NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThis Tsuba is appraised by the NTHK. According to the certificate, this Tsuba was made by Yatsushiro Jingo (八代 甚吾), who belonged to the Higo style. Yatsushiro is the name of the city in today’s Kumamoto prefecture. The metalworker Jingo, his family name was Shimizu (志水). The Shimizu family has lasted for generations until the 8th Jingo. It is challenging to distinguish which Jingo made this Tsuba. However, NTHK determined this Tsuba was made in the late Edo period. Initially, Jingo used 甚五 as his signature and later started using the character 吾 instead of 五 in the age of from third Jingo to fifth Jingo. Therefore, we estimate this Tsuba was made at least after this time. The Higo-style Tsuba was established in Kumamoto prefecture in the Edo period, Kanei era (1624-1645), and was made mainly in Kumamoto city and Yatsushiro city. Hosokawa Tadaoki (Sansai) (細川 忠興/三斎, 1563-1646) took the lead in producing this style with other artists. He worked for Ashikaga Yoshiteru (足利 義輝, 1536-1565), Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長, 1534-1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣 秀吉, 1537-1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康, 1543-1616). So, Tadaoki served people in authority of the time and laid the foundation for the Hosokawa family. Tadaoki is known as intellectual Samurai. He studied under Sen-no Rikyu (千利休, 1522-1591), who is considered the most profound influence of Japanese tea. And Tadaoki started the Sansai-style of Chanoyu (茶の湯, way of tea). In Higo-style metalworkers, four prestigious schools did excellent work; the Hayashi (林) family, Hirata (平田) family, Nishigaki (西垣) family, and Shimizu (志水) family. They were good at making Tsuba and other sword mountings, such as Fuchi Kashira and Menuki. In the Edo period, Higo-style Tsuba was a trendy brand among Samurai. This Shimizu family is the Shimizu mentioned above. It was one of the groups that prospered under the patronage of the Hosokawa domain as a metalworker school. About the design, its theme is the Yaguruma (矢車). It is a gear that arrow feathers are attached radially around the shaft so that it rotates in the wind. Small dots that were inlaid with brass describe drops of water. This Tsuba has beautiful harmony thanks to its symmetry design. This Tsuba is a valuable masterpiece recognized as the work of a famous and talented school. We hope you will add this Tsuba to your great collection. 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 Tsuba on Oct 16th in the 4th year of Reiwa (2022).
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The Shimizu school is one of the four mainline houses -- together with Hayashi, Hirata, and Nishigaki -- that represent the orthodox tradition of Higo kinko (肥後金工). Its founder, the first-generation Shimizu Jinbei, is traditionally said to have been a nephew of Hirata Hikozo, and to have studied under him. All four founding masters were retained by the great tea-master and warrior Hosokawa Sansai (Tadaoki) and received his direct guidance. In Kan'ei 9 (1632), following the dispossession of the Kato family, Sansai's son Tadatoshi was enfeoffed with 540,000 koku at Kumamoto; Sansai then withdrew to Yatsushiro Castle in the same province as his place of retirement. The first-generation Jingo accompanied Hikozo in following Sansai to Yatsushiro, where the Shimizu line would flourish through successive generations as retained metalworkers under Hosokawa patronage. From the second generation onward, the heads of the house took the professional name Jingo (甚五), which was "succeeded by multiple generations," though no signed works by the first or second generation are known. Among the Higo metalworkers, the Shimizu school stands out for what the NBTHK setsumei consistently describe as "the most intense individuality" (hitokirwa kyoretsu na kosei). The technical hallmark of the school is bold brass suemon-zogan (据紋象嵌, raised inlay) executed on iron plates finished in a hammered ground with a yakite (burnt-hammer) surface treatment.
On the obverse, subjects such as fierce birds of prey, roosters, owls (mimizuku), ameryu (rain dragons), octopi, and crabs are rendered on a large scale with powerful relief. In deliberate contrast, the reverse is composed with broad expanses of open space, the motifs placed in smaller scale with gentler coloration and more restrained modeling, thereby balancing the two sides and deepening a quiet, austere atmosphere of sabi (寂). This asymmetrical yet harmonious interplay of obverse animation and reverse stillness is the school's most recognizable compositional device, described in setsumei after setsumei as producing works that are "overall remarkably well-balanced" despite their apparent asymmetry. While brass suemon-zogan on iron constitutes the dominant mode -- an approach "probably modeled on Heianjō-style inlay, yet what distinguishes it from Heianjō work is the boldness of the designs" -- the school's repertoire also encompassed sukidashi-takabori (raised carving) enriched with gold and silver nunome-zogan, as well as works on suaka (plain copper) ground, proving that its masters could convey the same weighty profundity regardless of the base metal. The Shimizu school occupies a singular position within the Higo kinko tradition as its most unconventional and artistically forceful lineage. " His owl-on-pine and hawk-on-pine compositions are so closely identified with his name as to be "virtually synonymous" with it, and the NBTHK has described his finest works as possessing a quality whereby "great skill appears clumsy" (taiko wa setsu naru ga gotoshi): what looks artless is not artless, but rather the expression of a technique so consummate that it surpasses conventional craft. Among his signed works, the rare mei "Uokin Jingo"[[c:1]] attests to his artistic identity, while the school's later use of diverse materials -- silver nunome-zogan, kebori (hairline engraving), and colored metals -- demonstrates the lineage's evolving technical range. The distinctive pictorial quality of the Shimizu manner, with its daring compositions, striking contrast between dark iron and bright brass, and an "open, generous atmosphere not encountered in the work of other metalworkers," answers to a sensibility that the setsumei note "also appeals to a modern sensibility" -- a testament to the enduring vitality of this Higo school's artistic vision. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Jingo甚五 | — | 14 |
| Nagatsugu永次 | 1691-1777 | 0 |
| Jingoro甚五郎 | 1620-1710 | 0 |
| Shigenaga茂永 | 1795-1854 | 0 |
| Jingo甚吾 | — | 0 |
The NTHK’s principal certificate, issued for a fitting of considerable quality. It confirms a genuine signature, or, for an unsigned (mumei) work, records the judges’ attribution to a maker or school.
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 blade certificates are known for a detailed worksheet that records a numerical point score alongside the judges’ written opinion (fitting papers carry the judges’ opinion without a point score), and the society is especially respected for its attribution of unsigned (mumei) work.
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