In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
It has arrived, it has arrived! From an old family estate comes a *mei* (signed) *Muramasa*—the dream of all collectors and certified as *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*. Despite being famous, extant works are scarce, making this the ultimate object of desire in the sword world and currently the number one most popular *Muramasa* *tanto*. We have already confirmed with the Association that the *Tokubetsu Kicho Token* certificate is authentic. Based on the *meifuri* (style of signature), this *tanto* is the work of the second generation *Muramasa*, who is considered the most skilled among all *Muramasa* smiths and is the creator of the *Juyo Bijutsuhin* titled *Muramasa*. It dates to the Eisho era of the Muromachi period (circa 1512, 514 years ago), a time when Hojo Soun, Takeda Shingen's father Takeda Nobutora, and Amago Tsunehisa were active. The *sugata* displays the unique and sharp *hira-zukuri* *tanto* form of *Muramasa*, with a distinct difference between the *moto-mihaba* and *saki-mihaba*, and the *nakago* takes the typical *tanago-hara* (fish-belly) shape. The *jigane* is a powerful forging of *itame-hada* mixed with *masame-hada*, showing a faint *utsuri* in the *ji*, which adds great character. The *horimono* are skillfully carved, featuring a *su-ken* on the *omote* and *gomabashi* on the *ura*. The *hamon* is the characteristic *Muramasa* style where the *omote* and *ura* match; it is a *nioi-deki* with *konie*, featuring a spirited *gunome-ba* where the valleys of the *yakiba* seem to run off toward the *ha-saki*. The workmanship is magnificent, and it is a *tanto* that could be by no one other than *Muramasa*; it is especially recommended for those who wish to own a work by this smith. While it has not been submitted to the current modern shinsa, it comes with an old *Tokubetsu Kicho Token* certificate from Showa 43 (1968). Please purchase with a full understanding of this fact. *Muramasa* was a swordsmith of Ise, and because his blades were said to bring misfortune to the Tokugawa clan, many works had their signatures removed (*mumei*) during the Edo period out of deference to the Tokugawa Shogunate; thus, a *Muramasa* with a *mei* is extremely precious. Although the Tokugawa Shogunate particularly loathed and feared *Muramasa*, it is a very famous story that Prince Arisugawa, when he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force to the East during the Boshin War, carried a *Muramasa* sword to signify the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This *Muramasa* *tanto*, certified as *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*, has been cherished by an old family. As the couple has grown old, they have entrusted it to us with the request to pass it on at a low price to someone who will treasure it. Therefore, we are offering this extremely rare *mei*-bearing *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*—the number one most popular smith—at a special bargain price. Please enjoy this opportunity.
Certificate reading — 銘 信村正
NihontoWatchmumei · Muromachi · nagasa 27cm
Sengo (Ise, Kuwana) · Ise · around 1501-1521
Fujishiro Sai-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 14%
2 pieces on the market now
Muramasa is the founder of the Sengo line of Ise Kuwana and the smith who set the manner that bears his name, and the published sources fix him firmly to a single point in time. The oldest extant date in the whole line is Bunki 1 (1501), carried by the dated katana signed "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku" preserved as a Juyo blade of the 40th session; with the full signature giving the residence, the personal name Uemon-no-jo and the smith name, the published commentary calls it "of high documentary value for research on Muramasa"[[c:1]]. From that fixed point the prevailing scheme reads the Bunki pieces as the first generation, the Tenbun as the second, the Tensho as the third. Against this dated record the institution sets aside the famous legend: Muramasa, it writes, "was popularly transmitted as a pupil of Masamune, but this is unfounded"[[c:2]], a smith whose line begins instead "near the close of the Muromachi period"[[c:3]]. His manner shares common features with Mino, Shimada and Sue-Soshu, and resembles Heianjo Nagayoshi above all, so closely that the sources raise the view the two stood in a teacher-pupil relation: "it is especially close to that of Heianjo Nagayoshi"[[c:4]].
The feature the published commentary names again and again as his own is the symmetry of his temper. "The characteristic of his manner," one description states, "is that the hamon on omote and ura match, and the valleys of the midare press in toward the edge"[[c:5]]. The mirror-image alignment of front and back is the Muramasa hallmark, and the sources return to it on blade after blade: a wakizashi is called typical because "the hatori on both front and back is precisely matched, clearly demonstrating a characteristic feature of Muramasa." Over a body usually wide, often short with deep sori and sakizori, or a hira-zukuri sun-nobi wakizashi, he fires a notare-based midare mixed with gunome and large gunome, ashi entering, the nioiguchi deep and thick ko-nie adhering, with kinsuji and sunagashi along the edge. Box-shaped elements appear among the midare, and the valleys drive down sharply toward the ha. The boshi runs straight to a small round point or enters the midare and sweeps; on the bolder pieces the temper carries down into muneyaki.
The forging is itame that tightens then stands somewhat, with flowing grain mixed in and ji-nie; the published sources call it itame tending toward hada-dachi, frequent among works of the Sengo line, sometimes a masame tendency, the steel at times slightly blackish with a shirake cast. On the finest pieces the jigane is well refined and the nioiguchi bright, the ji-nie thick and chikei abundant. His general run of work, by contrast, is described more plainly, the nioiguchi "tight and subdued, with mura-nie commonly forming" (匂口は締りごころで沈み, 叢沸のつくのが一般である). What he is not is a hitatsura smith. Even his most flamboyant wakizashi, with conspicuous muneyaki, is described only as "presenting an appearance akin to hitatsura" rather than the full tobiyaki-strewn fields of the Nanbokucho Soshu hands; the muneyaki and the boxed midare are his, but the all-over temper is not, and this absence is itself a tell that separates him from the Hiromitsu-Akihiro manner the legend invoked.
The founder's hand divides between two registers of signature and one devotional group. The full long signature, "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku," carries the dated Bunki blades and is read as the first generation; the bare two-character "Muramasa" is undated, its generation read from the chiselling and workmanship. On the dated Bunki 1 katana the temper is a notare with gunome worked in a nioi-dominant manner, carrying a tendency toward nijuba, which the published sources say differs somewhat in feeling from the work attributed to the second generation. Distinct from these is a group marked by Nichiren devotion. On the Juyo Bijutsuhin katana dated Eisho 10 (1513) the temper forms hakomidare low in the blade and runs up to suguha, omote and ura matched, with the Lotus Sutra title Myoho-renge-kyo cut on the blade itself; another wakizashi carries bonji with lotus, ken and an incised Hachiman Daibosatsu in superimposed relief. The generational boundary in these later-dated pieces is not yet firmly settled: the published commentary repeatedly notes that the divisions among the generations have not yet been firmly established, so the Eisho and Tenbun assignments are read with caution.
Where he stands among his neighbours the sources draw by his own traits rather than by borrowed comparison. His manner shares common features with Mino, Shimada and Sue-Soshu; it is nearest Heianjo Nagayoshi; and the matched temper with the down-pressing midare valleys is the thread that runs through the whole line and marks it off. His boldest work reaches higher still. On the Tokubetsu Juyo katana of the 16th session the temper is exceptionally wide, notare with large gunome, the nioi extremely deep and thick ko-nie adhering, the boshi deeply tempered to an ichimai appearance, and the judges read its model as the old master Go: it "may be thought to have taken as its model the manner of the old Go"[[c:6]]. They call it a masterpiece of the first generation, one that "in this work in particular gives the impression of surpassing even the second generation"[[c:7]]. The line continued under the same name through the second generation of the Tenbun years, held the most skilled and most prolific, and the third of the Tensho years, and from the school issued the pupils Masashige and Masazane. Its end was political rather than artistic: by the early modern period the name "came to be shunned by the Tokugawa house, and so the name could no longer be carried on"[[c:8]].
Muramasa is Sai-jo saku in Fujishiro's grading and rates 800 in the Toko Taikan, the representative swordsmith of late-Muromachi Ise. His Nichiren faith is read straight off the iron: because there are blades on which he "cut the title Namu-Myoho-renge-kyo"[[c:9]] he is taken for a believer of the sect, and the published commentary ties this to the region, noting that "in the Ise district of that time devotion to the sect was by no means uncommon"[[c:10]]. The unsigned Juyo katana of the 12th session, whose Muramasa signature was shaved away, is read by the published commentary as the work of a Nichiren believer forged for one such cleric. On record stand fourteen blades across the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, one Tokubetsu Juyo and thirteen Juyo, together with the Juyo Bijutsuhin Lotus Sutra katana; that blade bears "Nabenobu" in silver inlay on the nakago mune and is held to have been owned by Nabeshima Shinano-no-kami Katsushige, recorded at certification in the Nabeshima house. A first-generation wakizashi survives "transmitted as a personal possession of Oda Nobunaga"[[c:11]], its aikuchi mounting bearing the Oda mokko crest in maki-e. None of the founder's blades carries the highest patrimonial designations, so none is locked permanently out of private hands; what survives sits almost wholly in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, held more often than traded. A first-generation Muramasa of secure date and matched temper is a landmark when it appears, and it appears only from time to time.
Where Muramasa 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.
Soshu-den · Ise
6 pieces on the market now
Kuwana, in Ise Province, gave the Sengo line its base, and from there the Muramasa (村正) name carried the work of late-Muromachi Ise into the Sengoku decades. The oldest extant date in the whole line is Bunki 1 (1501), carried by a katana signed "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku"[[c:1]]; from that anchor the prevailing scheme reads the Bunki pieces as the first generation, the Tenbun as the second, and the Tensho as the third, with the second master held the most skillful and most prolific of the three. The published sources set aside the popular tale that the founder studied under Masamune, calling it an unfounded tradition; the line begins instead near the close of the Muromachi period. Its hand shares common features with Mino, Shimada, and Sue-Soshu, and resembles Heianjo Nagayoshi of Kyoto so closely that the judges presume some relationship between the two, while a likeness to the Shimada smiths and to the Sue-Seki Kanesada is noted as a thing that can confuse a first reading. From the workshop issued the disciples Masashige (正重) and Masazane (正眞), filed by tradition as students of the shodai, who carried the manner forward alongside the Muramasa name itself. The feature the commentary names again and again as the school's own is the matched temper: the hamon on omote and ura align to one mirror-image pattern (omote-ura soroi), and the valleys of the midare press in toward the cutting edge. To this the masters add box-shaped elements (hako-midare), a gunome and notare base mixed with compound gunome, togariba, and yamagata figures, the nioiguchi drawn tight with patchy ko-nie in mura, and sunagashi running frequently; the boshi runs midare-komi or sugu to a ko-maru, often swept with hakikake. The forms that carry it are the wide hira-zukuri tanto and sunnobi ko-wakizashi with mitsu-mune, and the short, strongly saki-zori uchigatana; the jigane is itame tending to stand, mixed with flowing and masame-inclined grain, the steel dark at times and showing the whitish shirake cast the descriptions repeatedly note. Beneath sits the tanago-bara nakago, the fish-belly swelling that grows pronounced from the second generation, cut with a thick-chisel two-character mei.
The successors diverge by proportion rather than trick: Masashige opens the same vocabulary out, his grain standing more openly and his o-gunome and nie carried further; Masazane draws it in, holding box teeth low at the koshimoto under a calm suguha, his jihada closing tighter than his fellow pupil's. Beside the flamboyant rule each smith keeps a quiet register, tanto in suguha aimed at the Rai manner, and an occasional reach toward hitatsura with tobiyaki and muneyaki, never the rule of the work. To kantei the school, the matched faces are the first tell: the aligned omote and ura, the box figures, the valleys pressing to the edge, the tight nioiguchi with its patchy nie, and the tanago-bara nakago under the thick mei part Muramasa from the Mino, Shimada, and Heianjo hands it otherwise resembles. Within the line the nakago-mune decides: cut angular on Muramasa, it rounds out fleshily on Masashige, while Masazane is told from Masashige by his tighter steel. The Sengo reputation for cutting sharpness, with the midare valleys driven toward the ha, drew the Tokugawa legend that the blades brought calamity on the house; the sources handle it as recorded fact, noting that from the Edo period many signatures were effaced for fear of the name, so that signed katana in particular grew comparatively rare, and that one of Masazane's katana was cut "Yamashiro Province Masazane" as a deliberate screen for a daimyo recipient. Provenance runs through private and daimyo hands rather than institutional holdings: a first-generation wakizashi transmitted as a possession of Oda Nobunaga, a Masazane descended in the Mizuno and Tosa Yamauchi houses, a Lotus Sutra katana held in the Nabeshima line. The Nichiren devotion read off some blades, the title Myoho-renge-kyo cut into the steel, ties the work to its Ise region. A signed, ubu Sengo blade of secure date and matched temper comes to notice only from time to time, the legend that thinned the signatures adding to the call for those that remain. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Muramasa村正 | 1521-1528 | 41 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1501-1521 | 17 |
| Masashige正重 | 1521-1528 | 12 |
| Masazane正眞 | 1501-1504 | 4 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1596-1615 | 0 |
Sōshū in the Muromachi period
In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
This work carries older NBTHK “Kichō”-era papers, which the NBTHK no longer issues and now regards as unreliable. To confirm the attribution, submission to an official Japanese examination body (such as the NBTHK or NTHK) for modern certification could be considered.
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.
¥2,600,000
It has arrived, it has arrived! From an old family estate comes a *mei* (signed) *Muramasa*—the dream of all collectors and certified as *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*. Despite being famous, extant works are scarce, making this the ultimate object of desire in the sword world and currently the number one most popular *Muramasa* *tanto*. We have already confirmed with the Association that the *Tokubetsu Kicho Token* certificate is authentic. Based on the *meifuri* (style of signature), this *tanto* is the work of the second generation *Muramasa*, who is considered the most skilled among all *Muramasa* smiths and is the creator of the *Juyo Bijutsuhin* titled *Muramasa*. It dates to the Eisho era of the Muromachi period (circa 1512, 514 years ago), a time when Hojo Soun, Takeda Shingen's father Takeda Nobutora, and Amago Tsunehisa were active. The *sugata* displays the unique and sharp *hira-zukuri* *tanto* form of *Muramasa*, with a distinct difference between the *moto-mihaba* and *saki-mihaba*, and the *nakago* takes the typical *tanago-hara* (fish-belly) shape. The *jigane* is a powerful forging of *itame-hada* mixed with *masame-hada*, showing a faint *utsuri* in the *ji*, which adds great character. The *horimono* are skillfully carved, featuring a *su-ken* on the *omote* and *gomabashi* on the *ura*. The *hamon* is the characteristic *Muramasa* style where the *omote* and *ura* match; it is a *nioi-deki* with *konie*, featuring a spirited *gunome-ba* where the valleys of the *yakiba* seem to run off toward the *ha-saki*. The workmanship is magnificent, and it is a *tanto* that could be by no one other than *Muramasa*; it is especially recommended for those who wish to own a work by this smith. While it has not been submitted to the current modern shinsa, it comes with an old *Tokubetsu Kicho Token* certificate from Showa 43 (1968). Please purchase with a full understanding of this fact. *Muramasa* was a swordsmith of Ise, and because his blades were said to bring misfortune to the Tokugawa clan, many works had their signatures removed (*mumei*) during the Edo period out of deference to the Tokugawa Shogunate; thus, a *Muramasa* with a *mei* is extremely precious. Although the Tokugawa Shogunate particularly loathed and feared *Muramasa*, it is a very famous story that Prince Arisugawa, when he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force to the East during the Boshin War, carried a *Muramasa* sword to signify the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This *Muramasa* *tanto*, certified as *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*, has been cherished by an old family. As the couple has grown old, they have entrusted it to us with the request to pass it on at a low price to someone who will treasure it. Therefore, we are offering this extremely rare *mei*-bearing *Tokubetsu Kicho Token*—the number one most popular smith—at a special bargain price. Please enjoy this opportunity.
Certificate reading — 銘 信村正
NihontoWatchmumei · Muromachi · nagasa 27cm
Sengo (Ise, Kuwana) · Ise · around 1501-1521
Fujishiro Sai-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 14%
2 pieces on the market now
Muramasa is the founder of the Sengo line of Ise Kuwana and the smith who set the manner that bears his name, and the published sources fix him firmly to a single point in time. The oldest extant date in the whole line is Bunki 1 (1501), carried by the dated katana signed "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku" preserved as a Juyo blade of the 40th session; with the full signature giving the residence, the personal name Uemon-no-jo and the smith name, the published commentary calls it "of high documentary value for research on Muramasa"[[c:1]]. From that fixed point the prevailing scheme reads the Bunki pieces as the first generation, the Tenbun as the second, the Tensho as the third. Against this dated record the institution sets aside the famous legend: Muramasa, it writes, "was popularly transmitted as a pupil of Masamune, but this is unfounded"[[c:2]], a smith whose line begins instead "near the close of the Muromachi period"[[c:3]]. His manner shares common features with Mino, Shimada and Sue-Soshu, and resembles Heianjo Nagayoshi above all, so closely that the sources raise the view the two stood in a teacher-pupil relation: "it is especially close to that of Heianjo Nagayoshi"[[c:4]].
The feature the published commentary names again and again as his own is the symmetry of his temper. "The characteristic of his manner," one description states, "is that the hamon on omote and ura match, and the valleys of the midare press in toward the edge"[[c:5]]. The mirror-image alignment of front and back is the Muramasa hallmark, and the sources return to it on blade after blade: a wakizashi is called typical because "the hatori on both front and back is precisely matched, clearly demonstrating a characteristic feature of Muramasa." Over a body usually wide, often short with deep sori and sakizori, or a hira-zukuri sun-nobi wakizashi, he fires a notare-based midare mixed with gunome and large gunome, ashi entering, the nioiguchi deep and thick ko-nie adhering, with kinsuji and sunagashi along the edge. Box-shaped elements appear among the midare, and the valleys drive down sharply toward the ha. The boshi runs straight to a small round point or enters the midare and sweeps; on the bolder pieces the temper carries down into muneyaki.
The forging is itame that tightens then stands somewhat, with flowing grain mixed in and ji-nie; the published sources call it itame tending toward hada-dachi, frequent among works of the Sengo line, sometimes a masame tendency, the steel at times slightly blackish with a shirake cast. On the finest pieces the jigane is well refined and the nioiguchi bright, the ji-nie thick and chikei abundant. His general run of work, by contrast, is described more plainly, the nioiguchi "tight and subdued, with mura-nie commonly forming" (匂口は締りごころで沈み, 叢沸のつくのが一般である). What he is not is a hitatsura smith. Even his most flamboyant wakizashi, with conspicuous muneyaki, is described only as "presenting an appearance akin to hitatsura" rather than the full tobiyaki-strewn fields of the Nanbokucho Soshu hands; the muneyaki and the boxed midare are his, but the all-over temper is not, and this absence is itself a tell that separates him from the Hiromitsu-Akihiro manner the legend invoked.
The founder's hand divides between two registers of signature and one devotional group. The full long signature, "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku," carries the dated Bunki blades and is read as the first generation; the bare two-character "Muramasa" is undated, its generation read from the chiselling and workmanship. On the dated Bunki 1 katana the temper is a notare with gunome worked in a nioi-dominant manner, carrying a tendency toward nijuba, which the published sources say differs somewhat in feeling from the work attributed to the second generation. Distinct from these is a group marked by Nichiren devotion. On the Juyo Bijutsuhin katana dated Eisho 10 (1513) the temper forms hakomidare low in the blade and runs up to suguha, omote and ura matched, with the Lotus Sutra title Myoho-renge-kyo cut on the blade itself; another wakizashi carries bonji with lotus, ken and an incised Hachiman Daibosatsu in superimposed relief. The generational boundary in these later-dated pieces is not yet firmly settled: the published commentary repeatedly notes that the divisions among the generations have not yet been firmly established, so the Eisho and Tenbun assignments are read with caution.
Where he stands among his neighbours the sources draw by his own traits rather than by borrowed comparison. His manner shares common features with Mino, Shimada and Sue-Soshu; it is nearest Heianjo Nagayoshi; and the matched temper with the down-pressing midare valleys is the thread that runs through the whole line and marks it off. His boldest work reaches higher still. On the Tokubetsu Juyo katana of the 16th session the temper is exceptionally wide, notare with large gunome, the nioi extremely deep and thick ko-nie adhering, the boshi deeply tempered to an ichimai appearance, and the judges read its model as the old master Go: it "may be thought to have taken as its model the manner of the old Go"[[c:6]]. They call it a masterpiece of the first generation, one that "in this work in particular gives the impression of surpassing even the second generation"[[c:7]]. The line continued under the same name through the second generation of the Tenbun years, held the most skilled and most prolific, and the third of the Tensho years, and from the school issued the pupils Masashige and Masazane. Its end was political rather than artistic: by the early modern period the name "came to be shunned by the Tokugawa house, and so the name could no longer be carried on"[[c:8]].
Muramasa is Sai-jo saku in Fujishiro's grading and rates 800 in the Toko Taikan, the representative swordsmith of late-Muromachi Ise. His Nichiren faith is read straight off the iron: because there are blades on which he "cut the title Namu-Myoho-renge-kyo"[[c:9]] he is taken for a believer of the sect, and the published commentary ties this to the region, noting that "in the Ise district of that time devotion to the sect was by no means uncommon"[[c:10]]. The unsigned Juyo katana of the 12th session, whose Muramasa signature was shaved away, is read by the published commentary as the work of a Nichiren believer forged for one such cleric. On record stand fourteen blades across the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, one Tokubetsu Juyo and thirteen Juyo, together with the Juyo Bijutsuhin Lotus Sutra katana; that blade bears "Nabenobu" in silver inlay on the nakago mune and is held to have been owned by Nabeshima Shinano-no-kami Katsushige, recorded at certification in the Nabeshima house. A first-generation wakizashi survives "transmitted as a personal possession of Oda Nobunaga"[[c:11]], its aikuchi mounting bearing the Oda mokko crest in maki-e. None of the founder's blades carries the highest patrimonial designations, so none is locked permanently out of private hands; what survives sits almost wholly in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, held more often than traded. A first-generation Muramasa of secure date and matched temper is a landmark when it appears, and it appears only from time to time.
Where Muramasa 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.
Soshu-den · Ise
6 pieces on the market now
Kuwana, in Ise Province, gave the Sengo line its base, and from there the Muramasa (村正) name carried the work of late-Muromachi Ise into the Sengoku decades. The oldest extant date in the whole line is Bunki 1 (1501), carried by a katana signed "Seshu Kuwana-ju Uemon-no-jo Fujiwara Muramasa saku"[[c:1]]; from that anchor the prevailing scheme reads the Bunki pieces as the first generation, the Tenbun as the second, and the Tensho as the third, with the second master held the most skillful and most prolific of the three. The published sources set aside the popular tale that the founder studied under Masamune, calling it an unfounded tradition; the line begins instead near the close of the Muromachi period. Its hand shares common features with Mino, Shimada, and Sue-Soshu, and resembles Heianjo Nagayoshi of Kyoto so closely that the judges presume some relationship between the two, while a likeness to the Shimada smiths and to the Sue-Seki Kanesada is noted as a thing that can confuse a first reading. From the workshop issued the disciples Masashige (正重) and Masazane (正眞), filed by tradition as students of the shodai, who carried the manner forward alongside the Muramasa name itself. The feature the commentary names again and again as the school's own is the matched temper: the hamon on omote and ura align to one mirror-image pattern (omote-ura soroi), and the valleys of the midare press in toward the cutting edge. To this the masters add box-shaped elements (hako-midare), a gunome and notare base mixed with compound gunome, togariba, and yamagata figures, the nioiguchi drawn tight with patchy ko-nie in mura, and sunagashi running frequently; the boshi runs midare-komi or sugu to a ko-maru, often swept with hakikake. The forms that carry it are the wide hira-zukuri tanto and sunnobi ko-wakizashi with mitsu-mune, and the short, strongly saki-zori uchigatana; the jigane is itame tending to stand, mixed with flowing and masame-inclined grain, the steel dark at times and showing the whitish shirake cast the descriptions repeatedly note. Beneath sits the tanago-bara nakago, the fish-belly swelling that grows pronounced from the second generation, cut with a thick-chisel two-character mei.
The successors diverge by proportion rather than trick: Masashige opens the same vocabulary out, his grain standing more openly and his o-gunome and nie carried further; Masazane draws it in, holding box teeth low at the koshimoto under a calm suguha, his jihada closing tighter than his fellow pupil's. Beside the flamboyant rule each smith keeps a quiet register, tanto in suguha aimed at the Rai manner, and an occasional reach toward hitatsura with tobiyaki and muneyaki, never the rule of the work. To kantei the school, the matched faces are the first tell: the aligned omote and ura, the box figures, the valleys pressing to the edge, the tight nioiguchi with its patchy nie, and the tanago-bara nakago under the thick mei part Muramasa from the Mino, Shimada, and Heianjo hands it otherwise resembles. Within the line the nakago-mune decides: cut angular on Muramasa, it rounds out fleshily on Masashige, while Masazane is told from Masashige by his tighter steel. The Sengo reputation for cutting sharpness, with the midare valleys driven toward the ha, drew the Tokugawa legend that the blades brought calamity on the house; the sources handle it as recorded fact, noting that from the Edo period many signatures were effaced for fear of the name, so that signed katana in particular grew comparatively rare, and that one of Masazane's katana was cut "Yamashiro Province Masazane" as a deliberate screen for a daimyo recipient. Provenance runs through private and daimyo hands rather than institutional holdings: a first-generation wakizashi transmitted as a possession of Oda Nobunaga, a Masazane descended in the Mizuno and Tosa Yamauchi houses, a Lotus Sutra katana held in the Nabeshima line. The Nichiren devotion read off some blades, the title Myoho-renge-kyo cut into the steel, ties the work to its Ise region. A signed, ubu Sengo blade of secure date and matched temper comes to notice only from time to time, the legend that thinned the signatures adding to the call for those that remain. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Muramasa村正 | 1521-1528 | 41 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1501-1521 | 17 |
| Masashige正重 | 1521-1528 | 12 |
| Masazane正眞 | 1501-1504 | 4 |
| Muramasa村正 | 1596-1615 | 0 |
Sōshū in the Muromachi period
In the Sengoku era the school served a second warrior court: the Later Hōjō at Odawara, whose patronage kept the Tsunahiro line forging hitatsura for the uchigatana age until the castle fell to Hideyoshi in 1590.
This work carries older NBTHK “Kichō”-era papers, which the NBTHK no longer issues and now regards as unreliable. To confirm the attribution, submission to an official Japanese examination body (such as the NBTHK or NTHK) for modern certification could be considered.
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