Perry’s arrival in 1853 unraveled the Tokugawa peace and created the first mass demand for working swords in two centuries. Kiyomaro, called the Masamune of Yotsuya, died on its eve; Munetsugu and Yukihide carried the boom to the end.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIt has been discovered that this tanto is a historically significant commemorative piece. It is a memorable tanto that Iwakura Tomotsune, the third son of Iwakura Tomosada (the second son of Iwakura Tomomi, who is famous in the current Taiga Drama "Segodon" and served as the Tosando Chinmushi Governor-General), commissioned Koyama Munetsugu to forge and presented to Iwamura Takatoshi, a retainer of the Tosa Domain who served as the Chinmushi Gunkan, in Meiji Kogo (Meiji 3) (1870) (148 years ago) as a reward for his great achievements in the Boshin War. On May 2, Keio 4, the 24-year-old Iwamura Takatoshi met with the 42-year-old Kawai Tsugunosuke, the Karo of the Nagaoka Domain known as the Dragon of Echigo, at Jigen-ji temple in Ojiya; in a meeting lasting only 30 minutes, he rejected Kawai's plea for the Nagaoka Domain's armed neutrality, which triggered the start of the Hokuetsu War. Because the Western Army also suffered many casualties, Iwamura Takatoshi earned a bad reputation in later years through Shiba Ryotaro's novels, but from the perspective of the Meiji government, this tanto is evidence told by history proving he was a leading figure who established the Meiji government all at once through the Boshin War. Iwamura Takatoshi later became the Governor of Saga Prefecture and suppressed the Saga Rebellion, and while Governor of Ehime Prefecture, he founded Matsuyama Middle School, later rising to become a member of the House of Peers and a Baron. This tanto is a precious piece that overturns history by proving that it was possessed by Iwamura Takatoshi and that he was not the mediocre youth of his later bad reputation, but a man of great merit from the Meiji government's perspective. This tanto was made by Koyama Munetsugu, the foremost smith among Bizen-den swordsmiths of the Shinshinto period. The sugata shows an elegant tanto form without sori, and the jigane is a finely packed ko-itame hada mixed with ko-mokume; although there are scattered sumigomori from age-related changes near the kissaki, these do not detract from its historical value. The hamon is a magnificent work, very rare for Munetsugu, starting with o-notare at the moto and followed by six gunome toward the saki. I am told there was originally a Tokubetsu Hozon Token certificate, but it was lost and is not present now; however, there is no mistake that it is shoshin. Please enjoy this precious tanto by Koyama Munetsugu that changes history.
Offered by Nipponto
6 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Koyama Munetsugu (shinshinto Bizen-den, Shirakawa / Edo) · Musashi · around 1830-1870
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 17%
6 pieces on the market now
Koyama Munetsugu was born in Kyowa 3 (1803) at Shirakawa in Oshu, common name Sobe, with the art names Issensai and Seiryosai. The published sources record that his teacher is said to have been Kato Tsunahide of Yonezawa, but add that, judging from his manner of work, "the influence of the younger brother Kato Tsunatoshi was rather the greater"[[c:1]]. He served first the Matsudaira house of Shirakawa, and when that domain was transferred he became a smith for the Kuwana fief in Ise, living in Edo at Azabu Nagasaka. In Koka 2 (1845) he received the title Bizen no Suke. He worked from the latter half of the Bunsei era into the early Meiji years, signing as Nishiyama, as Koyama, and as Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu, and the sources note that his surviving works are extremely numerous. They sum up his career in one phrase: "his style was consistently Bizen-den"[[c:2]].
His characteristic hand is a choji and gunome-choji in the Bizen manner. He sets choji mixed with gunome, pointed elements, ko-choji and ko-gunome, with ashi entering long and well, and one entry likens a gunome-choji of his to the manner of Bizen Kanemitsu. The temper is nioi-dominant with ko-nie adhering, and what the published sources return to most often is the nioiguchi: bright and clear on the majority of his blades, and on a number of them described as tight as well. On one Tenpo katana finished in his showiest vein, the sources write that he has "finished it in a midareba more flamboyantly choji-dominant than usual"[[c:3]], noting kinsuji in the upper half and a bright nioiguchi.
The jigane is his other constant. His usual jigane is a well-packed ko-itame, so finely forged that it often looks almost plain, with fine ji-nie and at times fine chikei. The published sources summarise his success on exactly these two elements together, saying that "over a well-packed, beautiful forging he tempers a nioi-dominant choji-midare, and succeeds"[[c:4]]. The boshi runs in midare-komi to a ko-maru turnback, at times pointed with hakikake. Carving, where present, is a bo-hi or a paired groove, sometimes with bonji, goma-bashi, kurikara or a sacred invocation, and his son Yoshitsugu supplied the carving on some blades.
Besides his mainline he was a deliberate copyist. Of one daisho the published sources say that "this daisho is typical of Munetsugu's copy-work"[[c:5]]: the katana takes Sue-Bizen, especially Yosozaemon no Jo Sukesada, as its model, and the wakizashi copies the Oei-Bizen masters Morimitsu and Yasumitsu, succeeding in producing utsuri. A wakizashi of Tenpo 11 copies the large hocho-shaped blade attributed to Masamune that is a treasure of the Egara shrine in Kamakura, and was dedicated at the Shiba Shinmei shrine in Edo. A separate vein is the broad, long blades of the Tenpo years, wide in body with a thick kasane, in which the jigane departs from his usual tight grain into an itame mixed with mokume and flowing grain, standing and with ji-nie and chikei. The sources say this is often seen in his Tenpo work. A quieter suguha register survives as well but is rare.
His place in the bakumatsu rests on the completeness of his Bizen revival and on the documentary richness of his blades. The sources note that he "seems to have been well known as a master of Bizen-den"[[c:6]], and he forged a daisho at the command of the lord of Koga. Many of his blades carry cutting-test inscriptions by the Yamada house, tried at Senju and elsewhere. One katana was forged at the command of Lord Date Munenari of Uwajima from the ring-iron of a foreign ship, an inscription the sources call "precious also for the history of the bakumatsu"[[c:7]]. His bright choji-midare over a near-plain ko-itame sets his work apart from the deeper, softer nioiguchi of the Kamakura blades he studied.
For the collector Munetsugu is a signed and abundant master rather than a rarity. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his standing on the designation record runs through the Juyo rank, where fifty-two of his works are held, all signed, the broad choji-midare katana named his typical and representative work. His recorded provenance reaches the lord of Koga and a Koga retainer, Matsudaira Chikanai of the Shonai domain, and Lord Date Munenari of Uwajima. Because so many were made and so many survive, a signed and dated Munetsugu of good workmanship comes to market from time to time, and remains one of the more attainable ways for a collector to hold a documented, cutting-tested bakumatsu Bizen-den blade.
Where Munetsugu 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
Shinshinto · Musashi
19 pieces on the market now
Born in Kyōwa 3 (1803) at Shirakawa in Ōshū, Koyama Munetsugu (固山宗次) carried a smith's name read variously in the setsumei as Munobei or Sōbei, working under the art-names Issensai and Seiryōsai. He came up alongside elder brothers Munehira and Munetoshi, and although his teacher is traditionally given as Katō Tsunahide, the NBTHK readers repeatedly note that the hand of Katō Tsunatoshi shows through his work more plainly. He first served the Matsudaira house of Shirakawa as a retained smith; when that domain was transferred to Kuwana in Ise, he settled in Edo at Azabu Nagasaka and forged as a Kuwana domain smith. In Kōka 2 (1845) he received the court title Bizen no Suke, the signature Bizen no Suke Fujiwara Munetsugu recurring on the dated katana from that point. His production runs from the latter half of Bunsei into the early Meiji years, and the program it serves is the Bakumatsu fukko revival of Bizen-den: a deliberate return, from an Edo workshop, to the chōji tempering of the old Bizen masters. The shared idiom is consistent across the line. Construction tends to a wide mihaba, thick kasane, shallow sori and an extended chū-kissaki or ō-kissaki, giving the heavy-in-hand shinshintō bearing the readers call taihai. The ground is a tightly packed ko-itame, sometimes flowing toward nagare or masame, carrying extremely fine mijin-grade ji-nie and frequent chikei; faint utsuri rises on a number of blades.
The temper is the heart of the recognition: a nioi-dominant chōji-midare or gunome-chōji, with ko-chōji, togariba and angular heads mixed in, long ashi and yō entering, fine sunagashi and kinsuji, and a bright, clear nioiguchi. To read his hand, the setsumei flag particular chōji shapes (the kawazuko tadpole-head and the kobushi fist-shaped chōji clustered near Keiō-dated work), a midare-komi bōshi turning in ko-maru with hakikake, and the bold, thick-chiseled signatures with prominent chisel-pillows. Cutting-test inscriptions are common, several tied to the connoisseur Iga Norishige, who is recorded learning swordmaking from Munetsugu. His pupils carry the same vocabulary: Tairyūsai Sōkan (宗寛, also Munekane), son of Ōno Heizō and later a Koga/Furukawa domain smith, whose blades add a faint midare-utsuri and a smaller-pattern late temper; and the likely student Kongōsai Munehiro, who copied the same shrine original his master did. For kantei, the discriminating points are the orderly yet varied chōji arrayed shoulder-to-shoulder, the nie-laden Tenpō-era pieces whose habuchi has not yet settled, and a deliberate allusion to the second-generation Kunisuke when kobushi-like chōji appear. The named works root the line in documented copying: an utsushi of the National Treasure Koryū Kagemitsu, reconstructed to its original ubu state with kurikara and bonji carved by Sōkan; and a Tenpō 11 (1840) wakizashi copying the hōchō-shaped Masamune of Egara Tenmangū in Kamakura, carved by Tōryūsai Seiju and dedicated by Nomura Toshikatsu, a rare pairing of two Edo masters. Provenance inscriptions name patrons such as Miyake Takuma and the Furukawa domain on the Sōkan side. Across the NBTHK register, the work stands as a disciplined Edo restatement of the Bizen chōji tradition, prized for the brightness of its nioiguchi and for the documentary value of its dated, commissioned and trial-cut tangs. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Munetsugu宗次 | 1830-1870 | 52 |
| Sokan宗寛 | 1850-1868 | 5 |
Bakumatsu: the last war market
Perry’s arrival in 1853 unraveled the Tokugawa peace and created the first mass demand for working swords in two centuries. Kiyomaro, called the Masamune of Yotsuya, died on its eve; Munetsugu and Yukihide carried the boom to the end.
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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Certificate reading — 銘 東京住固山宗次 明治庚午春奉命鍛此 戊辰之勲岩村子與有功焉為此刀 以酬其労源具定源具経