After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchOrdering Number: AS26366 (Consignment Sale)Wakizashi in Shirasaya (NBTHK Tokubesu Hozon Token)Inscription: Sasshu Ju Kiyosuke 薩州住清左Kyoroku Go-nen Hachi-gatsu Hi 薩州住清左 享禄五年八月日 (August 1532)We divide works in to Saijo Saku, Jyojyo Saku, Jyo Saku,and Regular Saku.This piece is ranked as Jyojyo Saku for Mumei().Habaki: gold-plated double habakiBlade Length: 50.48cm (19.87in)Curvature: 1.06cm (0.42in)Mekugi-ana: 1Motohaba: 2.99cm (1.18in)Sakihaba: 2.14cm (0.84in)Kasane: 0.62cm (0.24in)Weight: 435gEra: late Muromachi period, 1532Shape: slighly wide and thin blade, the Shinogi is slightly thick and get thinner toward Mune and cutting edge.Jigane: Itame and Mokume with whitish utsuriHamon: Very thin suguhaFeatures:Sasshū-jū Kiyosuke was a swordsmith of Satsuma. He is said to have originally belonged to the Naminohira school before later studying under Kiyomitsu of the Osafune school in Bizen. This blade exhibits distinctive characteristics of the Naminohira tradition, including an extremely thin suguha forged close to the cutting edge and a whitish utsuri.Kiyosuke is also renowned as the maker of Yaedatami, the personal sword of Hosokawa Yūsai, the military commander from the Sengoku period. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of this celebrated blade are now unknown. The name Yaedatami is derived from a well-known anecdote praising its extraordinary cutting ability.Likewise, this blade features a thin kasane and a keen, refined construction that suggests exceptional sharpness. Its jigane is beautifully forged.NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon CertificateAoi-Art estimation Paperwhole OshigataPlease note: the price does not include the shipping fees.Auction Starting Price:450,000JPYPlace BidRelated Items:Wakizashi: Yamashiro Daijyo Minamoto Kuishige(NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token)Wakizashi: (Gold Inlaid Signature) Kanemoto 兼元 (NBTHK Hozon Token)Wakizashi: Sasshu Ju Fujiwara Masayoshi (NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token)Wakizashi:Naniwa Gassan Unryushi Sadakazu Kokuin 浪華月山雲龍子貞一刻印 Keio 1 Nen 10 Gatsu Hi
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Wakimono · Satsuma · around 1501-1504
Tōken Taikan top 49%
1 piece on the market now
Wakimono · Satsuma
Phase: Sue-Naminohira末波平· 1393–1900
1 piece on the market now
Within the long Satsuma lineage that ran from the kotō into the shinshintō period, Sue-Naminohira (末波平) names the later chapter that carried the Naminohira tradition forward from the close of the Nanbokuchō age through the Muromachi era and into the early Edo workshops of Satsuma and neighbouring Ōsumi. The setsumei place a roster of dated smiths here: Sadatsugu of Satsuma and Haruyuki around the Tenmon era; Shigekane of Ōsumi, signing "Sūshū jū" and said also to have forged in Satsuma, dated Tenbun 14 (1545); Atsukura, who unusually prefixed the surname Fujiwara, active through Eiroku, Genki and Tenshō; and Sadakiyo, assigned to the Satō line, one of three branches (Hashiguchi, Ishigami, Satō) into which the group divides. The later Yuki-named continuation reaches into the Shintō period with Yasunetsune, counted as the fifty-ninth generation, with works dated to Enkyō and Meiwa. Throughout, the smiths worked under the Shimazu of southern Kyushu, geographically removed from the mainland centres. The setsumei describe a recurring later manner: a forging in which the hada stands out and flows with a whitish cast, a low-tempered suguha carrying hotsure, and a nioiguchi that tends toward urumi, a moist and soft quality, so that both ji and ha can read as subdued. This is framed as transmitting the manner of the forebears, the Ko-Naminohira tradition, and as conservative in character, where the early phase is described instead by a fine hoso-suguha with yaki-otoshi at the hamachi. Several pieces here, however, depart from that base by taking up the fashions of their day.
The setsumei record works in Sue-Bizen style with koshi-biraki gunome mixed with pointed and compound elements, and Atsukura's Sue-Sōshū-leaning blade with tobiyaki approaching a partial hitatsura. Given the thin corpus, these are presented as the documented range rather than as fixed traits of the phase. For kantei, the setsumei separate this phase from Ko-Naminohira by the standing, flowing hada and whitish tone paired with the low, urumi-tending suguha, against which the brighter, saeru and strongly nie-laden examples are flagged as exceptions worth noting. The koshi-biraki gunome with togariba, the katte-sagari or higaki yasurime, and the pointed midare-komi bōshi with hakikake recur as period markers, while sakizori and funbari register Muromachi sugata. Named hands anchor the group: Shigekane and Sadakiyo near Tenmon, Atsukura through Tenshō, and Haruyuki, whose work the setsumei compare to the Bungo Hirataka-Takada school, raising a possible contemporaneous link. The later Yasunetsune line then ties Sue-Naminohira to the Satsuma Shintō idiom, with wide, slightly long proportions and imo-tsuru nie-suji. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Nobuyasu延安 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Tadayuki忠行 | 1573-1592 | 0 |
| Yasutsugu安次 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Shigesumi重純 | 1449-1452 | 0 |
| Kiyosuke清左 | 1501-1504 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
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.
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