This Katana is attributed to Sukemitsu, a leading smith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school, active in the late Kamakura period. It features a slightly thin blade with modest curvature, a finely forged jigane with utsuri, and a lively hamon of suguha mixed with gunome and choji. The sword retains its original shape and bears the 'Ichi' character and a long inscription, confirming its attribution and status as a 26th NBTHK Juyo Token.
mei · Yoshioka Ichimonji · Kamakura · nagasa 73.33cm · sori 1.82cm





Yoshioka Ichimonji (Bizen) · Bizen · around 1299-1302
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 8%
2 pieces on the market now
Sukemitsu held the court title Sakon-no-shōgen and signed in full beneath the school's single character ichi: Bizen no Kuni Yoshioka-jū Sakon-no-shōgen Ki-no-Sukemitsu. He is the leading smith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji, the Bizen Ichimonji branch that, as the published sources put it, prospered from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō period second only to the Fukuoka Ichimonji. The school takes its name from the character ichi cut at the head of the tang, and its representative hands all share the suke element, Sukemitsu named first among Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu and Sukeyoshi. His dated works run through Einin, Gen'ō, Genkō, Karyaku and Gentoku, a span of roughly the last Kamakura decades, and several survive with the long signature still legible.
His hand has two faces, and the published sources are careful to keep them apart. The fundamental Yoshioka manner is the calmer, smaller-scale temper. On the long-signed tachi the jigane is an itame mixed with masame in which the utsuri stands, and over it he sets a suguha-toned line into which ko-chōji and ko-gunome are intermingled, nie adhering, the bōshi running straight to a yakitsume finish. The judges read one such blade as displaying the fundamental Yoshioka workmanship, 「吉岡本来の出来を示したもの」[[c:1]], the suguha-toned edge with its small chōji and gunome the work that, in their words, clearly demonstrates the Yoshioka Ichimonji style. This is the register that distinguishes him from his parent school: not the towering clove-flower of Fukuoka but a quieter, more closely worked line.
The jigane is the constant across his work. A well-forged itame, at times tightening into ko-itame and mixed with mokume, carries ji-nie, frequent chikei on the finest pieces, and a clear midare-utsuri that the published sources note standing out on signed and attributed blades alike. On one tachi the reflection begins low as a straight utsuri along the ha and breaks into a midare-utsuri above, the Yoshioka jigane he shares with the school. The nioiguchi is bright and clear, the temper carried in ashi and yō rather than in great clusters, and a bō-hi is commonly carved through. The published commentary calls one signed tachi sound in both ji and ha and valuable for its inscription, 「地刃共に健全で出来がよく, 銘は好資料」[[c:2]].
The other and rarer face is the high, flamboyant chōji-midare. The judges record that some of his blades retain comparatively showy features that, at a glance, can be mistaken for the Fukuoka Ichimonji with their large-pattern chōji, 「一見福岡一文字派に紛れるような大模様の丁子」[[c:3]], even as they hold that his typical work is the more modest line, 「乱れの中に互の目が目立ち, やや小出来となるもの」[[c:4]], in which gunome stands out within the midare. The kinzōgan-mei katana, shortened and unsigned but gold-inlaid to him by the Honami house, shows this brilliant face: a dense ko-itame with a standing midare-utsuri and a chōji mixed with gunome, the published sources calling its workmanship 「華麗な丁子の出来が頗る見事」[[c:5]]. The den-attributed mumei katana goes further still, an itame mixed with mokume, very fine and thickly applied ji-nie with abundant chikei, over which the chōji-midare mixes gunome and togariba into a flamboyant pattern with fine tobiyaki, kinsuji and sunagashi, the yakihaba narrowing toward the monouchi.
What sets Sukemitsu apart within his own lineage is exactly this division the judges draw, and the way both faces rest on the same Yoshioka jigane. He is held apart from Fukuoka by scale rather than by kind: his bright midare-utsuri and his small, gunome-marked chōji are the Yoshioka norm, and only rarely does he reach back toward the large-pattern manner of the parent house. On the den mumei katana the published sources weigh the workmanship of ji and ha and judge the old attribution persuasive, appraising the blade a superior work of Yoshioka Ichimonji, 「吉岡一文字の上作」[[c:6]], the refined and meticulous forging especially noted. His dated and signed tachi anchor that standard for the school, the fixed points against which the mumei attributions are measured.
Sukemitsu's record reaches the highest ranks of the designation system. A signed naginata dated Gen'ō 2 (1320), surviving ubu and transmitted through the Maeda house of Kaga, is a National Treasure, and his work is further held among the Important Cultural Properties, including a Genkō-era signed tachi and the kinzōgan-mei katana polished by Honami Kōtoku. Five blades carry the Jūyō rank, among them the brilliant kinzōgan-mei katana with its mid-Edo gold nashiji mounting bearing aoi-mon crests, and several preserve old daimyō provenance, with the Tokugawa Art Museum among the institutions holding his work and names such as Tokugawa Iemitsu, Abe Tadaaki and the Maeda family in the recorded chains. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties are heritage held in trust, not blades a collector encounters; the designated Jūyō pieces are few, and of recorded whereabouts most are long held rather than traded. A signed Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukemitsu coming to light is a landmark when it happens, a document of how the Yoshioka kept the Ichimonji manner alive into the close of the Kamakura age.
Where Sukemitsu 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.
Bizen-den · Bizen
Phase: Yoshioka Ichimonji吉岡一文字· 1288–1394
6 pieces on the market now
When the Fukuoka workshops gave way at the close of the thirteenth century, the Ichimonji line carried on at Yoshioka in Bizen, and the setsumei place this branch "in place of the Fukuoka Ichimonji," flourishing from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō era. The Yoshioka smiths shared the character suke (助) as a generational element, and the records name Sukemitsu, Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu, Sukeyuki, Sukehide, and a second Sukeyoshi (助義). Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sukemitsu助光 | 1299-1302 | 7 |
| Ichi一 | 1288-1293 | 3 |
| Sukeyoshi助吉 | 1303-1306 | 3 |
| Kagehide景秀 | 1329-1331 | 0 |
| Kanenaga包永 | 1334-1338 | 0 |
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 siteIf you wish to return an item, please notify us within 3 days of receipt. After this period we cannot accept cancellations. Please ship the return to us within 5 business days. Cancellation is conditional on the item being kept in the same condition as at the time of sale, so please handle it with care.

This Katana is attributed to Sukemitsu, a leading smith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji school, active in the late Kamakura period. It features a slightly thin blade with modest curvature, a finely forged jigane with utsuri, and a lively hamon of suguha mixed with gunome and choji. The sword retains its original shape and bears the 'Ichi' character and a long inscription, confirming its attribution and status as a 26th NBTHK Juyo Token.
mei · Yoshioka Ichimonji · Kamakura · nagasa 73.33cm · sori 1.82cm





Yoshioka Ichimonji (Bizen) · Bizen · around 1299-1302
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 8%
2 pieces on the market now
Sukemitsu held the court title Sakon-no-shōgen and signed in full beneath the school's single character ichi: Bizen no Kuni Yoshioka-jū Sakon-no-shōgen Ki-no-Sukemitsu. He is the leading smith of the Yoshioka Ichimonji, the Bizen Ichimonji branch that, as the published sources put it, prospered from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō period second only to the Fukuoka Ichimonji. The school takes its name from the character ichi cut at the head of the tang, and its representative hands all share the suke element, Sukemitsu named first among Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu and Sukeyoshi. His dated works run through Einin, Gen'ō, Genkō, Karyaku and Gentoku, a span of roughly the last Kamakura decades, and several survive with the long signature still legible.
His hand has two faces, and the published sources are careful to keep them apart. The fundamental Yoshioka manner is the calmer, smaller-scale temper. On the long-signed tachi the jigane is an itame mixed with masame in which the utsuri stands, and over it he sets a suguha-toned line into which ko-chōji and ko-gunome are intermingled, nie adhering, the bōshi running straight to a yakitsume finish. The judges read one such blade as displaying the fundamental Yoshioka workmanship, 「吉岡本来の出来を示したもの」[[c:1]], the suguha-toned edge with its small chōji and gunome the work that, in their words, clearly demonstrates the Yoshioka Ichimonji style. This is the register that distinguishes him from his parent school: not the towering clove-flower of Fukuoka but a quieter, more closely worked line.
The jigane is the constant across his work. A well-forged itame, at times tightening into ko-itame and mixed with mokume, carries ji-nie, frequent chikei on the finest pieces, and a clear midare-utsuri that the published sources note standing out on signed and attributed blades alike. On one tachi the reflection begins low as a straight utsuri along the ha and breaks into a midare-utsuri above, the Yoshioka jigane he shares with the school. The nioiguchi is bright and clear, the temper carried in ashi and yō rather than in great clusters, and a bō-hi is commonly carved through. The published commentary calls one signed tachi sound in both ji and ha and valuable for its inscription, 「地刃共に健全で出来がよく, 銘は好資料」[[c:2]].
The other and rarer face is the high, flamboyant chōji-midare. The judges record that some of his blades retain comparatively showy features that, at a glance, can be mistaken for the Fukuoka Ichimonji with their large-pattern chōji, 「一見福岡一文字派に紛れるような大模様の丁子」[[c:3]], even as they hold that his typical work is the more modest line, 「乱れの中に互の目が目立ち, やや小出来となるもの」[[c:4]], in which gunome stands out within the midare. The kinzōgan-mei katana, shortened and unsigned but gold-inlaid to him by the Honami house, shows this brilliant face: a dense ko-itame with a standing midare-utsuri and a chōji mixed with gunome, the published sources calling its workmanship 「華麗な丁子の出来が頗る見事」[[c:5]]. The den-attributed mumei katana goes further still, an itame mixed with mokume, very fine and thickly applied ji-nie with abundant chikei, over which the chōji-midare mixes gunome and togariba into a flamboyant pattern with fine tobiyaki, kinsuji and sunagashi, the yakihaba narrowing toward the monouchi.
What sets Sukemitsu apart within his own lineage is exactly this division the judges draw, and the way both faces rest on the same Yoshioka jigane. He is held apart from Fukuoka by scale rather than by kind: his bright midare-utsuri and his small, gunome-marked chōji are the Yoshioka norm, and only rarely does he reach back toward the large-pattern manner of the parent house. On the den mumei katana the published sources weigh the workmanship of ji and ha and judge the old attribution persuasive, appraising the blade a superior work of Yoshioka Ichimonji, 「吉岡一文字の上作」[[c:6]], the refined and meticulous forging especially noted. His dated and signed tachi anchor that standard for the school, the fixed points against which the mumei attributions are measured.
Sukemitsu's record reaches the highest ranks of the designation system. A signed naginata dated Gen'ō 2 (1320), surviving ubu and transmitted through the Maeda house of Kaga, is a National Treasure, and his work is further held among the Important Cultural Properties, including a Genkō-era signed tachi and the kinzōgan-mei katana polished by Honami Kōtoku. Five blades carry the Jūyō rank, among them the brilliant kinzōgan-mei katana with its mid-Edo gold nashiji mounting bearing aoi-mon crests, and several preserve old daimyō provenance, with the Tokugawa Art Museum among the institutions holding his work and names such as Tokugawa Iemitsu, Abe Tadaaki and the Maeda family in the recorded chains. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties are heritage held in trust, not blades a collector encounters; the designated Jūyō pieces are few, and of recorded whereabouts most are long held rather than traded. A signed Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukemitsu coming to light is a landmark when it happens, a document of how the Yoshioka kept the Ichimonji manner alive into the close of the Kamakura age.
Where Sukemitsu 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.
Bizen-den · Bizen
Phase: Yoshioka Ichimonji吉岡一文字· 1288–1394
6 pieces on the market now
When the Fukuoka workshops gave way at the close of the thirteenth century, the Ichimonji line carried on at Yoshioka in Bizen, and the setsumei place this branch "in place of the Fukuoka Ichimonji," flourishing from the end of Kamakura into the Nanbokuchō era. The Yoshioka smiths shared the character suke (助) as a generational element, and the records name Sukemitsu, Sukeyoshi, Sukeshige, Suketsugu, Sukeyuki, Sukehide, and a second Sukeyoshi (助義). Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sukemitsu助光 | 1299-1302 | 7 |
| Ichi一 | 1288-1293 | 3 |
| Sukeyoshi助吉 | 1303-1306 | 3 |
| Kagehide景秀 | 1329-1331 | 0 |
| Kanenaga包永 | 1334-1338 | 0 |
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 siteIf you wish to return an item, please notify us within 3 days of receipt. After this period we cannot accept cancellations. Please ship the return to us within 5 business days. Cancellation is conditional on the item being kept in the same condition as at the time of sale, so please handle it with care.
