Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
This is a wakizashi by Tomomitsu, a student of Osafune Kanemitsu, from the Nanbokucho period. It exhibits the characteristic style of the smith, featuring a hamon with small notare mixed with gunome and togari-ba. The blade is accompanied by an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token certificate.
NihontoWatchmei · Osafune · Nanbokucho · nagasa 55.2cm · sori 0.8cm
Osafune (Kanemitsu school) · Bizen · around 1345-1370
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 10%
1 piece on the market now
The largest of Tomomitsu's signed works is the great odachi of Futarasan Shrine in Nikko, a National Treasure dated Joji 5 (1366). The published record cites it from the first Juyo session as "the largest of his signed works"[[c:1]] and in the most recent as "the pinnacle of Osafune Tomomitsu"[[c:2]], anchoring the carving of new submissions against it. Tomomitsu (倫光) was a swordsmith of the Bizen Osafune mainline in the Nanbokucho period, introduced by the NBTHK with one unvarying sentence: "one of the students of Kanemitsu, and by one tradition even said to have been Kanemitsu's younger brother"[[c:3]]. The modern formula runs his dated work from Jowa to Eiwa, 1345 to 1379; the dated blades on the official record carry nengo from Bunna through Oan. The same formula places him within the school: closest of all to Kanemitsu's manner, his rank of work "pressing the master himself"[[c:4]]. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku.
His own hand, the published sources repeat, is "the easygoing, gentle midare led by notare"[[c:5]], most often a ko-notare mixing gunome, ko-gunome, pointed and somewhat angular teeth. The criterion is given in so many words: such a blade "is to be judged Tomomitsu from the point that the crests of the notare tend slightly to points"[[c:6]]. Ashi and yo enter, the temper leans to nioi with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi work through it; the boshi runs midare-komi, usually finishing pointed, at times swept with hakikake. Horimono mark his blades far more often than the rest of the school: beyond the bo-hi the record draws bonji, gomabashi, paired futasuji-hi, the three-pronged ken and above all the kurikara, the grass-style form of which "is a peculiar carving scarcely met with outside this smith and Kanemitsu"[[c:7]]; the Futarasan odachi and a signed tachi in the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures carry the reference examples.
The jigane is itame mixed with mokume, ji-nie attaching and fine chikei entering; on the tachi and katana a midare-utsuri rises, while the hira-zukuri pieces lean to a sugu-style or bo-utsuri. Here the published sources separate him from his master with unusual candor: the first Juyo session records that "compared with Kanemitsu his jigane is inferior, and many works tend somewhat to stand"[[c:8]], and the recent formula repeats the division in kinder terms: close to Kanemitsu, yet marked as Tomomitsu by the slightly standing jigane and the unhurried notare base.
The shape of what survives was set out in the first session: "tanto and short wakizashi survive signed in comparative numbers, but the tachi are almost all unsigned"[[c:9]]. His tachi were mostly the long blades of the Enbun-Joji fashion, wide, with little taper and an extended chu-kissaki, and they come down as o-suriage mumei katana; the signed and dated work concentrates in the wide, sunnobi, hira-zukuri tanto and wakizashi, two carrying the incised invocation Hachiman Daibosatsu[[c:10]]. The signature is the six-character long mei Bishu Osafune Tomomitsu[[c:11]], smallish, often in a fine chisel, set toward the mune, with the date on the ura; twenty-eight of the designated blades are signed against thirty-one unsigned. The gold inlays on the shortened blades, kinzogan-mei of Hon'ami Kojo, Koyu and Sato Kanzan and a kinpun-mei of Hon'ami Koson, are attributions by later appraisers, not signatures; one Juyo katana keeps its original mei folded back as an orikaeshi-mei. An early entry raises, and leaves open, the question of two generations of the same name[[c:12]].
Two side manners flank the notare. On signed work of Joji and Oan he also worked the older spine of the school: a midare led by kataochi-gunome or squared, angular teeth; the sources hold such a tachi against his notare masterpieces and call it proof of "the breadth of his working range and the sureness of his technique"[[c:13]], while a small kataochi tanto recalls Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu and "at first sight could be mistaken for a Kamakura-period piece"[[c:14]]. Among the unsigned attributions stands a markedly nie-strong group[[c:15]], where yubashiri and small tobiyaki appear along the temper and the pointed boshi completes what the record names "the Soden-Bizen character"[[c:16]]. Its emblem is the great hocho-gata wakizashi of Yasukuni Shrine, recorded with its koshirae in Matsudaira Sadanobu's Shuko-jisshu (集古十種) as the sword of Egara Tenmangu in Kamakura, handed down of old as a work of Masamune, "a celebrated piece famous since antiquity"[[c:17]]; the modern judges read its vivid utsuri, notare-led midare and pointed boshi as a Bizen smith under Soshu influence; its kurikara, close to that of the Futarasan odachi, settles the attribution. In inverse, the kataochi-gunome that defines Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu recedes in him, and suguha falls away almost entirely. The record sets him beside the other Kanemitsu students, Hidemitsu, Masamitsu and Motomitsu, whose works resemble the master while falling a step short; no successor line is drawn for him.
Sixty-four designated works stand on the official record: the Futarasan National Treasure, two Important Cultural Properties, eight Tokubetsu Juyo and fifty-one Juyo, fifty-nine in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. The provenance roll runs through the great houses: the first Juyo session's signed tachi of Oan 6 came down in the Yamauchi family, lords of Tosa; the Tokubetsu Juyo katana with the gold-inlaid attribution descended in the Echizen Matsudaira family as the reputed sword of Matsudaira Shungaku, with a Genroku 7 (1694) origami of Hon'ami Kojo; another katana, bestowed by Ii Naomasa on his retainer Suzuki Iwami no Kami Shigeyoshi, was later presented to the Mito Tokugawa family; other pieces passed through the Okubo lords of Odawara and the statesman Ito Miyoji. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties, three blades, are patrimony held permanently outside the market, the odachi at Futarasan Shrine and the wakizashi at Yasukuni with its Shuko-jisshu koshirae. What a private collector may realistically encounter lies in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, most of it the o-suriage mumei katana cut down from his grand tachi; a signed and dated tanto or wakizashi is the rarer event, and an ubu signed tachi rarer still; the first session already observed that tachi of ordinary length were few from his hand. A Tomomitsu reaches the market only from time to time, recognized when it does by the easy notare whose crests tend slightly to points.
Where Tomomitsu 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Bizen-den · Bizen
Phase: Sōden-Bizen相伝備前· 1330–1394
235 pieces on the market now
The Soden Bizen school encompasses the group of Nanbokucho-period Osafune smiths in Bizen Province whose work absorbed the technical influence of the Soshu-den, producing a distinctive synthesis that stands apart from both orthodox Bizen and pure Sagami practice. The school divides into two principal lineages: the Kanemitsu group, representing the direct main line of Osafune that descends from Mitsutada through Nagamitsu and Kagemitsu; and the Chogi group, a collateral branch whose members carried the Soshu idiom to its most expressive extremes within Bizen. Kanemitsu, the chakuryu heir of Kagemitsu, pioneered the broad, relaxed notare-based midare that defines the mature Nanbokucho Osafune manner, while Chogi -- described by the NBTHK as the smith "who departs furthest from Bizen" among Bizen makers -- pushed nie-dominant forging to a level that rivals the output of the great Sagami smiths themselves. Together with disciples and contemporaries including Tomomitsu, Motomitsu, Masamitsu, Yoshimitsu, Kanenaga, Nagashige, and Nagamori, they constitute one of the most prolific and technically accomplished groups in the history of Japanese swordsmithing. The school's collective technical identity is anchored in a shared jigane of itame-hada mixed with mokume, with fine ji-nie adhering thickly, chikei entering well, and midare-utsuri standing out -- a persistent Bizen hallmark that survives even in the most Soshu-inflected work. The sugata overwhelmingly reflects the grand Nanbokucho taihai: wide mihaba with little taper between base and tip, and an extended chu-kissaki or o-kissaki conveying martial vigor. Within this shared framework, two distinct temperaments emerge.
" Yoshimitsu likewise inherits the small-pattern tendency, producing ko-gunome mixed with ko-choji whose restraint the NBTHK praises as "upper rank" Soden Bizen. The Chogi lineage, by contrast, emphasizes powerful nie in both ji and ha: Chogi's flamboyant large-scale midare weaves together gunome, choji, togariba, and koshi-hiraki forms with tobiyaki and yubashiri scattering freely, while kinsuji and sunagashi streak through the hardened edge. " Nagashige, now thought to be Chogi's elder brother rather than his junior, works a gentler, smaller-patterned midare yet with nie so strong as to "even surpass Chogi," while Nagamori occupies an intermediate position, his "somewhat smaller patterning" accompanied by rich internal activity. The historical significance of the Soden Bizen school lies in its demonstration that the Soshu influence, far from merely displacing Bizen conventions, catalyzed an extraordinary expansion of the Osafune repertoire. " The NBTHK's evaluative language across the school converges on consistent themes: the forging is "meticulous" and "excellent-quality," the nioiguchi "bright and clear," and the finest examples display a kenzen condition that attests to the soundness of Bizen steel at its peak. The abundance of dated inscriptions -- from Kanemitsu's forty-five-year span through Masamitsu's four-decade career extending into the early Muromachi period -- provides an unusually well-documented chronological framework, with later works by Masamitsu and Yoshimitsu pointing toward the subsequent development of Oei Bizen. Within the broader canon, the Soden Bizen school stands as the fullest realization of the creative possibilities that emerged when two of Japan's greatest forging traditions met and merged. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsutada光忠 | 1238-1239 | 60 |
| Nagamitsu長光 | 1274-1304 | 244 |
| Kagemitsu景光 | 1303-1336 | 143 |
| Kanemitsu兼光 | 1323-1370 | 231 |
| Sanenaga眞長 | 1299-1309 | 64 |
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
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 siteNo cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).
This is a wakizashi by Tomomitsu, a student of Osafune Kanemitsu, from the Nanbokucho period. It exhibits the characteristic style of the smith, featuring a hamon with small notare mixed with gunome and togari-ba. The blade is accompanied by an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token certificate.
NihontoWatchmei · Osafune · Nanbokucho · nagasa 55.2cm · sori 0.8cm
Osafune (Kanemitsu school) · Bizen · around 1345-1370
Fujishiro Jo-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 10%
1 piece on the market now
The largest of Tomomitsu's signed works is the great odachi of Futarasan Shrine in Nikko, a National Treasure dated Joji 5 (1366). The published record cites it from the first Juyo session as "the largest of his signed works"[[c:1]] and in the most recent as "the pinnacle of Osafune Tomomitsu"[[c:2]], anchoring the carving of new submissions against it. Tomomitsu (倫光) was a swordsmith of the Bizen Osafune mainline in the Nanbokucho period, introduced by the NBTHK with one unvarying sentence: "one of the students of Kanemitsu, and by one tradition even said to have been Kanemitsu's younger brother"[[c:3]]. The modern formula runs his dated work from Jowa to Eiwa, 1345 to 1379; the dated blades on the official record carry nengo from Bunna through Oan. The same formula places him within the school: closest of all to Kanemitsu's manner, his rank of work "pressing the master himself"[[c:4]]. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku.
His own hand, the published sources repeat, is "the easygoing, gentle midare led by notare"[[c:5]], most often a ko-notare mixing gunome, ko-gunome, pointed and somewhat angular teeth. The criterion is given in so many words: such a blade "is to be judged Tomomitsu from the point that the crests of the notare tend slightly to points"[[c:6]]. Ashi and yo enter, the temper leans to nioi with ko-nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi work through it; the boshi runs midare-komi, usually finishing pointed, at times swept with hakikake. Horimono mark his blades far more often than the rest of the school: beyond the bo-hi the record draws bonji, gomabashi, paired futasuji-hi, the three-pronged ken and above all the kurikara, the grass-style form of which "is a peculiar carving scarcely met with outside this smith and Kanemitsu"[[c:7]]; the Futarasan odachi and a signed tachi in the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures carry the reference examples.
The jigane is itame mixed with mokume, ji-nie attaching and fine chikei entering; on the tachi and katana a midare-utsuri rises, while the hira-zukuri pieces lean to a sugu-style or bo-utsuri. Here the published sources separate him from his master with unusual candor: the first Juyo session records that "compared with Kanemitsu his jigane is inferior, and many works tend somewhat to stand"[[c:8]], and the recent formula repeats the division in kinder terms: close to Kanemitsu, yet marked as Tomomitsu by the slightly standing jigane and the unhurried notare base.
The shape of what survives was set out in the first session: "tanto and short wakizashi survive signed in comparative numbers, but the tachi are almost all unsigned"[[c:9]]. His tachi were mostly the long blades of the Enbun-Joji fashion, wide, with little taper and an extended chu-kissaki, and they come down as o-suriage mumei katana; the signed and dated work concentrates in the wide, sunnobi, hira-zukuri tanto and wakizashi, two carrying the incised invocation Hachiman Daibosatsu[[c:10]]. The signature is the six-character long mei Bishu Osafune Tomomitsu[[c:11]], smallish, often in a fine chisel, set toward the mune, with the date on the ura; twenty-eight of the designated blades are signed against thirty-one unsigned. The gold inlays on the shortened blades, kinzogan-mei of Hon'ami Kojo, Koyu and Sato Kanzan and a kinpun-mei of Hon'ami Koson, are attributions by later appraisers, not signatures; one Juyo katana keeps its original mei folded back as an orikaeshi-mei. An early entry raises, and leaves open, the question of two generations of the same name[[c:12]].
Two side manners flank the notare. On signed work of Joji and Oan he also worked the older spine of the school: a midare led by kataochi-gunome or squared, angular teeth; the sources hold such a tachi against his notare masterpieces and call it proof of "the breadth of his working range and the sureness of his technique"[[c:13]], while a small kataochi tanto recalls Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu and "at first sight could be mistaken for a Kamakura-period piece"[[c:14]]. Among the unsigned attributions stands a markedly nie-strong group[[c:15]], where yubashiri and small tobiyaki appear along the temper and the pointed boshi completes what the record names "the Soden-Bizen character"[[c:16]]. Its emblem is the great hocho-gata wakizashi of Yasukuni Shrine, recorded with its koshirae in Matsudaira Sadanobu's Shuko-jisshu (集古十種) as the sword of Egara Tenmangu in Kamakura, handed down of old as a work of Masamune, "a celebrated piece famous since antiquity"[[c:17]]; the modern judges read its vivid utsuri, notare-led midare and pointed boshi as a Bizen smith under Soshu influence; its kurikara, close to that of the Futarasan odachi, settles the attribution. In inverse, the kataochi-gunome that defines Kagemitsu and Kanemitsu recedes in him, and suguha falls away almost entirely. The record sets him beside the other Kanemitsu students, Hidemitsu, Masamitsu and Motomitsu, whose works resemble the master while falling a step short; no successor line is drawn for him.
Sixty-four designated works stand on the official record: the Futarasan National Treasure, two Important Cultural Properties, eight Tokubetsu Juyo and fifty-one Juyo, fifty-nine in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers. The provenance roll runs through the great houses: the first Juyo session's signed tachi of Oan 6 came down in the Yamauchi family, lords of Tosa; the Tokubetsu Juyo katana with the gold-inlaid attribution descended in the Echizen Matsudaira family as the reputed sword of Matsudaira Shungaku, with a Genroku 7 (1694) origami of Hon'ami Kojo; another katana, bestowed by Ii Naomasa on his retainer Suzuki Iwami no Kami Shigeyoshi, was later presented to the Mito Tokugawa family; other pieces passed through the Okubo lords of Odawara and the statesman Ito Miyoji. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties, three blades, are patrimony held permanently outside the market, the odachi at Futarasan Shrine and the wakizashi at Yasukuni with its Shuko-jisshu koshirae. What a private collector may realistically encounter lies in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, most of it the o-suriage mumei katana cut down from his grand tachi; a signed and dated tanto or wakizashi is the rarer event, and an ubu signed tachi rarer still; the first session already observed that tachi of ordinary length were few from his hand. A Tomomitsu reaches the market only from time to time, recognized when it does by the easy notare whose crests tend slightly to points.
Where Tomomitsu 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.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Bizen-den · Bizen
Phase: Sōden-Bizen相伝備前· 1330–1394
235 pieces on the market now
The Soden Bizen school encompasses the group of Nanbokucho-period Osafune smiths in Bizen Province whose work absorbed the technical influence of the Soshu-den, producing a distinctive synthesis that stands apart from both orthodox Bizen and pure Sagami practice. The school divides into two principal lineages: the Kanemitsu group, representing the direct main line of Osafune that descends from Mitsutada through Nagamitsu and Kagemitsu; and the Chogi group, a collateral branch whose members carried the Soshu idiom to its most expressive extremes within Bizen. Kanemitsu, the chakuryu heir of Kagemitsu, pioneered the broad, relaxed notare-based midare that defines the mature Nanbokucho Osafune manner, while Chogi -- described by the NBTHK as the smith "who departs furthest from Bizen" among Bizen makers -- pushed nie-dominant forging to a level that rivals the output of the great Sagami smiths themselves. Together with disciples and contemporaries including Tomomitsu, Motomitsu, Masamitsu, Yoshimitsu, Kanenaga, Nagashige, and Nagamori, they constitute one of the most prolific and technically accomplished groups in the history of Japanese swordsmithing. The school's collective technical identity is anchored in a shared jigane of itame-hada mixed with mokume, with fine ji-nie adhering thickly, chikei entering well, and midare-utsuri standing out -- a persistent Bizen hallmark that survives even in the most Soshu-inflected work. The sugata overwhelmingly reflects the grand Nanbokucho taihai: wide mihaba with little taper between base and tip, and an extended chu-kissaki or o-kissaki conveying martial vigor. Within this shared framework, two distinct temperaments emerge.
" Yoshimitsu likewise inherits the small-pattern tendency, producing ko-gunome mixed with ko-choji whose restraint the NBTHK praises as "upper rank" Soden Bizen. The Chogi lineage, by contrast, emphasizes powerful nie in both ji and ha: Chogi's flamboyant large-scale midare weaves together gunome, choji, togariba, and koshi-hiraki forms with tobiyaki and yubashiri scattering freely, while kinsuji and sunagashi streak through the hardened edge. " Nagashige, now thought to be Chogi's elder brother rather than his junior, works a gentler, smaller-patterned midare yet with nie so strong as to "even surpass Chogi," while Nagamori occupies an intermediate position, his "somewhat smaller patterning" accompanied by rich internal activity. The historical significance of the Soden Bizen school lies in its demonstration that the Soshu influence, far from merely displacing Bizen conventions, catalyzed an extraordinary expansion of the Osafune repertoire. " The NBTHK's evaluative language across the school converges on consistent themes: the forging is "meticulous" and "excellent-quality," the nioiguchi "bright and clear," and the finest examples display a kenzen condition that attests to the soundness of Bizen steel at its peak. The abundance of dated inscriptions -- from Kanemitsu's forty-five-year span through Masamitsu's four-decade career extending into the early Muromachi period -- provides an unusually well-documented chronological framework, with later works by Masamitsu and Yoshimitsu pointing toward the subsequent development of Oei Bizen. Within the broader canon, the Soden Bizen school stands as the fullest realization of the creative possibilities that emerged when two of Japan's greatest forging traditions met and merged. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsutada光忠 | 1238-1239 | 60 |
| Nagamitsu長光 | 1274-1304 | 244 |
| Kagemitsu景光 | 1303-1336 | 143 |
| Kanemitsu兼光 | 1323-1370 | 231 |
| Sanenaga眞長 | 1299-1309 | 64 |
Sixty years of war between two courts drove blades long and broad, and Osafune met the demand: Kanemitsu and Chōgi led forges serving the provincial warriors who did the fighting, while Sōshū influence arrived with the armies to create Sōden-Bizen.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
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 siteNo cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).
