War at home and trade abroad made Muromachi Bizen the busiest forge region in Japan: a century of Sengoku demand after the Ōnin War, and export missions to Ming China carrying blades by the tens of thousands.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch出ました出ました協会では国不明となっておりますが本太刀は鎌倉時代正和頃（1313年）（710年前）から代々続く備中青江長次として伝えられた名刀です。本刀は長次3代目室町初期応永頃（1394年）（629年前）の長次の太刀で国不明とありますが鞘書きに従い末青江長次として解説をいたします。本太刀の姿は元は2尺6寸の長い太刀を後世の武士が自分の差料にしたいがために自分の剣法に合わせて短くした元身幅と先身幅の差の少ない反りの高い優美な太刀姿を現し、地金は小板目肌が良く詰んだ地金を鍛え所々澄肌を現し地にはみだれ映りが立ち、彫りは棒樋を彫り、刃紋はきりりと締った匂い出来の直刃が如何にも青江の名刀を現しています。地金がすこぶる良く地刃も健全で、室町時代初期の青江の特徴を良く現した太刀です。国不明とありますが時代的に長次は同時代には青江にしかおらず青江長次で良いのでしょう。青江の刀を持つのは刀剣コレクターの憧れの的です。この度古いお数寄者様から後進の方にお安くお譲りくださいとお預かりしたために特別に格安にて御提供いたします。青江には名匠が多く貞次、恒次、次家などは後鳥羽上皇の御番鍛冶として名高い刀工です。是非お楽しみ下さいませ。
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Bizen-den · Bitchu · around 1394-1428
Fujishiro Chu saku · Tōken Taikan top 39%
1 piece on the market now
Where Nagatsugu stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Bizen-den · Bitchu
Phase: Sue-Aoe末青江· 1334–1500
20 pieces on the market now
Sue-Aoe names the closing chapter of the Bitchū tradition, the work made after the Aoe smiths reached the height of their powers in the Nanbokuchō era and then carried the lineage forward into Muromachi decline. The window is anchored by the hands the NBTHK repeatedly groups together as the representative smiths of the period: Tsuguyoshi (次吉), Tsugunao or Tsuginao (次直), and Moritsugu (守次), with Naotsugu (直次), Yoshitsugu (吉次), and a Sadatsugu (貞次) name carried down from the late Kamakura masters into this later age. Dated blades fix the chronology firmly, from a Moritsugu tantō of Enbun 3 (1358) and a Naotsugu in the Ryakuō years through Tsuguyoshi pieces of Teiji 2 (1363) and Kōan 2 (1362). These men succeeded the late-Kamakura-into-early-Nanbokuchō generation that produced Sadatsugu and the earlier Moritsugu, and they worked at the moment the Southern Court's fortunes were turning, after which the school thinned out. The very tail of the line surfaces in obscure later Bitchū hands such as Munesada and Sōtei of Kasaoka, dated Bunmei 13 (1481), whose lineage the records leave unknown and whose work the setsumei describe as nearly indistinguishable from late Bizen. Sugata is the first tell. Setsumei after setsumei records a wide mihaba with little taper from base to tip, thin kasane, sun-nobi proportion in the tantō and an extended chū-kissaki or outright ō-kissaki in the larger blades, the broad Nanbokuchō build that the earlier Aoe never carried. The jihada keeps the school signature of ko-itame mixed with mokume, finely standing, with mottled jifu and patches of sumihada drifting through the steel. Above all the period is read in its utsuri: streak-like suji-utsuri rises near the edge and stacks into the layered dan-utsuri the catalogues prize, seen plainly on the Tsugiyoshi tachi of Tokuju 21 and the dated Tsuguyoshi tantō of Juyo 58.
Two tempers divide the leading hands. Tsuguyoshi favors a tight, bright suguha with ko-ashi and saka-ashi; Tsugunao favors the flamboyant saka-chōji-midare with its reverse slant, ashi and yō pouring in, that matured around Enbun. Against this the Ko-Aoe of the mid-Kamakura ran ko-nie-deki with a subdued, shizumi nioiguchi over a refined chirimen-hada, while the late-Kamakura Chū-Aoe of Sadatsugu and Moritsugu stood between, the nie growing calmer and the reverse-slanting yakiba only beginning to foreshadow the later drama. Crucially the period remained nioi-deki where other provinces took up Sōshū nie, a holding distinction the setsumei mark out by name. For kantei the cluster reads together. A broad Nanbokuchō sugata, dan-utsuri over sumihada, ō-sujikai file marks on the tang, and a nioiguchi that is tight and clear point to this window rather than to Bizen of the same age; the choice between bright suguha and reverse saka-chōji then separates Tsuguyoshi from Tsugunao, while Naotsugu's forceful reverse-chisel mei and nezumi-ashi, and Moritsugu's kinsuji in a tight suguha, mark their own hands. The named masters carry strong provenance: a Tsugiyoshi wakizashi dated Enbun 2 descended in the Maeda family, a Yoshitsugu tantō passed to the Sakai of Himeji by gift of Tokugawa Ietsuna, and an ō-suriage den Tsuguyoshi katana ran through the Yanagisawa house with Hon'ami origami from Mitsuatsu. Honma's own remark singling out Tsugiyoshi and Tsuginao as the makers of the clearest chōji in tantō fixes their standing at the close of the Aoe story. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Tsugunao次直 | 1345-1361 | 26 |
| Masatsune正恒 | 1213-1219 | 31 |
| Naotsugu直次 | 1288-1350 | 20 |
| Yasutsugu康次 | 1211-1213 | 10 |
| Kanetsugu包次 | 1211-1213 | 9 |
Bizen in the Muromachi period
War at home and trade abroad made Muromachi Bizen the busiest forge region in Japan: a century of Sengoku demand after the Ōnin War, and export missions to Ming China carrying blades by the tens of thousands.
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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