Sengoku Seki was an industry: smiths organized under their tutelary Kasuga shrine, arming the war bands of central Japan. Magoroku Kanemoto’s sanbonsugi and the finest Kanesada work prove quality survived inside mass production.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThe Kanemoto school, widely known for the activities of the second generation who is honored as Magoroku, began around the Meio era and responded to the trust of military commanders by sending swords with excellent cutting ability to the battlefield in response to the demands of the Sengoku period. The requirements of Sengoku military commanders for Mino swords are expressed in the saying "unbreakable, unbendable, and cuts well," and the Kanemoto school pushed their research to the limit, from the shaping of the sword and the sharply crafted edge to the method of orikaeshi tanren, the shape of the hamon, and the nie and nioi of the yakiba, reaching a level of skill that would later be ranked as Saijo O-wazamono. The naginata was a practical weapon that was valued even more than the sword during the Sengoku period. This maker, Kanemoto, signs with a mei similar to "Makoroku Kanemoto (Note)," who is inferred to be a student of Magoroku, and is considered to be one who served Magoroku Kanemoto with high skill. The Tomoe-gata sugata, with a strong sori starting from around the monouchi, enhances the effectiveness of the stroke. The structure, with a high shinogi and the meat near the mune shaved away to improve the passage of the blade, is a characteristic of the naginata. Furthermore, the edge is made thin and the yakihaba narrow, considering the prevention of breakage even in fierce combat. The jigane, forged in itame hada with areas of hada-tatsu and a nagare-gokoro, gives an overall impression of a sticky tenacity, and the entire surface is white and bright with a fearsome Seki-utsuri. The hamon is a continuous ko-gunome mixed with togari-ba, with the midare becoming stronger around the monouchi, and the boshi is accompanied by hakikake, maintaining the same tone to the tip and returning very slightly. The yakiba with a tight nioiguchi has ko-nie along the habuchi, and accompanying the midare around the monouchi, yubashiri, kinsan, nie-suji, and hotsure are active. On the nakago, which has taka-no-ha yasurime, a characteristic mei of the Magoroku Kanemoto school is carved, although it is small. It is an excellent naginata, of which few examples remain among Seki-mono. A naginata koshirae with striking shu-urushi, made in a rugged Sengoku period style, is attached. Note... Handed down in the Yamauchi family. Additionally, there is a work with the mei "Kanemoto Makoroku saku" in the "Kozan Oshigata".
NihontoWatchOffered by Choshuya
22 on the market
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Mino-den · Mino
22 pieces on the market now
Kanemoto (兼元) worked at Akasaka in Mino Province, and the line takes its place among the smiths of the late Muromachi period whom the NBTHK registers under the Mino-den tradition centered on Seki. The setsumei place the family within the Sue-Seki (Sue-Mino) milieu, naming Kanemoto alongside Kanesada as the two leading figures of the province in this era; one tantō note instead pairs the name with Kaneshiba, and another with Izumi no Kami Kaneshige, marking the company the line kept. The name passed through successive generations, and the records repeatedly state that distinguishing each generation has not been definitively settled. Dated long signatures reading "Nōshū Akasaka-jū Kanemoto" survive from the Meiō, Bunki, Daiei, Kyōroku, and Eishō eras, while two-character signatures bear no date. The first generation is documented through pieces dated Meiō 6, 8, 9, and 10, all giving the Akasaka residence; the most accomplished hand, and the one the world singles out under the sobriquet "Magoroku Kanemoto," is the second generation. The shared vocabulary of the line is the sanbonsugi (three-cedar) gunome, a sequence of linked pointed crests that rise and fall in groups. The ground is Mino-den through and through: itame-hada mixed with mokume and flowing masame, tending toward standing grain (hada-dachi), with fine ji-nie, chikei, and a whitish shirake-utsuri that the setsumei call out again and again. The temper mixes togariba (pointed elements) and gunome, is nioi-dominant with ko-nie, and runs sunagashi, kinsuji, and occasional tobiyaki; the bōshi is typically midare-komi turning in ko-maru, often described as Jizō-like with hakikake or a falling kaeri. The chief means of separating the second generation from the later line is regularity: as the generations descend, the pointed crests grow sharply angular and standardized, whereas Magoroku's sanbonsugi is deliberately uneven, the gunome heads rounded in places, and the pattern shifts freely into nihonsugi, yonsugi, and gosugi groupings of two, four, and five. The records describe this as a gyōsō (cursive, free) manner.
The first generation, by contrast, does not emphasize sanbonsugi at all, favoring gunome mixed with gunome-chōji and at times yubashiri and tobiyaki; both generations also made suguha, and one tantō is an uncommon Rai-utsushi in elegant straight temper that evokes Kaneyuki. For kantei, the line is read through the standing Mino grain, the shirake-utsuri, and above all the irregular sanbonsugi, with the leaning bōshi a noted point: the records observe that the honka model and these blades share a bōshi that falls over. Named and documented works recur across the register. A naginata dated Kyōroku 1 (1528) carries the full Akasaka signature and is valued as documentary source material, dated two-character pieces being scarce. A katana bearing a kinzōgan inscription on the reverse is known as "Sasatsuyu Kanemoto" and is recorded in the hands of Makishima Kenmotsu Akishige, of the same clan as Furuta Kosukezaemon. The "Aoki Kanemoto," a second-generation work, is said to be the sword with which Aoki Ichishige, a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu, killed Magara Masataka of the Asakura side at the Battle of Anegawa in Genki 1 (1570). A further katana carries a Genna 1 (1615) kinzōgan cutting-test inscription by Nakagawa Saheita reading "two bodies," and one suguha katana descended in the Echizen Matsudaira family. Two katana signed Kanemoto are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. Across these works the line is registered as the cutting-edged representative of Sue-Seki, its hand recognized wherever the three-cedar temper runs uneven over standing Mino steel. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1521-1528 | 30 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1573-1592 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1592-1596 | 0 |
| Kanemoto兼元 | 1818-1830 | 0 |
Mino in the Muromachi period
Sengoku Seki was an industry: smiths organized under their tutelary Kasuga shrine, arming the war bands of central Japan. Magoroku Kanemoto’s sanbonsugi and the finest Kanesada work prove quality survived inside mass production.
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.
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