NihontoWatchDescription A signed and dated shinshintō era wakizashi in formal samurai koshirae with golden mokko-mon (gourd crests). The combination of the Aizu fief smith and the mokko crests provides some interesting historical background that may link the sword to the Shinsengumi, a special police force made up of expert swordsmen. More on that later, as first we focus on the sword and its mountings. Blade attributes (In plain English below) Sugata: shinogi zukuri, iori mune, torii sori (Shape: ridged cross-section, ridged spine, even curvature) Kissaki: chu-kissaki (Tip: medium-sized tip) Hada: ko-itame (Forging structure: small dimensioned wood grain) Hamon: gunome-choji midare with sunagashi, kinsuji and izuma in nie-deki (Temperline: wavy with roundish and clove-shaped elements, executed in large dimensioned martensite crystals, arranged in lines like flowing sand) Bōshi: midare o-maru with hakkikake (Temperline in tip: wavy with large round turn and sweeping lines of martensite crystals) Nakago: ubu, katte sagari yasurime, kurijiri (Tang: unaltered, with slanting left-hand file marks and a chestnut-shaped bottom) Signature Facing side: 奥州会津住三善長道 Ōshū Aizu ju Miyoshi Nagamichi "Resident of Ōshū in Aizu, Miyoshi Nagamichi" Reverse: 天保十四癸卯年八月日 Tenpō Jyu Shi Mizunoto U Nen Hachi Gatsu Hi "One day in the 8th month of of Tenpō 14" (August 1843) 8th generation Miyoshi Nagamichi (1795-1865) Personal name Miyoshi Gonpachi (三善長道), he later changed his name to Tōshirō (藤四郎). He received the local honorary title Aizu-kaji tōryō (会津鍛冶棟梁) or "head of all Aizu smiths." He also seems to have been a samurai retainer himself, as he signed some of his blades with: 東奥会陽臣三善長道 Tōoku Eyō-shin Miyoshi Nagamichi “Miyoshi Nagamichi, retainer of the Aizu fief of the eastern Ōshū region” His father the 7th generation also jointly forged blades with 10th-generation Kanesada, indicating they both worked for the Aizu-Matsudaira clan who kept close ties to the shōgun. In fact, the Aizu daimyō was appointed Kyoto Military Commissioner in 1862. Papers The blade was awarded Hozon ("worthy of preservation") by the NBTHK in 2001. Koshirae The sword comes with a koshirae in the formal samurai style of dark, near-black lacquer decorated with family crests in gold. By regulation, such pieces had no other decoration than the family crests and for the wakizashi, the scabbard tip had to be rounded as seen here. The metal mounts are made of solid silver with a gushed finish on the flats and deliberate hammer marks on the rim of the tsuba. Each mount is decorated with mokka-mon. The tsuba, kozuka and fuchi are signed, which can be read in three ways: 淨光作 Kiyomitsu saku / Jōkō saku / Seikō saku "Made by Kiyomitsu" / "Made by Jōkō" / "Made by Seikō" I have not been able to find the maker in the standard reference works such as Haynes and Wakayama. Interestingly, the name means "Pure Light" and there is a temple by that name in Aizu and kettle makers in Kyoto but both may be unrelated. The kozuka has no blade. The scabbard is also signed by the lacquerer, quite rare: 柳哉作 Ryūsai saku "Made by Ryūsai" The name Ryūsai was used by several lacquer workers active from the late Edo through Meiji and Taishō periods. I've not been able to narrow it down to a single make. An inrō signed with this name in a similar style was sold by Zacke in 2023. The two-piece habaki (collar piece) is made of copper, covered in silver foil with "cat scratch" chiseled surfaces. An Aizu sword blade with maru-ni-mokko themed kosirae The blade was made in Aizu, by a smith who at the time of forging worked for daimyō Matsudaira Katataka (1806-1852). The mountings are in the formal shōgunal style, as expected to be worn by samurai on duty: the only decoration allowed in such a case were family crests. The crests in this case are mokko (quince) crests, a relatively common family crest used by several branches of samurai families.1 This particular variety is the maru-ni-mokko ( 丸に木瓜) "circle with quince" with four sides, and the flower arranged horizontally. Here it gets interesting: this exact crest was used by Okita Sōji, a Japanese samurai and captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, headed by: the Aizu daimyō. Notes 1. According to the list at kishimotoyoshinobu.com, based on records dating from 1818-1829, other options are the Kisai (騎西), Saito (斎藤) and Chisato (千里) clans of Aizu. The Shinsengumi Nearing the end of the Edo period, Japan was heavily divided over its future. Kyoto attracted rōnin (unemployed samurai) of varying allegiances. Those from the Chōshū, Tosa and Higo clans were heavily influenced by the sonnō jōi ("revere the Emperor, expel the foreign barbarians") philosophy and supported forcibly removing all Western influences from Japan. Emperor Kōmei and the Aizu and Satsuma clans preferred a unification of the shogunate and the imperial court. When Matsudaira Katataka, daimyō of Aizu, passed, he was succeeded by his adopted son Matsudaira Katamori. Katamori was appointed Kyoto Military Commissioner in 1862 to deal with these tensions in the capital. The next year he founded the Shinsengumi (新選組, "Newly Selected Corps"), a small secret police organization. They were an elite group of swordsmen drawn from the various sword schools of Edo, charged with arresting or killing the sonnō jōi. They gained fame in some notable clashes. Their demand for swords was largely filled by the Aizu fief, and many came from smiths employed by them. The favourite sword of Hijikata Toshizō (土方歳三, 1835-1869), the vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, was a work by another Aizu smith, the 11th generation Kanesada. It is still preserved within the Hijikata family.1 Okita Sōji Not only was he captain, he was also one of the best swordsmen of the group. A prodigy of the Tennen Rishin-ryū school, he attained the license of total transmission around the age of eighteen and became its an instructor at age nineteen. He passed away, possibly from tuberculosis, in 1868 at age 24-26.2 One of his most notable clashes was on July 8, 1864, when he was involved in the Ikedaya Inn incident where 34 swordsmen of the Shinsengumi clashed with 40 anti-foreign sonnō jōi, resulting in the deaths of 8 and the arrest of 23 of the latter.3 Portrait of Okita Sōji, notable swordsman and captain of the Shinsengumi. This wakizashi koshirae with the same mokko crests. August 20, 1864 he was involved in the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion where a 3.000 strong Chōshū army attacked the shogun's forces in Kyoto. The Shinsengumi fought on the shogun's side alongside some 50.000 men resulting in 400 losses on the Chōshū side and 60 on the shogun's side. In 1868 he also fought in the Boshin war on the shogun's side, an event popularized by the movie The Last Samurai.4 His brother-in-law, Inoue Rintarō (1826-1883), was adopted into the family and became Okita Rintarō. He was also a respectable swordsman of the Tennen Rishin school and commander of the Shinchōgumi which was the Shinsengumi counterpart in Edo. He served the Shōnai daimyō of the Sakai clan and also fought in the Boshin War.5 While his brother-in-law undoubtedly used the same family crest, Okita Sōji was under the command of the daimyō of the Aizu fief -where the blade was made- which makes it more likely the sword was related to him. Notes 1. Markus Sesko; Nihon Shinshinto Shi (The History of the shinshintō Era of Japanese Swords). Lulu, 2013. Page 170. 2. Wikipedia article: Okita Sōji. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Wikipedia article: Okita Rintarō. 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
Its photos show a certificate that isn’t in our records yet. Current NBTHK and NTHK shinsa papers are the independent check we rely on, so it’s worth asking the dealer for a clear photo of the certificate. — Hoshi
4 on the market
Shinto · Iwashiro
4 pieces on the market now
The Aizu Miyoshi line took root in Iwashiro when the Katō house was transferred from Iyo to Aizu in Ōshū in Kan'ei 4 (1627). The setsumei trace the family back to Nagakuni, a smith who had resided at Matsuyama in Iyo Province and entered the service of Katō Yoshiaki; when his patron moved north, Nagakuni followed in the retinue, and his son, the first-generation Masanaga, relocated with him. Masanaga's eldest son, born in Aizu in Kan'ei 10 (1633), became the smith the records overwhelmingly cover: Miyoshi Nagamichi, also called Miyoshi Tōshirō. He first signed Michinaga (the entries in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection also note early signatures read Dōchō and Dōnaga), studied under his grandfather Nagakuni, and in Manji 1 to 2 (1658 to 1659) travelled to Kyoto, where he received the court title Mutsu Daijō and changed his name to Nagamichi. He died in Jōkyō 2 (1685) at the age of fifty-three. The setsumei repeatedly name him as the de facto founder of Aizu shintō, working under the patronage tied to the Aizu Matsudaira house, several of whose presentation blades are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection. Across the blades the hand is consistent. The forging is itame-hada, often mixed with mokume, ō-itame, and nagare that runs toward masame, with ji-nie adhering thickly and fine chikei entering; the sugata tends to a shallow sori, called particularly shallow even among shintō work in the inventory notes.
The temper opens with a short, suguha-based yakidashi, then broadens into ko-notare mixed with gunome; in places two gunome run together as a gourd-shaped hyōtan-ba. Long ashi enter, the nioi is deep, and nie adheres thickly, sometimes coarsely as ara-nie or unevenly as mura-nie, with sunagashi and kinsuji worked into the ha and a bright nioiguchi. " The setsumei tie this manner directly to the "Hanetora" phase of Nagasone Kotetsu in Edo, the recurring point of comparison; one entry also records a tradition that Nagamichi was a disciple of Tsuda Sukehiro, though the writers hold his work closer to the Nagasone group. For kantei, the markers are the shallow sori, the hyōtan-ba pairing of gunome, the sunagashi and kinsuji over deep nioi, and the Kotetsu-type bōshi, balanced against the smith's tendency toward coarser nie. The dated blades range across Enpō 3 through Jōkyō 2 (1675 to 1685), the last corresponding to the year of his death and valued as documentary material on his final years. Cutting-test inscriptions by Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide appear in gold inlay on several nakago. The provenance recorded is notable: blades presented by the Aizu Matsudaira family are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, and one katana is held by tradition to have been bestowed on Kondō Isami of the Shinsengumi by the Aizu lord Matsudaira Katamori in recognition of the Ikedaya Incident, later passing to the Meiji general and connoisseur Tani Tateki and thence into the Tosa Yamauchi family. The register places Nagamichi as the smith who set the Aizu shintō idiom, his line carrying the Miyoshi name in Iwashiro. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Nagamichi長道 | 1661-1685 | 9 |
| Nagamichi長道 | 1848-1868 | 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.
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.
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€12,000