Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchOrdering Number: AS25733Wakizashi in Koshirae.Signature: Bushu Shitahara Ju Hiroshige (guaranteed authentic).武州下原住廣重(正真保証)Shinto: Chusaku: Musashi.(We divide 4 sections for each sword as Saijyo Saku, Jyojyo Saku, Jyo Saku and Regular Saku).This work is ranked as Jyo Saku for Bushu Shitahara Ju Hiroshige.Habaki: Gold-plated single habaki.Blade Length: 52.2 cm (20.55 in).Curvature: 1.7 cm (0.67 in).Mekugi Hole: 1.Width at Base (Motohaba): 2.87 cm (1.13 in).Width at Yokote: 1.92 cm (0.76 in).Thickness of rim (Kasane): 0.66 cm (0.26 in).Sword Weight: 450 grams.Shape: A wakizashi with substantial width and thickness, deep curvature, and a slightly elongated kissaki.Jigane: A rare example of Yakumo forging, sometimes seen in famous swordsmiths from the Tohoku region.Hamon: Suguha with intermittent hardened areas along the hamon.The boshi turns back in a rounded manner.Features: Bushu Shitahara Ju Hiroshige was a swordsmith active around present-day Hachioji.Among the most famous works connected with this tradition is the sword of Musashi Taro Yasukuni, well known through the film and novel “Daibosatsu Toge.”Yasukuni belonged to the Bushu Shitahara school of swordsmiths.He was born in Hachioji in 1650 as the son of Yamamoto Kinzaemon Hiroshige.He was first known as Yamamoto Tota Hiroshige and later took the name Yasukuni.In 1685, he studied under Omura Kaboku, a swordsmith of Musashi Province.He later resided in Azabu and then traveled to Mito, where he forged swords under the order of Tokugawa Mitsukuni and is said to have been granted the name Musashi Taro.In 1719, together with his son Yamamoto Kozo, he performed sword forging before Shogun Yoshimune at the Ohama Palace and received ten pieces of silver as a reward.Later he adopted the name Yamamoto Bokuyu and passed away on August 15, 1730, at the age of 81.In the novel “Daibosatsu Toge,” his sword became famous as the beloved blade of the protagonist Tsukue Ryunosuke (played by Kataoka Chiezo), further increasing its
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The Shitahara group (下原) worked at Hachiōji in Bushū, the old province of Musashi, from the end of the Muromachi period and carried its forge on into the Edo period. The setsumei place the lineage among the swordmakers of Musashi in the kotō age and name Terushige, Yasushige, Hiroshige, and Chikashige as its leading hands, with the meikan recording Terushige across three generations: a shodai in Kyōroku, a nidai in Eiroku, and a sandai in Tenshō. " That same blade was made to order, in this case from Hagiwara Kaminao of Kōshū, marking the group as a working provincial forge serving its region. In the forging the setsumei return repeatedly to an itame-hada freely mixed with mokume that stands up rather than lying flat, the grain described as hada-datsu, often running to nagare near the edge and taking on an ayasugi-like, whorled or vortex-like cast in the jigane. The temper is a moderately undulating notare into which gunome enter, frequently in regular paired sequences, with pointed togariba, a chōji-like feeling at times, and ko-nie clinging along a nioiguchi that can settle into a subdued shizumi tone; sunagashi and ashi appear within the ha, and the bōshi tends to run midare-komi and turn back in maru. One katana sets gunome, ō-midare and angular elements into a notare, its bōshi sweeping off in hakikake.
The setsumei read this hand as a synthesis drawing on late Sōshū and the Muramasa line together with late Mino tendencies, which together account for the standing grain and the paired gunome. For kantei the markers are consistent: the risen mokume with its ayasugi turn, the regularly paired gunome, and a build suited to the uchigatana of the closing Muromachi years, often with pronounced sakizori and an extended chū-kissaki. Carving recurs, including bō-hi, bonji, gomabashi, and a deeply cut kurikara-ryū whose coiling tail the NBTHK singles out as characteristic. Named and dated pieces anchor the group: the Yamamoto Genjirō Terushige naginata, uncommon as a double-edged ryōba form, and a Terushige katana appraised between Eiroku and Tenshō that the register calls the hakubi of the school. The setsumei note that Shitahara work survives in number into the shintō period while outstanding examples remain few, which sets these designated blades apart within the lineage. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Yasushige康重 | 1558-1570 | 1 |
| Terushige照重 | 1558-1570 | 2 |
| Terushige照重 | 1596-1615 | 1 |
| Morishige盛重 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
| Yasushige康重 | 1661-1704 | 0 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
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