The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
It has appeared, it has appeared! A katana of Shizu, said to have been handed down through the Matsudaira family of the Kaminoyama Domain in Yamagata (27,000 koku). The Edo period sayagaki describes it as "Shinoarare Shizu" (Shizu of the driving sleet)—referring to the appearance of "fine hail falling fiercely and vigorously"—with a sunpo of 2 shaku 1 sun, indicating it was cherished as a celebrated sword by Shizu. Originally, Shizu is a place name in Mino, but it became the common name for the smith Kaneuji, who hailed from the Yamato Tegai school and became a disciple of Soshu Masamune, eventually calling himself Shizu Saburo Kaneuji. Among the Masamune Jittetsu, Kaneuji’s style most closely resembles Masamune, yet it is characterized by Yamato and Mino influences in the jiba, making it an object of envy for sword enthusiasts since ancient times. This katana exhibits a goso appearance with a wide mihaba and extended kissaki. The jigane is itame-hada mixed with nagare-hada and covered in ji-nie. The hamon is a tight nioiguchi with wild gunome and notare mixed with togari-ba, and the boshi is boldly midare-komi. However, under the current Association’s kiwame, it has been attributed to the first generation (Shodai) of the illustrious Iga no Kami Kinmichi of the Kyo-Yamashiro school. The Shodai Kinmichi was the eldest son of Seki Kanemichi; in Bunroku 2 (1593, 433 years ago), he and his three brothers accompanied their father Kanemichi to the capital during the Nijo Kanpaku’s descent. In Bunroku 3 (1594), he received the title of Iga no Kami and served the Imperial Court. Just before the Battle of Sekigahara, when he received an order for one thousand tachi from Tokugawa Ieyasu, he accepted on the condition that the smiths in the capital be placed under his control. After the war, through Ieyasu’s mediation, he received the Imperial sanction as the Nihon Kaji Sosho (Grandmaster of Japanese Smiths). Thereafter, he was granted the immense authority that any swordsmith receiving a court rank must do so as a disciple of the Kinmichi house, becoming the leader of swordsmiths in both name and reality. This katana is a suriage of a long sword from the Nanbokucho period; the hamon copies Shizu with notare-midare, featuring active hataraki along the habuchi, and is magnificently tempered. Because the Shodai Kinmichi’s work was so excellent, many were altered during the Edo period to pass as Masamune, Sadamune, or Shizu and handed down to Daimyo families; thus, zaimei works by the Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi are rare and extremely precious today. The Showa 26 Yamagata Daimyo registration and the habaki adorned with the Aoi-mon accompanying this sword are also valuable. Now, whether you judge this to be a sword of Shizu or a sword of the Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi, please take it in your hands and confirm for yourself.
NihontoWatchmumei · Nanbokucho · nagasa 63.9cm · sori 0.5cm
Mishina (Sanpin) school, Kyoto Shinto · Yamashiro · around 1596-1615
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 18%
4 pieces on the market now
Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi was the eldest of the four sons of Kanemichi of Mino-Seki, and with his father and his three younger brothers, Izumi no Kami (Rai) Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi and Etchu no Kami Masatoshi, he came up to Kyoto and settled at Nishinotoin Ebisugawa, where the published sources record that he 'greatly raised the name of the Mishina school'[[c:1]]. He stands as the founding hand of the Mishina, or Sanpin, line of Kyoto Shinto, head of the so-called Kyo go-kaji, the five Kyoto smiths, and the Jubi commentary on his shortened tachi names him a master smith of Japan, one who 'was active as a Nihon kaji sosho'[[c:2]]. From the second generation the house held a hereditary right to recommend smiths to the court for their titles, and added that by-line to its signatures. The name continued under the same appellation to the end of the Edo period, but the published record holds the first generation the most outstanding of the line.
His work is read across his court title, and that division is the spine of his kantei. Before he received the Iga no Kami rank, around the Tensho years, the published sources call his manner essentially that of late Mino: 'his workmanship at this stage is the very thing of Sue-Seki'[[c:3]], a somewhat whitish forging carrying pointed gunome, or else gunome-choji and notare, the nioiguchi tending to tighten with small nie, and the so-called Mishina boshi not yet formed. Several signed blades of this phase stay close to the home style of the four brothers, a gunome-choji akin to that of Kanesada and Ujifusa, a small notare mixed with gunome that recalls the Muromachi uchigatana; the judges read him as the brother who carried the Mino inheritance most faithfully.
After he received his title his manner is renewed, and here lies the body of his recognized record. The published sources describe how 'his range was renewed into a Shizu manner'[[c:4]], the mode in which he most excelled. Over an itame mixed with mokume and a strong flowing nagare-hada toward the mune, the grain standing, fine ji-nie adheres thickly and chikei enter well. The temper is a large midare built on a small notare, mixing o-gunome, angular elements and pointed teeth; the nie is strong and at times coarse, gathering unevenly; vigorous sunagashi runs through it, long kinsuji enter, and yubashiri and small tobiyaki cross the edge, the nioiguchi tending to sink. It is a hand of Soshu and Shizu activity grafted onto a Mino root, and the swordbooks note he was accomplished across the Shizu, Seki, Yamato and Soshu traditions alike.
The jigane is the constant beneath both phases. An itame that flows into nagare-hada toward the mune, the grain standing, with thick fine ji-nie and frequent chikei, carries the Mino-Seki inheritance through into the Kyoto work; on the finest blades a mizukage rises from just above the hamachi. Over it the late temper is restless rather than calm, the nie clustering unevenly and breaking down in places, the sunagashi often forming striping with the kinsuji. The boshi is the clearest single tell: a notare or midare run-in, the tip pointed with vigorous hakikake, the Mishina boshi that is explicitly absent from the early phase and manifest in the late. Around the middle of his Shizu-mode blades the strong nie gathers until the temper takes on a basket-weave aspect, the budding of sudareba, and it is this seed that would define the Mishina school under his successors.
What sets him apart is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from his native Mino past by the strength of the nie, the kinsuji and sunagashi, and the emergent sudareba and Mishina boshi that the early Sue-Seki work lacks; and the Shizu manner that is his prime was a specialty he shared with his youngest brother, Etchu no Kami Masatoshi, some of his blades reading as if copied from o-suriage mumei Shizu. His signatures come as a three-character Kinmichi-saku, a five-character mei, and a Fujiwara-prefixed seven-character form, with dated examples rare, so the manner of the signature joins the workmanship in placing a blade within his line. He is the root from which the Mishina school grew into one of the great houses of Kyoto Shinto.
For the collector he is a foundational Shinto name. Fujishiro grades the first generation Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin and the modern tiers, with four blades raised to Tokubetsu Juyo and eighteen to Juyo, the published sources calling his finest the masterpiece and 'the finest example of shodai Kanemichi'[[c:5]], a blade brimming with commanding spirit and sound in both ji and ha. Provenance on record is sparse but real: one Tokubetsu Juyo katana was among the cherished swords of Tani Tateki, and the Juyo Bijutsuhin blade passed through the Satake family. Roughly two dozen of his blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, of which only a small number trade, so a signed first-generation Iga no Kami Kinmichi comes to light only from time to time, and with patience one may be encountered: a document of how the Mishina school began.
Where Kinmichi 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.
Shinto · Yamashiro
75 pieces on the market now
The Mishina school (三品), one of the two dominant smithing groups of early Edo Kyoto beside the Horikawa, grew from the late-Mino workshop of Kanemichi of Seki, whose dated blades run through the Tenbun, Eiroku, and Tenshō eras. During the closing decades of the sixteenth century Kanemichi came up to the capital with his four sons and settled at Nishinotōin Ebisugawa, where the eldest, Iga no Kami Kinmichi, is recorded as having greatly raised the name of the line. The brothers, Kinmichi together with Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, and Etchū no Kami Masatoshi, became known collectively as the Sanpin (三品) makers, and the published sources count Kinmichi head of the Kyō go-kaji, the five Kyoto smiths. From the second generation the house held a hereditary right to recommend smiths to the court for their titles and added that by-line to its signatures. The name continued under the same appellation to the end of the Tokugawa period, throwing off branches that included the Tango no Kami line working at Ōsaka into the Genroku years, though the published record consistently holds the founding generation the most outstanding of the line. Beneath every branch lies a shared vocabulary carried up from Mino-Seki. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume that flows into nagare-hada and tends toward masame near the mune, the grain standing, with thick fine ji-nie and frequent chikei. Over it the Mino-derived gunome and togariba are refined toward a Kyoto manner, the nie strong and at times coarse, gathering unevenly, kinsuji and vigorous striped sunagashi running throughout. Two tells bind the house. The first is the Mishina bōshi, a notare or midare run-in pointed at the tip and swept with vigorous hakikake, the form Masatoshi shows at its clearest, described as if drawn from a picture. The second is sudareba, the bamboo-blind temper in which layered sunagashi and yubashiri stripe into parallel bands; Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi devised it, and the first-generation hand keeps it a free, semi-cursive disorder where his heirs would regularize it into a fixed lattice.
The lines diverge from that common ground. Kinmichi and his younger brother Masatoshi both excelled in a Shizu manner, the large midare of Mino grafted onto Sōshū nie, with Masatoshi the most versatile, ranging across Shizu, Mino sanbon-sugi, Yamato suguha, and Sōshū hitatsura. The later Ōsaka Tanba branch held to the sudareba alone, opening from a straight yakidashi, while the second Tango no Kami Kanemichi cast off the family chōji for a flamboyant tōran-style large gunome in alternating two-joined and three-joined groups, and a deep-nioi suguha read in the manner of Inoue Shinkai. To kantei Mishina is to read these two house marks first. The pointed, hakikake-swept bōshi and the striped sudareba, set over a standing itame that flows to masame, place a blade within the line before any signature is weighed; the sunagashi, far heavier than on a Bizen ji, is the very material from which the temper is built. Within the house the founding generation sets the standard. Fujishiro grades Kinmichi and Masatoshi Jō-jō saku, the Ōsaka Tanba shodai Jō-saku, and the second Tango no Kami Chū-jō saku, the sources judging the later Kyoto and Ōsaka generations markedly inferior to the founders as the manner thinned toward a single uniform pattern. Provenance on record runs through samurai and collector hands rather than great museums: a Kinmichi katana among the cherished swords of Tani Tateki, a Yoshimichi katana made for Naitō Kuroemon and another now in the Kyoto National Museum, Masatoshi blades passing through Oda Urakusai and the Imperial household, and a second Tango no Kami katana descending from the Aoyama wardens of Ōsaka castle. The brothers' blades are signed and knowable, dated examples rare, so the manner of the mei joins the workmanship in placing them; for the Ōsaka and Kyoto branches the cut of the character 守 separates one hand from the next. Most designated work is held rather than traded, so a signed founding-generation Mishina blade comes to light only from time to time, and with it the temper in which one of the most recognizable hamon of the Shintō era was first being worked out. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kinmichi金道 | 1596-1615 | 23 |
| Yoshimichi吉道 | 1596-1615 | 36 |
| Masatoshi正俊 | 1596-1615 | 31 |
| Kanemichi兼道 | 1681-1704 | 5 |
| Yoshimichi吉道 | 1661-1673 | 6 |
Kyōto: the revival workshop
The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
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.
NBTHK official siteFor 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.
¥650,000
It has appeared, it has appeared! A katana of Shizu, said to have been handed down through the Matsudaira family of the Kaminoyama Domain in Yamagata (27,000 koku). The Edo period sayagaki describes it as "Shinoarare Shizu" (Shizu of the driving sleet)—referring to the appearance of "fine hail falling fiercely and vigorously"—with a sunpo of 2 shaku 1 sun, indicating it was cherished as a celebrated sword by Shizu. Originally, Shizu is a place name in Mino, but it became the common name for the smith Kaneuji, who hailed from the Yamato Tegai school and became a disciple of Soshu Masamune, eventually calling himself Shizu Saburo Kaneuji. Among the Masamune Jittetsu, Kaneuji’s style most closely resembles Masamune, yet it is characterized by Yamato and Mino influences in the jiba, making it an object of envy for sword enthusiasts since ancient times. This katana exhibits a goso appearance with a wide mihaba and extended kissaki. The jigane is itame-hada mixed with nagare-hada and covered in ji-nie. The hamon is a tight nioiguchi with wild gunome and notare mixed with togari-ba, and the boshi is boldly midare-komi. However, under the current Association’s kiwame, it has been attributed to the first generation (Shodai) of the illustrious Iga no Kami Kinmichi of the Kyo-Yamashiro school. The Shodai Kinmichi was the eldest son of Seki Kanemichi; in Bunroku 2 (1593, 433 years ago), he and his three brothers accompanied their father Kanemichi to the capital during the Nijo Kanpaku’s descent. In Bunroku 3 (1594), he received the title of Iga no Kami and served the Imperial Court. Just before the Battle of Sekigahara, when he received an order for one thousand tachi from Tokugawa Ieyasu, he accepted on the condition that the smiths in the capital be placed under his control. After the war, through Ieyasu’s mediation, he received the Imperial sanction as the Nihon Kaji Sosho (Grandmaster of Japanese Smiths). Thereafter, he was granted the immense authority that any swordsmith receiving a court rank must do so as a disciple of the Kinmichi house, becoming the leader of swordsmiths in both name and reality. This katana is a suriage of a long sword from the Nanbokucho period; the hamon copies Shizu with notare-midare, featuring active hataraki along the habuchi, and is magnificently tempered. Because the Shodai Kinmichi’s work was so excellent, many were altered during the Edo period to pass as Masamune, Sadamune, or Shizu and handed down to Daimyo families; thus, zaimei works by the Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi are rare and extremely precious today. The Showa 26 Yamagata Daimyo registration and the habaki adorned with the Aoi-mon accompanying this sword are also valuable. Now, whether you judge this to be a sword of Shizu or a sword of the Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi, please take it in your hands and confirm for yourself.
NihontoWatchmumei · Nanbokucho · nagasa 63.9cm · sori 0.5cm
Mishina (Sanpin) school, Kyoto Shinto · Yamashiro · around 1596-1615
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 18%
4 pieces on the market now
Shodai Iga no Kami Kinmichi was the eldest of the four sons of Kanemichi of Mino-Seki, and with his father and his three younger brothers, Izumi no Kami (Rai) Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi and Etchu no Kami Masatoshi, he came up to Kyoto and settled at Nishinotoin Ebisugawa, where the published sources record that he 'greatly raised the name of the Mishina school'[[c:1]]. He stands as the founding hand of the Mishina, or Sanpin, line of Kyoto Shinto, head of the so-called Kyo go-kaji, the five Kyoto smiths, and the Jubi commentary on his shortened tachi names him a master smith of Japan, one who 'was active as a Nihon kaji sosho'[[c:2]]. From the second generation the house held a hereditary right to recommend smiths to the court for their titles, and added that by-line to its signatures. The name continued under the same appellation to the end of the Edo period, but the published record holds the first generation the most outstanding of the line.
His work is read across his court title, and that division is the spine of his kantei. Before he received the Iga no Kami rank, around the Tensho years, the published sources call his manner essentially that of late Mino: 'his workmanship at this stage is the very thing of Sue-Seki'[[c:3]], a somewhat whitish forging carrying pointed gunome, or else gunome-choji and notare, the nioiguchi tending to tighten with small nie, and the so-called Mishina boshi not yet formed. Several signed blades of this phase stay close to the home style of the four brothers, a gunome-choji akin to that of Kanesada and Ujifusa, a small notare mixed with gunome that recalls the Muromachi uchigatana; the judges read him as the brother who carried the Mino inheritance most faithfully.
After he received his title his manner is renewed, and here lies the body of his recognized record. The published sources describe how 'his range was renewed into a Shizu manner'[[c:4]], the mode in which he most excelled. Over an itame mixed with mokume and a strong flowing nagare-hada toward the mune, the grain standing, fine ji-nie adheres thickly and chikei enter well. The temper is a large midare built on a small notare, mixing o-gunome, angular elements and pointed teeth; the nie is strong and at times coarse, gathering unevenly; vigorous sunagashi runs through it, long kinsuji enter, and yubashiri and small tobiyaki cross the edge, the nioiguchi tending to sink. It is a hand of Soshu and Shizu activity grafted onto a Mino root, and the swordbooks note he was accomplished across the Shizu, Seki, Yamato and Soshu traditions alike.
The jigane is the constant beneath both phases. An itame that flows into nagare-hada toward the mune, the grain standing, with thick fine ji-nie and frequent chikei, carries the Mino-Seki inheritance through into the Kyoto work; on the finest blades a mizukage rises from just above the hamachi. Over it the late temper is restless rather than calm, the nie clustering unevenly and breaking down in places, the sunagashi often forming striping with the kinsuji. The boshi is the clearest single tell: a notare or midare run-in, the tip pointed with vigorous hakikake, the Mishina boshi that is explicitly absent from the early phase and manifest in the late. Around the middle of his Shizu-mode blades the strong nie gathers until the temper takes on a basket-weave aspect, the budding of sudareba, and it is this seed that would define the Mishina school under his successors.
What sets him apart is exactly what the judges name. He is held apart from his native Mino past by the strength of the nie, the kinsuji and sunagashi, and the emergent sudareba and Mishina boshi that the early Sue-Seki work lacks; and the Shizu manner that is his prime was a specialty he shared with his youngest brother, Etchu no Kami Masatoshi, some of his blades reading as if copied from o-suriage mumei Shizu. His signatures come as a three-character Kinmichi-saku, a five-character mei, and a Fujiwara-prefixed seven-character form, with dated examples rare, so the manner of the signature joins the workmanship in placing a blade within his line. He is the root from which the Mishina school grew into one of the great houses of Kyoto Shinto.
For the collector he is a foundational Shinto name. Fujishiro grades the first generation Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin and the modern tiers, with four blades raised to Tokubetsu Juyo and eighteen to Juyo, the published sources calling his finest the masterpiece and 'the finest example of shodai Kanemichi'[[c:5]], a blade brimming with commanding spirit and sound in both ji and ha. Provenance on record is sparse but real: one Tokubetsu Juyo katana was among the cherished swords of Tani Tateki, and the Juyo Bijutsuhin blade passed through the Satake family. Roughly two dozen of his blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, of which only a small number trade, so a signed first-generation Iga no Kami Kinmichi comes to light only from time to time, and with patience one may be encountered: a document of how the Mishina school began.
Where Kinmichi 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.
Shinto · Yamashiro
75 pieces on the market now
The Mishina school (三品), one of the two dominant smithing groups of early Edo Kyoto beside the Horikawa, grew from the late-Mino workshop of Kanemichi of Seki, whose dated blades run through the Tenbun, Eiroku, and Tenshō eras. During the closing decades of the sixteenth century Kanemichi came up to the capital with his four sons and settled at Nishinotōin Ebisugawa, where the eldest, Iga no Kami Kinmichi, is recorded as having greatly raised the name of the line. The brothers, Kinmichi together with Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, and Etchū no Kami Masatoshi, became known collectively as the Sanpin (三品) makers, and the published sources count Kinmichi head of the Kyō go-kaji, the five Kyoto smiths. From the second generation the house held a hereditary right to recommend smiths to the court for their titles and added that by-line to its signatures. The name continued under the same appellation to the end of the Tokugawa period, throwing off branches that included the Tango no Kami line working at Ōsaka into the Genroku years, though the published record consistently holds the founding generation the most outstanding of the line. Beneath every branch lies a shared vocabulary carried up from Mino-Seki. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume that flows into nagare-hada and tends toward masame near the mune, the grain standing, with thick fine ji-nie and frequent chikei. Over it the Mino-derived gunome and togariba are refined toward a Kyoto manner, the nie strong and at times coarse, gathering unevenly, kinsuji and vigorous striped sunagashi running throughout. Two tells bind the house. The first is the Mishina bōshi, a notare or midare run-in pointed at the tip and swept with vigorous hakikake, the form Masatoshi shows at its clearest, described as if drawn from a picture. The second is sudareba, the bamboo-blind temper in which layered sunagashi and yubashiri stripe into parallel bands; Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi devised it, and the first-generation hand keeps it a free, semi-cursive disorder where his heirs would regularize it into a fixed lattice.
The lines diverge from that common ground. Kinmichi and his younger brother Masatoshi both excelled in a Shizu manner, the large midare of Mino grafted onto Sōshū nie, with Masatoshi the most versatile, ranging across Shizu, Mino sanbon-sugi, Yamato suguha, and Sōshū hitatsura. The later Ōsaka Tanba branch held to the sudareba alone, opening from a straight yakidashi, while the second Tango no Kami Kanemichi cast off the family chōji for a flamboyant tōran-style large gunome in alternating two-joined and three-joined groups, and a deep-nioi suguha read in the manner of Inoue Shinkai. To kantei Mishina is to read these two house marks first. The pointed, hakikake-swept bōshi and the striped sudareba, set over a standing itame that flows to masame, place a blade within the line before any signature is weighed; the sunagashi, far heavier than on a Bizen ji, is the very material from which the temper is built. Within the house the founding generation sets the standard. Fujishiro grades Kinmichi and Masatoshi Jō-jō saku, the Ōsaka Tanba shodai Jō-saku, and the second Tango no Kami Chū-jō saku, the sources judging the later Kyoto and Ōsaka generations markedly inferior to the founders as the manner thinned toward a single uniform pattern. Provenance on record runs through samurai and collector hands rather than great museums: a Kinmichi katana among the cherished swords of Tani Tateki, a Yoshimichi katana made for Naitō Kuroemon and another now in the Kyoto National Museum, Masatoshi blades passing through Oda Urakusai and the Imperial household, and a second Tango no Kami katana descending from the Aoyama wardens of Ōsaka castle. The brothers' blades are signed and knowable, dated examples rare, so the manner of the mei joins the workmanship in placing them; for the Ōsaka and Kyoto branches the cut of the character 守 separates one hand from the next. Most designated work is held rather than traded, so a signed founding-generation Mishina blade comes to light only from time to time, and with it the temper in which one of the most recognizable hamon of the Shintō era was first being worked out. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kinmichi金道 | 1596-1615 | 23 |
| Yoshimichi吉道 | 1596-1615 | 36 |
| Masatoshi正俊 | 1596-1615 | 31 |
| Kanemichi兼道 | 1681-1704 | 5 |
| Yoshimichi吉道 | 1661-1673 | 6 |
Kyōto: the revival workshop
The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
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.
NBTHK official siteFor 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.
¥650,000
