When the single character 左 passed from the founder's hand to those of his pupils and sons, the Sa workshop of Chikuzen entered the chapter the sword books gather under the name Sue-Sa. The NBTHK names the line repeatedly: Yasuyoshi, Yukihiro, Yoshisada, Kunihiro, Hiroyuki, Hiroyasu, Sadayoshi, with Kōan and Sadakuni read among them, each said to have taken up the master's manner. The succession is also a dispersal. Yasuyoshi, called a son of O-Sa, carried the style north from Chikuzen into Chōshū (Nagato), where his descendants and the smith Akikuni continued it; Hiroyasu, transmitted as a son of Yukihiro, is recorded as moving later to Aki. The dated work places this phase from the early Nanbokuchō years through Shōhei and Eiwa and on into the Ōei era of early Muromachi, by which point the Chōshū Yasuyoshi name had clearly passed to a second-generation hand whose pieces the judges separate by signature and workmanship from those of the first. The inherited idiom is the Sōshū-den manner the founder brought from Sagami, read now at a generational remove. The ground stays itame mixed with ko-itame and mokume, the grain standing (hada-dachi), carrying thick ji-nie and frequent chikei, over which the smiths temper a notare or suguha base mixed with gunome, ko-gunome, and pointed (togari) elements, with ashi and yō entering, deep nioi, thick ko-nie, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi drawn through. The bōshi thrusts up (tsukiage) to a pointed tip with hakikake and a long return, the one trait the setsumei hold to across the whole line. Against the founder, the register shifts.

Where O-Sa stands for bright, clear ji-nie, the Sue-Sa setsumei more often note a steel of darker, blackish cast and a nioiguchi tending toward shizumi (subdued). The pattern standardizes: signed work survives chiefly as tantō, and the judges remark that a strongly distinct individuality is hard to isolate among them. A Bizen lean enters at the edges, the setsumei reading in Yasuyoshi a nioi-dominant temper with bō-utsuri near the ha that mingles a Bizen character, and noting faint utsuri in several Hiroyasu blades. A collector reads Sue-Sa against the apex through the same two anchors the school is judged by, ground and point, but inverted in emphasis. Because brilliance no longer settles the matter, gunome prominence becomes the working key: the Hon'ami house long appraised the most vigorously midare blades of the "Sa ichirui" to Kunihiro, and the conspicuous-gunome mumei katana repeatedly fall to Hiroyasu, while the pointed, brushed bōshi with its long kaeri keeps the attribution within the line. The named masters anchor the phase, Kunihiro for the boldest large-pattern midare enlivened by yubashiri and tobiyaki, Yasuyoshi for the Bizen-tinged Chōshū work, Sadakuni recorded as a son of Kunihiro whose few surviving tantō approach the founder's hand, Kōan and Hiroyasu reaching across into Ōei. The provenance threads through the great houses the setsumei cite: the signed Yoshihiro tachi from the Bizen Ikeda family, a Sadakuni tantō held by the Mōri, Hiroyasu blades transmitted in the Kuroda, Takasu Matsudaira, and Hisamatsu houses, several carrying Hon'ami Kōchū and Kōon origami. For the student of Sōshū-den, Sue-Sa is the Sagami manner held one step past its Chikuzen height, transmitted, divided across provinces, and carried into the Muromachi age. Learn more →

When the single character 左 passed from the founder's hand to those of his pupils and sons, the Sa workshop of Chikuzen entered the chapter the sword books gather under the name Sue-Sa. The NBTHK names the line repeatedly: Yasuyoshi, Yukihiro, Yoshisada, Kunihiro, Hiroyuki, Hiroyasu, Sadayoshi, with Kōan and Sadakuni read among them, each said to have taken up the master's manner. The succession is also a dispersal. Yasuyoshi, called a son of O-Sa, carried the style north from Chikuzen into Chōshū (Nagato), where his descendants and the smith Akikuni continued it; Hiroyasu, transmitted as a son of Yukihiro, is recorded as moving later to Aki. The dated work places this phase from the early Nanbokuchō years through Shōhei and Eiwa and on into the Ōei era of early Muromachi, by which point the Chōshū Yasuyoshi name had clearly passed to a second-generation hand whose pieces the judges separate by signature and workmanship from those of the first. The inherited idiom is the Sōshū-den manner the founder brought from Sagami, read now at a generational remove. The ground stays itame mixed with ko-itame and mokume, the grain standing (hada-dachi), carrying thick ji-nie and frequent chikei, over which the smiths temper a notare or suguha base mixed with gunome, ko-gunome, and pointed (togari) elements, with ashi and yō entering, deep nioi, thick ko-nie, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi drawn through. The bōshi thrusts up (tsukiage) to a pointed tip with hakikake and a long return, the one trait the setsumei hold to across the whole line. Against the founder, the register shifts.

Where O-Sa stands for bright, clear ji-nie, the Sue-Sa setsumei more often note a steel of darker, blackish cast and a nioiguchi tending toward shizumi (subdued). The pattern standardizes: signed work survives chiefly as tantō, and the judges remark that a strongly distinct individuality is hard to isolate among them. A Bizen lean enters at the edges, the setsumei reading in Yasuyoshi a nioi-dominant temper with bō-utsuri near the ha that mingles a Bizen character, and noting faint utsuri in several Hiroyasu blades. A collector reads Sue-Sa against the apex through the same two anchors the school is judged by, ground and point, but inverted in emphasis. Because brilliance no longer settles the matter, gunome prominence becomes the working key: the Hon'ami house long appraised the most vigorously midare blades of the "Sa ichirui" to Kunihiro, and the conspicuous-gunome mumei katana repeatedly fall to Hiroyasu, while the pointed, brushed bōshi with its long kaeri keeps the attribution within the line. The named masters anchor the phase, Kunihiro for the boldest large-pattern midare enlivened by yubashiri and tobiyaki, Yasuyoshi for the Bizen-tinged Chōshū work, Sadakuni recorded as a son of Kunihiro whose few surviving tantō approach the founder's hand, Kōan and Hiroyasu reaching across into Ōei. The provenance threads through the great houses the setsumei cite: the signed Yoshihiro tachi from the Bizen Ikeda family, a Sadakuni tantō held by the Mōri, Hiroyasu blades transmitted in the Kuroda, Takasu Matsudaira, and Hisamatsu houses, several carrying Hon'ami Kōchū and Kōon origami. For the student of Sōshū-den, Sue-Sa is the Sagami manner held one step past its Chikuzen height, transmitted, divided across provinces, and carried into the Muromachi age. Learn more →