NihontoWatch出ました出ました大和鍛冶はそれぞれ奈良の大寺院に属して刀を製作していた為に、大寺院が全ての刀を買い上げるので一般に販売する必要が無く、ブランドである刀匠銘が入っている在銘の作品が事の外少なく、本南都住信清作の刀は貴重です。信清の元は当麻派の鍛冶で本刀の制作時の天文23年（1554年）（472年前）はまだ奈良市藤原に住んでいる頃で、そろそろ奈良市上三条町の金房ケ辻へ移住し始める頃でじょう。金房兵衛尉政次と同時期の古い時代の信清で、後の代は金房派に同化します。有名な肥後（熊本）の同田貫派と共に金房派は室町期に奈良で隆盛を見た一派です。本刀は天文二十三年の貴重な年紀がある刀です。時は上杉謙信と武田信玄が川中島で激闘を繰り広げた川中島の合戦の一年前、本刀の姿は元は2尺5寸5分程の長い刀であった事から騎馬武者の為に特別に作られた刀だと分かります。しかし後世の武士がどうしても本刀を自分の差料にしたいが為に自分の剣法に合わせて短くした刀姿は鎬がやや高く元身幅と先身幅の差の有る反りの有る豪快な姿を現し、地金は板目肌に鍛え地には地沸が細かく付き、刃紋は匂い出来に小沸の付いた元に互の目刃を焼き先は直調ののたれ刃を焼いて帽子は掃き掛けて如何にも良く切れる刃を焼いています。この度御祖先が北海道で屯田兵として藩より派遣され北海道開拓に苦労をしたと言う古いお家代々大切にされてきた南都住信清作の天文二十三年紀の年紀のある刀ですが、自分達も年をとりましたので、大切にして頂ける方にお安くお譲り下さいとお預かりした為に御覧の様に長年の経年変化の為に電気に透かしますと良く見えますが、そのままだと地刃が良くは見えませんが、研ぎをかければ素晴らしい古刀の名刀になります。今回特別にお持ち主様のご厚意で超格安にてご提供いたします是非お楽しみ下さいませ。
NihontoWatchOffered by Nipponto
We couldn’t find current papers for this piece. Ask the dealer whether it has been, or can be, submitted to shinsa. — Hoshi
7 on the market
As written by the shop
(Translation unavailable)
Yamato-den · Yamato · around 1532-1555
Yamato-den · Yamato
7 pieces on the market now
At Taima-dera in Yamato Province, the temple from which the school takes its name, a body of swordsmiths gathered in the late Kamakura period under Kuniyuki, who is transmitted as the founder of the line. The Taima group is counted among the five schools of the Yamato-den, the others being Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake, and Hosho, and like its siblings it grew out of a monastic milieu in which the smiths worked in dependence upon the temple. That dependent standing is itself a fact of the record, for the published sources tie the scarcity of signed Taima work directly to it; the smiths, attached to the temple, naturally left few signatures, so that the line comes down largely as unsigned pieces fixed by appraisal. Only a small number of signed blades survive, chiefly by Kuniyuki and by Aritoshi, whose dated tachi of Einin 6 (1298) fixes the antiquity of the line and places its production at the close of the Kamakura age. The school continued through the Nanbokucho era and on into the Muromachi period, a northern branch removing to Asako in Echizen under the collective title Asako Taima. The Taima smiths share the full Yamato-den vocabulary, worked in a register that leans further toward nie activity than that of its Yamato siblings. The jigane is a flowing itame that gathers toward the edge into masame, the steel standing somewhat open, with thick ji-nie laid over it and chikei entering the grain frequently; on the finest blades a nie-utsuri rises in the ji, a reflection that on these smiths is a product of nie rather than of the Bizen midare-utsuri. Over this foundation the temper is built on a quiet line, a suguha or suguha-cho waved shallowly into notare and mixed with ko-gunome, small ko-choji, and at times ko-midare, the disorder always slight and worked over the straight base rather than displacing it.
The habuchi frays into hotsure, breaks into kuichigai-ba, doubles into nijuba, and lifts into uchinoke, while within the tempered area the ha-nie lies thick and bright, ashi and yo entering, and kinsuji and sunagashi flashing through repeatedly. Above it the boshi runs straight and is then swept with hakikake, most often finishing in yakizume without a turnback or turning in a small ko-maru. The recurring traits cohere into a recognizable hand: the masame-rich itame, the abundant glittering nie, and the brushed point are the marks by which the school is read, and the school leans toward nie where Tegai and the others keep a tighter, calmer key. Individual smiths inflect the manner: Aritoshi is set apart by a near-constant nijuba unusual even within Yamato, while the Echizen Nobunaga carries an angular gunome-midare and a darkened steel into Hokuriku. Kantei of a Taima blade proceeds from this cluster of Yamato evidence, the masame-leaning itame, the hotsure and nijuba along the habuchi, and the swept hakikake boshi, laid over a suguha base; against the other Yamato schools the appraisers look for the heavier nie activity and the conspicuous ashi and yo within a bright edge that separate Taima from the plainer suguha of Tegai and Senjuin, the togariba tendency of Shikkake, and the dense masame of Hosho. Kuniyuki stands as the progenitor and defining voice of the line, his signed tachi prized as documentary anchors against which the rest is measured; below him Aritoshi, Toshinaga, Tomoyuki, and Tomokiyo are read each by his own grounded traits, their few signed survivals valued first as reference material because so little of the school was ever signed. The greater part of the record is o-suriage mumei, wide-bodied Nanbokucho katana cut greatly down, their attribution argued from the markedly elongated chu-kissaki and from the Taima activity at its strongest, the texts candid that on such a shortened blade no individuality singling out one smith can be discerned even while the piece is held a fine work of the school. Provenance is mostly thin, running through private hands rather than the daimyo houses, with a few institutional holdings and the occasional notable mounting, so that an unsigned Taima blade is the usual encounter and a signed one a landmark of Yamato-den work. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Aritoshi有俊 | 1264-1275 | 41 |
| Nobunaga信長 | 1394-1428 | 6 |
| Tomokiyo友清 | 1319-1321 | 5 |
| Tomoyuki友行 | 1278-1288 | 5 |
| Tomoyuki友行 | 1247-1249 | 4 |
Yamato in the Muromachi period
The monasteries that had sustained Yamato lost ground through the Muromachi period, and the schools thinned with them; Sue-Tegai kept the old masame manner alive in quantity. The burning of Tōdaiji’s Great Buddha hall in 1567 closed the temple age.
We could not find an authenticity certificate on the seller’s listing. Japanese swords and fittings are normally papered by the NBTHK (or the NTHK). Without one, the attribution is the seller’s own assessment and has not been independently verified — treat it with caution and ask the dealer about certification before buying.
For 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.
¥380,000