NihontoWatchにっかり青江や数珠丸恒次などで有名な備中青江鍛冶。平安時代から南北朝時代にわたって隣国の備前鍛冶と共に繁栄し多くの名工を輩出。しかし南北朝時代の政争に巻き込まれ、時の豪族と共に衰退を余儀なくされた。家次は青江貞次の系統で、鎌倉時代初期から代を重ねている。 本作は南北朝後期の青江家次。菖蒲造りの体配で鋭い切先が印象に残る。細やかな動きを見せる互の目丁子刃文は小足無数に入り、葉や砂流しなど、古刀ならではの繊細な働きが見て取れる。地鉄は板目に杢目が交じりって地景入り、鎬地寄りには淡い映りが上がる。帽子は焼き深くやや掃掛けて小丸に返っている。茎は大磨上で錆色良く、金粉銘で極めた家次を鑑定に於いて青江家次と肯定している稀少な一振。 付属の紋散らし拵は凝った鞘で大変飾り映えする。鞘の立涌文様は正倉院御物にもある古い文様で、古くは親王の袴などに取り入れられた高貴文。赤銅石目縁頭と素銅七々子地小尻は紋散らし図。赤銅七々子地牛曳図鐔に赤銅貝図目貫で華やかに仕立てている。時代感があり鞘と黒柄糸は少し痛みがあるも大変飾り映えする。保存刀剣鑑定書附。
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As written by the shop
Bizen-den · Bitchu · around 1367-1386
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 23%
Where Ietsugu 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
Bizen-den · Bitchu
Phase: Sue-Aoe末青江· 1334–1500
20 pieces on the market now
Sue-Aoe names the closing chapter of the Bitchū tradition, the work made after the Aoe smiths reached the height of their powers in the Nanbokuchō era and then carried the lineage forward into Muromachi decline. The window is anchored by the hands the NBTHK repeatedly groups together as the representative smiths of the period: Tsuguyoshi (次吉), Tsugunao or Tsuginao (次直), and Moritsugu (守次), with Naotsugu (直次), Yoshitsugu (吉次), and a Sadatsugu (貞次) name carried down from the late Kamakura masters into this later age. Dated blades fix the chronology firmly, from a Moritsugu tantō of Enbun 3 (1358) and a Naotsugu in the Ryakuō years through Tsuguyoshi pieces of Teiji 2 (1363) and Kōan 2 (1362). These men succeeded the late-Kamakura-into-early-Nanbokuchō generation that produced Sadatsugu and the earlier Moritsugu, and they worked at the moment the Southern Court's fortunes were turning, after which the school thinned out. The very tail of the line surfaces in obscure later Bitchū hands such as Munesada and Sōtei of Kasaoka, dated Bunmei 13 (1481), whose lineage the records leave unknown and whose work the setsumei describe as nearly indistinguishable from late Bizen. Sugata is the first tell. Setsumei after setsumei records a wide mihaba with little taper from base to tip, thin kasane, sun-nobi proportion in the tantō and an extended chū-kissaki or outright ō-kissaki in the larger blades, the broad Nanbokuchō build that the earlier Aoe never carried. The jihada keeps the school signature of ko-itame mixed with mokume, finely standing, with mottled jifu and patches of sumihada drifting through the steel. Above all the period is read in its utsuri: streak-like suji-utsuri rises near the edge and stacks into the layered dan-utsuri the catalogues prize, seen plainly on the Tsugiyoshi tachi of Tokuju 21 and the dated Tsuguyoshi tantō of Juyo 58.
Two tempers divide the leading hands. Tsuguyoshi favors a tight, bright suguha with ko-ashi and saka-ashi; Tsugunao favors the flamboyant saka-chōji-midare with its reverse slant, ashi and yō pouring in, that matured around Enbun. Against this the Ko-Aoe of the mid-Kamakura ran ko-nie-deki with a subdued, shizumi nioiguchi over a refined chirimen-hada, while the late-Kamakura Chū-Aoe of Sadatsugu and Moritsugu stood between, the nie growing calmer and the reverse-slanting yakiba only beginning to foreshadow the later drama. Crucially the period remained nioi-deki where other provinces took up Sōshū nie, a holding distinction the setsumei mark out by name. For kantei the cluster reads together. A broad Nanbokuchō sugata, dan-utsuri over sumihada, ō-sujikai file marks on the tang, and a nioiguchi that is tight and clear point to this window rather than to Bizen of the same age; the choice between bright suguha and reverse saka-chōji then separates Tsuguyoshi from Tsugunao, while Naotsugu's forceful reverse-chisel mei and nezumi-ashi, and Moritsugu's kinsuji in a tight suguha, mark their own hands. The named masters carry strong provenance: a Tsugiyoshi wakizashi dated Enbun 2 descended in the Maeda family, a Yoshitsugu tantō passed to the Sakai of Himeji by gift of Tokugawa Ietsuna, and an ō-suriage den Tsuguyoshi katana ran through the Yanagisawa house with Hon'ami origami from Mitsuatsu. Honma's own remark singling out Tsugiyoshi and Tsuginao as the makers of the clearest chōji in tantō fixes their standing at the close of the Aoe story. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Tsugunao次直 | 1345-1361 | 26 |
| Masatsune正恒 | 1213-1219 | 31 |
| Naotsugu直次 | 1288-1350 | 20 |
| Yasutsugu康次 | 1211-1213 | 10 |
| Kanetsugu包次 | 1211-1213 | 9 |
Bizen in the Nanbokuchō period
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.
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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