The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
Weight: 700g (toshin only) It has appeared, it has appeared! From an old family home where it was cherished for generations, a magnificent and surprising meito by the 3rd generation Osaka Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, featuring a kiku-ka (chrysanthemum flower) hamon, has emerged. The 1st generation Osaka Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi was the second son of the 1st generation Kyo Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, named Mishina Kin'emon, born in the 3rd year of Keicho (1598) (428 years ago). He received the title of Tanba no Kami during the Shoho era, and subsequently moved to Osaka, which was flourishing as a commercial capital where daimyo warehouses and goods from across the country gathered. He became the founder of the Osaka Tanba line and established the foundation for the family's great prosperity over generations. He is revered with the title of "Sofu Tanba" (Grandfather Tanba). This katana was crafted around the Genroku era of the Edo period (1702) (324 years ago), the time of the great Ako Roshi incident when Oishi Kuranosuke raided the mansion of Kira Kozuke no Suke to avenge his lord. This sword exhibits a fine sugata with a wide moto-mihaba and a distinct difference from the saki-mihaba, with a slight sori. The jigane is forged in itame-hada. The hamon is in nioi-deki with nie, featuring a kiku-ka pattern fired from the moto to the saki. It displays large kiku-ka patterns interspersed with many tobiyaki in the ji, resulting in a masterfully fired chrysanthemum-patterned blade. The family's famous sudare-ba and this type of kiku-ka hamon may appear simple to fire, but many modern tosho have researched and challenged this technique without success. It is a hamon that only the ancient Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi family could produce, a precious secret passed down through isshi-soden (sole transmission to one child). Works that actually display such a magnificent kiku-ka pattern hamon are rarely seen, making this sword wonderfully precious. This sword has been carefully passed down through an old family for generations, but as the couple has grown old, they have entrusted it to us, asking that it be passed on at a low price to someone who will cherish it. Therefore, we are offering it at a special, ultra-low price. Please enjoy it.
NihontoWatchEdo · nagasa 62.2cm · sori 1.4cm
Shinto · Settsu · around 1688-1704
2 pieces on the market now
Shinto · Yamashiro
80 pieces on the market now
The Mishina school (三品), one of the two dominant smithing groups of early Edo Kyoto beside the Horikawa, grew from the late-Mino workshop of Kanemichi of Seki, whose dated blades run through the Tenbun, Eiroku, and Tenshō eras. During the closing decades of the sixteenth century Kanemichi came up to the capital with his four sons and settled at Nishinotōin Ebisugawa, where the eldest, Iga no Kami Kinmichi, is recorded as having greatly raised the name of the line. The brothers, Kinmichi together with Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, and Etchū no Kami Masatoshi, became known collectively as the Sanpin (三品) makers, and the published sources count Kinmichi head of the Kyō go-kaji, the five Kyoto smiths. From the second generation the house held a hereditary right to recommend smiths to the court for their titles and added that by-line to its signatures. The name continued under the same appellation to the end of the Tokugawa period, throwing off branches that included the Tango no Kami line working at Ōsaka into the Genroku years, though the published record consistently holds the founding generation the most outstanding of the line. Beneath every branch lies a shared vocabulary carried up from Mino-Seki. The jigane is the constant: an itame mixed with mokume that flows into nagare-hada and tends toward masame near the mune, the grain standing, with thick fine ji-nie and frequent chikei. Over it the Mino-derived gunome and togariba are refined toward a Kyoto manner, the nie strong and at times coarse, gathering unevenly, kinsuji and vigorous striped sunagashi running throughout. Two tells bind the house. The first is the Mishina bōshi, a notare or midare run-in pointed at the tip and swept with vigorous hakikake, the form Masatoshi shows at its clearest, described as if drawn from a picture. The second is sudareba, the bamboo-blind temper in which layered sunagashi and yubashiri stripe into parallel bands; Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi devised it, and the first-generation hand keeps it a free, semi-cursive disorder where his heirs would regularize it into a fixed lattice.
The lines diverge from that common ground. Kinmichi and his younger brother Masatoshi both excelled in a Shizu manner, the large midare of Mino grafted onto Sōshū nie, with Masatoshi the most versatile, ranging across Shizu, Mino sanbon-sugi, Yamato suguha, and Sōshū hitatsura. The later Ōsaka Tanba branch held to the sudareba alone, opening from a straight yakidashi, while the second Tango no Kami Kanemichi cast off the family chōji for a flamboyant tōran-style large gunome in alternating two-joined and three-joined groups, and a deep-nioi suguha read in the manner of Inoue Shinkai. To kantei Mishina is to read these two house marks first. The pointed, hakikake-swept bōshi and the striped sudareba, set over a standing itame that flows to masame, place a blade within the line before any signature is weighed; the sunagashi, far heavier than on a Bizen ji, is the very material from which the temper is built. Within the house the founding generation sets the standard. Fujishiro grades Kinmichi and Masatoshi Jō-jō saku, the Ōsaka Tanba shodai Jō-saku, and the second Tango no Kami Chū-jō saku, the sources judging the later Kyoto and Ōsaka generations markedly inferior to the founders as the manner thinned toward a single uniform pattern. Provenance on record runs through samurai and collector hands rather than great museums: a Kinmichi katana among the cherished swords of Tani Tateki, a Yoshimichi katana made for Naitō Kuroemon and another now in the Kyoto National Museum, Masatoshi blades passing through Oda Urakusai and the Imperial household, and a second Tango no Kami katana descending from the Aoyama wardens of Ōsaka castle. The brothers' blades are signed and knowable, dated examples rare, so the manner of the mei joins the workmanship in placing them; for the Ōsaka and Kyoto branches the cut of the character 守 separates one hand from the next. Most designated work is held rather than traded, so a signed founding-generation Mishina blade comes to light only from time to time, and with it the temper in which one of the most recognizable hamon of the Shintō era was first being worked out. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kinmichi金道 | 1596-1615 | 23 |
| Yoshimichi吉道 | 1596-1615 | 36 |
| Masatoshi正俊 | 1596-1615 | 31 |
| Kanemichi兼道 | 1681-1704 | 5 |
| Eisen来栄泉 | 1673-1688 | 3 |
Kyōto: the revival workshop
The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
We could not find an authenticity certificate on the seller’s listing. Japanese swords and fittings are normally papered by the NBTHK (or the NTHK). Without one, the attribution is the seller’s own assessment and has not been independently verified — treat it with caution and ask the dealer about certification before buying.
For returns due to customer circumstances, the cost is the customer's responsibility. For returns due to our mis-shipment or a defective item, we bear the cost.
¥650,000
