Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch於江都雲刕藩藤原長信作/安政六年八月吉日 應林宜伴君需(以下不明) 販売価格 (税込) ¥880,000 在庫状態 : 注文可 注文可 数量 長さ 68.2cm(2尺2寸5分) 反り 1.5cm(5分) 目釘穴 3個 元幅 30.2mm 元重 6.5mm 先幅 22.4mm 先重 5.2mm 形態 鎬造 庵棟 地鉄 小板目よく詰む 刃文 蛙子丁子 鋩子 小丸に返る 中茎 区送り 彫刻 樋無 時代 江戸時代末期(安政6年・1860年) 国 出雲(島根県) 外装 鹿革薄茶摘み巻/乾漆朱石目 鍔 鉄地金象嵌桐唐草図 縁金具 鉄地金象嵌桐唐草図 目貫 龍図 刀身の重さ 790g 柄の長さ 8寸1分 鑑定書 日本美術刀剣保存協会保存刀剣鑑定書 上記以外の内容をお知りになりたい方はお問合せ番号「A37005683」を添えてお気軽に お問い合わせフォーム よりお問合せください。 掲載商品は店頭にも陳列しています。売り切れの場合は御容赦ください。
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Wakimono · Izumo · around 1830-1860
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 31%
1 piece on the market now
Where Naganobu 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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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Wakimono · Izumo
1 piece on the market now
The Unshū grouping gathers smiths of Izumo province (Unshū), and the blades carrying this attribution do not form one continuous lineage so much as two widely separated moments in the province's work. The earlier is Unshū Tadazane, a signed katana placed around the Eishō era (1504 to 1521) in the late Muromachi period. The later is Takahashi Naganobu, also recorded as Unshū Naganobu and Takahashi Rihei, a late-Edo smith dated by his own inscriptions to Ansei 3 (1856) and Man'en 1 (1860). Naganobu styled himself the seventeenth-generation successor of Wakasa Fuyuhiro; around the close of the Tenpō era he went to Edo and studied under Chōunsai Tsunatoshi, and after gaining recognition he served as a retained smith (kakae-kō) of the Matsudaira house of Matsue in Unshū until his death in Meiji 12 (1879). Because the two hands belong to different centuries and different stylistic worlds, the group reads as a provincial wakimono gathering rather than a school of fixed transmission. Across these blades the shared ground is a tightly forged ko-itame-hada with ji-nie adhering, after which the two hands diverge. Tadazane's ko-itame packs closely and flows toward the edge with masame mixed in, carrying a wide suguha mingled with small gunome, ashi and yō entering well, ko-nie and sunagashi, and a subdued (shizumi) nioiguchi; his bōshi runs straight to ko-maru with a long kaeri, and the overall effect was read by the NBTHK as sharing features with the Bizen smiths Kiyomitsu and Tadamitsu.
Naganobu instead builds bold, long sugata of wide mihaba with little taper, his ko-itame often taking on an almost plain (muji) look with abundant chikei. His preferred temper is neatly aligned chōji mixed with gunome in nioi-deki, though one of his katana hardens a flamboyant gunome-midare of round heads with a deep, bright nioiguchi and yubashiri. The most reliable signpost to his hand lies in the nakago: reverse ō-sujikai filemarks with keshō, named in the setsumei as a characteristic feature. For kantei the group resolves to its named smiths rather than a collective signature. Tadazane is recognized by his Bizen-leaning suguha-gunome and subdued nioiguchi, his example preserved with a Higo-style shuhen-nuri handachi koshirae. Naganobu is identified through his reverse ō-sujikai tang finishing, his Tsunatoshi-derived chōji, and on occasion a vigorous midare whose assertive spirit the setsumei likens to superior works of the Yamaura lineage; his commissioned blade names Tomono Shigenari of the Matsujō domain and records its making at Kōji Street in the eastern capital. The standing of the group rests on these two distinct workmanships, each documented within the records of its own province. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Naganobu長信 | 1830-1860 | 2 |
| Tadasada忠貞 | 1492-1501 | 1 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
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 site