with ko-gunome, hotsure and kuichigai-ba along the habuchi.

The nidai, an Owari man of the Kanie family commonly called Jinpachi who first signed Kanehisa, became the shodai's son-in-law and is thought, like his teacher, to have had a connection with Myōju; his earliest dated work is of Keichō 15 (1610). His own manner keeps the deep-nioi ko-notare with gunome, the gunome standing a little more strongly than in the shodai. Beyond it he turns deliberately to older models, and the record of those copies is unusually explicit. One wide kata-kiriba wakizashi the published sources read as modeled on Sōshū Sadamune, the master 「彼が最も私淑した相州貞宗に範を」 taken from[[c:4]]; a kanmuri-otoshi piece in suguha, carved with naginata-hi, they read as an evocation of old Yamato, particularly Taima; a broad katana whose wide, high notare with a hardened koshi-ba they say calls to mind Kanemoto and Muramasa; and a recent tantō they take as a copy after a high Sōshū hand. Through all of them the flowing hada, the angular gunome and pointed elements, and a Sanbon-sugi-like bōshi betray, in their reading, his Mino descent.

What sets the two hands apart from their Mino and Sōshū sources is exactly what the judges name in them. The shodai is read as the bolder, Shizu-touched hand, his notare spirited and large; the nidai as the more refined and various, deep in nioi and bright in the ji, and confident enough to range from Sadamune to Taima to Kanemoto. The published sources hold that the nidai equals or surpasses his teacher, recording that the second-generation Harima no Kami 「二代播磨守は初代に優るとも劣らぬものがある」[[c:5]], and of his finest blades they say his true strength is shown without reserve. The line did not end with him: after the Fukushima house was dispossessed it passed into the service of the Asano daimyō and prospered in Hiroshima for generations, many descendants likewise taking the title Harima no Kami.

For the collector Teruhiro is a scarce early-Shintō name graded Jō-jō saku by Fujishiro. The shodai's surviving production is repeatedly said to number fewer than twenty pieces in all, counting katana, tantō, yari and naginata together, and his work has no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties; the designated record runs instead through one Tokubetsu Jūyō katana, a body of some thirty-five Jūyō blades across both generations, and a prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin. Provenance is thin but real, the recorded names being the Fukushima and Asano daimyō houses the smiths served and the prewar collector Hayashida Shōkei. Of the dated katana the published sources say it is exceptional documentary material, and of the early Jūyō example, that it is 「同作中の優品の一である」[[c:6]]; of the nidai's best, that 「覇気があって出来も優れている」[[c:7]]. Most designated Teruhiro blades are held rather than traded, so an example reaching the market is uncommon and is a notable thing for a private collector to encounter, a record of how a Seki smith carried Mino and Sōshū into the swords of early-Edo Hiroshima.