Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
This *tachi* by Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu is a precious *tachi* passed down in the Fukuoka Kuroda clan, with a fief of 523,000 *koku*. This *tachi* is a healthy *tachi* by Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu, dated October, Eiwa 4th year (1378) of the Nanbokucho period (644 years ago), with a *mei*, and retaining its original, unaltered form with healthy *ji* and *ha*. The *tachi* shape still has ample *fumbari* at the base, with a *koshizori* and deep *sori*, a *chu-kissaki*, and the wonderful *tachi* shape of the Kamakura period Bizen is revived in this excellent *tachi* shape of the Eiwa era at the end of the Nanbokucho period. The *jigane* is an *itame hada* with *mokume hada*, with *ji-nie*, and a faint *utsuri* appears in the *ji*, exhibiting a *kocho* (old style) *jigane*. The carving is a *bo-hi* with *maru-dome*, and is magnificent. The *hamon* is *nioi* based, with *ko-nie*, *ko-notare* with *ko-gunome*, *togari-ba*, and *gunome-midare* with open *koshi*, and the *boshi* is *togari-gokoro* and well-executed. Due to the passage of over 600 years, the characters of Hidemitsu are unclear, but it is Hidemitsu based on the distinctive brushstrokes. In Bizen, swordsmiths other than the Osafune Kanemitsu line of the Nanbokucho period are called the *ko-zori* (small *sori*) line, and Hidemitsu's *tachi* are so skillfully made that some have been designated as Important Cultural Properties, making him a master craftsman and the head smith of the *ko-zori* school, and a representative swordsmith. Hidemitsu's *tachi* have been selected as *Saijo O-wazamono* since ancient times, and are especially famous as wonderfully sharp *tachi*. Many *tachi* from the Nanbokucho period were later shortened (*suriage*), so extant works with original *mei* are very rare, and this Hidemitsu *tachi* is a precious *tachi*. This *tachi* is a famous sword that was passed down in the Kuroda family, along with the National Treasure *Heshikiri Hasebe* *tachi*, as the *sashiryo* (sidearm) of Kuroda Kanbei, famous as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's strategist. In the past, it had a *kin-muku habaki* (solid gold *habaki*) with the Kuroda family's *fuji-domoe* crest, but unfortunately, it is said that only the solid gold *habaki* was disposed of during the post-war shortage of goods, which is now a nostalgic episode from Japan's difficult post-war era. Please enjoy this masterpiece of *Saijo O-wazamono* Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu.
NihontoWatchden · Kenmu (1334-1338) ND · nagasa 74cm · sori 2.2cm
Bizen-den · Bizen · around 1334-1372
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 17%
1 piece on the market now
Osafune Hidemitsu is recorded in the meikan as a lineage of Bizen smiths bearing the same name across four generations, beginning with a first generation placed in the Kenmu era and continuing through the Ōan, Shitoku, and Ōei eras into the early Muromachi period. However, as the NBTHK consistently observes, strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter that must await further research. Hidemitsu belongs to the Koreha branch of the Osafune school and is regarded as a representative smith of the group known as ko-sori-mono — makers of "small-curvature" blades active in the late Nanbokuchō period who stand apart from the Kanemitsu lineage and from Chōgi, Motoshige, and the Ōmiya group. Among the Koreha school smiths, Hidemitsu is recognized as one of the most accomplished. At least one generation held the official title Saemon no Jō, as attested by signed works bearing the full inscription Bishū Osafune Saemon no Jō Hidemitsu. Extant dated works span roughly from Ōan through Shitoku and into Meitoku, providing valuable reference material for the chronology of late Nanbokuchō Bizen production.
Hidemitsu's jitetsu characteristically presents itame-hada mixed with mokume, forged tightly, with fine ji-nie adhering and chikei entering well. Various forms of utsuri appear — suguha-utsuri, bō-utsuri, and midare-utsuri — standing out distinctly in the ground. The hamon takes ko-gunome as a principal element, frequently mixed with angular forms, togariba, koshi-biraki gunome, and ko-chōji, sometimes showing a reverse inclination described as saka-gakari — a manner closely resembling that of the neighboring Aoe school. The temperline overall tends toward kozumi, a slightly subdued quality that the NBTHK identifies as a conspicuous characteristic shared across the ko-sori-mono category. The temper is predominantly nioi-based with ko-nie attaching, and fine sunagashi and kinsuji appear within. Hidemitsu also produced works in purely straight temper — naka-suguha with slight ko-ashi — which are regarded as documentary-valuable materials for understanding the working range of this school and this smith. Additionally, certain works show the Yoshii-mono tendency of aligning small ko-gunome in a uniform manner, further demonstrating the breadth of Hidemitsu's repertoire. The bōshi varies between sugu with ko-maru turnback, midare-komi ending in a pointed tip, and forms showing hakikake, with turnbacks generally kept short.
Across the designated corpus, the NBTHK consistently highlights the brightness and clarity of the nioiguchi in both ji and ha as the foremost attraction of Hidemitsu's work, describing it as healthy, bright, and vividly clear. Works in sound condition are praised as kenzen — well-preserved blades in which the forging is well-refined and delicate. The dated inscriptions that survive on numerous pieces are repeatedly characterized as excellent reference material and valuable source material for understanding late Nanbokuchō Bizen production. The open-based gunome found in certain works is noted as already suggesting an anticipation of the stylistic approach of Ōei-period Bizen, positioning Hidemitsu at a transitional moment within the tradition. While the NBTHK acknowledges that the workmanship of the ko-sori-mono group is generally considered not to reach the level of the Kanemitsu faction and similar lines, Hidemitsu's finest examples are singled out as outstanding among this smith's works — blades whose earnest, straightforward craftsmanship and luminous nioiguchi secure his standing as the leading figure of the ko-sori-mono tradition.
Where Hidemitsu stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Bizen-den · Bizen
28 pieces on the market now
The Kozori (小反り) form a loose body of Bizen smiths who worked at and around Osafune in the closing decades of the Nanbokucho period and on into early Muromachi, and the NBTHK defines them less by descent than by exclusion: they are the late-Osafune hands who fall outside the specific lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige and the Omiya group, gathered under one name as a convenience. The reading of the name itself has been explained in several ways, and the published sources are candid that it resists a clean definition; the prevailing sense is the ko-sori, the slight or shallow reverse-curvature of the blades, the shape running to a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point in the older pieces and growing heavy in the kasane toward Oei. The body has no single founder. Smiths such as Moromitsu (師光), recorded as the father of the Oei master Morimitsu, anchor the group through dated tachi; Iesuke and Iemori carry Hatakeda blood; Nariie descends from Kagehide; Morisuke, Shigeyoshi, Tsunehiro, Hidemitsu, Motomasa and others fill out the periphery, several of whose lines run several generations and whose precise generation-by-generation reading the institution leaves to further study. Across these hands runs a shared vocabulary, and the recurring word for it is scale. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the grain standing a little (hada-tachi), fine ji-nie attaching, dark chikei-toned and at times jifu-like passages crossing the steel, and over it the midare-utsuri (sometimes a bo-utsuri or straight sugu-utsuri) that places the group squarely in the Bizen-den. The temper is nioi-based with ko-nie, built on a shallow ko-notare into which the smiths set ko-gunome running connected and threaded, pointed togariba, angular squared elements, open-waisted koshi-biraki gunome and modest choji, the whole kept small and crowded (kozumu), with ko-ashi and yo entering and fine sunagashi and kinsuji playing through. The boshi answers in midare-komi, pointing or settling to a ko-maru with hakikake.
Within the shared idiom each hand has its tell: Moromitsu tempers the most subdued, low-lying midare; Nariie's gunome crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; Hidemitsu and Hidemitsu of the Koreha branch lean to a reverse-slanting saka-gakari and saka-ashi near the Aoe manner, and turn now and then to a quiet chu-suguha; Tsunehiro favours a kataochi-like gunome; Iesuke and Iemori, working into Oei, open the valleys toward the early-Muromachi pattern. A collector seeks Kozori for legibility rather than flourish. Many of the best survivors are ubu, signed and dated tachi, and that dated file (Joji, Oan, Eiwa, Shitoku, Eitoku, Meitoku into Oei) gives the late history of Osafune a year-by-year spine, prized as reference material for the period; the names also map a province pulled between the Northern and Southern courts, Morisuke's Joji dates reading as Northern Court alignment. To kantei the group is to read it against its neighbours: the small, crowded, nioi-toned midare and the standing itame with kawarigane chikei separate it from the bolder, more uniform gunome of the Kanemitsu mainline of the Nanbokucho height, while the open koshi-biraki valleys and the heavier, sakizori late sugata point forward to and distinguish it from the more decorative Oei-Bizen of Morimitsu and Yasumitsu (a threshold several Kozori blades, in NBTHK phrasing, already anticipate). Among the members the institution ranks Moromitsu and Nariie high (Nariie held equal to the Kanemitsu pupil Masamitsu), Iesuke beside the leading Oei names, and Hidemitsu the leading hand of the Koreha branch. Provenance, though thinly recorded for some, reaches real houses: blades descend through the Kuroda, Kaga Maeda, Shonai Sakai and Hojo families, with examples in the Hayashibara Museum and the national museums, and the occasional Imperial line. A signed, dated Kozori blade comes to hand only from time to time, a quiet, datable window onto Osafune as it closed its Nanbokucho age. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Hidemitsu秀光 | 1375-1392 | 19 |
| Iesuke家助 | 1394-1428 | 11 |
| Iemori家守 | 1377-1406 | 15 |
| Nariie成家 | 1352-1362 | 21 |
| Moromitsu師光 | 1375-1390 | 7 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
A blade of top-grade workmanship and condition, formally judged to rank with a nationally recognized Important Art Object (Jūyō Bijutsuhin). Awarded only at the NBTHK’s competitive annual examination.
Of Japan’s roughly 2.5 million registered swords, only 12,307 (about 1 in 203) have ever attained Jūyō.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteFor returns due to customer circumstances, the cost is the customer's responsibility. For returns due to our mis-shipment or a defective item, we bear the cost.
Price on request
This *tachi* by Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu is a precious *tachi* passed down in the Fukuoka Kuroda clan, with a fief of 523,000 *koku*. This *tachi* is a healthy *tachi* by Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu, dated October, Eiwa 4th year (1378) of the Nanbokucho period (644 years ago), with a *mei*, and retaining its original, unaltered form with healthy *ji* and *ha*. The *tachi* shape still has ample *fumbari* at the base, with a *koshizori* and deep *sori*, a *chu-kissaki*, and the wonderful *tachi* shape of the Kamakura period Bizen is revived in this excellent *tachi* shape of the Eiwa era at the end of the Nanbokucho period. The *jigane* is an *itame hada* with *mokume hada*, with *ji-nie*, and a faint *utsuri* appears in the *ji*, exhibiting a *kocho* (old style) *jigane*. The carving is a *bo-hi* with *maru-dome*, and is magnificent. The *hamon* is *nioi* based, with *ko-nie*, *ko-notare* with *ko-gunome*, *togari-ba*, and *gunome-midare* with open *koshi*, and the *boshi* is *togari-gokoro* and well-executed. Due to the passage of over 600 years, the characters of Hidemitsu are unclear, but it is Hidemitsu based on the distinctive brushstrokes. In Bizen, swordsmiths other than the Osafune Kanemitsu line of the Nanbokucho period are called the *ko-zori* (small *sori*) line, and Hidemitsu's *tachi* are so skillfully made that some have been designated as Important Cultural Properties, making him a master craftsman and the head smith of the *ko-zori* school, and a representative swordsmith. Hidemitsu's *tachi* have been selected as *Saijo O-wazamono* since ancient times, and are especially famous as wonderfully sharp *tachi*. Many *tachi* from the Nanbokucho period were later shortened (*suriage*), so extant works with original *mei* are very rare, and this Hidemitsu *tachi* is a precious *tachi*. This *tachi* is a famous sword that was passed down in the Kuroda family, along with the National Treasure *Heshikiri Hasebe* *tachi*, as the *sashiryo* (sidearm) of Kuroda Kanbei, famous as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's strategist. In the past, it had a *kin-muku habaki* (solid gold *habaki*) with the Kuroda family's *fuji-domoe* crest, but unfortunately, it is said that only the solid gold *habaki* was disposed of during the post-war shortage of goods, which is now a nostalgic episode from Japan's difficult post-war era. Please enjoy this masterpiece of *Saijo O-wazamono* Bishu Osafune Hidemitsu.
NihontoWatchden · Kenmu (1334-1338) ND · nagasa 74cm · sori 2.2cm
Bizen-den · Bizen · around 1334-1372
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 17%
1 piece on the market now
Osafune Hidemitsu is recorded in the meikan as a lineage of Bizen smiths bearing the same name across four generations, beginning with a first generation placed in the Kenmu era and continuing through the Ōan, Shitoku, and Ōei eras into the early Muromachi period. However, as the NBTHK consistently observes, strict generation-by-generation differentiation remains a matter that must await further research. Hidemitsu belongs to the Koreha branch of the Osafune school and is regarded as a representative smith of the group known as ko-sori-mono — makers of "small-curvature" blades active in the late Nanbokuchō period who stand apart from the Kanemitsu lineage and from Chōgi, Motoshige, and the Ōmiya group. Among the Koreha school smiths, Hidemitsu is recognized as one of the most accomplished. At least one generation held the official title Saemon no Jō, as attested by signed works bearing the full inscription Bishū Osafune Saemon no Jō Hidemitsu. Extant dated works span roughly from Ōan through Shitoku and into Meitoku, providing valuable reference material for the chronology of late Nanbokuchō Bizen production.
Hidemitsu's jitetsu characteristically presents itame-hada mixed with mokume, forged tightly, with fine ji-nie adhering and chikei entering well. Various forms of utsuri appear — suguha-utsuri, bō-utsuri, and midare-utsuri — standing out distinctly in the ground. The hamon takes ko-gunome as a principal element, frequently mixed with angular forms, togariba, koshi-biraki gunome, and ko-chōji, sometimes showing a reverse inclination described as saka-gakari — a manner closely resembling that of the neighboring Aoe school. The temperline overall tends toward kozumi, a slightly subdued quality that the NBTHK identifies as a conspicuous characteristic shared across the ko-sori-mono category. The temper is predominantly nioi-based with ko-nie attaching, and fine sunagashi and kinsuji appear within. Hidemitsu also produced works in purely straight temper — naka-suguha with slight ko-ashi — which are regarded as documentary-valuable materials for understanding the working range of this school and this smith. Additionally, certain works show the Yoshii-mono tendency of aligning small ko-gunome in a uniform manner, further demonstrating the breadth of Hidemitsu's repertoire. The bōshi varies between sugu with ko-maru turnback, midare-komi ending in a pointed tip, and forms showing hakikake, with turnbacks generally kept short.
Across the designated corpus, the NBTHK consistently highlights the brightness and clarity of the nioiguchi in both ji and ha as the foremost attraction of Hidemitsu's work, describing it as healthy, bright, and vividly clear. Works in sound condition are praised as kenzen — well-preserved blades in which the forging is well-refined and delicate. The dated inscriptions that survive on numerous pieces are repeatedly characterized as excellent reference material and valuable source material for understanding late Nanbokuchō Bizen production. The open-based gunome found in certain works is noted as already suggesting an anticipation of the stylistic approach of Ōei-period Bizen, positioning Hidemitsu at a transitional moment within the tradition. While the NBTHK acknowledges that the workmanship of the ko-sori-mono group is generally considered not to reach the level of the Kanemitsu faction and similar lines, Hidemitsu's finest examples are singled out as outstanding among this smith's works — blades whose earnest, straightforward craftsmanship and luminous nioiguchi secure his standing as the leading figure of the ko-sori-mono tradition.
Where Hidemitsu stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Bizen-den · Bizen
28 pieces on the market now
The Kozori (小反り) form a loose body of Bizen smiths who worked at and around Osafune in the closing decades of the Nanbokucho period and on into early Muromachi, and the NBTHK defines them less by descent than by exclusion: they are the late-Osafune hands who fall outside the specific lineages of Kanemitsu, Chogi, Motoshige and the Omiya group, gathered under one name as a convenience. The reading of the name itself has been explained in several ways, and the published sources are candid that it resists a clean definition; the prevailing sense is the ko-sori, the slight or shallow reverse-curvature of the blades, the shape running to a deep koshizori with marked funbari and a small point in the older pieces and growing heavy in the kasane toward Oei. The body has no single founder. Smiths such as Moromitsu (師光), recorded as the father of the Oei master Morimitsu, anchor the group through dated tachi; Iesuke and Iemori carry Hatakeda blood; Nariie descends from Kagehide; Morisuke, Shigeyoshi, Tsunehiro, Hidemitsu, Motomasa and others fill out the periphery, several of whose lines run several generations and whose precise generation-by-generation reading the institution leaves to further study. Across these hands runs a shared vocabulary, and the recurring word for it is scale. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the grain standing a little (hada-tachi), fine ji-nie attaching, dark chikei-toned and at times jifu-like passages crossing the steel, and over it the midare-utsuri (sometimes a bo-utsuri or straight sugu-utsuri) that places the group squarely in the Bizen-den. The temper is nioi-based with ko-nie, built on a shallow ko-notare into which the smiths set ko-gunome running connected and threaded, pointed togariba, angular squared elements, open-waisted koshi-biraki gunome and modest choji, the whole kept small and crowded (kozumu), with ko-ashi and yo entering and fine sunagashi and kinsuji playing through. The boshi answers in midare-komi, pointing or settling to a ko-maru with hakikake.
Within the shared idiom each hand has its tell: Moromitsu tempers the most subdued, low-lying midare; Nariie's gunome crowds where Kanemitsu's opens; Hidemitsu and Hidemitsu of the Koreha branch lean to a reverse-slanting saka-gakari and saka-ashi near the Aoe manner, and turn now and then to a quiet chu-suguha; Tsunehiro favours a kataochi-like gunome; Iesuke and Iemori, working into Oei, open the valleys toward the early-Muromachi pattern. A collector seeks Kozori for legibility rather than flourish. Many of the best survivors are ubu, signed and dated tachi, and that dated file (Joji, Oan, Eiwa, Shitoku, Eitoku, Meitoku into Oei) gives the late history of Osafune a year-by-year spine, prized as reference material for the period; the names also map a province pulled between the Northern and Southern courts, Morisuke's Joji dates reading as Northern Court alignment. To kantei the group is to read it against its neighbours: the small, crowded, nioi-toned midare and the standing itame with kawarigane chikei separate it from the bolder, more uniform gunome of the Kanemitsu mainline of the Nanbokucho height, while the open koshi-biraki valleys and the heavier, sakizori late sugata point forward to and distinguish it from the more decorative Oei-Bizen of Morimitsu and Yasumitsu (a threshold several Kozori blades, in NBTHK phrasing, already anticipate). Among the members the institution ranks Moromitsu and Nariie high (Nariie held equal to the Kanemitsu pupil Masamitsu), Iesuke beside the leading Oei names, and Hidemitsu the leading hand of the Koreha branch. Provenance, though thinly recorded for some, reaches real houses: blades descend through the Kuroda, Kaga Maeda, Shonai Sakai and Hojo families, with examples in the Hayashibara Museum and the national museums, and the occasional Imperial line. A signed, dated Kozori blade comes to hand only from time to time, a quiet, datable window onto Osafune as it closed its Nanbokucho age. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Hidemitsu秀光 | 1375-1392 | 19 |
| Iesuke家助 | 1394-1428 | 11 |
| Iemori家守 | 1377-1406 | 15 |
| Nariie成家 | 1352-1362 | 21 |
| Moromitsu師光 | 1375-1390 | 7 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
A blade of top-grade workmanship and condition, formally judged to rank with a nationally recognized Important Art Object (Jūyō Bijutsuhin). Awarded only at the NBTHK’s competitive annual examination.
Of Japan’s roughly 2.5 million registered swords, only 12,307 (about 1 in 203) have ever attained Jūyō.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteFor returns due to customer circumstances, the cost is the customer's responsibility. For returns due to our mis-shipment or a defective item, we bear the cost.
Price on request
