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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIt has appeared, it has appeared! A special-order suguha tanto with a beautiful shinogi-zukuri form by the ultra-famous smith of the Bizen Osafune Shinto period, Yokoyama Kozuke Daijo Fujiwara Sukesada—a piece that seems like it should exist but is rarely encountered. The form of a shinogi-zukuri tanto is difficult to execute, and the skill of Yokoyama Kozuke Daijo Fujiwara Sukesada, who could produce such a magnificent and crisp tanto shape as seen here, is supreme. He is the representative smith of Bizen Osafune in the early Edo period, regarded as the most skilled and highly evaluated master. This tanto was crafted in the 14th year of Genroku (1701) (325 years ago), exactly at the time when the great incident occurred where the Akō Domain Lord Asano Takumi-no-Kami slashed the Koke Kira Kozuke-no-Suke in the Corridor of Pines (Matsu no Rōka), marking the beginning of the story of the Akō Roshi’s righteous undertaking. Yokoyama Kozuke Daijo Sukesada’s real name was Yokoyama Heibei, and he was the son of Shichibei Sukesada. The sugata of this tanto is shinogi-zukuri, displaying a magnificent form with a difference between the moto-mihaba and saki-mihaba and a slight sori. The jigane is a finely packed ko-itame hada, presenting a bright and excellent steel. The hamon is finished in nioi-deki with ko-nie, a sugu-cho style tempered consistently and skillfully. This tanto has been cherished for generations in an old family, but as they have grown old, we have been entrusted to pass this precious tanto by Yokoyama Kozuke Daijo Fujiwara Sukesada to someone who will treasure it at an affordable price; thus, it is a direct candidate for Hozon Token. On this occasion, we are offering it at an ultra-low price. Please by all means enjoy this magnificent tanto by Yokoyama Kozuke Daijo Fujiwara Sukesada, a work rarely seen.
NihontoWatchOffered by Nipponto
Bizen-den · Bizen
54 pieces on the market now
Sukesada (祐定) is the great name of late-Muromachi Osafune, the most prosperous of the Bizen forges that scholars group together as Sue-Bizen. The signature was carried by a body of smiths so large that the early-modern reference Hayami-dashi lists as many as twenty-one who appended a zokumyo (common name) to distinguish themselves, and the published commentary is blunt that of all the late-Osafune families the Sukesada line was the largest and most productive. Two registers of work issue from this single name. At the top stand the masters identified by their common-name titles, Yosozaemon-no-jo, Hikobei-no-jo, Genbei-no-jo, and Hikozaemon-no-jo, whose custom commissions (chumon-uchi) the sources distinguish sharply from the mass run; beneath them lies the great body of kazu-uchi-mono, the bulk production signed plainly Sukesada with no personal name, dated and placed to the house by era and quality. Hikobei-no-jo is recorded as the father of Yosozaemon-no-jo, who in turn heads the most distinguished branch, born in Onin 1 by back-count from a tanto inscribed at age seventy-one in Tenbun 6; the name then runs in same-signature generations down through the Eiroku and Tensho years. The shared vocabulary of the school is the temper the late Bizen workshops made their own. Over a jigane of tightly packed ko-itame, fine ji-nie settling like dust, chikei woven through, and a faint midare-utsuri rising near the shinogi (the thinned last trace of the bright reflection that filled the Osafune prime), the smiths build an open-waisted koshi-biraki gunome that develops into the doubled, compound fukushiki structure marking a Sue-Bizen blade above all else. Mixed into it run choji, ko-gunome, and pointed togariba, in places gathering into the double-flower juka and the crab's-claw formation called kani-no-tsume; the hamon is nioi-based with ko-nie adhering, ashi and yo entering richly, kinsuji and sunagashi trailing, the nioiguchi bright and clear. A second pole answers this flamboyance, the quiet hiro-suguha, broad and shallowly undulating with ko-gunome folded in, of which Genbei-no-jo in particular was the master, while a livelier hitatsura climbs the body with frequent tobiyaki and muneyaki on certain tanto, often in moroha-zukuri.
The blades take the robust late-Muromachi uchigatana form, wide in body with little taper, thick in kasane, deep in sori with sakizori and an extended chu-kissaki. The divergence between the masters and the general production is one of care rather than kind: Yosozaemon's bright, well-packed ko-itame and his command of all three registers, gunome, suguha, and hitatsura, set his typical work apart from the coarser bulk, and the commentary states plainly that it is precisely because such chumon-uchi exist that the Sue-Bizen name carries its high standing. To kantei a Sukesada blade is first to read the signature register, then the manner. A named master signs a long mei on the omote with the date on the ura, often over two columns and frequently with carving (bo-hi, a Kurikara dragon, a bonji, or the invocation Namu Hachiman Daibosatsu); the bulk kazu-uchi-mono sign Sukesada alone and are judged to the house by era and the Bizen-den keynote of koshi-biraki gunome on bright ko-itame. Yosozaemon-no-jo leads the name in renown and breadth, ranked beside the late-Osafune Kiyomitsu among the two great hands of the workshop's closing age, his blades transmitted in daimyo houses grounded in their own provenance, the Hachisuka, the Mori, and the Ii, with a wakizashi recorded to the warrior Yamanaka Shikanosuke and others in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. Genbei-no-jo and Hikobei-no-jo follow, their custom blades often carrying an owner inscription beside the date, and Hikozaemon-no-jo offers the approachable end of a famous name. The Sukesada cutting reputation runs through the whole body, the heavy sakizori uchigatana made to be worn and used two-handed as the tachi fell from use. For the collector this is the most attainable of the great Bizen names, never common at its summit yet, in a signed and dated example with the open-waisted gunome reading clearly down its edge, the surest single document of how Osafune worked in its last great generation. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sukesada祐定 | 1504-1551 | 72 |
| Sukesada祐定 | 1532-1583 | 18 |
| Sukesada祐定 | 1547-1592 | 8 |
| Sukesada祐定 | 1487-1521 | 5 |
| Sukesada祐定 | 1532-1573 | 3 |
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.
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