NihontoWatchDescription Masashige (1760-1830) was a swordsmith originally from the castle town of Himeji, Harima Province. His real name was Miki Asashichi (三木朝七). He was the second son of the 2nd generation Ujishige (氏繁), and due to the untimely death of his older brother who was the 3rd generation, he briefly took over the name as the 4th generation Ujishige. In the 1780s he moved to Osaka and was hired by Matsudaira Yorinobu, the daimyō of Mutsu ́s Shirakawa fief, for whom he moved to Edo to continue working there. In 1803 he received the honorary title Kai no Kami (甲斐守) or "Lord of Kai Province." His lord also granted him the two characters Shinmyō (神妙) which means something like “especially capable and laudable.” It is said that he only signed his best works with this supplement, and sometimes used the pseudonym Tangasai (丹霞斎). It is also said that he studied under shinshinto grandmaster Suishinshi Masahide (水心子正秀). He typically forged wide blades with a dense ko-itame hada. The hamon is a gunome-midare mixed with ō-gunome that is also known as tōranba (濤乱刃) or "large surging waves edge." Ashi, nie and pointed yahazu elements also appear. The jiba is bright and clear and the nioiguchi is broad.1 Fujishiro rates this smith jōjō-saku, his second-highest rating.2 Notes 1. Markus Sesko; Swordsmiths of Japan A-Z. Lulu, 2014. Page 559. 2. Fujishiro Matsuo; Nihon Tōkō Jiten. 1961. Blade attributes (With plain English below) Sugata: shinogi-zukuri, iori mune. Tori-zori (Shape: ridged sides, ridged spine. Even curvature) Kissaki: chu kissaki (Tip: medium-sized tip) Hada: ko-itame hada with ji-nie (Forging structure: small-dimensioned wood grain with many martensite crystals embedded in the surface) Hamon: gunome midare tōranba with thick nioiguchi, ashi and yahazu (Temperline: wavy with round and peaked elements, like large surging waves, thick temperline with into the hardened edge zone legs and forked elements) Bōshi: ko-maru with long kaeri (Temperline in tip: small round with long line at spine) Nakago: ubu, keshō yasurime with o-sujikai, iriyamagata (Tang: unaltered, ornamental file lines on top with steep right handed slanting lines, triangular tang end with longer side on edge Signature Facing side: 手柄山甲斐守正繁 Tegarayama kai (no) kami Masashige Reverse: 文化四年二月日 Bunka sei shi nen ni gatsu hi "One day in the second month of the fourth year of Bunka" (February 1807) 菅原純孝応需作之 Sugawara Sumitaka [no] ōju kore o tsukuru “Made this at the request of Sugawara Sumitaka” I have not been able to find any more information about this Sugawara Sumitaka. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers The blade was awarded Tokubetsu Hozon or "Especially Worthy of Preservation" by the NBTHK in 2001. Koshirae Comes with a nice koshirae with textured black lacquered scabbard, and iron mounts with silver inlays. The tsuka is covered with white stingray-skin and is elaborately wrapped with dark green cord over shakudō shishi lion menuki with golden highlights. The saya is a good fit, but on the tight side. The tsuba appears to be older than most of the koshirae and is a beautifully made sukashi (openwork) style with four-lobed design. It is not a perfect fit to the nakago which indicates a swap at some point in time. That said, it complements the current set nicely. The kozuka has no blade. It is made of iron and decorated with a spiny lobster in brass. Comes with a gold foil two-piece habaki. Shirasaya and tsunagi present. More photos Due to time constraints, I did not include full photography of the blade (yet). For serious buyers, they are available upon request.
Offered by Mandarin Mansion
9 on the market
Shinshinto · Harima
9 pieces on the market now
At the foot of Mount Tegara in Himeji, Harima province, a family of smiths took the mountain's name as their own across successive generations, descending from the first-generation Yamato no Daijō Fujiwara Ujishige. The setsumei trace this Banshū line through its best-documented figure, Tegarayama Masashige[[c:1]], commonly called Asashichi or Chōshichi and using the art name Tankasai. He was the younger brother of the third-generation Tegarayama Ujishige, first succeeded to the name of the fourth-generation Ujishige, and only later changed his signature to Masashige. In Tenmei 8 (1788) he entered the service of Matsudaira Sadanobu, lord of Shirakawa in Ōshū, as a retained smith (kakae-kaji) and moved to Edo, where he resided at Surugadai in Kanda; in the fourth month of Kyōwa 3 (1803) he received the honorary title Kai no Kami. One setsumei records that in Edo he studied under Suishinshi Masahide. Around the start of the Bunsei era he forged for a time in Osaka before returning to Edo, and from his lord Rakuō he was granted the two characters "Shinmyō," which he cut on the works he held most successful. The hand the setsumei describe is a Soshu-toned revival built on the tōran-midare of Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro, whose style Masashige privately admired (shishuku). The forging runs to tightly compacted ko-itame-hada with ji-nie adhering thickly, fine chikei entering, and at times a quiet near-muji ground; the steel reads clear.
Most blades open with a suguha or sugu yakidashi at the base and then rise into a billowing tōran-style large gunome-midare, mixed with notare, slightly pointed (togari-gokoro) elements, and arrow-nock (yahazu) shapes likened to surging waves. The temper carries deep nioi, evenly adhering ko-nie, ashi and yō, with sunagashi and kinsuji threading the edge and tobiyaki, yubashiri, and muneyaki breaking out above it; the nioiguchi tends bright. The bōshi is generally sugu ending in ko-maru, sometimes with hakikake and a long kaeri. Beyond this signature manner he also worked shallow notare of wide yakihaba and plain suguha, so the orderly large gunome that refuses to collapse, the pointed accents within the ha, and the wide mihaba of his forms serve as the readiest marks of his work. Across the register the kantei points cluster around that controlled tōran and its lively ji and ha, while one wakizashi, mingling yahazu into the edge, prompts the observation that Gonnoshin Terukane may also have been in mind. Self-carved horimono recur and aid attribution: jewel-chasing and ascending or descending dragons, bonji, the sankō-tsuka-ken, and hi, with tangs reading "hori dōsaku" to record the smith's own chisel. Several inscriptions carry documentary weight, naming Surugadai and Shundai in Buyō as places of forging, Ishū Dewa iron also used by Katayama Munetsugu, and a commission for Kosugi Tamenaga, a retainer of the Koga domain; a Juyo wakizashi signed "Ōshū Shirakawa kashin Masashige" bears self-cut dragon, bonji, and sankō-tsuka-ken recorded on its tang. The blades signed with bold, thick-chisel mei over ubu tangs finished in keshō ō-sujikai, dated through the Kansei and Kyōwa years, mark Tegarayama as a Himeji-rooted shinshintō line whose strength lay in the recreation of Sukehiro's waves. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Masashige正繁 | 1789-1801 | 13 |
| Ujishige氏繁 | 1751-1764 | 0 |
| Ujishige氏繁 | 1781-1789 | 0 |
| Ujishige氏繁 | 1789-1801 | 0 |
| Masanao正直 | 1804-1818 | 0 |
The Shinshintō revival
Around 1800 Suishinshi Masahide argued in his writings that the craft must return to the old masters’ methods: the fukkotō revival. His greatest successor Naotane worked convincingly in Bizen and Sōshū manners that had been dead for centuries.
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 site
Returns accepted on items ordered from the site when an item does not appear to be as depicted and described; buyer must notify via email within 7 days of receipt. Refund covers purchase price minus shipping, bank fees, and currency conversion. Sales on items paid in terms are final, as are sales of items personally inspected.
€10,000
Certificate reading — 銘 手柄山甲斐守正繁 文化四年二月日 菅原純孝応需作之