NihontoWatch最上大業物作者として遍く知られる長舩秀光は、南北朝時代後期の至徳頃が活躍期。同銘は南北朝初期から室町時代初期の応永頃まで数えるが、中でもこの秀光が小反と呼ばれる一類の最先端を走り、長舩の正系兼光などの作風を下地としながらも新時代を予感させる刃文を展開し、刃味鋭いことから殊に実戦の場で重宝されたのである。
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Bizen-den · Bizen · around 1334-1372
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 17%
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Hidemitsu of Bizen Osafune is represented in this record by two dated works of the late Nanbokucho period: a kodachi signed Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu and dated Oan 5 (1372), designated Juyo Token at the 9th session in 1962, and a tachi dated Meitoku 2 (1391) recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. The published sources place him among the Bizen kozori smiths (小反派), a term whose exact meaning is unclear but which is applied chiefly to the Nanbokucho smiths of the circle of Kanemitsu. They also note that the name runs through several generations, beginning with a first generation whose works carry Oan dates and continuing into the Muromachi period.
The kodachi of Oan 5 is a shinogi-zukuri blade with mitsu-mune, a somewhat shallow sori and an o-kissaki. Its jigane is itame-hada with plentiful ji-nie; the temper is gunome mixed with choji in ko-nie, with ko-ashi and a nioiguchi that tends to tighten, and the boshi is midare-komi turning back with a slightly pointed tip. A bo-hi with gomabashi is carved on the omote, and a bo-hi with a kurikara in semi-cursive style on the ura, which the published sources call a characteristic Bizen trait. They regard the long kissaki as a practical requirement of a kodachi, and add that a kodachi with Hidemitsu's signature is probably limited to this single example. The signature is small and cut with a fine chisel, which they describe as the general practice of kozori work[[c:1]].
The tachi of the Honma inventory is entered there beside a kozori blade by Iemori, and its record notes that it was presented to the Emperor Meiji by the Hojo viscount family. Unaltered, with iori-mune, a strong saki-zori and a ko-kissaki, it shows a tight ko-itame with midare-utsuri, and a temper of ko-midare mixed with ko-gunome, rich in ashi and yo, in deep nioi with ko-nie; bo-hi are carved on both sides, with a relief figure of Tamonten at the koshi of the omote. The published sources count Hidemitsu among the most skilled of this group, identify the tachi with the first generation of the Oan-dated works, and call it an outstanding example of his work.
One further unsigned katana attributed to Hidemitsu, of the late Nanbokucho period, is recorded in the koto research data.
Where Hidemitsu 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
Bizen-den · Bizen
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The Kozori (小反り) form a loose body of Bizen smiths who worked at and around Osafune in the closing decades of the Nanbokucho period and on into early Muromachi, and the NBTHK defines them less by descent than by exclusion: they are the late-Osafune hands who fall outside the specific lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige and the Omiya group, gathered under one name as a convenience. The reading of the name itself has been explained in several ways, and the published sources are candid that it resists a clean definition; the prevailing sense is the ko-sori, the slight or shallow reverse-curvature of the blades, the shape running to a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point in the older pieces and growing heavy in the kasane toward Oei. The body has no single founder. Smiths such as Moromitsu (師光), recorded as the father of the Oei master Morimitsu, anchor the group through dated tachi; Iesuke and Iemori carry Hatakeda blood; Nariie descends from Kagehide; Morisuke, Shigeyoshi, Tsunehiro, Hidemitsu, Motomasa and others fill out the periphery, several of whose lines run several generations and whose precise generation-by-generation reading the institution leaves to further study. Across these hands runs a shared vocabulary, and the recurring word for it is scale. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the grain standing a little (hada-tachi), fine ji-nie attaching, dark chikei-toned and at times jifu-like passages crossing the steel, and over it the midare-utsuri (sometimes a bo-utsuri or straight sugu-utsuri) that places the group squarely in the Bizen-den. The temper is nioi-based with ko-nie, built on a shallow ko-notare into which the smiths set ko-gunome running connected and threaded, pointed togariba, angular squared elements, open-waisted koshi-biraki gunome and modest choji, the whole kept small and crowded (kozumu), with ko-ashi and yo entering and fine sunagashi and kinsuji playing through. The boshi answers in midare-komi, pointing or settling to a ko-maru with hakikake.
Within the shared idiom each hand has its tell: Moromitsu tempers the most subdued, low-lying midare; Nariie's gunome crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; Hidemitsu and Hidemitsu of the Koreha branch lean to a reverse-slanting saka-gakari and saka-ashi near the Aoe manner, and turn now and then to a quiet chu-suguha; Tsunehiro favours a kataochi-like gunome; Iesuke and Iemori, working into Oei, open the valleys toward the early-Muromachi pattern. A collector seeks Kozori for legibility rather than flourish. Many of the best survivors are ubu, signed and dated tachi, and that dated file (Joji, Oan, Eiwa, Shitoku, Eitoku, Meitoku into Oei) gives the late history of Osafune a year-by-year spine, prized as reference material for the period; the names also map a province pulled between the Northern and Southern courts, Morisuke's Joji dates reading as Northern Court alignment. To kantei the group is to read it against its neighbours: the small, crowded, nioi-toned midare and the standing itame with kawarigane chikei separate it from the bolder, more uniform gunome of the Kanemitsu mainline of the Nanbokucho height, while the open koshi-biraki valleys and the heavier, sakizori late sugata point forward to and distinguish it from the more decorative Oei-Bizen of Morimitsu and Yasumitsu (a threshold several Kozori blades, in NBTHK phrasing, already anticipate). Among the members the institution ranks Moromitsu and Nariie high (Nariie held equal to the Kanemitsu pupil Masamitsu), Iesuke beside the leading Oei names, and Hidemitsu the leading hand of the Koreha branch. Provenance, though thinly recorded for some, reaches real houses: blades descend through the Kuroda, Kaga Maeda, Shonai Sakai and Hojo families, with examples in the Hayashibara Museum and the national museums, and the occasional Imperial line. A signed, dated Kozori blade comes to hand only from time to time, a quiet, datable window onto Osafune as it closed its Nanbokucho age. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Hidemitsu秀光 | 1375-1392 | 19 |
| Iesuke家助 | 1394-1428 | 11 |
| Nariie成家 | 1352-1362 | 21 |
| Iemori家守 | 1377-1406 | 15 |
| Morisuke守助 | 1354-1384 | 7 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
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