NihontoWatch兼重は「和泉守兼重」の二代となりますが一説には初代二代同人説もあります。 三代康継､法城寺正照との合作があり､作柄は相弟子と云われる虎徹に似る物が多く､業物としても良く知られ､江戸新刀を代表する刀工の一人です。 上総介を受領した後に上総守に転じたと思われますが､上総守銘は上総介銘と比べ非常に少なく､その理由は上総国は古来より新王任国とされていた為､ 守を受領後も守をあまり使わず上総介と切った為と推測されています。 刀剣の業物一覧 ※ご参照下さい。 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/刀剣の業物一覧 List of Wazamono. ※Please refer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wazamono
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Edo Kaneshige line (Musashi); the second generation, Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige · Musashi · around 1661-1673
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 21%
Kazusa no Suke Fujiwara Kaneshige, who also signed Kazusa no Kami, is the second generation of the Edo Kaneshige line, and the published sources settle his identity first: "Izumi no Kami Kaneshige and Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige are different men, probably son or pupil"[[c:1]]. The old account made them one smith who changed his title out of deference to his lord Tōdō Izumi no Kami; signed and age-stated works show Kazusa no Suke born in Kan'ei 3, and "his work begins around Meireki, and the Kanbun and Enpō years are his period of activity"[[c:2]]. He was thus a contemporary of Nagasone Kotetsu, and on one wakizashi the published sources even judge that "the long-held view that Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige was Kotetsu's teacher seems correct"[[c:3]].
His temper is the juzu-ba. Over a suguha-toned base he runs round-headed gunome linked in series like rosary beads, with thick ashi entering, deep nioi, thick nie, kinsuji and sunagashi, and a bright nioiguchi. The published sources describe the rhythm exactly: he tempers one gunome and then two, again and again, "repeating one, two, a fixed rhythm is seen, and this is the great point of appreciation of this smith"[[c:4]]. They hold that the manner grew from his predecessor's, that he "inherited the style of the first-generation Kaneshige, raised its completion further and established his own domain"[[c:5]]. Among his works a wakizashi with a gold-inlaid cutting test by Yamano Kaemon Nagahisa dated Manji 4 already bears a complete juzu-ba, which they set ahead of Kotetsu's; that his manner then "exerted a great influence is not hard to imagine"[[c:6]].
Beside the juzu-ba proper runs a broader register of gunome with thick ashi. The published sources describe its character simply: "the characteristic style of gunome with thick ashi entering, well covered in nie"[[c:7]], and they place him among the Edo smiths of his day who, "resembling the Hōjōji group, tempered a gunome-midare in the so-called juzu-ba manner"[[c:8]]. A joint work signed with Sukekuro Kanetsune and carrying a cutting test in the name of the Hōjōji smith Masateru is read as close to both, "its workmanship looking like the Hōjōji group and also like Kazusa no Suke"[[c:9]]. The jigane is a tight ko-itame, standing slightly in places, with ji-nie that is at times dust-fine and chikei. The sugata is the typical Kanbun-shintō form of ordinary width, clear taper, shallow sori and a slightly compact chū-kissaki, and the bōshi runs straight to a ko-maru swept at the tip.
His wakizashi hold a particular place. Of the Manji 4 piece the published sources write that it is "a typical and representative work among his works"[[c:10]], adding that "that his wakizashi include especially fine works tells of the character of the age"[[c:11]]. He also worked away from Edo, some blades bearing the added inscription "made at Anotsu in Seishū"[[c:12]].
The published sources treat the boundary between the two generations as open. Recent comparison of the signatures, they report, "places the generational change in the Keian era"[[c:13]], holds that the second generation also signed Izumi no Kami in his early years before alternating Kazusa no Kami and Kazusa no Suke, and goes so far as "to point to dai-mei of the second-generation Kaneshige by Sukekuro Kanetsune"[[c:14]], transmitted as his son; they close that "further research is awaited"[[c:15]].
Fujishiro grades him Jō saku, and his designated record lies in the Jūyō tier. Several of his blades carry the gold-inlaid tests of the great Edo cutters, among them a Kanbun 11 test by Maejima Hachirō Tomotsugu. For a collector a signed juzu-ba katana of his comes to light from time to time and is the natural point of comparison with Kotetsu, while the Manji 4 wakizashi stands as a document of the temper's origins.
Where Kaneshige 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.
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Shinto · Musashi
6 pieces on the market now
Edo was the base of the Kaneshige line, whose first master, Izumi no Kami Fujiwara Kaneshige, emerged among the city's swordsmiths after the shodai Yasutsugu and Hankei. The setsumei follow the account in the Kokon Kajibikō that he began as an arrowhead smith (yanone-kaji) in Echizen, then moved to Edo and turned to forging blades; his earliest dated work is a naginata inscribed Kan'ei 2 (1625), with dated pieces running into the Meireki era. A second smith signing Kazusa no Suke (and at times Kazusa no Kami) Fujiwara Kaneshige, whose common name is given as Tsuji Sukeemon, is treated as the son or pupil of the first and the second generation, born in Kan'ei 3 (1626) and most active in the Kanbun and Enpō years. The two were long held to be one man, the story being that, retained by the Tōdō house under Izumi no Kami, he changed his title to avoid sharing his lord's court designation; signed and age-dated works by Tsuji Kazusa no Suke alongside Yasutsugu and Shimosaka Ichinojō have since shown them to be separate individuals. The second generation also worked Ise pieces inscribed "made at Anotsu in Seshū," and recent comparison of the signatures has raised the possibility of substitute signing by Sukekurō Kanetsune. Recognition of the hand rests on a small set of recurring traits. The jihada is a tight ko-itame, sometimes standing or flowing toward masame, with fine ji-nie densely applied and chikei entering.
The first generation divides into two modes: a notare base carrying linked gunome and entering ashi, and a wide suguha bearing shallow notare in which the nioi is deep, the nie thick, and the nioiguchi bright and saeru, with kinsuji and sunagashi. The second generation concentrates on juzu-ba, a suguha-toned temper of linked gunome with aligned heads; the setsumei single out a fixed one-two rhythm, in which a single gunome is followed by two, as a principal point of appreciation, together with thick ashi, deep nioi, abundant nie, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi. Across both hands the sugata is the standard width with marked taper, shallow sori, and a compact chū-kissaki of the Kanbun shintō period, the bōshi mostly sugu with ko-maru and hakikake, and the long signature cut in a reishō clerical script with sujikai keshō-tending file marks read as an early form of the later decorative finish. The setsumei repeatedly place Kaneshige beside Nagasone Kotetsu, rendered also as Tōru, Batetsu, and Matetsu in these records, and beside the Hōjōji group of the same Edo circle; one notes the tradition that the second generation was Kotetsu's teacher, and a wakizashi with a Yamano cutting-test inscription dated Manji 4 (1661) carries a fully realized juzu-ba held to precede Kotetsu's own. Cutting-test inscriptions are a frequent feature of the line: gold-inlaid setsudan-mei by Yamano Ka'emon no Jō Nagahisa appear often, with Yamano Kanjūrō named as Ka'emon's earlier form before the Shōhō era, alongside mitsudō and stacked-body tests by Shibasaki Denzaemon Masatsugu and Maejima Hachirō Tomotsugu. The dated and provenanced blades in the NBTHK register, signed Izumi no Kami, Kazusa no Suke, and Kazusa no Kami, document a coherent two-generation Edo workshop whose juzu-ba and bright nie secured its standing among the leading shinto smiths of Musashi. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kaneshige兼重 | 1624-1661 | 14 |
| Kaneshige兼重 | 1661-1673 | 13 |
Edo: the shogun’s market
Edo held Japan’s largest sword-wearing population, gathered by the alternate attendance system. The shogunal smith Yasutsugu was granted the Aoi crest for his tangs; many of Kotetsu’s blades carry gold-inlaid cutting attestations. Proof mattered here.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
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 siteCooling-off (returns or exchanges) is accepted within 3 days of the item's arrival. Return shipping and refund transfer fees are the customer's responsibility. Fees other than the item price (transfer fees, credit card fees, etc.) cannot be refunded. Returns and refunds are not available for overseas destinations.