SwordsofJapan.com

08/24/2026

Shimada Yoshisuke - HOLD

Middle Muromachi period Shimada Yoshisuke wakizashi with a wild and active hitatsura hamon, in nie-deki. With current kanteisho. With two piece gold foil habaki ands shirasaya.

"YOSHISUKE (義助), Kōshō (康正, 1455-1457), Suruga – “Yoshisuke” (義助), “Yoshisuke saku” (義助作), the tradition says that Imagawa Yosh*tada (今川義忠, 1436-1476), the shugo military governor of Suruga province, granted him the character for “Yoshi” (義), he is considered as ancestor and founder of the Shimada school, Edo-period sword documents date him also back to Gen´ō (元応, 1319-1321) and say that he had been a student of Masamune (正宗) been under the pseudonym of “Fuji” (富士), these documents date the 2nd gen. around Enbun (延文, 1356-1361), the 3rd around Ōei (応永, 1394-1428), and the 4th around Eikyō (永享, 1429-1441), in addition it is mentioned that the moving to Shimada in Suruga province took place with the 3rd gen., but this is a fabricated genealogy which is denied by most of the experts today as it was an attempt to create a direct connection to Masamune, incidentally, the Sino-Japanese reading “Gi” for the character for “Yoshi” earned him the nickname “Gi-Suke,” jō-saku" - Markus Sesko

$2,500 + shipping

08/24/2026

Ō-suriage mumei wakizashi — Mizuta (水田)
NBTHK Hozon kanteisho

Hira-zukuri, ō-suriage mumei, of sunnobi proportion. Wide mihaba with shallow sori and good kasane remaining. Mitsumune, notably wide. Itame with masame tendency. Ō-midare in nie-deki.
The omote bears a bonji above a stylized ken or vajra motif, with kaku-dome koshi-bi and gomabashi. Silver habaki, diagonal file finish. Shirasaya, accompanied by the original black roiro saya with shakudō kojiri, dragon in takabori with gold iroe.

Mizuta. A Bitchū tradition centered in the Mizuta district of the upper Takahashi valley, active from late Muromachi and continuing productively well into the Edo period — one of the longer-lived provincial lineages of the Shintō era.

The smiths claimed Aoe descent, but the workmanship does not support it stylistically. Where Aoe is nioi-based and restrained, Mizuta works in nie: ō-midare and notare-gunome, sunagashi and kinsuji, occasionally approaching hitatsura. The idiom is Sōshū with a Mino inflection, consistent with a school forming in the sixteenth century.

The lineage is effectively synonymous with Kunishige (国重), which runs from the school's founding to the bakumatsu and accounts for the majority of surviving signatures. Collateral smiths — Kunitsugu, Kunimasa, Kuninaga — share the 国 prefix. A mumei Mizuta attribution places a blade in that orbit without assigning a generation.

Kunishige appears in the Yamada cutting rankings, and Mizuta blades saw hard use accordingly. Ō-suriage mumei examples are the school's most common survival. The horimono tradition was strong: bonji, suken, gomabashi and koshi-bi are frequent, and competent esoteric carving on a mumei Bitchū blade with wide mitsumune is itself suggestive of the school.

$2,500 + shipping

08/24/2026

Tokubetsu Hozon Hizen Masahiro

At the request of the owner, offering this nidai Masahiro for an extremely attractive price. The nidai Kawachi no kami Masahiro was the student of the shodai and produced gassaku works with nidai Tadahiro. This one is a perfect and textbook Hizen-to with a broad ko-nie habuchi and a perfect konuka-hada (with no tiredness or shingane at all). The hamon shows a pronounced kinsuji which I have included photos of below. The nakago is in the most pristine condition, with a clear mei and even patina. This blade is in shirasaya with current NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon kanteisho.

MASAHIRO (正広), 2nd gen., Kanbun (寛文, 1661-1673), Hizen – “Hizen no Kuni Masanaga” (肥前国正永), “Hizen-jū Musashi no Kami Fujiwara Masanaga” (肥前住武蔵守藤原正永), “Hishū Saga-jū Fujiwara Masahiro” (肥州佐賀住藤原正広), “Hizen no Kuni Kawachi no Kami Fujiwara Masahiro” (肥前国河内守藤原正広), real name Hashimoto Yashichirō (橋本弥七郎), he also bore the first name Sadenjirō (左伝次郎), son of the 1st gen. Masahiro (正広), he received the honorary title Musashi no Daijō on the 19th say of the tenth month Manji three (万治, 1660), this title was raised to Musashi no Kami on the 28th day of the ninth month Kanbun one (1661) but was changed on the 13th day of the fourth month Kanbun five (1665) to Kawachi no Kami, with this he changed his name from Masanaga (正永) that he had used so far to Masahiro (正広), he died on the sixth day of the eighth month Genroku twelve (元禄, 1699) at the age of 73, suguha, notare mixed with ko-gunome-ashi, gunome-midare, sometimes also picturesque hamon, wakizashi are mostly signed with the prefix “Hishū” (肥州) instead of “Hizen,” jō-saku

$3,500.00 + shipping

08/24/2026

Hizen (no) Kuni-jūnin Iyo (no) Jō Minamoto Munetsugu
—-
MUNETSUGU (宗次), 1st gen., Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615), Hizen – “Hizen no Kuni Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前国源宗次), “Hizen no Kuni-jūnin Iyo no Jō Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前国住人伊予掾源宗次), “Hizen Isahaya-jū Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前諌早住源宗次), “Iyo no Jō Minamoto Munetsugu” (伊予掾源宗次), real name Sakai San´emon (境三右衛門), he was born as second son of Sakai Kuranojō Masatsugu (境内蔵丞正次) in Hizen´s Nagase (長瀬), he succeeded instead of his older brother Kohei Sanemasa (小兵衛真正) as head of this family in the 20th year of Tenshō (天正, 1592), the Sakai were actually shintō priests in their main profession and Munetsugu worked as a priest, his nyūdō-gō was Seishin (清心), the tradition says that he received the honorary title Iyo no Jō in the eleventh year of Keichō (1606), two years later the imperial court made him deputy of the office which was in the control of the awarding of honorary titles for sword smiths, so there is also the theory that the granting of the title Iyo no Jō came actually with this appointment, also the 16th year of Keichō (1611) is listed in some sources as date for the granting of his title, later he moved to Saga (佐賀) to the village of Raikōji (来迎寺) where he received a salary by the Nabeshima family (鍋島) in the amount of 14 koku, there exists the anecdote that Toyotomi Hideyoshi visited once Hizen in the course of preparations for the invasion of Korea, Munetsugu presented hileadership of the school to his son in the ninth year of Kan´ei (寛永, 1632), Munetsugu was somewhat earlier active than the famous Hizen Tadayoshi (忠吉) and worked also in a different style because he focused primarily on the Sōshū tradition, we know date signatures from the seventh to the eleventh year of Kan´ei (1630-1634), his jigane is a rather standing-out itame with nagare and ji-nie all over the blade, the hamon is a gunome-midare mixed with notare in nie-deki which varies in its width, in addition many togari elements as well as kinsuji and sunagashi appear, the nioiguchi is rather wide, the bōshi is midare-komi with hakikake and tends sometimes to kaen, the tang reminds with its bulbous shape of Muramasa´s (村正) tanagobara-gata.

$4,750.00 + shipping

08/24/2026

Muromachi-period katana attributed by NTHK kanteisho to Yamato Tegai Kanetoshi. The blade is housed in shirasaya and presents the restrained workmanship expected of the Yamato koto Tegai line.

The jihada is a refined ko-itame with clear Yamato character, showing a masame tendency, with fine ji-nie giving the steel a quiet brightness. The hamon is suguha-chō in ko-nie-deki, the nioiguchi controlled and even, with subtle hotsure and fine sunagashi appearing within the ha.

The attribution to Yamato Tegai Kanetoshi places the sword within the later continuation of the Tegai tradition, where older Yamato-den traits suguha, ko-nie,and jihada incorporating masame remain central.

A well-preserved and beautiful koto katana for the collector who values Yamato-den workmanship: tight jihada, restrained suguha, fine internal activity, and the quiet strength characteristic of the Tegai school.

$6,950 + shipping

05/20/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3I5kQxbCfU

A new consignment collection has arrived at Swords of Japan, featur...

05/05/2026

05/04/2026

Sharing the unboxing of a Tenbun period Muromachi Bizen blade by Hō-Norimitsu, from the parallel lineage of Bizen Norimitsu smiths who come from the Kozori Bizen school.

https://youtu.be/gI8mT1v29k0

NORIMITSU (法光), 8th gen., Tenbun (天文, 1532-1555), Bizen – “Bizen no Kuni-jū Osafune Hachirōbei Norimitsu saku” (備前国住長船八郎兵衛法光作), first name Hachirōbei (八郎兵衛)

Unboxing a Sue-Bizen Katana by Kozori 'Hō' Norimitsu in Koshirae with Kanteisho

04/28/2026

https://youtu.be/QzcAFjA5xak?si=Y3uD_DcgQfuGE2oB

2 likes. "Muramasa: Unboxing One of the Most Infamous Names in Japanese Swordsmithing"