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About the maker

Sukesada祐定

Every designated work that survives under the Hikozaemon-no-jo Sukesada signature is a katana, ubu and dated, the earliest the Tenbun 16 (1547) blade that carries beside its long signature a nine-character kuji-in seal, the auspicious characters Daikichi, and a bonji, and the latest the Tensho 4 (1576) commission made for Wada Izumo no Kami of Harima. The name Sukesada is the great late-Muromachi name of Osafune, carried by a body of Sue-Bizen smiths of whom the most highly regarded bore distinguishing common-name titles: Yosozaemon no Jo, Genbei no Jo, Hikobei no Jo, and the Hikozaemon no Jo whose blades are gathered here. The published sources are candid that Hikozaemon no Jo stands somewhat lower in name than the first two, yet they judge these particular blades especially well made, one of them "a representative masterwork among Sue-Bizen swords" (末備前物の代表作の一口). His hand is the mature Sue-Bizen katana, and the signature itself runs in three same-signature generations, read off the Meikan as a first in Eisho, a second in Tenbun-Eiroku, and a third in Genki-Tensho. The distinguishing matter of his work is a single declared division of manner. The published sources state it almost verbatim across the corpus: the work of this period divides broadly into a koshi-biraki gunome-midare that develops into a compound, layered form, and a suguha-cho into which ashi and yo enter (直刃調に足・葉の入ったもの). The first is the flamboyant pole. Over the jigane he tempers a midare whose valleys open at the base, deeply hardened, the gunome building into the doubled fukushiki structure, abundant ashi and yo within it, ko-nie attaching, with sunagashi and kinsuji running through; on the most agitated of these the nioiguchi is bright, while on others it grows subdued. The second is the quiet pole, a suguha-cho or broad suguha carrying ashi and yo well, ko-nie with sunagashi, the nioiguchi tending toward a tightened look, and on one Tensho katana yubashiri and a touch of tobiyaki gather around the monouchi. A blade falls cleanly into one mode or the other, and the judges name which on each. The jigane is the constant beneath both manners. It is a compact ko-itame, on the broader katana an itame, well forged and tight, with ji-nie attaching; on one blade it tightens so far as to appear muji-like, almost featureless, and on another it loosens into a standing hada (hada-dachi) mixed with mokume and carries muneyaki along the back. The forging is where the judges most often single him out: of the Tenbun 16 katana they write that the kitae is "outstanding" (鍛えは抜群), forged in itame with ji-nie and abundant chikei, presenting overall "a strongly steely character" (総体につよい鉄味を呈している). The boshi answers the hamon mode: midare-komi turning ko-maru, sometimes deeply tempered into a yakizume-like tip on the flamboyant blades, and a ko-maru with a long return, pointed, or faintly hakikake on the suguha ones. The sugata is the late-Muromachi katana throughout, a broad shinogi-zukuri with iori-mune, sakizori, and an extended chu-kissaki tending to an o-kissaki, the shinogi at times shaved high. The generations are read directly off the nakago, since the blades are ubu and each carries a long signature on the omote with a date on the ura. The published sources date a piece, then place it against the three Hikozaemon no Jo of the Meikan: the Tenbun 16 and Tenbun 17 katana as the second generation, the Tensho 1 and Tensho 4 katana as the third. The second generation's working range they call broad, taking in koshi-biraki gunome, suguha, and hitatsura alike, and in each they perceive a high level of technique. The lengthening of the blade and of the nakago across these dates is read as a sign of the age: the tachi had fallen entirely out of use, and in its place the long uchigatana came to be worn and used two-handed with the development of swordsmanship, so the Sue-Bizen dimensions grow accordingly. The two modes and the three generations are orthogonal, the one a matter of manner and the other of date, and a full reading of any blade gives both. Within his school he belongs to the dense Sue-Bizen Osafune body of the late Muromachi, the last great phase of the long Osafune line. The published sources rank Hikozaemon no Jo among the representative masters of the Sukesada group together with Yosozaemon no Jo, Genbei no Jo, and Hikobei no Jo, the smiths whose works, in their words, are foremost for the number of fine pieces and for especially high technical skill. His own distinction is read not by borrowing a comparison but by his own grounded traits, the two declared modes held on a tight ko-itame with ji-nie and the steely forging the judges praise, the descent kept within the one name rather than carried out to other lines. The Tenbun 16 katana, of which they say swords bearing the same signature are few, they call for that reason a representative work of the second generation. Fujishiro rates the smith Jo-saku, and his designation record is modest: seven blades on record, all at the Juyo level, the higher designation tiers not among them. They are a body of late-koto katana held in private and long-recorded hands, and one of recorded whereabouts appears from time to time rather than rarely, a more findable thing than a Kamakura tachi though not on that account common. Provenance survives clearly on one: the Tensho 4 blade was made for Wada Izumo no Kami, a resident of Banshu, its owner inscription reading that it was "to be handed down through the generations of that house" (為播州住和田出雲守重代延之也), so that the katana descended through the Wada family as a heritable sword. For a collector the Hikozaemon no Jo Sukesada is the approachable end of a famous name, a dated and signed late-Bizen katana on which the two-mode reading and the generational frame can be worked out in the hand, and on the best of which, as the published sources say of the Tenbun 16 piece, the forging is outstanding.

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