Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchNobutaka first signed his name as Nobuteru, and when he was 34 years old in 1665, he received the title of Hoki no Kami. Then, he took over Nobutaka, the maker’s name of his father, and became the third generation Nobutaka. In the same year, he was hired by Owari second-gen Tokugawa Mitsutomo(the feudal lord in Owari domain) as Okakaekaji. Okakae Kaji means he exclusively forged swords for the Owari Tokugawa clan, the most powerful family in that region during the Edo period. As Owari province(today’s Aichi prefecture) was active in martial arts during the early Edo period, there was much demand among high-class Samurai to order swords forged by the third-gen Nobutaka. He often worked with his father(the second-gen Nobutaka), and there is some remaining work where you can see both signatures. The first-gen Nobutaka was originally from Mino province, which is famous for Japanese sword tradition, MINO-DEN. 1st-5tb generation Nobutaka received the title of Hoki no Kami. The name of Kami was given by an emperor to those who were excellent at sword making. Nobutaka is one of the most famous swordsmiths in Owari province in the early Edo period. NTHK appraised this blade forged by the third-gen Hoki no Kami Nobutaka based on its styles, such as Hamon, Jigane, and shape, while there is no marking on the tang. Koshirae They are coated with stingray skin and silver. Tsuka and Menuki The chrysanthemum pattern is designed on both sides. A long time ago, the chrysanthemum was used as a medicine for long life in China. It was brought to Japan with this thought in the Nara period (648-781). This flower symbolizes fall, and people appreciate it very much since ancient times. As its petals form radially, the chrysanthemum has been likened to the sun. That is why this flower pattern is treated as the symbol of perpetual youth and longevity or good health. Kiku no Gomon (菊の御紋) is a kind of chrysanthemum pattern, and it is used as the emperor’s crest and the royal family in Japan; therefore, it is well-known as a noble pattern. Tsuba and Habaki Octagon-shaped Tsuba with Kozuka and Kougai holes Dragons are designed. On the surface, it looks two dragons are chasing to get a gem. Initially, a dragon is an imaginary creature that is found in ancient Chinese traditions or myths. It is a beast that symbolizes 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 Mizuchi (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. In Japan, people appreciate the dragon motif due to its meaning as the all-purpose auspicious pattern. Saya It is coated with stingray skin. Kozuka Kozuka is a small knife stored in Koduka Hitsu (groove of the sheath of the Japanese sword). This Kogatana (small knife) is signed as 丹波守吉道 (Tanba-no-kami Yoshimichi). The Kozuka (case for the knife) is decorated with a dragon pattern. Also, the paulownia pattern is found. This plant motif was used as an imperial pattern and eventually became the pattern to be given by the emperor to the administration’s ruler as proof. The paulownia design has been treated as a noble pattern. Authentication Paper NTHK, also known as Nihon Touken Hozon Kai (the Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Sword), is one of the oldest Japanese sword appraising organizations in modern-day Japan. They authenticated the blade on September 20th in the second year of Reiwa(2020). They appraised it as the Kanteisho class, the blade worth preserving for Japanese society.
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Mino-den · Owari · around 1673-1681
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The San'ami line takes its root in Mino Province, where its head smith Kanenori (兼則) worked as one of the so-called Seki Seven Schools. The setsumei place Kanenori from the close of the Nanbokuchō period into the Ōei era of the early Muromachi, alongside Kanemoto and Kanesada among the representative hands of Sue-Seki, and the earliest extant signed tachi of his is appraised as no later than Ōei. A second early smith, Kanekuni (兼国), is recorded as belonging to the San'ami lineage and is judged to predate the Sue-Seki group proper; the remote ancestry given for him runs variously to a disciple of Naoe Kanetomo, to Yamato Kanekuni, or to Kanenori, though the setsumei note that nothing survives to confirm so distant a descent. From this Mino stock came Hōki no Kami Fujiwara Nobutaka (信高), born at Kami-Ōchi in Mino in 1563 and said to descend from San'ami Kanekuni. After receiving the title Hōki no Kami in Tenshō 9 (1581) he moved to Kiyosu in Owari and, serving Tokugawa Yoshinao, later settled at Nagoya, carrying the line into the early Shintō era through a second generation who took the tonsure in Kanbun 2 (1662). Across the corpus the jigane is itame, often closely forged and tending to nagare-hada or flowing grain along the edge, with ji-nie and a frequent standing of the grain (hada-dachi); a faint whitish cast (shirake) marks the older Mino work of Kanenori and Kanekuni. The temper rests on suguha as a base. In the early hands it is a tight, clear (saete) suguha in nioi-deki, sometimes mixed with small gunome, angular elements and pointed ha, carrying ashi, hotsure and scattered tobiyaki.
The Nobutaka works open this out: a broad suguha shifting to shallow notare, ko-notare with a gunome-flavored edge, deep nioi with nie unevenly applied and partly coarse, nie-kuzure at the yakigashira, kuichigai-ba, kinsuji, sunagashi, yubashiri and tobiyaki that climb into the shinogi-ji until the upper half reads as hitatsura. The bōshi runs to sugu with ko-maru, at times midare-komi, pointed, or hakikake, and the early swords keep a slender, high-sori tachi shape while Nobutaka's carry the wide-bodied, ō-kissaki form of the Momoyama transition. The hand is recognized in this pairing of a flowing Mino itame with a suguha core that, in the descendants, breaks toward bold hitatsura. For kantei, the setsumei fix several anchors. In Kanenori's signature the scooped chisel at the fourth stroke of the character kane (兼) is read as a trait of late Nanbokuchō through Ōei work, matched in dated Kaneyoshi mei; the clear suguha of Kanekuni is likened to a Zenjō Kaneyoshi masterpiece. The jizō-flavored bōshi and the nagare-mixed itame in Nobutaka are named as the surviving stamp of the Mino root beneath his Owari manner, and one of his katana is recorded as an Inabae-utsushi. Provenance runs through the corpus: a Kanekuni bears kinzōgan recording it as the sashiryō of Ōkubo Genban-no-jō Tadanari, lord of Odawara in Sagami, worn at the age of ninety-three; Kanenori's tachi descended in the Yamanouchi family. Among the Owari yari makers beginning with Masatsune, Nobutaka's yari of extraordinary length is held in particular regard, and the second-generation Nobutaka is judged no less skilled than his father, with the finest extant Nobutaka works counted to his hand. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Nobutaka信高 | 1581-1615 | 3 |
| Nobutaka信高 | 1624-1644 | 2 |
| Kanekuni兼國 | 1455-1457 | 1 |
| Kanenori兼則 | 1370-1372 | 1 |
| Nobutaka信高 | 1673-1681 | 0 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
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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