¥600,000

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About the school

Naotsuna School直綱派

In Iwami Province, called Sekishū, a line of smiths signing Naotsuna (直綱) worked in the manner of the *Soshu-den* far from Sagami, carrying that tradition into the San'in region during the Nanbokuchō period. The setsumei record several smiths of this name, the older tradition books placing a first generation in the Kenmu era, a second in Eiwa, and a third in Ōei, though the NBTHK is careful to note that a strict separation of the generations still awaits further study. The first-generation Naotsuna, sometimes given the family name Ishikawa, is transmitted as a pupil of Sagami Masamune and counted among the so-called Masamune Juttetsu, the Ten Disciples; the appraisals repeatedly add that, considered chronologically, a direct connection to Masamune seems difficult, and that the correctness of the tradition must be left to future research. Signed work of the first generation is rare, and the *tachi* signed Iwami no Kuni Naotsuna is described as exceedingly valuable for that reason. The shared hand is built on a forging of *itame* mixed with *mokume* that tends to stand (*hada-dachi*) and often runs with *nagare*, thickly covered in *ji-nie* with *chikei* entering well; the steel reads dark, an iron-toned *kanashoku* with a blackish cast that the appraisals treat as a recognition point. Upon this ground the temper is a *gunome*-based *midare*, the *gunome* frequently angular and run together in linked sequences, mixed with *ko-notare*, *ko-gunome*, and pointed *togariba*. *Ashi* and *yō* enter densely, *nie* adheres thickly and at times coarsely, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run prominently through the *ha*, often joined by *yubashiri*, *tobiyaki*, and intermittent *muneyaki*. The *bōshi* is typically *midare-komi* with vigorous *hakikake*, returning in *ko-maru* or *yakizume*. These traits the NBTHK reads as the influence of the *Soshu-den* made plain, sharing an underlying current with Shizu and Samonji; one fourth-session *tachi* draws the comparison directly. A *chōji*-flavored, Bizen-leaning element is occasionally mixed into the *gunome*, and faint *utsuri* is noted on a single katana, but the *nie*-laden Soshu character governs. To recognize Naotsuna's hand is to read this combination together: dark standing *itame*, an angular *gunome* base, and abundant *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, set in the wide *mihaba* and *ō-kissaki* of the Enbun and Jōji moment. The line extends through smiths the setsumei name in their own right. Sadatsuna, recorded as a son of the first-generation Naotsuna and likewise resident at Izuha (Deawa) in Iwami, works in a manner that closely resembles Naotsuna's, seen both in a *gunome*-based and a *ko-notare*-based style and marked in either case by well-applied *nie* and vigorous *sunagashi*; his signed tantō, including a six-character Sekishū Deawa Sadatsuna, anchor the attribution of his *mumei* pieces. Masatsuna, given as a son of Sekishū Naotsuna and active from Nanbokuchō into the Muromachi period, is met in a bold, open *ō-itame* of *zanguri* texture with standing grain. The Suesada lineage, begun by a son of Sadatsuna, carried the tradition further into the Muromachi period and produced an *ōdachi* exceeding five *shaku*, and the appraisals trace still later Nagahama followers such as Shōsue, Shōsada, Yōtei, and Rinshō. As kantei points the register fixes the dark *kanashoku*, the angular and locally linked *gunome*, the thick and sometimes uneven *nie*, and the conspicuous *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, with the *su-ken* and *bonji* carvings recorded on several blades. Across the surviving body of signed and *mumei* work, gathered in the *Jūyō-Bijutsuhin* registers and in references such as the *Kokon Kaji Bikō*, Naotsuna stands as the carrier of the Soshu manner into Iwami, a provincial reading of Masamune's tradition recognized by its own settled vocabulary.

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