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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch刃長32.1センチ 反り6.5センチ 元幅30.1ミリ 元重ね6.0ミリ 物打幅25.8ミリ 物打重ね4.8ミリ 横手位置幅25.0ミリ 松葉先重ね4.3ミリ 104 目釘穴2個 裸身重量288グラム 拵に納めて鞘を払った重量423グラム 室町中期~後期 The middle ~ latter period of Muromachi era 昭和61年6月24日 岐阜県登録 附属 保存刀剣鑑定書、素銅地下貝銀着上貝金着二重はばき、変塗鞘脇指拵 金房一派は大和国にて栄えた手掻末葉の刀工群で、南都宝蔵院の僧兵に数多の刀剣を鍛え、兵衛尉政次や隼人丞正實らが著名。十文字槍で有名な宝蔵院流槍術の始祖、覚禅房胤栄の槍も金房一派の刀工の手により鍛えられました。 政次には初・二代があり、 現存する作品は、刀や槍、薙刀と言ったものが多く、短刀や小脇指の類は少なく、作風としては元先の幅差が少ない頑強なる造り込みが多く、利刀としても優れていたため、武将達からも厚い支持を得ていたようです。 刃長一尺五分と短く、寸延び短刀とも称し得る一口。元先の幅差は過度に開かず、しかし大きく延びた切先が際立ち、姿に豪壮な力強さを備える。表に梵字、裏に護摩箸を刻し、地鉄は小板目よく詰んで地沸が付き、刃文は匂口明るく、丁字に互ノ目を交え、総体にて乱れにはこずんだ感があり、砂流かかり足よく入り、金筋を交える。鋩子は乱れ込んで掃き掛け、返りは乱れながら棟区付近まで長く焼き下げるなど、働き豊かで見応えがある。 附属の拵は贅を尽くした変り塗とし、金具周りも仕事丁寧な良品で統一されている。小柄を欠くことなく備え、政次にかけてか、小田原正次在銘の鐔が掛けられている点も趣深い。保存状態は総じて良好であり、姿・彫物・地刃・附属の調和が整った、格調高い一口として相応しい。鐔鳴りが見られ、柄に少々がたつきがあるものの、保存状態は総じて良好であり、姿・彫物・地刃・附属の拵と、調和が整った、格調高い一口として相応しい。 内外共に出来良い作品故に、余力がある方は是非とも上研磨を施し、特別保存刀剣鑑定を御受審ください。さらには拵も審査を受審頂いて後世に伝え残して頂きたい逸品です。
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Wakimono · Yamato
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The Kanabō (金房) smiths worked in Nanto, the old name for Nara in Yamato province, from the end of the Muromachi period into the early Shintō era. Their relationship to any of the five established Yamato schools is not clearly fixed in the record, and the NBTHK setsumei treat the group as one that rose and flourished in Nara during the late Muromachi decades, with dated examples encountered from the Eishō era onward. The blades here name several hands. Masatsugu (政次), who signed as Kanabō Hyōe no Jō Masatsugu and as Kanefusa Hyōe no Jō Masatsugu, is described as the representative and best-known smith of the line. Masasada (政定), signing Kanefusa Saemon-no-jō Masasada, left an uchigatana dated Eiroku 2 (1559). " Rather than the classical Yamato-den manner of the earlier five schools, the Kanabō hand reads as a Muromachi uchigatana idiom that shares points with the Sue-Bizen and Sue-Seki spheres. The kitae is itame that flows into nagare and tends toward masame, with the grain often standing and growing large, and a whitish utsuri appearing in places. The hamon divides between two registers the setsumei repeatedly cite: a large gunome-based midare, the "hips" of the gunome opening out and mixed at times with togari-ba, chōji, or ko-notare; and a suguha carried on a tight nioiguchi.
Across both, ashi and yō enter well and stand out, ko-nie and ji-nie adhere, and sunagashi with kinsuji run through; the nioiguchi frequently takes a shizumi, subdued cast. The bōshi runs midare-komi, often with hakikake and a pointed or ko-maru return. The build tends to broad mihaba with sakizori on the swords, while naginata are conspicuously common, a production read as answering the demands of the warrior monks (sōhei) of Kōfukuji and the great Nanto temples. For kantei, the line is held by the flowing masame-tending itame, the broad gunome-midare with prominent ashi and yō over a tight or subdued nioiguchi, and the marked presence of naginata and long polearm blades among extant work. The setsumei single out Masatsugu's polearms as typical of his hand, several preserved with their vermilion-lacquer nagamaki mounts (shunuri nagamaki koshirae) and one black-lacquer naginata mounting, the fittings inferred to have been made together with the blade. The records grant that true masterworks within the group are rare, yet they describe individual blades by Masatsugu and Masasada with fine jigane, skillfully cut horimono, and workmanship judged excellent and dignified. Within the wider Yamato sphere the Kanabō stand as a late, utilitarian offshoot whose polearms and serviceable swords carry the group's name into the NBTHK register. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Masatsugu政次 | 1492-1570 | 4 |
| Masazane正眞 | 1532-1555 | 0 |
| Masasada政定 | 1521-1559 | 1 |
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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