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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIt is said that in Kaga Province during the Nanbokucho period, the region began to flourish when Fujishima Tomoshige, a pupil of Rai Kunitoshi from Yamashiro Province, moved there, and Sanekage, a high-ranking disciple of Norishige, moved to Kaga from the neighboring Etchu Province. The Yukimitsu of the title was a pupil of Fujishima Tomoshige, and the first generation is seen making swords around Kosho (1455–). The body is a tachi-zukuri with the Kyo-zori of the Yamashiro-den, and it fires a gunome choji midare hamon with added Soden Bizen influence, making it well worth seeing. It is said that the lineage continued for five generations throughout the Muromachi period. According to the Meikan, he is ranked as a wazamono. Now, regarding this sword, it has a typical tachi sugata with deep koshi-zori. The motohaba has funbari and there is a difference between the motohaba and sakihaba; the ji is itame nagare with shirake standing out, and the suguha-style hamon is mixed with gunome and contains ashi, with the habuchi feeling tight and the kissaki midare-komi, sweeping and turning back. The nakago also has a good rust color with kiri-yasuri, and bears a modest, antique-looking mei. Furthermore, the accompanying koshirae is an authentic Bakumatsu period tachi koshirae, and the kanagu are matching. The kabutogane, fuchi-kanagu, ashi-kanagu, semegane, and ishizuki are all a matching set. The ashi-kanagu are made of five parts. The menuki are shakudo with janome-mon. The toroku-sho for this sword is an Oita Prefecture Showa 26 registration, a so-called 4-digit daimyo registration, and there may perhaps be some connection to the Kato family. The seppa are kin-kise, and the habaki is a day-and-night niju-habaki of kin-kise and gin-kise, which is also precious. The tsuba is also antique, being a Heianjo chrysanthemum sukashi. *The tachi-o and taikogawa-kanagu are modern items. The saya lacquer is also elaborate, being a real lacquer brown nashiji-nuri with kuro-ishime-nuri from the middle, and contains amaryu mon in seven places on the front and back. *Cracks, dents, and peeling appropriate for its age are observed, but the tachi can be worn and used. From a martial arts perspective (of course, since both the toshin and koshirae are precious, I think it might be better not to use them, but if one were to decide to use it for practice), it would be good for wearing the tachi in historical festivals, yabusame, or performing tameshigiri in martial arts demonstrations. It has length, so it will not look inferior even when worn by a modern person. I especially recommend it to those of schools called koryu. The kasane at the monouchi is thin and there is no excess niku, so it can also be used for wara-giri. How about using it for tameshigiri following kata demonstrations? Also, the original hi-bori is shallow for the sake of balance and weight reduction, but the chiri is sharp and it produces a good sound when swung, unexpectedly. This aspect can also be said to be suitable for demonstrations. If you wear the tachi with o-yoroi and perform tameshigiri or dedicatory demonstrations, it will look impressive as it is rarely seen. Of course, it also has dignity when displayed in a family tokonoma. How about taking this opportunity to own a tachi? Thank you very much. Kato family janome family crest Tachi ashi-kanagu
Offered by Token Hasegawa
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As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Yamashiro-den · Kaga · around 1455-1457
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 49%
Yamashiro-den · Kaga
17 pieces on the market now
Among the provincial lineages of the Hokurikudo, the Fujishima school took its name and its base from the village of Fujishima in Kaga province, where Tomoshige stands as founder and the name he set down passed through several generations from the close of the Nanbokucho period across the Muromachi and on into the early-modern Shinto era. The members place the chronological anchor with care: the earliest firmly dated work is a tanto of Oei 2 (1395), and the NBTHK finds nothing among the surviving blades that goes back earlier than Nanbokucho. Old documentary tradition reads the first generation as a pupil of Rai Kunitoshi of Yamashiro, alternatively of Kashu Sanekage or Rai Toshimune, but the published sources doubt each reading in turn, finding no stylistic tie to Rai Kunitoshi and a chronological impossibility with Sanekage; judging from the make and the nakago finish, they settle by elimination toward the Yamato tradition, close to the Yamato Shikkake hand. A tachi held at Atsuta Shrine and a two-character ken read as the oldest surviving piece bracket the early end of the line. The recognition of the school lives in its jigane. The members agree on a board-grained itame that mixes in mokume and runs to nagare, standing somewhat open (hada-dachi), the surface gathering ji-nie and chikei, the steel carrying a distinct blackish cast named kan'a-iro and tied directly to the northern provinces as hokkoku-hada; a faint whitish shirake-utsuri rises quietly against this dark ground rather than a bright Bizen reflection. Over that ji the school tempers a gunome-midare into which box-shaped (hako-ba), pointed and angular (togariba) teeth enter together with notare and ko-notare, the ashi running rather long, the ha nie-laden with sunagashi sweeping it and kinsuji entering, small tobiyaki and muneyaki scattered here and there.
The NBTHK reads the feel of it as a make in which Bizen temperament and Mino flavor coexist, the boshi running straight or midare-komi into a ko-maru, often swept with hakikake or running to yakizume. The members also mark the short blades apart: on the tanto the hand can quiet to a ko-itame and a narrow hoso-suguha or low ko-gunome with ko-nie, the nioiguchi sometimes clouding to urumi, the boshi turning jizo-like or returning deep, this the simplest face of the Yamato base while the dark steel keeps its northern mark. To kantei a Fujishima blade the eye works the conjunction rather than any single trait: the standing dark ji read together with the box-and-pointed midare and the constant sunagashi names the school where a clean Bizen choji or a true Yamashiro ko-itame would not. The members note works read variously toward an Aoe air, toward Naoe Shizu and Sekishu Naotsuna, the Mino and northern lines the school sits between, kin in feel to the Etchu and Echizen smiths of the same region. Among the membership Tomoshige carries the name and the standing; Fujishiro rates the founder Chu-jo saku and places others among the middle ranks of the koto smiths, and the most highly regarded work falls in the Oei generation while the Muromachi work survives most often. The single finest piece is a great spear (o-mi-yari) signed Fujishima Tomoshige and carved with a sanko-ken and the deity-name Myoken Daibosatsu, which the published sources judge not merely the best spear of the school but one of the representative famous spears of its age; surviving naginata by the line are noted as rare, their ubu-nakago valued as dating evidence. Provenance gathers around named houses recorded in the blades themselves, an Oei katana descended in the Inaba daimyo house and a tanto recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, heritage pieces in long-standing hands; yet the line is not among the unattainable names, and a Juyo Tomoshige remains a realistic if uncommon encounter for the patient collector, valued for the way a single dark-steeled blade carries the whole northern school in its ji. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Tomoshige友重 | 1394-1428 | 15 |
| Tomoshige友重 | 1346-1370 | 5 |
| Tomoshige友重 | 1324-1326 | 5 |
| Fujishima藤島 | 1394-1428 | 4 |
| Yukimitsu行光 | 1340-1346 | 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.