NihontoWatchSwordsmith This blade is attributed to Bizen Osafune Tomomitsu (備前長船倫光) during the Joji era (1362-1368: Nanbokucho era) according to the NTHK’s appraisal. Bizen is the name of the province located in Today’s Okayama prefecture, and Osafune is the name of the prestigious school. Tomomitsu is also known as Rintomo among Japanese sword collectors. Tomimitsu was active in sword forging during 1345-1375, and he is one of the most highly-regarded swordsmiths in Bizen province. It is said that Tomomitsu was an apprentice of Kanemitsu, one of the most skilled swordsmiths in Japanese sword history. One of Tomitsu’s works is designated as a national treasure of Japan. Two of them are specified as Important Cultural Property of Japan. The tang of this blade has Tanzaku Mei. Tanzaku Mei is a kind of signature that was cut from the original tang when the blade was shortened (Suriage). Instead of just cutting the signature part of the blade, it was embedded in the tang. It was named after a Japanese strip of paper (Tanzaku) because the shape of the signature resembles it. While this signature is no longer legible, based on the characteristic of the blade and other factors, NTHK attributes it to the work of Tomomitsu. When this blade was forged, Japan had a tumultuous time called the Nanbokucho period. The imperial court was split into two sides(south and north). There were so many conflicts, and the trend in battlefields among Samurai was to use a surprisingly long sword. This blade doesn’t look massive today, but we assume it used to be quite a long sword based on the tang’s shape. This History of Bizen Osafune School It is said that Osafune school was founded by Mitsutada (光忠), who was active during the mid-Kamakura period. Bizen Osafune school was the biggest one of all other schools in Bizen province, and they received many orders from feudal lords or renowned Samurai. They were called Osafunemono and beloved by Samurai warriors. Among the swordsmiths who belonged to this school, Nagamitsu, Sanenaga, and Kagemitsu are known as Osafune Sansaku, the three renowned Osafune swordsmiths. There are also four other prominent swordsmiths who were from Bizen Osafune school. They are called Osafune Shiten-no, the four masters of Osafune school. Their names are Nagamitsu, Kanemitsu, Nagayoshi, and Motoshige. BIZEN is located near the Chugoku Mountains, where iron sands, one of the essential materials for making Japanese swords, were abundant. Furthermore, BIZEN swordsmiths had close access to Yoshi River, where they could find water and charcoal. This geological location contributed to the swordsmiths forging high-quality refined blades. We presume BIZEN was quite active in sword-forging from ancient times. It is said that BIZEN DEN was created by groups of swordsmiths there during the late Heian era (Late 12th century ). These ancient swordsmiths in Bizen province are called Ko-Bizen (Old Bizen) swordsmiths. By inheriting the sword forging techniques from Ko-Bizen swordsmiths, the Bizen Osafune school flourished from the mid-Kamakura period. Horimono You can find a Tsurugi (Double-edged blade) Horimono at the bottom of the blade. This might be Kurikaraken. Kurikara-Ken (倶利伽羅剣) is the sword that Fudo Myo-O (不動明王, acalanātha) holds with his right hand(you can see it on the tang part). Fudo Myo-O is one of the objects of worship in Buddhism. According to a theory, it is the incarnation of Dainichi Nyorai (大日如来, Mahāvairocana, the principal image of esoteric Buddhism). Kurikara-ken was named due to its appearance that Kurikara Ryu-O (倶利伽羅龍王, dragon) is winding around the sword. It is believed Kurikara-Ken could cut off worldly desires: Sandoku (三毒). Sandoku is the three fundamental earthly desires; Ton (貪, greed), Jin (瞋, anger, grudge), Chi (癡, delusion, complaint). Fuchi-Kashira Dragons are designed for this Fuchi Kashira. The golden paint is applied to these dragons and remains its shiny color. Although there are tiny damages due to aging, you could see details such as each scale and nail. The surface of this Fuchi Kashira is decorated with the Nanako-Ji (魚子地) technique. You see delicate fish egg-shaped protrusions. These dots were made by hitting with the Nanako-Ji Tagane (魚子地鏨, chisel used for this technique), and it gives decorativeness for the work. Tsuka and Menuki Same as the Fuchi Kashira, this Menuki’s motif is also the dragon. You would find its figure from the gaps of the Tsukamaki thread. Initially, the dragon is an imaginary creature found in ancient traditions or myths. Furthermore, it is regarded as a symbol of auspicious signs. Its body is likened to nine animals: antlers are deer, the head is a camel, eyes are demons, the neck is a snake, belly is the Mizuchi (蛟, mythical animal in Japan which looks like a snake and have a horn and four legs), scales are fish, claws are falcons, palms are tigers, and ears are cows. It was thought that the dragon would reign at the top of all animals because of its odd-looking appearance. Tsuba and Habaki Oval-shaped Tsuba that has Kozuka and Kougai holes. Now you realize that this sword’s Koshirae is composed of the dragon motif. By using the same design, the entire appearance of Koshirae has unity. In this Tsuba, waves and clouds surround the dragon. The combination of the dragon and waves, or clouds, both two combinations are often seen as a design. It might be related to religion. In Japan, there is a belief that worships a dragon as a water god. Since rice cultivation flourished in this country, water has always been an essential resource. It is thought that dragons dwell in the clouds, and clouds would bring blessed rain. Therefore, this beast was associated with waves (water) and clouds. Understandably, the dragon motif has been familiar to Japanese people since long ago. Authentication Paper NTHK, also known as NPO Nihon Touken Hozon Kai, is the oldest organization for sword authentication of Japanese swords in modern times. It was established in 1889 during the post-Samurai era. They authenticated the blade on December 12nd, the 3rd year of Reiwa (2021).
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Osafune (Kanemitsu school) · Bizen · around 1345-1370
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 10%
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The largest of Tomomitsu's signed works is the great odachi of Futarasan Shrine in Nikko, a National Treasure dated Joji 5 (1366). The published record cites it from the first Juyo session as "the largest of his signed works"[[c:1]] and in the most recent as "the pinnacle of Osafune Tomomitsu"[[c:2]], anchoring the carving of new submissions against it. Tomomitsu (倫光) was a swordsmith of the Bizen Osafune mainline in the Nanbokucho period, introduced by the NBTHK with one unvarying sentence: "one of the students of Kanemitsu, and by one tradition even said to have been Kanemitsu's younger brother"[[c:3]]. The modern formula runs his dated work from Jowa to Eiwa, 1345 to 1379; the dated blades on the official record carry nengo from Bunna through Oan. The same formula places him within the school: closest of all to Kanemitsu's manner, his rank of work "pressing the master himself"[[c:4]]. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku.
His own hand, the published sources repeat, is "the easygoing, gentle midare led by notare"[[c:5]], most often a ko-notare mixing gunome, ko-gunome, pointed and somewhat angular teeth. The criterion is given in so many words: such a blade "is to be judged Tomomitsu from the point that the crests of the notare tend slightly to points"[[c:6]]. Ashi and yo enter, the temper leans to nioi with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi work through it; the boshi runs midare-komi, usually finishing pointed, at times swept with hakikake. Horimono mark his blades far more often than the rest of the school: beyond the bo-hi the record draws bonji, gomabashi, paired futasuji-hi, the three-pronged ken and above all the kurikara, the grass-style form of which "is a peculiar carving scarcely met with outside this smith and Kanemitsu"[[c:7]]; the Futarasan odachi and a signed tachi in the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures carry the reference examples.
The jigane is itame mixed with mokume, ji-nie attaching and fine chikei entering; on the tachi and katana a midare-utsuri rises, while the hira-zukuri pieces lean to a sugu-style or bo-utsuri. Here the published sources separate him from his master with unusual candor: the first Juyo session records that "compared with Kanemitsu his jigane is inferior, and many works tend somewhat to stand"[[c:8]], and the recent formula repeats the division in kinder terms: close to Kanemitsu, yet marked as Tomomitsu by the slightly standing jigane and the unhurried notare base.
The shape of what survives was set out in the first session: "tanto and short wakizashi survive signed in comparative numbers, but the tachi are almost all unsigned"[[c:9]]. His tachi were mostly the long blades of the Enbun-Joji fashion, wide, with little taper and an extended chu-kissaki, and they come down as o-suriage mumei katana; the signed and dated work concentrates in the wide, sunnobi, hira-zukuri tanto and wakizashi, two carrying the incised invocation Hachiman Daibosatsu[[c:10]]. The signature is the six-character long mei Bishu Osafune Tomomitsu[[c:11]], smallish, often in a fine chisel, set toward the mune, with the date on the ura; twenty-eight of the designated blades are signed against twenty-nine unsigned. The gold inlays on the shortened blades, kinzogan-mei of Hon'ami Kojo, Koyu and Sato Kanzan and a kinpun-mei of Hon'ami Koson, are attributions by later appraisers, not signatures; one Juyo katana keeps its original mei folded back as an orikaeshi-mei. An early entry raises, and leaves open, the question of two generations of the same name[[c:12]].
Two side manners flank the notare. On signed work of Joji and Oan he also worked the older spine of the school: a midare led by kataochi-gunome or squared, angular teeth; the sources hold such a tachi against his notare masterpieces and call it proof of "the breadth of his working range and the sureness of his technique"[[c:13]], while a small kataochi tanto recalls Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu and "at first sight could be mistaken for a Kamakura-period piece"[[c:14]]. Among the unsigned attributions stands a markedly nie-strong group[[c:15]], where yubashiri and small tobiyaki appear along the temper and the pointed boshi completes what the record names "the Soden-Bizen character"[[c:16]]. Its emblem is the great hocho-gata wakizashi of Yasukuni Shrine, recorded with its koshirae in Matsudaira Sadanobu's Shuko-jisshu (集古十種) as the sword of Egara Tenmangu in Kamakura, handed down of old as a work of Masamune, "a celebrated piece famous since antiquity"[[c:17]]; the modern judges read its vivid utsuri, notare-led midare and pointed boshi as a Bizen smith under Soshu influence; its kurikara, close to that of the Futarasan odachi, settles the attribution. In inverse, the kataochi-gunome that defines Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu recedes in him, and suguha falls away almost entirely. The record sets him beside the other Kanemitsu students, Hidemitsu, Masamitsu and Motomitsu, whose works resemble the master while falling a step short; no successor line is drawn for him.
Sixty-three designated works stand on the official record: the Futarasan National Treasure, two Important Cultural Properties, eight Tokubetsu Juyo and fifty Juyo, fifty-seven in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. The provenance roll runs through the great houses: the first Juyo session's signed tachi of Oan 6 came down in the Yamauchi family, lords of Tosa; the Tokubetsu Juyo katana with the gold-inlaid attribution descended in the Echizen Matsudaira family as the reputed sword of Matsudaira Shungaku, with a Genroku 7 (1694) origami of Hon'ami Kojo; another katana, bestowed by Ii Naomasa on his retainer Suzuki Iwami no Kami Shigeyoshi, was later presented to the Mito Tokugawa family; other pieces passed through the Okubo lords of Odawara and the statesman Ito Miyoji. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties, three blades, are patrimony held permanently outside the market, the odachi at Futarasan Shrine and the wakizashi at Yasukuni with its Shuko-jisshu koshirae. What a private collector may realistically encounter lies in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, most of it the o-suriage mumei katana cut down from his grand tachi; a signed and dated tanto or wakizashi is the rarer event, and an ubu signed tachi rarer still; the first session already observed that tachi of ordinary length were few from his hand. A Tomomitsu reaches the market only from time to time, recognized when it does by the easy notare whose crests tend slightly to points.
Where Tomomitsu 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 · Bizen
Phase: Sōden-Bizen相伝備前· 1330–1394
188 pieces on the market now
The Soden Bizen school encompasses the group of Nanbokucho-period Osafune smiths in Bizen Province whose work absorbed the technical influence of the Soshu-den, producing a distinctive synthesis that stands apart from both orthodox Bizen and pure Sagami practice. The school divides into two principal lineages: the Kanemitsu group, representing the direct main line of Osafune that descends from Mitsutada through Nagamitsu and Kagemitsu; and the Chogi group, a collateral branch whose members carried the Soshu idiom to its most expressive extremes within Bizen. Kanemitsu, the chakuryu heir of Kagemitsu, pioneered the broad, relaxed notare-based midare that defines the mature Nanbokucho Osafune manner, while Chogi -- described by the NBTHK as the smith "who departs furthest from Bizen" among Bizen makers -- pushed nie-dominant forging to a level that rivals the output of the great Sagami smiths themselves. Together with disciples and contemporaries including Tomomitsu, Motomitsu, Masamitsu, Yoshimitsu, Kanenaga, Nagashige, and Nagamori, they constitute one of the most prolific and technically accomplished groups in the history of Japanese swordsmithing. The school's collective technical identity is anchored in a shared jigane of itame-hada mixed with mokume, with fine ji-nie adhering thickly, chikei entering well, and midare-utsuri standing out -- a persistent Bizen hallmark that survives even in the most Soshu-inflected work. The sugata overwhelmingly reflects the grand Nanbokucho taihai: wide mihaba with little taper between base and tip, and an extended chu-kissaki or o-kissaki conveying martial vigor. Within this shared framework, two distinct temperaments emerge.
" Yoshimitsu likewise inherits the small-pattern tendency, producing ko-gunome mixed with ko-choji whose restraint the NBTHK praises as "upper rank" Soden Bizen. The Chogi lineage, by contrast, emphasizes powerful nie in both ji and ha: Chogi's flamboyant large-scale midare weaves together gunome, choji, togariba, and koshi-hiraki forms with tobiyaki and yubashiri scattering freely, while kinsuji and sunagashi streak through the hardened edge. " Nagashige, now thought to be Chogi's elder brother rather than his junior, works a gentler, smaller-patterned midare yet with nie so strong as to "even surpass Chogi," while Nagamori occupies an intermediate position, his "somewhat smaller patterning" accompanied by rich internal activity. The historical significance of the Soden Bizen school lies in its demonstration that the Soshu influence, far from merely displacing Bizen conventions, catalyzed an extraordinary expansion of the Osafune repertoire. " The NBTHK's evaluative language across the school converges on consistent themes: the forging is "meticulous" and "excellent-quality," the nioiguchi "bright and clear," and the finest examples display a kenzen condition that attests to the soundness of Bizen steel at its peak. The abundance of dated inscriptions -- from Kanemitsu's forty-five-year span through Masamitsu's four-decade career extending into the early Muromachi period -- provides an unusually well-documented chronological framework, with later works by Masamitsu and Yoshimitsu pointing toward the subsequent development of Oei Bizen. Within the broader canon, the Soden Bizen school stands as the fullest realization of the creative possibilities that emerged when two of Japan's greatest forging traditions met and merged. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsutada光忠 | 1238-1239 | 60 |
| Nagamitsu長光 | 1274-1304 | 254 |
| Kagemitsu景光 | 1303-1336 | 142 |
| Sanenaga眞長 | 1299-1309 | 68 |
| Kanemitsu兼光 | 1323-1370 | 235 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
The NTHK’s principal certificate, issued for a blade of considerable quality. It confirms a genuine signature, or, for an unsigned (mumei) work, records the judges’ attribution to a smith or school. The paper carries a detailed worksheet with a numerical point score.
The NTHK (Nihon Tōken Hozon Kai, the Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Sword) is the oldest of Japan’s sword-appraisal bodies, founded in 1910, decades before the NBTHK. After the death of its long-serving head it divided into two successor societies, the NTHK and the NTHK-NPO, both of which continue to hold shinsa. NTHK certificates are known for a detailed worksheet that records a numerical point score alongside the judges’ written opinion, and the society is especially respected for its attribution of unsigned (mumei) work.
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