In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThis blade was signed by Hirotsugu (廣次) during Muromachi Period (1394-1573) in Soushu Province (Today’s Kanagawa Prefecture). The first generation Hirotsugu learned blacksmithing as a pupil of Shindo Kunimitsu (新藤五国光), the most famous swordsmith of the Nanbokucho period (1333-1394), and later became an official blacksmith of the Miura clan, which was very powerful in Soshu Province at that time. The name “Hirotsugu” has been used for many generations, and Hirotsugu who made this sword is also from the late-gen in this lineage. SOSHU DEN Shoshu Den was born in the middle of the Kamakura period. Back then, the Yamato and Yamashiro traditions were highly developed, and there were a few renowned swordsmiths from those regions. However, the sword-forging practice was in its infancy in the Kanto area, where the Soshu region was located. At the beginning of the Kamakura government, which was established in 1185, the first Shogun, Minamoto Yoritomo, prioritized making a lot of rules to have its political stability. And he couldn’t afford to hire swordsmiths within the same region or train them. Therefore, the Kamakura government originally ordered weapons to the swordsmiths in the other areas, such as Yamato and Yamashiro. But, since the government was established, the demand for weapons increased exponentially in the government, and they had to figure out how to meet those demands from Samurai who served Kamakura shogunate. Then, the 5th head of the Shogun, Hojo Tokiyori, invited two renowned swordsmiths from other parts of Japan. They were Awataguchi Kunitsuna from Yamashiro province and Bizen Saburo Kunimune from Bizen province. And the 7th-gen Shogun Koreyasu Shino also invited Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukezane from Bizen province. It is said that those three swordsmiths played an essential role in creating the Soshu Den and making the foundation of the Soshu Den. Also another famous figure in the Soshu den is Intou Kunimitsu, an adopted son of Awataguchi Kunitsuna. And Kunimitsu passed his excellent craftsmanship to Yukimitsu, his apprentice. And Masamune, one of the most famous swordsmiths in Japanese history, was an apprentice of Yukimitsu. And Masamune was the one that brought Soushu Den to nationwide fame. The tradition Masamune completed became an example of other swordsmiths who learned Soshu Den. Also, Soshu Den influenced many renowned swordsmiths during the Koto- Shinto era. One of examples is Inoue Shinkai from Osaka and Suishinshi Masahide from Edo. *Please keep in mind that there are a couple of Kitae Kizu on the Mune (backbone of the blade). If you like to see more detailed condition, please feel free to contact us. Authentication Paper They authenticated the blade on March 1st in the 50th year of Showa (1975). They appraised it as Tokubetsu Kicho Touken, an old form of the certificate. Registration Number It is called Jyu Ho Token Rui Torokusho (銃砲刀剣類登録証).
Offered by Samurai Museum
This piece has sold
Get an email when a new Sue-Soshu Hirotsugu piece hits the market.
Soshu-den · Sagami · around 1492-1501
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 37%
4 pieces on the market now
Hirotsugu of Kamakura in Sagami is known from four designated works, three of them placed in the Meio era at the close of the fifteenth century and one in the late Muromachi period. The earliest anchor is a wakizashi recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, signed Soshu-ju Hirotsugu saku and dated Meio 9 (1500). The published sources describe him in a single line: 「広次は相州鎌倉に住した刀工で, 銘鑑にはその初代を建武としているが, 現存するものでは室町時代中期を遡るものはなく室町時代後期を代表する相州鍛冶といえる」 (Hirotsugu lived at Kamakura in Soshu; the reference books put a first generation in Kenmu, but no surviving work predates the mid-Muromachi period, and he may be regarded as a representative Soshu smith of the late Muromachi period). Honma's inventory adds that of the works it had examined the Meio-dated pieces are the oldest, and that a Tenbun-dated blade signed as a resident of Shimada in Suruga is held to be by the same man.
Two of his Juyo katana are signed in two ways. The earlier designation, of 1971, bears a two-character mei, Hirotsugu, cut with a fine chisel beside the mekugi-ana. Its jigane is ko-itame with ji-nie and chikei, and the hamon is a gunome-midare with a choji feeling. The yakihaba is narrow in the lower half and widens from the middle upward into a flamboyant midare with tobiyaki, deep in nioi, with ashi, yo and sunagashi. The blade is carved with a kusa-kurikara on the omote and bonji, gomabashi and rendai on the ura. The published sources call it 「地刃の出来が優れ, 彫物も見事で, 室町時代の相州物の典型である」 (excellent in jigane and hamon, splendid in its carving, and a typical piece of Muromachi Soshu work).
The second katana, designated in 2015, has a six-character signature, Soshu-ju Hirotsugu saku, and is placed 「その銘振りや作風からおよそ明応年間の作と推されるものである」 (from the manner of the signature and the workmanship, to around the Meio era). It has a deep sori with sakizori and a thick kasane. The jigane is itame mixed with mokume and nagare-hada, with thick ji-nie, chikei and a faint utsuri. The temper runs high enough to reach the shinogi, mixing gunome with choji and togariba, with frequent kinsuji and sunagashi and uchinoke along the tops. The published sources close with 「匂口は締まりごころに明るく冴えるなど, 出色の出来映えを示している」 (the nioiguchi is inclined to tightness, bright and clear, showing outstanding workmanship).
The wakizashi of the Honma inventory shows a standing itame of whitish cast, a gunome-midare with sunagashi, a boshi with hakikake, and bo-hi with soe-hi above bonji and a lotus pedestal. Across the Meio works the constants are a gunome temper with sunagashi, carving in the Soshu manner, and that date.
The fourth work, a katana designated Juyo in 2021, is judged by its mei and build to be by a somewhat later Hirotsugu of the end of the Muromachi period, after the skilled makers of the name known around Meio or Tenbun. It is wide, with an extended chu-kissaki, and its itame mixed with mokume stands throughout, thick in ji-nie with frequent chikei. The temper runs high in notare with gunome, choji, togariba and yahazu-shaped elements, and with tobiyaki and muneyaki it becomes hitatsura, thick in nie, the nioiguchi bright, with frequent kinsuji and sunagashi. The published sources write that at first glance it recalls the Hasebe school of the Nanbokucho period[[c:1]], a powerful hitatsura strong in nie, and that it shows the high skill of this Hirotsugu.
Where Hirotsugu 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Soshu-den · Sagami
Phase: Sue-Sōshū末相州· 1356–1868
20 pieces on the market now
When the great Kamakura masters had passed and the country slid into the wars of the late Muromachi, a residual Soshu-den held on in Sagami under a new patron. The Later Hojo, ruling from Odawara castle, kept smiths at hand, and it was from this orbit that the leading name of the window emerged: Tsunahiro, transmitted as a retained smith of the Odawara Hojo who took the character tsuna from Hojo Ujitsuna. The first generation's earliest dated works fall in the Tenbun era, and the line runs forward in the conventional reckoning through Tensho, Keicho, Kan'ei, and Manji, the third generation drawn west to Tsugaru by Tamenobu to forge daisho before returning home. Around him stood a wider Sagami population working the same idiom: Hirotsugu of Kamakura, whose strongest hands cluster near the Meio and Tenbun years; Hiromasa and Soso, names carried across several indistinct generations; Masahiro, reaching back toward Joji; and the Odawara group of Yasuharu, Yasukuni, and Fusamune, the last praised above all for his carving. These smiths inherited the manner of the Nanbokucho apex at a remove of generations rather than by direct descent from the mainline of Masamune and Sadamune. The signature of the phase is the open declaration of the full temper. The forging stays itame mixed with mokume, the grain inclined to stand (hadadachi-gokoro), with ji-nie and chikei; over it the smiths ran a notare-and-gunome ground that climbs the upper half into hitatsura, tobiyaki and muneyaki firing across ji and mune, sunagashi and kinsuji threading the ha. This is the hitatsura and o-midare learned from Hiromitsu and Akihiro, but pushed toward display: the Hirotsugu katana of the 61st Juyo runs its temper so high it reaches the shinogi, mixing choji, togariba, and yahazu-gata into a demonstrative yakidaka pattern.
The contrast with the classic apex is precise and the appraisers mark it. Where Masamune raised nie to its deepest refinement over a bright, clear steel, the Sue-Soshu ji tends to shirake, a whitish cast standing in for that clarity, and the nioiguchi inclines to shizumi, a sunken or subdued quality rather than depth. The 238th Jubi record states the point plainly for the first-generation Tsunahiro: the ji and ha carry abundant nie, yet the very shape of the hamon departs from that of Hiromitsu and Akihiro. The temper is broader and busier across the surface, but it lacks the quiet command and the leaping interior activity of the original. To kantei the window is to separate this demonstrative late temper from the classic Soshu-den it imitates: a standing itame with shirake, a wide hitatsura worked with yahazu and crescent tobiyaki, a nioiguchi that sinks rather than deepens, and signatures reading Soshu-ju with full given names rather than the o-suriage mumei of the great forebears. The named hands carry the distinctions, Fusamune through his dense, precise horimono of kurikara and bonji, Tsunahiro through his crescent tobiyaki and high monouchi fire, Hirotsugu through a hitatsura vigorous enough to recall Hasebe. Provenance keeps these blades close to power: several are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, one bearing the ownership inscription of Akimoto Yoshihide of Kozuke, another the Hachiman Daibosatsu invocation of a Sengoku warrior, the Tsunahiro commission tied by its dated nakago to the Tsugaru house. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Fusamune總宗 | 1504-1521 | 5 |
| Tsunahiro綱廣 | 1532-1555 | 14 |
| Hiromasa廣正 | 1444-1456 | 4 |
| Tsunaie綱家 | 1532-1555 | 3 |
| Hirotsugu廣次 | 1492-1501 | 4 |
Sōshū in the Muromachi period
In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
This work carries older NBTHK “Kichō”-era papers, which the NBTHK no longer issues and largely disavows today. To confirm the attribution, submission to an official Japanese examination body (such as the NBTHK or NTHK) for modern certification could be considered.
Returns/exchanges limited to defects caused by shipping (except willful misconduct or gross negligence by the company); customers must contact within 72 hours of receiving the product.