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About the maker

Kanesada兼定

Kanesada is the second-generation Izumi no Kami Kanesada of Seki in Mino, the smith universally called "Nosada" because he cut the character *sada* (定) with the element inside the u-crown formed as 之. The published sources place his working life across the Meio years into Daiei, in the closing decades of the Muromachi period, and rank him with Kanemoto as a representative Mino smith of his age. He was, as the published commentary notes, a rare case in the *kotO* era of a smith granted the court title Izumi no Kami, and he often cut the Fujiwara surname as well. The first generation having signed plainly, it was this hand that carried the name to its height, and the swordbooks call him simply "an excellent master" (すぐれたる上手). The change from a standard-script *sada* to the 之 form that earned him his nickname is placed by the published sources around the eleventh month of Meio 8 and before the eighth month of Meio 9; the third-generation "Hikisada" is kept distinct from him. His recognized strength is the lively Mino hand. The shape is the late-Muromachi katana, wide in body with *sakizori* and at times an *o-kissaki*, dignified and imposing, the *hiraniku* full as on a blade meant to cut. Over an *itame* that runs a little in places and is overall well forged, the *jigane* carries *ji-nie* and a whitish *shirake-utsuri*. The temper is a busy mixture, *gunome* with *choji* and pointed *togariba* elements, *nioi*-dominant with *ko-nie*, slight *ashi* and *yo*, *sunagashi* running through, and very slight *tobiyaki*. The *boshi* runs as a *midare-komi* with *hakikake*, tending to a pointed turnback. Of his finest piece in this manner the published commentary writes that the *ji* and *ha* are both clear and that it shows "the true strength of Nosada, the finest example among this smith's works" (ノサダの本領を示したもので、同工中の白眉). The *jigane* is the constant of his hand. Itame, sometimes tightening into *ko-itame* mixed with *mokume*, with *ji-nie* and a whitish cast, appears on nearly every blade; where the grain runs it leans toward *masame*, and the *utsuri* it carries is the pale *shirake* of Mino steel rather than the bright *midare-utsuri* of Bizen. That whitish *jigane* is itself the discriminator the judges return to, the feature that separates his work from the brighter Bizen *utsuri*. Over it the *nioiguchi* is laid tight and clear, the activity carried in *ashi*, *sunagashi* and *ko-nie*; one shortened katana widens toward the middle into a more flamboyant *midare* with *tobiyaki*, while the body of the temper stays a busy *gunome*. His work divides into two registers, and the published sources draw the line themselves. Beside the lively Mino temper stands a deliberate Yamashiro imitation, a slender *suguha* over a closely packed *ko-itame*, which the commentary says was made with Rai Kunitoshi and the Yamashiro masters as the explicit target. Of this register the judges write that as a *Kyo-mono utsushi* among all the Kanesada, "none surpasses this example" (右に出るものはない). The tell that the hand is still his is named in the same breath: even at this level of workmanship there is *fushi* within the edge, a faint *gunome* mingling in the otherwise quiet *suguha*, the shape leaning to *sakizori*, the itame turning whitish where Yamashiro steel would not. He worked the full range, katana, tanto and the rare naginata, and a small number of blades carry a chrysanthemum crest and the inscription that they were made at Yamada in Ise, the so-called Yamada-uchi pieces treasured for that mark. What sets him apart within the Seki group is exactly what the judges name. Several Muromachi smiths cut the Kanesada name and a number held the Izumi no Kami title, so the published sources treat the generational divisions as not yet settled, and grant that at least four distinguishable hands cut the 之 form. Among them his signature style is "the most extolled, and in fact the most skillful" (技術も一番優れ), the maker whose dated Eisho works the commentary singles out as the finest of the group. His bright, busy Mino temper over a whitish itame, and his slender Rai-styled suguha with its hidden *gunome*, are the grounded marks that hold him apart from the plainer Seki output around him; the published record calls his oeuvre "broad in scope and high in artistic value" (作域も広く美術的価値も高い). For the collector he is a great late-*kotO* name, well represented but never common. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties on this record; his standing is carried instead by one Tokubetsu Juyo and a long line of Juyo blades, with a Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi among them, and his blades pass through the highest daimyO provenance. The Tokubetsu Juyo katana was the personal sash-sword of Miura Shogen, chief retainer of the Kii Tokugawa house; one tachi was forged for Takeda Sakyo no Daibu Nobutora, father of Shingen; a chrysanthemum-crested katana points to an imperial connection, and his blades are recorded with the Shimazu, Satake, Kyogoku, Yamauchi and Akimoto houses and in the Sano Art Museum. With only a single piece in the Tokubetsu Juyo tier and the rest at Juyo and below, a signed Nosada comes to market from time to time rather than rarely, more findable than the great Kamakura names, yet a fine dated Eisho example with sound provenance remains a landmark when it appears, a sword by the smith the swordbooks call an excellent master.

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