The Daruma name belongs to the smith Shigemitsu (重光), whose place him in Kyoto, residing on Ayanokōji (also given as Ayakōji) during the period, around the Bunwa era (1352 to 1356). "Daruma" is recorded as his nyūdō-, the monastic name he is said to have adopted after taking the tonsure. The transmissions trace his origin not to Yamashiro itself but elsewhere: he is described as having come originally from Yamato, or alternatively from Naminohira, and the accounts relate that he at times signed "Masamune." His workmanship is characterized in the as Sōshū-den with elements of - present, a framing that sets him apart from the Yamashiro- lineage implied by his Kyoto residence. A third blade carried under this label, the dated signed Saemon no Jō Masamitsu, is assigned by its own to Masamitsu of the Ko-- of Bingo Province (Bunwa 3, 1354), a separate group whose membership here appears to follow name proximity rather than shared workmanship.
Across the two Daruma-attributed blades the hand is consistent. The shape is with , the wide and the proportion slightly elongated (), with shallow . The is an or in which adheres and, on the finer-grained example, appear. The temper is -based, mixed with , the gathering thickly on the and the deep; on one blade the upper half tends toward with a -like feeling and rising . Both stress that this -mixed, strongly -laden manner differs from the styles of and Hasebe, the natural points of comparison for a Kyoto smith. recur: and on the , with on the .
For , the recognition rests on reading Sōshū-den character in a Kyoto-resident or while declining the and Hasebe attributions the expressly exclude. The signed bears a bold two-character "Daruma" at the ; its notes that only two or three such survive, lending the signed examples their documentary value. The Ko- stands apart, valued in its own right for an , a -toned temper with whitish , and a Bunwa 3 date inscription that gives it standing as reference material. The Daruma corpus thus remains small and transmission-bound, its identity carried as much by the monastic name and the Masamune association as by a fixed school placement.