Katana: Signed by Hizen no kuni Kawachi Daijo Fujiwara no Masahiro (Wazamono)

Masahiro, the first of his name at Saga, was the son of Yoshinobu, a pupil and son-in-law of the first-generation Tadayoshi, which makes him the founder's grandson and the elder brother of Dewa no Kami Yukihiro. He first signed Masanaga and changed his name to Masahiro in the eleventh month of Kan'ei 2 (1625). After the founder's death he served the second-generation Omi no Daijo Tadahiro as a close attendant and assistant, and the published sources call him a most able collaborator of the main house. They also judge him the most skilled of all the collateral Hizen smiths, the waki-Hizen, 「傍肥前の中でも最も技量が優れており」. He is said to have died in Kanbun 5 (1665) at the age of fifty-nine.

The date of his title is a matter the published record treats with care. Tradition places his appointment as Kawachi Daijo in Kan'ei 5, yet works dated as late as Kan'ei 16 are still signed Hizen no Kuni Saga-ju Masahiro or simply Hizen no Kuni Masahiro, and the title first appears on a katana dated the eighth month of Kan'ei 18. The modern view therefore places the appointment about Kan'ei 18, shortly after Tadahiro himself received the Omi no Daijo title, which accords with the tradition that Masahiro worked throughout as the assistant of the main house. One Juyo katana whose signature combines the features of his pre-title and post-title hands is valued for exactly this reason, as a work made soon after the appointment.

His manner stands against that of the main line. Where the Tadayoshi house excels in suguha, Masahiro preferred the irregular temper, and the published sources state it plainly: 「作風は乱れた刃を好んで焼き」. His typical hamon is a choji mixed with gunome and ko-notare, and the clove pattern is likened to that of Musashi no Daijo Tadahiro. Several blades begin with a straight yakidashi at the base, and in places the clusters of midare are linked by a low, shallow, suguha-toned stretch, both of which the judges call a main point of the waki-Hizen temper. The temper is set high and low, long ashi and yo enter well, the nioiguchi is deep and bright, and thick nie gathers in the valleys of the midare. Kinsuji and sunagashi run through the hamon, and on several blades the kinsuji are recorded as notably long. Gunome with rounded heads are named as a point of his hataraki, and a wide temper of showy choji-midare is called his own domain.

The jigane beneath it is, on most blades, the refined Hizen forging: a tightly packed ko-itame with ji-nie, on some laid dust-fine and thick with fine chikei entering, while a few pieces run instead an itame that stands. The boshi runs straight to a ko-maru and turns back with hakikake, at times slightly midare-komi. The sugata is often broad and long, and one katana with a greatly extended kissaki is described as powerful and full of movement. The published sources find in his work more natural vigor than in that of the main house, 「本家忠吉家の作よりも自然, 覇気のある作が多く」.

He also commanded the suguha, though it is comparatively rare in his record. One wakizashi with a deep-nioi chu-suguha, the ko-nie evenly attached and the nioiguchi bright and clear, is singled out as among the finest of his suguha works, the published sources concluding that it shows the height of his skill in suguha as well as in midareba[[c:1]]. A Kan'ei 11 katana of gunome mixed with small choji is named the finest of his works, 「この刀はその白眉である」. The judges add two kantei points that separate him from the main line. His katana are signed on the sashi-ura, and his yasurime are sujikai, unlike those of the main house, becoming a large sujikai on early works whose tangs narrow toward the tip. His signature grows smaller in his last years.

Masahiro is graded Jo-jo saku by Fujishiro. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties, and his record runs through the Juyo rank, where thirty of his works have been designated. Dated pieces survive in small numbers, from Kan'ei 9 through Keian 1 and Joo 4 to a naginata of Kanbun 4, his last years. Several carry carving by his compatriot Yoshinaga, and on one wakizashi the Shigetsu Hotei in relief within the koshi-hi is called an extremely rare design among Hizen blades, paralleled only on a wakizashi of Musashi no Daijo Tadahiro. Another wakizashi is mounted in a Yagyu koshirae and carries the ownership inscription of Yagyu Renyasai Toshikane. Recorded provenance is otherwise slight. A signed Masahiro of the Juyo rank comes to light from time to time, with patience, as the work of the most accomplished of the waki-Hizen.