It has arrived, it has arrived—a famous wakizashi where, due to the passage of over 600 years, the mei on the nakago can just barely be read as the two-character mei "Yasumitsu." The swordsmiths of Oei Bizen produced particularly refined masterpieces and are a gathering of master craftsmen highly prized in the sword world; in particular, the master smiths of Bizen Osafune (Yasumitsu, Morimitsu, Moromitsu) are great masters who have been given the title of "Oei no Sanko" (The Three Lights of Oei) since ancient times. This wakizashi is a precious work by Bizen Osafune Yasumitsu, one of those honored as the Three Lights of Bizen Osafune. It was made around the Oei era in the early Muromachi period (1415) (609 years ago). This wakizashi exhibits the wonderful and fine sugata of a hira-zukuri wakizashi, which fits comfortably at the waist and was frequently used as the companion sword to a daito in daimyo families—pieces often referred to as specially ordered items held in deep affection. The horimono consists of bo-hi and soe-hi carved on both sides, which is magnificent. The jigane clearly displays the mokume-hada characteristic of Oei Bizen, and from the moto of both sides, a midare-utsuri appears, providing a wonderful and elegant flavor. The hamon is a nioi-deki with ko-nie, fired in a beautiful and splendid gunome choji-ba. The koshirae is also a luxurious set with a kuro-ro-kizami-saya (black lacquer notched scabbard), adding further splendor to this wakizashi. On this occasion, an old collector has entrusted us with this piece, asking that it be passed on at a low price to a successor who wishes to own an Oei Bizen wakizashi; therefore, we are offering it at a special bargain price, equivalent to that of a mumei blade. Please truly enjoy this famous wakizashi by Bizen Osafune Yasumitsu, a representative swordsmith of the Oei no Sanko and the orthodox Bizen Osafune lineage.
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Bizen-den · Bizen
257 pieces on the market now
No single workshop in the history of Japanese swordmaking grew larger or lasted longer than Osafune, the riverside village in Bizen Province whose name became, across three centuries, a byword for the province's mainline. Its de facto founder was Mitsutada (光忠), working at Osafune in the middle Kamakura period; tradition makes him the son of Chikatada, and the genealogies derive his line from the Ko-Bizen Masatsune group already settled in the village. His blades, bold and imposing with a jigane so refined the sources say it can at a glance suggest Kyoto work, were treasured from old as the swords of commanders, and from his hand the school spread immediately: his sons Nagamitsu (長光) and Sanenaga (眞長), his grandson Kagemitsu (景光), and outward through pupils and collaterals until, by the late Kamakura years, Osafune was less a family than an industry. The line is conventionally read as a three-generation spine, Mitsutada founding it, Nagamitsu setting its classical standard, Kagemitsu bringing both temper and forging to their finished form before handing the manner to his pupil Chikakage (近景), whose echo of the master is so close that signed Kagemitsu blades are sometimes read as Chikakage daimei. What binds the membership is a shared steel before any shared temper. The forging is itame mixed with mokume, tightening on the finest blades into a dense ko-itame; fine ji-nie adheres, chikei enter, and over all of it stands the midare-utsuri that anchors even the most Kyoto-like jigane back to Bizen. On that floor the founding generation tempers a flamboyant choji-midare mixed with gunome: Mitsutada's tadpole-headed kawazuko-choji, Nagamitsu's round-topped plump choji, the deep nioi with ko-nie, the bright nioiguchi. From here the school divides by hand and by era. Sanenaga draws the calm pole, a gentle chu-suguha of tightened nioiguchi; Kagemitsu completes the slanting, square-shouldered kataochi-gunome over a suguha base, the family's last great Kamakura invention, carried on by his close kinsman Kagemasa (景政). The Nanbokucho generation then turns toward Soshu-den: Kanemitsu (兼光), fourth master of the mainline, pioneers a broad notare and is read, with Chogi (長義), as the head of Soden-Bizen, the Bizen wing that worked Soshu nie into a jigane that still throws a Bizen utsuri.
Chogi is called the most un-Bizen of Bizen smiths, his ear-shaped mimigata his tell; around him Nagashige (長重), Yoshikage (義景), Tomomitsu (倫光) and Kanenaga (兼長) press the Soshu side by degrees, while Motoshige (元重), of a separate Hatakeda descent, carries an Aoe-tinged squared, slanting ha. Two generations later the Oei revival returns to Kamakura: Yasumitsu (康光) and Morimitsu (盛光), the twin pillars of Oei-Bizen, revive the tachi shape and the choji temper over a wide-waisted koshibiraki-gunome, both finishing in the pointed rosoku-no-shin (candle-wick) boshi that gives the late date away. For the collector the school is a school of discriminations, and to kantei it is to read those fine partitions. The constant midare-utsuri over a bright ko-itame fixes the province; the boshi then sorts the maker, Mitsutada's pointed midare-komi against Nagamitsu's composed ko-maru Sansaku turn, Kagemitsu's contained return, the candle-wick tongue of Oei. Within a single phase the calls turn on a half-step: Nagamitsu's plump crests against Sanenaga's cooler nioiguchi, Kagemasa's freer play against Kagemitsu's tighter order, Nagashige read out of Chogi by a nie that surpasses his brother's. The standing of the best is matched by their patrimony. Mitsutada, Nagamitsu and Kagemitsu each hold National Treasures and stand at the head of Fujishiro's Sai-jo saku; their named blades, the Daihannya Nagamitsu, the Kogaryu Kagemitsu, the O-Kanemitsu, passed through Nobunaga, Ieyasu, Uesugi Kenshin and the great daimyo houses. Because Nagamitsu and the Nanbokucho masters signed and survived in number, Osafune offers what most peerage names cannot, a deep field of Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo work that a patient collector may still realistically hold. Through every register the same hand declares itself: the bright steel, the vivid reflection, and a temper that runs, across three centuries, as the spine of Bizen. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsutada光忠 | 1238-1239 | 61 |
| Nagamitsu長光 | 1274-1304 | 255 |
| Kagemitsu景光 | 1303-1336 | 144 |
| Kanemitsu兼光 | 1323-1370 | 237 |
| Sanenaga眞長 | 1299-1309 | 64 |
Bizen in the Muromachi period
Muromachi Osafune was an export industry: the Ming tally trade carried some 128,000 Japanese blades abroad, and Sengoku armies bought at home. Custom orders, often inscribed with the patron’s own name, were forged beside the bundle swords of the ranks.
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