This is a masterpiece katana by Ichinohira Yasuyo, a renowned smith from Satsuma active in the middle Edo period. It features a bright and clear jigane with thick nie and fine chikei, and a hamon with deep nie and bright nioikuchi. The blade is accompanied by NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers, confirming its authenticity and quality.
NihontoWatchmei · Kyoho (1716-1736) · nagasa 75.5cm · sori 1.5cm
Ippei (Naminohira line), Satsuma · Satsuma · around 1716-1736
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 14%
1 piece on the market now
Ippei Yasuyo, common name Tamaoki Koichi, was the eldest son of the Satsuma smith Ippei Yasusada, born in Enpo 8 (1680). The published sources record that he learned forging first under his father and then under Yamato no Kami Yasukuni of the main Naminohira line, and that in the first month of Kyoho 6 (1721) he was summoned together with Masakiyo by the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to forge swords in Edo. In recognition of his skill the bakufu permitted him to cut the single-leaf hollyhock crest into his tang, and on his return journey the court appointed him Shume no Suke. He died in Kyoho 13 (1728) at the age of forty-nine, so that the great part of his recorded work falls into the narrow span of years between the Edo summons and that early death. The institutional verdict on him is consistent and almost formulaic across his designations: he and Masakiyo are 'the twin pillars of Satsuma shinto'[[c:1]].
That pairing carries within it the contrast by which his hand is recognized. Where Masakiyo favored a varied, Shizu-like midareba that mixes notare with gunome and pointed togariba, the published sources record that 'Yasuyo more often tempered a calm, notare-toned suguha'[[c:2]]. His characteristic temper is a suguha-cho, or a wide suguha, that undulates in shallow notare, deep in nioi, the nie laid on thick and strong with coarse ara-nie mixed through it. The feature the judges return to is what runs inside that quiet line: vigorous sunagashi together with long nie-suji and kinsuji, the streaming nie-lines the sources name 'the so-called imozuru of Satsuma'[[c:3]], the yam-vine of the province. On his finest blades these run especially long and are called splendid, the activity in both ji and ha richer than usual.
Beneath that temper the jigane is a tightly packed ko-itame, at times mixed with ko-mokume or flowing toward nagare, with thick ji-nie and chikei entering, and a steel that takes on a markedly blackish tone. Against that dark jigane the bright nioiguchi and coarse nie of the edge stand out, which is much of why a Yasuyo blade reads as it does. The boshi is essentially straight and turns back in an o-maru or a ko-maru, the point swept with hakikake, on the deeper-tempered pieces vigorous enough to take a flame-like cast. His sugata is the other half of the impression: broad in the mihaba, thick in the kasane with ample hiraniku and a chu-kissaki, heavy in the hand and frankly imposing, and almost always preserved ubu with a deep kurijiri, higaki file marks and a long signature.
Within this one settled manner the published sources draw two finer registers. A small number of his blades lean toward masame, the itame flowing and the hada raised a little, and on one such Juyo katana the judges read the whole as 'workmanship that recalls the Yamato Hosho tradition'[[c:4]] and name it a representative piece; the Naminohira and Yamato roots of his training surface there in the standing grain. At the other end of his career, an early katana cut with a four-character signature below the peg-hole is identified as a formative work, and the sources note that such early pieces are comparatively few and valuable for understanding how his style began. The continuity matters more than the divisions: the nie-deki suguha is constant, read once over a calm ko-itame and once over a more standing, masame-tinged jigane.
What sets him apart is exactly what the judges name, and it is best read through his own work rather than against his neighbor's. His is the quiet suguha of the Satsuma pair, its strength carried not in the height of the temper but in the depth of its nioi, the thickness of its nie, and the long imozuru threads that course through it; his ji is dark and well forged, his sugata broad and robust. Of one Tokubetsu Juyo katana the published commentary writes that it is 'his masterpiece, showing outstanding workmanship among his works'[[c:5]], the kind of judgment the sources reserve for the pieces in which the deep nioiguchi, the thick nie and the running kinsuji all come together on a grand, sound body.
For the collector Yasuyo is one of the most sought names in Satsuma shinto, and his record is almost wholly a signed one, twenty of his designated blades carrying his own inscription. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his standing rests instead on four pieces at the Tokubetsu Juyo rank and thirteen at Juyo, with a further prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, seventeen blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers in all. The provenance is unusually grand for a shinto smith: the sources record blades presented from the Shimazu house upward, one katana presented by Shimazu Tsugutoyo to the shogun Yoshimune, another 'presented by the Shimazu family to Konoe Sadaijin Iehisa'[[c:6]], whose household prized it so highly that it sent Yasuyo silver and a set of poems in return. Imperial, Shimazu, Konoe and Tokugawa names run through his denrai. Almost none of this trades; the designated blades are held in long-established collections, and a signed Ippei Yasuyo comes to a private collector only seldom, and as one of the more rewarding Satsuma encounters when it does.
Where Yasuyo 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
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 | 19 |
| Motohira元平 | 1778-1789 | 38 |
| Masayuki正幸 | 1772-1817 | 27 |
| Masakiyo正清 | 1714-1736 | 25 |
| Masayoshi正良 | 1764-1786 | 10 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
For two and a half centuries of peace the sword was the warrior’s legal badge rather than his weapon. Each great city developed its own manner, Edo’s tested strength against Ōsaka’s polished brilliance, until demand thinned in the era’s last decades.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
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 siteReturns/exchanges/cancellations not accepted after shipment except for significant defects; if defective, return/exchange possible within 3 days of arrival (return shipping paid by customer).
This is a masterpiece katana by Ichinohira Yasuyo, a renowned smith from Satsuma active in the middle Edo period. It features a bright and clear jigane with thick nie and fine chikei, and a hamon with deep nie and bright nioikuchi. The blade is accompanied by NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers, confirming its authenticity and quality.
NihontoWatchmei · Kyoho (1716-1736) · nagasa 75.5cm · sori 1.5cm
Ippei (Naminohira line), Satsuma · Satsuma · around 1716-1736
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 14%
1 piece on the market now
Ippei Yasuyo, common name Tamaoki Koichi, was the eldest son of the Satsuma smith Ippei Yasusada, born in Enpo 8 (1680). The published sources record that he learned forging first under his father and then under Yamato no Kami Yasukuni of the main Naminohira line, and that in the first month of Kyoho 6 (1721) he was summoned together with Masakiyo by the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to forge swords in Edo. In recognition of his skill the bakufu permitted him to cut the single-leaf hollyhock crest into his tang, and on his return journey the court appointed him Shume no Suke. He died in Kyoho 13 (1728) at the age of forty-nine, so that the great part of his recorded work falls into the narrow span of years between the Edo summons and that early death. The institutional verdict on him is consistent and almost formulaic across his designations: he and Masakiyo are 'the twin pillars of Satsuma shinto'[[c:1]].
That pairing carries within it the contrast by which his hand is recognized. Where Masakiyo favored a varied, Shizu-like midareba that mixes notare with gunome and pointed togariba, the published sources record that 'Yasuyo more often tempered a calm, notare-toned suguha'[[c:2]]. His characteristic temper is a suguha-cho, or a wide suguha, that undulates in shallow notare, deep in nioi, the nie laid on thick and strong with coarse ara-nie mixed through it. The feature the judges return to is what runs inside that quiet line: vigorous sunagashi together with long nie-suji and kinsuji, the streaming nie-lines the sources name 'the so-called imozuru of Satsuma'[[c:3]], the yam-vine of the province. On his finest blades these run especially long and are called splendid, the activity in both ji and ha richer than usual.
Beneath that temper the jigane is a tightly packed ko-itame, at times mixed with ko-mokume or flowing toward nagare, with thick ji-nie and chikei entering, and a steel that takes on a markedly blackish tone. Against that dark jigane the bright nioiguchi and coarse nie of the edge stand out, which is much of why a Yasuyo blade reads as it does. The boshi is essentially straight and turns back in an o-maru or a ko-maru, the point swept with hakikake, on the deeper-tempered pieces vigorous enough to take a flame-like cast. His sugata is the other half of the impression: broad in the mihaba, thick in the kasane with ample hiraniku and a chu-kissaki, heavy in the hand and frankly imposing, and almost always preserved ubu with a deep kurijiri, higaki file marks and a long signature.
Within this one settled manner the published sources draw two finer registers. A small number of his blades lean toward masame, the itame flowing and the hada raised a little, and on one such Juyo katana the judges read the whole as 'workmanship that recalls the Yamato Hosho tradition'[[c:4]] and name it a representative piece; the Naminohira and Yamato roots of his training surface there in the standing grain. At the other end of his career, an early katana cut with a four-character signature below the peg-hole is identified as a formative work, and the sources note that such early pieces are comparatively few and valuable for understanding how his style began. The continuity matters more than the divisions: the nie-deki suguha is constant, read once over a calm ko-itame and once over a more standing, masame-tinged jigane.
What sets him apart is exactly what the judges name, and it is best read through his own work rather than against his neighbor's. His is the quiet suguha of the Satsuma pair, its strength carried not in the height of the temper but in the depth of its nioi, the thickness of its nie, and the long imozuru threads that course through it; his ji is dark and well forged, his sugata broad and robust. Of one Tokubetsu Juyo katana the published commentary writes that it is 'his masterpiece, showing outstanding workmanship among his works'[[c:5]], the kind of judgment the sources reserve for the pieces in which the deep nioiguchi, the thick nie and the running kinsuji all come together on a grand, sound body.
For the collector Yasuyo is one of the most sought names in Satsuma shinto, and his record is almost wholly a signed one, twenty of his designated blades carrying his own inscription. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his standing rests instead on four pieces at the Tokubetsu Juyo rank and thirteen at Juyo, with a further prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, seventeen blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers in all. The provenance is unusually grand for a shinto smith: the sources record blades presented from the Shimazu house upward, one katana presented by Shimazu Tsugutoyo to the shogun Yoshimune, another 'presented by the Shimazu family to Konoe Sadaijin Iehisa'[[c:6]], whose household prized it so highly that it sent Yasuyo silver and a set of poems in return. Imperial, Shimazu, Konoe and Tokugawa names run through his denrai. Almost none of this trades; the designated blades are held in long-established collections, and a signed Ippei Yasuyo comes to a private collector only seldom, and as one of the more rewarding Satsuma encounters when it does.
Where Yasuyo 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
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 | 19 |
| Motohira元平 | 1778-1789 | 38 |
| Masayuki正幸 | 1772-1817 | 27 |
| Masakiyo正清 | 1714-1736 | 25 |
| Masayoshi正良 | 1764-1786 | 10 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
For two and a half centuries of peace the sword was the warrior’s legal badge rather than his weapon. Each great city developed its own manner, Edo’s tested strength against Ōsaka’s polished brilliance, until demand thinned in the era’s last decades.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
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 siteReturns/exchanges/cancellations not accepted after shipment except for significant defects; if defective, return/exchange possible within 3 days of arrival (return shipping paid by customer).
