This is a wakizashi by Omi no Kami Hojoji Tachibana Masahiro, dated Kanbun 7 (1667). It features a rare gold-inlaid tameshigiri inscription by Yamano Kaemon Nagahisa, indicating a successful cutting test. The blade is unusually long for a wakizashi and comes with an excellent koshirae, certified as NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token.
NihontoWatchkinzogan-mei · Hojoji · Manji (1658-1661) · nagasa 60.4cm · sori 1cm
Hōjōji (shintō; Tajima-rooted, settled in Edo) · Musashi · around 1658-1671
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 23%
4 pieces on the market now
A katana dated Kanbun 6 (1666) and signed Ōmi no Kami Hōjōji Tachibana Masahiro carries on its reverse a gold-inlaid cutting-test inscription by Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide recording a two-body test, and this pairing of a deep-nioi suguha blade with a Yamano severing record is the most concise portrait of the smith. Masahiro is the foremost hand of the Hōjōji group, a shintō line the published sources transmit as originally from Hōjōji in Tajima Province, descended from the kotō smith Hōjōji Kunimitsu, and later resettled in Edo, where the line flourished and produced such smiths as Sadakuni and Yoshitsugu. He bore the surname Takigawa and the title Ōmi no Kami, and of the many skilled men of the group the NBTHK's commentary places him at the head, writing that 「正弘はその首位に立つ上手」[[c:1]], that Masahiro stood foremost among them as an especially accomplished smith.
His hand is a suguha hand. On the great majority of his recorded katana the temper is laid as a suguha base, often a broad suguha, into which small gunome and gunome run together, the ashi entering freely and at times becoming thick. The published sources call the deep-nioi suguha the tempering that was his particular forte, attaching the phrase to a blade with the words 「彼の得意とする直刃調の刃文」[[c:2]], his characteristic suguha-toned temper. What lifts it above an ordinary straight line is the quality of the nie: the nioi is deep, the ko-nie adheres thickly and, on his best work, evenly and without irregularity, and through the temper run fine kinsuji and sunagashi, with small yubashiri-like forms gathering in places at the crest. A nijūba is not infrequently mixed in, and the published commentary names it as one of the smith's characteristic traits.
The jigane is the other half of his quality. He forges a well-packed ko-itame, at times a standing itame mixed with mokume, over which the ji-nie lies dust-fine and thick and fine chikei enter frequently, the steel itself bright. The bōshi runs straight into a ko-maru with hakikake at the point and a long, often deep turnback. The shape is the typical Kanbun-shintō figure read in his own particular way: standard to somewhat wide in body with a low shinogi, a conspicuous taper from base to point, shallow rod-like sori and a compact chū-kissaki, a construction the published sources treat as a recognizable mark of his hand.
The central scholarly question around the name is one of generations. The published sources record two smiths signing Masahiro, both titled Ōmi no Kami: the first generation dated from the Shōō, Manji and Kanbun eras, the second from Enpō and Genroku, so that the working span of each is largely clear. They are told apart chiefly by the signature rather than by a separate manner. The first generation's chisel-work has a firm, choppy kotsu-kotsu feeling and a somewhat rough impression, while the second generation's is calmer and more restrained, and the recurring points of discrimination are the variant forms of the sun component within 守 and 寺 and of the 成 element within 城. One borderline katana, whose 守 and 寺 follow the first generation but whose 城 follows the second, the judges set down as an early second-generation signature on the evidence of its overall tone, leaving the matter open for new material.
What sets Masahiro apart within the shintō field is named directly in his own commentaries. The published sources repeatedly hold his workmanship to be the closest of any smith to that of Nagasone Kotetsu, observing that he was nearly contemporary with Kotetsu and that his teacher remains unknown. The kinship is more than stylistic: because so many of his blades carry Yamano-family gold-inlaid cutting-test inscriptions, the same testing house associated with Kotetsu, the judges infer a real connection, writing that 「虎徹一門は法城寺一派と相当近い関係に」[[c:3]], that the Kotetsu group and the Hōjōji line stood in a fairly close relationship. His distinction is best drawn from his own traits, the deep-nioi suguha with even thick ko-nie and the bright nioiguchi, rather than from the comparison, and on his finest katana the commentary grants the point without reserve, calling one 「正弘の本領が遺憾無く発揮された一口」[[c:4]], a blade in which Masahiro's true strengths are shown to the full.
For the collector Masahiro is an attainable shintō name of high quality rather than a locked one. Fujishiro grades him Jō saku, and the Tōkō Taikan values his work in the upper-middle range. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his designated record runs instead through the Jūyō tier, where signed first- and second-generation katana recur across many shinsa sessions, the published sources calling the typical deep-nioi suguha pieces 「同作中の優品」, excellent works among his own. Two of his blades are recorded as having been held by the Imperial Family, the only provenance set down for him, and beyond that the holders of his blades are largely unrecorded. Because most designated blades are kept rather than traded, a signed Hōjōji Masahiro of recorded whereabouts comes to market only from time to time; it is well within reach of a patient collector, and a sound first-generation example with a Yamano cutting-test inscription is the form in which his quality, and his nearness to Kotetsu, is most directly encountered.
Where Masahiro 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
Soshu-den · Tajima
22 pieces on the market now
The Hojoji name (法城寺) begins as a place in Tajima province, where, the published sources relate, the Nanbokucho naginata master Kunimitsu lived at that spot and so took the place for his name, the man and the locality becoming one. The Meikan records a first generation of this Kunimitsu working in the Joji era (1362-68) and a second at Oei, the koto root from which the line descends. The old genealogies count this Tajima Kunimitsu among the three great pupils of Soshu Sadamune[[c:1]], a claim the NBTHK reports only to set aside as wanting plausibility and unwarranted[[c:2]], the texts finding the influence of Bizen work rather the stronger. From this Tajima stock an Edo branch carried the name into the shinto period, where it grew, in the words of the published sources, into the largest body of swordsmiths active in Edo through the Kanbun and Enpo years. Its founder was Omi no Kami Hojoji Tachibana Masahiro, named the head of the group and its most accomplished hand, and after him followed Tajima no Kami Sadakuni, Higo no Kami Yoshitsugu, Echizen no Kami Masateru, and Kunimasa, with Kawachi no Kami Nagakuni filed by common opinion within the same lineage, the whole bearing the Soshu-derived idiom out of Tajima and into a productive Edo workshop of many capable smiths. Two manners separate the koto root from the Edo branch, and the members describe each in its own vocabulary. The Tajima Kunimitsu survives almost wholly as mumei attribution: flamboyant choji-midare that can at first sight be mistaken for Bizen Ichimonji, settled against Bizen by the markedly stronger nie of ji and ha, chikei entering a large-patterned standing forging, and kinsuji and sunagashi worked incessantly through the ha, the build that of the long converted naginata with thin kasane and a large kissaki, the boshi often ending yakizume from the filing of the mune. The Edo smiths share a different and unified hand.
Over a tightly forged ko-itame, at times mixed with mokume, the ji-nie lies dust-fine and chikei enter, and the temper resolves into two registers across the branch: a suguha base, deep in nioi with ko-nie gathering, in which Masahiro, Sadakuni, Masateru, and Nagakuni excel, the nioiguchi bright and nijuba mixing in places; and a gunome hand, most conspicuous in Yoshitsugu, whose connected gunome run into a rosary-bead juzu-ba over ko-notare. Through nearly every Edo blade the sunagashi and kinsuji run, and the boshi turns back straight into ko-maru. The divergences are of degree: Sadakuni falls a small margin short of Masahiro in the clarity of the jihada and the strength of the nioiguchi; Nagakuni links his gunome into broader midare; Masateru keys his chu-suguha to a chrysanthemum crest cut above the signature. To kantei Hojoji Edo work, the published sources direct the eye to the deep nioi and bright nioiguchi over a tight, chikei-laden ko-itame, the sunagashi and kinsuji that keep the quiet suguha from reading flat, and the long thick-chisel signatures cut on the sashi-omote; the resemblance the judges draw runs upward to Nagasone Kotetsu and Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige, the Edo masters of the nie-laden temper, whose level the best work of Masahiro, Yoshitsugu, and Nagakuni is said to approach, the Kotetsu group and the Hojoji line held to stand in a fairly close relationship through the shared Yamano testing house. For the koto Kunimitsu the tells are the well-covered ji-nie with weak utsuri and the ko-nie of the ha, the points that part his work from the Bizen it resembles. The standing of the members ranges with their tier: Kunimitsu is the school's apex, graded Jo-jo saku, his blades vouched for across centuries by Honami attribution inscriptions and his finest tracing to the Akimoto and Maeda houses, with the tea master Kobori Enshu among his owners; Masahiro and the Edo hands are graded Jo saku, attainable signed shinto names whose blades carry their pedigree in the gold-inlaid Yamano cutting-test inscriptions rather than in named daimyo provenance. Yoshitsugu's Satsuma service for the Shimazu house left its trace on the later Kagoshima smiths, and a signed Hojoji blade, above all one bearing a documented test-cut, comes to the market only from time to time, rewarding patience. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunimitsu國光 | 1345-1350 | 22 |
| Masahiro正弘 | 1658-1671 | 26 |
| Sadakuni貞國 | 1658-1673 | 8 |
| Yoshitsugu吉次 | 1661-1673 | 6 |
| Masateru正照 | 1684-1688 | 5 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
For two and a half centuries of peace the sword was the warrior’s legal badge rather than his weapon. Each great city developed its own manner, Edo’s tested strength against Ōsaka’s polished brilliance, until demand thinned in the era’s last decades.
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 siteIf you wish to return an item, please notify us within 3 days of receipt. After this period we cannot accept cancellations. Please ship the return to us within 5 business days. Cancellation is conditional on the item being kept in the same condition as at the time of sale, so please handle it with care.
This is a wakizashi by Omi no Kami Hojoji Tachibana Masahiro, dated Kanbun 7 (1667). It features a rare gold-inlaid tameshigiri inscription by Yamano Kaemon Nagahisa, indicating a successful cutting test. The blade is unusually long for a wakizashi and comes with an excellent koshirae, certified as NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token.
NihontoWatchkinzogan-mei · Hojoji · Manji (1658-1661) · nagasa 60.4cm · sori 1cm
Hōjōji (shintō; Tajima-rooted, settled in Edo) · Musashi · around 1658-1671
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 23%
4 pieces on the market now
A katana dated Kanbun 6 (1666) and signed Ōmi no Kami Hōjōji Tachibana Masahiro carries on its reverse a gold-inlaid cutting-test inscription by Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide recording a two-body test, and this pairing of a deep-nioi suguha blade with a Yamano severing record is the most concise portrait of the smith. Masahiro is the foremost hand of the Hōjōji group, a shintō line the published sources transmit as originally from Hōjōji in Tajima Province, descended from the kotō smith Hōjōji Kunimitsu, and later resettled in Edo, where the line flourished and produced such smiths as Sadakuni and Yoshitsugu. He bore the surname Takigawa and the title Ōmi no Kami, and of the many skilled men of the group the NBTHK's commentary places him at the head, writing that 「正弘はその首位に立つ上手」[[c:1]], that Masahiro stood foremost among them as an especially accomplished smith.
His hand is a suguha hand. On the great majority of his recorded katana the temper is laid as a suguha base, often a broad suguha, into which small gunome and gunome run together, the ashi entering freely and at times becoming thick. The published sources call the deep-nioi suguha the tempering that was his particular forte, attaching the phrase to a blade with the words 「彼の得意とする直刃調の刃文」[[c:2]], his characteristic suguha-toned temper. What lifts it above an ordinary straight line is the quality of the nie: the nioi is deep, the ko-nie adheres thickly and, on his best work, evenly and without irregularity, and through the temper run fine kinsuji and sunagashi, with small yubashiri-like forms gathering in places at the crest. A nijūba is not infrequently mixed in, and the published commentary names it as one of the smith's characteristic traits.
The jigane is the other half of his quality. He forges a well-packed ko-itame, at times a standing itame mixed with mokume, over which the ji-nie lies dust-fine and thick and fine chikei enter frequently, the steel itself bright. The bōshi runs straight into a ko-maru with hakikake at the point and a long, often deep turnback. The shape is the typical Kanbun-shintō figure read in his own particular way: standard to somewhat wide in body with a low shinogi, a conspicuous taper from base to point, shallow rod-like sori and a compact chū-kissaki, a construction the published sources treat as a recognizable mark of his hand.
The central scholarly question around the name is one of generations. The published sources record two smiths signing Masahiro, both titled Ōmi no Kami: the first generation dated from the Shōō, Manji and Kanbun eras, the second from Enpō and Genroku, so that the working span of each is largely clear. They are told apart chiefly by the signature rather than by a separate manner. The first generation's chisel-work has a firm, choppy kotsu-kotsu feeling and a somewhat rough impression, while the second generation's is calmer and more restrained, and the recurring points of discrimination are the variant forms of the sun component within 守 and 寺 and of the 成 element within 城. One borderline katana, whose 守 and 寺 follow the first generation but whose 城 follows the second, the judges set down as an early second-generation signature on the evidence of its overall tone, leaving the matter open for new material.
What sets Masahiro apart within the shintō field is named directly in his own commentaries. The published sources repeatedly hold his workmanship to be the closest of any smith to that of Nagasone Kotetsu, observing that he was nearly contemporary with Kotetsu and that his teacher remains unknown. The kinship is more than stylistic: because so many of his blades carry Yamano-family gold-inlaid cutting-test inscriptions, the same testing house associated with Kotetsu, the judges infer a real connection, writing that 「虎徹一門は法城寺一派と相当近い関係に」[[c:3]], that the Kotetsu group and the Hōjōji line stood in a fairly close relationship. His distinction is best drawn from his own traits, the deep-nioi suguha with even thick ko-nie and the bright nioiguchi, rather than from the comparison, and on his finest katana the commentary grants the point without reserve, calling one 「正弘の本領が遺憾無く発揮された一口」[[c:4]], a blade in which Masahiro's true strengths are shown to the full.
For the collector Masahiro is an attainable shintō name of high quality rather than a locked one. Fujishiro grades him Jō saku, and the Tōkō Taikan values his work in the upper-middle range. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his designated record runs instead through the Jūyō tier, where signed first- and second-generation katana recur across many shinsa sessions, the published sources calling the typical deep-nioi suguha pieces 「同作中の優品」, excellent works among his own. Two of his blades are recorded as having been held by the Imperial Family, the only provenance set down for him, and beyond that the holders of his blades are largely unrecorded. Because most designated blades are kept rather than traded, a signed Hōjōji Masahiro of recorded whereabouts comes to market only from time to time; it is well within reach of a patient collector, and a sound first-generation example with a Yamano cutting-test inscription is the form in which his quality, and his nearness to Kotetsu, is most directly encountered.
Where Masahiro 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
Soshu-den · Tajima
22 pieces on the market now
The Hojoji name (法城寺) begins as a place in Tajima province, where, the published sources relate, the Nanbokucho naginata master Kunimitsu lived at that spot and so took the place for his name, the man and the locality becoming one. The Meikan records a first generation of this Kunimitsu working in the Joji era (1362-68) and a second at Oei, the koto root from which the line descends. The old genealogies count this Tajima Kunimitsu among the three great pupils of Soshu Sadamune[[c:1]], a claim the NBTHK reports only to set aside as wanting plausibility and unwarranted[[c:2]], the texts finding the influence of Bizen work rather the stronger. From this Tajima stock an Edo branch carried the name into the shinto period, where it grew, in the words of the published sources, into the largest body of swordsmiths active in Edo through the Kanbun and Enpo years. Its founder was Omi no Kami Hojoji Tachibana Masahiro, named the head of the group and its most accomplished hand, and after him followed Tajima no Kami Sadakuni, Higo no Kami Yoshitsugu, Echizen no Kami Masateru, and Kunimasa, with Kawachi no Kami Nagakuni filed by common opinion within the same lineage, the whole bearing the Soshu-derived idiom out of Tajima and into a productive Edo workshop of many capable smiths. Two manners separate the koto root from the Edo branch, and the members describe each in its own vocabulary. The Tajima Kunimitsu survives almost wholly as mumei attribution: flamboyant choji-midare that can at first sight be mistaken for Bizen Ichimonji, settled against Bizen by the markedly stronger nie of ji and ha, chikei entering a large-patterned standing forging, and kinsuji and sunagashi worked incessantly through the ha, the build that of the long converted naginata with thin kasane and a large kissaki, the boshi often ending yakizume from the filing of the mune. The Edo smiths share a different and unified hand.
Over a tightly forged ko-itame, at times mixed with mokume, the ji-nie lies dust-fine and chikei enter, and the temper resolves into two registers across the branch: a suguha base, deep in nioi with ko-nie gathering, in which Masahiro, Sadakuni, Masateru, and Nagakuni excel, the nioiguchi bright and nijuba mixing in places; and a gunome hand, most conspicuous in Yoshitsugu, whose connected gunome run into a rosary-bead juzu-ba over ko-notare. Through nearly every Edo blade the sunagashi and kinsuji run, and the boshi turns back straight into ko-maru. The divergences are of degree: Sadakuni falls a small margin short of Masahiro in the clarity of the jihada and the strength of the nioiguchi; Nagakuni links his gunome into broader midare; Masateru keys his chu-suguha to a chrysanthemum crest cut above the signature. To kantei Hojoji Edo work, the published sources direct the eye to the deep nioi and bright nioiguchi over a tight, chikei-laden ko-itame, the sunagashi and kinsuji that keep the quiet suguha from reading flat, and the long thick-chisel signatures cut on the sashi-omote; the resemblance the judges draw runs upward to Nagasone Kotetsu and Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige, the Edo masters of the nie-laden temper, whose level the best work of Masahiro, Yoshitsugu, and Nagakuni is said to approach, the Kotetsu group and the Hojoji line held to stand in a fairly close relationship through the shared Yamano testing house. For the koto Kunimitsu the tells are the well-covered ji-nie with weak utsuri and the ko-nie of the ha, the points that part his work from the Bizen it resembles. The standing of the members ranges with their tier: Kunimitsu is the school's apex, graded Jo-jo saku, his blades vouched for across centuries by Honami attribution inscriptions and his finest tracing to the Akimoto and Maeda houses, with the tea master Kobori Enshu among his owners; Masahiro and the Edo hands are graded Jo saku, attainable signed shinto names whose blades carry their pedigree in the gold-inlaid Yamano cutting-test inscriptions rather than in named daimyo provenance. Yoshitsugu's Satsuma service for the Shimazu house left its trace on the later Kagoshima smiths, and a signed Hojoji blade, above all one bearing a documented test-cut, comes to the market only from time to time, rewarding patience. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunimitsu國光 | 1345-1350 | 22 |
| Masahiro正弘 | 1658-1671 | 26 |
| Sadakuni貞國 | 1658-1673 | 8 |
| Yoshitsugu吉次 | 1661-1673 | 6 |
| Masateru正照 | 1684-1688 | 5 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
For two and a half centuries of peace the sword was the warrior’s legal badge rather than his weapon. Each great city developed its own manner, Edo’s tested strength against Ōsaka’s polished brilliance, until demand thinned in the era’s last decades.
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 siteIf you wish to return an item, please notify us within 3 days of receipt. After this period we cannot accept cancellations. Please ship the return to us within 5 business days. Cancellation is conditional on the item being kept in the same condition as at the time of sale, so please handle it with care.
