¥13,500,000

Tracked across 76 dealers worldwide · price history · sold archive

Specifications

About the maker

Fukuoka Ichimonji Norinari則成

Norinari is a Bizen smith of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, placed by tradition around the Kenchō era of the early-to-mid Kamakura period. He is one of the rarest names the school records: of his signed work the published sources observe that extant examples are extremely few, and that the number of securely authenticated signed *tachi* examined to date amounts to scarcely four. The signature reading 則成 is itself a problem of the books. The *meikan* enter the name across three Ichimonji-related lines, the Fukuoka Ichimonji, the Yoshioka Ichimonji and Osafune; the examined blades, however, are appraised as the work of the Fukuoka man active around Kenchō, and the later designations increasingly read him as Ko-Ichimonji, the early-Kamakura wing of the school whose work, in the words of the published commentary, keeps the old colour of Bizen. He stands at the threshold between Ko-Bizen and the great flowering of Fukuoka Ichimonji under Norimune, Sukezane and Yoshifusa. His characteristic hand is a *suguha*-based irregular temper that has not yet opened into the school's full clove-flower. Over the *hamon* the published sources describe a mixture of *chōji*, *ko-chōji*, *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare* that nonetheless holds to a *suguha* foundation, with *ashi* and *yō* entering densely, *ko-nie* well adhered, the *nioiguchi* tight or soft, and *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* running through the lower half. The tell is where the cloves gather. The judges note that around the *koshimoto* the *chōji* are conspicuous (殊に腰元には丁子が目立っており), and that just here the edge takes on a fresher note than the old province allows, so that in this point the distinctive character of the Ko-Ichimonji wing is clearly displayed (焼刃にやや新味が感ぜられるところに古一文字派の特色が顕著に表示されている). It is the smallest of advances on Ko-Bizen, but the published commentary reads it as the nascent emergence of the full Ichimonji to come (来たるべき盛期一文字の萌芽を想わせる). The *jigane* is the steadier half of the picture and the more obviously Bizen. His *tachi* are forged in *itame*, generally well-packed and at times mixed with *mokume*, the grain standing a little and *chikei* entering where the forging opens; over it lies a fine *ji-nie*, on the slender pieces a dust-fine *ji-nie* (*ji-nie mijin*), and a *midare-utsuri* that stands out clearly on the signed work. On a *tachi* of around the Kenchō era the reflection can fall faint and the construction turn wholly to *nioi-deki*, the *nioiguchi* gentle, demonstrating the virtues of Bizen steel without the *nie* of the later school. The *bōshi* follows the quiet manner: a shallow *notare* turning in a *ko-maru*, or running straight to a *yakitsume*. His few blades divide into two grades of the one manner. The slender signed *tachi*, several of them *suriage* yet keeping a high *sori* and *koshizori* and ending in a *ko-kissaki*, carry the *suguha*-based, archaic register at its most refined; the published sources call these of an older *tachi-sugata* than the mid-Kamakura type, and value them for the way the *chōji* about the waist lift them past Ko-Bizen. A second, showier grade widens the *yakihaba*: on a standard-width *tachi*, *ubu* or only slightly shortened and keeping its *funbari*, the temper runs as *gunome* mixed with *chōji*, in places becoming *suguha*-like, with round-topped *gunome* and *saka-ashi* set in here and there. Of one such Tokubetsu Jūyō *tachi* the published commentary judges the workmanship excellent and the blade a valuable example for understanding the smith's high level of ability and the scope of his work. What sets Norinari apart his neighbours name precisely. From the brilliant *chōji-midare* of the mid- to late-Kamakura Ichimonji he is held apart, his manner read as one that differs from the splendid mid-Kamakura style (鎌倉時代中期の華麗なものとは異なり) and in which the character of Ko-Bizen is strongly preserved in both shape and the workmanship of *ji* and *ha* (姿恰好及び地刃の出来には古備前物の趣が強く遺存している). From the plainer Ko-Bizen smiths he is held apart by the gathering of *chōji* on his edge and the brightness of his *midare-utsuri*. On one shortened *tachi* the older commentary granted only that there was no doubt it was the work of a superior Bizen smith (備前上工の作には相違ないが) while adding that its precise lineage warranted further examination (系統についてはなおよく検討したい), a caution that the later attribution to Fukuoka Ichimonji around Kenchō has since refined rather than overturned. He is, in the end, a documentary figure: the quiet root from which the most brilliant of the Bizen traditions grew. For the collector he is a scarce early name rather than a market presence. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his designated record runs instead through the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō ranks, with a handful of pieces, and through the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, one of which descended in the Maeda family of Kaga. The published sources value each signed blade for exactly what it documents, calling it one of Norinari's few extant signed works, of high value as reference material (則成の数少ない有銘作として資料的にも価値が高い). With securely signed *tachi* numbering only about four, a privately held example is among the rarer encounters in the Bizen field, coming to light from a long-held collection only seldom and with patience, and prized when it does as a witness to how the Ichimonji began.

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