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About the maker

Tadayoshi Masahiro正廣

The second-generation Masahiro of Hizen was born in Kan'ei 4 (1627), the son and direct heir of the first-generation Kawachi Daijo Masahiro, and he died in Genroku 12 (1699) at the age of seventy-three. He styled himself Sadenji and first signed Masanaga; in Manji 3 (1660) he received the title Musashi no Daijo and then Musashi no Kami, and on the death of his father in Kanbun 5 (1665), when he was thirty-nine, he transferred to the title Kawachi no Kami and took up the name Masahiro. He worked within the Hizen Tadayoshi main line at Saga, and the published sources read him as a successor who matched his father so nearly that in many pieces the hands cannot be separated, the workmanship of both, in *suguha* and in *midareba*, holding "scarcely anything by which to rank one above the other" (殆んど甲乙つけがたい). He inherited the refined Hizen *jigane* and the bright temper directly, and his record divides cleanly into two manners. His characteristic hand is the flamboyant *midareba* the published sources say he favored above all, "especially adept at the irregular temper" (特に乱れ刃を得意としている). Over the *jigane* he lays a *choji*-dominant *midare*, into which he mixes *gunome*, round-headed *gunome*, large *gunome* and a shallow *ko-notare*, with at times a *yahazu*-like or angular flavor, opening on occasion from a slight *yakidashi* at the base and linking the clusters of *midare* with a quieter *notare*-toned line. The temper is laid high and low; long *ashi* enter frequently with *yo* among them; the *nioiguchi* is deep, with thick *ko-nie* gathering in the valleys of the *midare* and *tobiyaki* breaking out above; *sunagashi* runs broadly and long *kinsuji* appear, and the *nioiguchi* is bright and clear. The published sources call the broad *yakihaba* into which he develops this flamboyant *choji-midare* "precisely the area in which he excelled" (正に彼の独壇場), and they read the *yahazu*-like teeth and round-headed *gunome* set into the temper as the tell of his particular *ha-dori*. The *jigane* is the constant beneath both manners. It is a tightly packed *ko-itame*, the grain at times standing a little, into which extremely fine *ji-nie* is laid thickly until it takes on the rice-bran *komenuka-hada* characteristic of Hizen work, with fine *chikei* entering throughout and the steel bright. This is the same refined *jigane* the Hizen main house carried, and the second-generation Masahiro forges it faithfully, so that the showy edge sits over a quiet, lucid surface. The *boshi*, on either manner, runs straight into a *ko-maru* with *hakikake* and a deep turnback, at times opening into a small *midare-komi* or a larger *maru*. The *sugata* is robust and dignified, often wide in body with a thick *kasane* and an extended *chu-kissaki*, at times reaching an *o-kissaki*. The other face of his record is the *chu-suguha*, the manner the published sources note he commanded in greater number than the first generation, observing that "works in suguha are encountered more frequently in his output than in that of the first Masahiro" (初代正広よりも直刃の作品が多く見られる). It is a medium straight temper that takes on a shallow *notare*-tendency in places and mixes *ko-ashi* and *gunome-ashi*, at times a *kuichigai* flavor and a small *gunome* about the *monouchi*; the *nioiguchi* stays deep with thick *ko-nie*, in places a coarser *nie*, *sunagashi* running and long *kinsuji* appearing, the whole bright and clear over the same *komenuka* *jigane*. The published sources hold his *suguha* even and consistent, and call one such blade conspicuous for a deeper *nioi* and a thicker *nie* than the *suguha* usually seen from him, reading the manner as recalling the *suguha* at which the Hizen main house excelled. His blades are signed Hizen no Kuni Kawachi no Kami Fujiwara Masahiro, and at times Kawachi no Kami Fuji-uji Masahiro; several are dated, in Kanbun 7 and Kanbun 12, giving fixed points in his career. What sets him apart within the school is read first from the signature, not the steel, since his hand follows his father's so closely. The published sources name the means of telling the two generations: the form of the element within the character Fuji, written one way by the first generation and another by the second, and an added stroke in the element of the character Hiro, together with his consistent practice of signing katana on the *sashi-ura*, the differing manner a guard against forgery. In workmanship the distinction is one of proportion rather than kind: the father favored the *midareba* and the son carries the same flamboyant *choji-midare* forward, while the son's *suguha*, the more numerous of the two for him, returns the line to the calm straight temper that is the main house's own signature. For the collector he is a Hizen master of the Kanbun era recorded entirely in the *Juyo* tier, where twenty-four of his works are designated; Fujishiro grades him *Jo saku*. He has no National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties, and his designation record stands instead on that body of *Juyo* blades, among the denser such records for a Shinto smith. The published commentary calls one of his katana "a sword that stands as a representative example of Hizen-to" (肥前刀を代表する一刀) and another the "most flamboyant and brilliant workmanship seen among his works" (同作中最も華やかな出来), while noting that cutting-test inscriptions are themselves rare on Hizen blades, that "on Hizen blades pieces bearing cutting-test inscriptions are extremely rare" (肥前力に試し銘のあるものは極めて稀). Several of his katana carry the gold-inlaid cutting tests of Yamano Kanjuro Hisahide and the nicknames that go with them, Tsugi-kosode, Aranami and Senpu, each praising the blade's sharpness. No owner provenance is recorded on his designated blades, so the honest account is that they pass quietly among private and institutional collections of recorded whereabouts; one of his *Juyo* works in *midareba* or *suguha* comes to the market only from time to time, a substantial acquisition when it does, and the most direct way for a collector to hold a sword of the Hizen main line at the height of its second generation.

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