When the Southern Court made its capital at Yoshino, in Yamato itself, the province’s schools were at their height: the late Tegai line, Shikkake Norinaga, and the pure masame of Hōshō. Their technique was already spreading across the provinces.
It has appeared, it has appeared! The emergence of a miraculous *zaimei* *tachi* by Hosho Sadayuki of the Yamato Hosho school. The great *kantei* expert of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras, Honami Koson Sensei, stated in his book of *okite* and characteristics that Hosho *tachi* are mostly *osuriage mumei*, and that he had only ever seen one authentic *zaimei* *tachi*—a work by Sadatsugu from the Kishu Tokugawa family (currently designated as an Important Cultural Property). Such is the wonderful, precious, and miraculous appearance of this *zaimei* *tachi* by Hosho Sadayuki. The Hosho school resided in Soga Village, Takaichi District, Yamato Province (the ancestral home of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi). While Hosho Kunimitsu is considered the founder, no works of his exist; thus, since ancient times, Hosho Sadamune or Hosho Goro Sadayoshi have been regarded as the founders. *Zaimei* works are rare for both *tachi* and *tanto*. Among *tanto*, the Maeda family holds the *meibutsu* "Kuwayama Hosho" and "O-Hosho." The common character used is "Sada," and while the *meikan* lists smiths such as Sadamune, Sadayoshi, Sadasane, Sadakiyo, Sadaoki, Sadamitsu, Sadayuki, and Sadatsugu, *zaimei* examples are almost non-existent. This *tachi* by Hosho Sadayuki is a work from the Nanbokucho period, around the Jowa era (1345) (681 years ago), and he was the son of the Hosho founder Hosho Goro Sadayoshi of the Kamakura period (Bunpo era, 1317). The existence of this *zaimei* *tachi* by Sadayuki is academically and historically wonderful and precious. Originally a long *tachi* of 2 *shaku* 6 *sun*, it was shortened in later generations. It presents a magnificent *tachi-sugata* with a somewhat high *shinogi*, wide *motohaba*, a distinct difference between the *motohaba* and *sakihaba*, and thin *hiraniku*. Regarding the *jigane*, the *shinogi-ji* is *masame*, while the *ji* is *itame-hada* and *mokume-hada* mixed with *masame-hada*. The *ji* shows abundant *chikei* and *ji-nie*. The *hamon* is a *nie-deki* *suguha* style, with slight *hotsure* and *gunome* mixed into the *habuchi*. The inside of the *ha* contains *kinsuji* and *sunagashi*, appearing bright and splendid. The *boshi* is *komaru* on the *omote* and *yakitsume* on the *ura*. The *yasurime* on the *nakago* are the *higaki-yasuri* said to be the *okite* of the school, perfectly proving the Yamato Hosho tradition. The high-standard *koshirae* from the Edo period adds further elegance to this precious *zaimei* *tachi* by Hosho Sadayuki. This *zaimei* *tachi* by Hosho Sadayuki has been cherished by an old connoisseur, but as he has aged, he has entrusted it to us to pass on to someone who will treasure it. The "Daimyo Registration" (Tokyo, Showa 26) is also precious. Please enjoy this rare *zaimei* Hosho Sadayuki *tachi*, a piece that museums nationwide would surely covet.
NihontoWatchmumei · Teiwa (1345-1350) ND · nagasa 70cm · sori 2.1cm
Yamato-den · Yamato · around 1345-1350
Tōken Taikan top 26%
1 piece on the market now
Yamato-den · Yamato
6 pieces on the market now
From the close of the Kamakura period into the Nanbokucho, the Hosho school worked in Takaichi District of Yamato Province, the old province whose forging traditions grew up around the great temples of Nara and answered to their need for arms. The line belongs to Yamato-den, one of its five schools alongside Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima, and like them it carried the conservative temper of a smithing world bound to monastic patronage. Its smiths share the character Sada as the common element of their names, among them Sadatsugu, Sadamune, Sadayoshi, Sadakiyo, Sadaoki and Sadamitsu, and the published sources rank Sadamune and Sadayoshi as the two most knowable hands, recording that both styled themselves Hosho Goro. Sadayoshi is the smith who most often inscribes his residence and a working date, anchoring the school to the very end of Kamakura with eras such as Bunpo, Genko and Karyaku; Sadakiyo and Sadaoki follow as the textbook hands through whom the group manner is read in full, while Sadamitsu carries the masame idiom forward into the Nanbokucho generations. The forging is where every Hosho smith is known. Across the school the jigane becomes an all-over masame-hada, the straight grain running cleanly from machi to point and out onto the mune, frequently with a flowing nagare tendency, the steel dense and refined with ji-nie thickly adhered and chikei entering along the grain; a nie-utsuri stands faintly over the masame on the more tightly forged tanto. Over this grain the smiths temper a quiet suguha, often a suguha-cho carrying a shallow notare with small gunome and ko-midare, the temper not standing apart from the steel but intertwining with it and fraying repeatedly into hotsure, gathering nijuba, kuichigai-ba and uchinoke along the habuchi, with kinsuji and sunagashi running through and the nioiguchi clear. The published commentary names the school habit exactly, that from around the monouchi upward the tempered width broadens while the nie turns one step stronger.
The masame runs into the boshi, which finishes yakizume with vigorous hakikake, at times a flame-like form, at times a small ko-maru turnback, and the same straight grain tends to open into ware. Within this shared vocabulary the hands diverge by degree: Sadayoshi forges the coarser grain with the strongest nie, while the slightly later Sadakiyo and Sadaoki read calmer and cleaner, quieter in both ji and ha. To kantei a Hosho blade is to read that pure, total masame, for the distinction from the rest of Yamato-den is drawn there: Tegai, Senjuin, Shikkake and Taima forge a masame-leaning itame, while Hosho commits to the complete straight grain, the most conspicuously individual manner of the five Yamato schools. The tang carries the second tell, filed in higaki, the cross-hatched cypress-fence pattern, and cut off bluntly at the tip, with a darkish iron color the sources count among Yamato work as a point to be appreciated. Workmanship is uniform enough that the smiths are told apart chiefly by their signatures, so that signed and dated Sadayoshi pieces are the most fixed, while the unsigned o-suriage katana given later gold-inlaid or kiritsuke-mei attribution are read as Hosho from manner and era. Of the best hands Sadayoshi stands highest, graded Sai-jo saku in Fujishiro's ranking, with Sadakiyo and Sadaoki close behind on a thin spine of designated work; tanto predominate throughout the school, the hira-zukuri form of slender width and thick kasane showing the old inward uchizori, with rarer tachi, ken and shobu-zukuri blades among the survivors. Provenance for the group runs through the daimyo houses, the Higo Hosokawa and Date families among them, while the shortened katana preserve in their inlay the names of Hon'ami and Umetada appraisers, a school that made its grain its signature. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Sadayoshi貞吉 | 1317-1327 | 10 |
| Sadakiyo貞清 | 1321-1324 | 9 |
| Sadaoki貞興 | 1362-1368 | 7 |
| Sadamitsu貞光 | 1346-1370 | 3 |
| Sadatsugu貞次 | 1455-1457 | 0 |
Yamato in the Nanbokuchō period
When the Southern Court made its capital at Yoshino, in Yamato itself, the province’s schools were at their height: the late Tegai line, Shikkake Norinaga, and the pure masame of Hōshō. Their technique was already spreading across the provinces.
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.
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