Sukeyoshi is a Bizen Ichimonji smith of the Kamakura period, working in the school that flourished at Fukuoka, Yoshioka, Katayama and Iwato under the single character ichi. The name is not borne by one hand alone: the published sources note that Sukeyoshi occurs in both the Fukuoka and the Yoshioka Ichimonji[[c:1]], and the five works on record under this entry are two Juyo pieces the published sources read as Fukuoka Ichimonji, an early signed tachi and a gold-inlaid attribution, and three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll that its commentary presents together.
The signed two-character tachi reads archaic. The published sources call its ji and ha old in manner at a glance and identify it as an early-Kamakura Ko-Ichimonji work, one that comes immediately after Ko-Bizen[[c:2]]. Though suriage it keeps koshizori with funbari and a small kissaki. Over a ko-itame with fine ji-nie, a midare-utsuri stands vividly[[c:3]]. The temper is calm for an Ichimonji blade: a suguha-toned base in ko-nie, broken into small midare and ko-choji, with ashi and yo working well in nie, sunagashi laid in and kinsuji running through, the boshi a ko-maru. The two characters are cut large at the tang tip, and the published sources find both the manner of the signature and the workmanship of ji and ha good[[c:4]].
The second manner is the flamboyant one for which Fukuoka Ichimonji is named. The published sources describe the mid-Kamakura Fukuoka work as developing the most splendid and varied large-pattern choji-midare of the school[[c:5]], and it was on such a temper that Hon'ami Tadaaki cut a gold-inlaid attribution to Sukeyoshi on a greatly shortened wakizashi. That blade shows an itame mixed with mokume, closely forged, with ji-nie, chikei and a midare-utsuri, under a choji-midare mixed with togariba and tobiyaki, ashi and yo, ko-nie, kinsuji and sunagashi, the boshi a notare-komi tending to ko-maru with hakikake. From the brilliant large-pattern choji-midare the published sources read the attribution as meaning the Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukeyoshi, and judge the work excellent[[c:6]].
The three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll show how the name runs on. The roll's commentary cites the swordbooks that make Sukeyoshi a son of the Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukefusa and, by one account, the founder of Yoshioka Ichimonji[[c:7]]. Two of the tachi, one signed with the upper character 上 and keeping its funbari, the other shortened yet of good shape, share a close-forged itame with midare-utsuri[[c:8]] under a choji-midare with ashi and yo working well. The third has a signature that differs from these two, and the published sources think it the work of a somewhat later Fukuoka Ichimonji smith[[c:9]]. Though shortened it remains somewhat wide with a point tending to ikubi, over an itame standing a little with a midare-utsuri, and its temper is a nioi-based choji-midare with a little ko-nie, inclining to saka-gakari[[c:10]], kinsuji mixing in. Honma, commenting on the three together, holds all of them probably Fukuoka Ichimonji yet hard to settle as the work of one man, reads the character 上 above the two-character mei as tatematsuru, meaning the maker presented the blade to its patron, and finds the tachi signed simply Sukeyoshi the most archaic of the three in ji and ha[[c:11]].
What holds the record together is the Bizen jigane. On every piece a midare-utsuri stands over the steel, on the archaic signed tachi over a fine ko-itame, on the later work over an itame mixed with mokume or standing a little. Against that constant the two tempers are read: the quiet suguha-toned small midare of the early-Kamakura Ko-Ichimonji and the varied large choji-midare of the Fukuoka flowering. The published sources keep the identities separate rather than force them into one biography, settling the school and the period with confidence while leaving the name to more than one hand.
For the collector Sukeyoshi is a rare early name. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku and the Toko Taikan values him high among the old Bizen smiths. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; five designated works are on record, two in the Juyo tier and three signed tachi on the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin roll, one of them recorded at its designation with Tokumoto Yuzo of Saga. The published sources praise the signed early-Kamakura tachi for its archaic ji and ha and the pleasing manner of its signature. With so few pieces on record, a signed Sukeyoshi comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing to encounter, a document of the Ichimonji school between its archaic beginnings and its great Fukuoka flowering.
