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Kashu Kanewaka兼若

A katana dated Genna 5 (1619), eighth month, carries the firm signature Kashū-jū Kanewaka tsukuru and stands as the documentary cornerstone of the line: the published sources call it "a superior piece that clearly shows a Shizu-style approach, and valuable as reference material" (志津風をよく示した優作で、資料的にも貴重である). This is the first-generation Kanewaka, the founder of the Kaga (Kanazawa) Shintō house that bears his name. He styled himself Tsujimura Jinroku and later Shirōemon-no-jō; descended from the Seki smiths of Mino, he moved to Kaga and was retained there, and his extant first-generation work begins with dated pieces of Keichō 12 (1607). Around Genna 5 he received the court title Etchū no Kami and changed his name to Takahira, so the bulk of his earlier blades are signed in the six characters Kashū-jū Kanewaka saku, and the later ones Etchū no Kami Fujiwara Takahira. He is the root of the Kaga Shintō tradition. His hand is read first by its strong Mino character. Over an *itame* that flows and stands, masame-leaning in places, with *chikei* entering and *ji-nie* adhering, he tempers a shallow *notare* mixed with *gunome* and small *gunome*, pointed *togari-ba* and a box-leaning element. The *nioiguchi* runs tight and bright, *ko-nie* adhering well and at times gathering into coarse *nie*, with *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* drawn frequently through the line. The published sources read this directly as a Shizu, indeed a Naoe-Shizu, manner carried out of Mino into Kaga. On his finest signed katana the judges find that "the *ji* and *ha* clearly display Kanewaka's distinctive characteristics, the *nie* adheres well, and the blade conveys a spirited, forceful presence" (地刃に兼若の特色がよく示されてよく沸つき、覇気がある). The *jigane* is the constant of his work. It is an *itame* that flows toward the edge and the back, standing a little, masame-inclined in stretches, with *chikei* and *ji-nie*, the steel at times dark-toned yet clear. Over that *jigane* the temper carries the box-leaning quality that became the family tell: a *hako*-gakatta element worked into the *notare* and *gunome*. On the first generation it stays soft and *nie*-collapsing rather than crisply drawn; the published sources note that a clearly defined *hako-ba* is comparatively uncommon in his own hand and grows sharp only from the second and third generations. The *bōshi* runs in *notare-komi* to a *ko-maru*, sometimes pointed and brushed, and several blades carry twin grooves cut through to a *kaki-nagashi* finish, while one bears a grass-style *kurikara* with *bonji* and *gomabashi*. Within the first generation the published sources draw a careful internal distinction. The rare blades signed in the bare two characters Kanewaka are read as the oldest in tone: of one such katana the judges write that "among the two-character Kanewaka, this example is the most archaic even within the first generation" (この二字銘の兼若は初代中でも古調), and that the other early pieces accord with it. These archaic works show an *itame* leaning to *masame*, somewhat rough and *zanguri*, the temper a *ko-nie* construction with the *nioiguchi* tightening, small *gunome* running linked, *togari-ba*, *kuichigai-ba* and *sunagashi*. He worked across every form, and the published sources observe of one of his katana that "extant works by the first-generation Kanewaka are extremely few in every form, *katana*, *wakizashi* and *tantō* alike" (現存する初代兼若の作刀は、刀、脇指、短刀ともに極めて少く), which makes each surviving piece of evident value. He also left a *ken*, the double-edged form notoriously difficult to make well, which the judges single out as exceptionally well executed and important as documentary material. What sets the first-generation Kanewaka apart, within the Kaga school he founded and against the wider field of Keichō Shintō, is exactly what the judges name in his own blades. His is the Mino-Shizu manner brought to Kaga, the flowing *itame*, the *notare* with *gunome* and *togari-ba*, the *sunagashi* and *kinsuji*, the soft box-leaning temper that has not yet hardened into the sharp *hako-ba* of his successors. One wakizashi is described as recalling in certain respects the tradition associated with Muramasa, in the matching of its temper on both faces, a resemblance the published sources offer as colour rather than attribution. He stands before the maturing of the Kaga line, the founding hand from which Matasuke and the later Shirōemon descend. For the collector he is a scarce founding name of the Kaga Shintō tradition. Fujishiro grades the first generation Jō-jō saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin and the modern Jūyō tier, with several signed and dated katana, a wakizashi, a tantō and the *ken* among them. His blades are preserved in long-held private collections grounded in their own provenance, one Jūyō Bijutsuhin katana recorded from the Ueno Kahei collection. Because so few first-generation works survive in any form, a signed Kanewaka of the shodai comes to light only seldom, and a privately held example is a notable thing for a collector to encounter, a dated document of how Kaga Shintō began.

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