A Superb Shinshinto Signed Tanto by Echizen no Kami Naomasa of Mutsu, Student of the Great Shinshinto Master Smith Taikei Naotane, Suishinshi Masahide School, Naotane School. Echizen no Kami Naomasa, Honorary Lord of Echizen

Hirazukuri blade with an amazing hako midare hamon. Signed Echizen no Kami Naomasa and dated in cursive script; soshu, Meiji 2 1868/9.

His period of making blades date for barely 20 years, and his work is rarely seen to come onto the collectors market, and this piece is a simply beautiful example in superb order.

The blade is dated, and signed by Naomasa, who worked from 1854. The blade has a with gomabashi horimono bohi.
He was a student of the famous swordsmith " Takei Naotane", considered to have been one of the greatest ever swordsmiths, and a premier teacher and founder of the Naotane School of Swordmaking in the Shin-Shinto period.

NAOMASA (直正), Genji (元治, 1864-1865), Ōshū – “Echizen no Kami Naomasa kore o tsukuru” (越前守 直正造之), “Miysazaki Echizen no Kami Naomasa kore o saku” (宮崎越前守直正作之), “Keishinsai Naomasa kore o tsukuru” (慶心斎直正作之), he was a student of Taikei Naotane (大慶直胤) and worked for the Sōma-Nakamura fief (相馬中村藩), gō Keishinsai (慶心斎),

Aikuchi tanto with all original Edo period fittings and original, coarsely brushed and carved urushi red and black lacquer Edo saya, with an oval panel in black urushi of a deep takebori representation of Buddha, and fitted with most beautiful, interesting and fine gilt chiselled imperial chrysanthemum and flower fuchigashira, and kurigata mountings, and a gilt flower pattern sayajiri. Some light age light wear to the saya lacquer. Original black tsuka-Ito binding over the menuki and giant ray-skin samegawa. The tsuka fuchi slots snugly into the gilt metal mounted mouth of the saya to create a waterproof seal.

The Kozuka utility knife is decorated in a complimentary prunus and bird decor, gilded, and inlaid with cloisonne enamel, and set with an Edo signed knife blade. The menuki in very finely detailed gilt are praying mantis in battle conflict with another insect. The kozuka pocket is lined with Portugese 16th century leather, fully embossed.

With the beginning of the Kamakura period, tanto were forged to be more aesthetically pleasing, and hira and uchi-sori tanto were the most popular styles for wars in the kamakura period. Near the middle of the Kamakura period, more tanto artisans were seen, increasing the abundance of the weapon, and the kanmuri-otoshi style became prevalent in the cities of Kyoto and Yamato. Because of the style introduced by the tachi in the late Kamakura period, tanto began to be forged longer and wider. The introduction of the Hachiman faith became visible in the carvings in the tanto hilts around this time. The hamon (line of temper) is similar to that of the tachi, except for the absence of choji-midare, which is nioi and utsuri. Gunomi-midare and suguha are found to have taken its place. In Nambokucho, the tanto were forged to be up to forty centimetres as opposed to the normal one shaku (about thirty centimetres) length. The tanto blades became thinner between the uri and the omote, and wider between the ha and mune. At this point in time, two styles of hamon were prevalent: the older style, which was subtle and artistic, and the newer, more popular style. Blades could be of exceptional quality. As the end of the period neared, the average blade narrowed and the sori became shallow. The aikuchi is a tanto koshirae where the fuchi is flush with the mouth of the saya. There is no tsuba on this form of tanto.

Suishinshi Masahide is known as the founding father of the Shinshinto era. Born Suzuki Saburo in Dewa Province in 1750. He originally began as a blacksmith, but his goal was to be a sword smith. He moved to Sendai and began training as a sword smith, using the name Takuei. Later he moved to Musashi province and continued his training under Yasukuni and again changed his name to Terukuni. In 1774, he was hired by the Daimyo family, Akimoto. It was at this time he took the name Masahide.

With steady employment, Masahide was able to travel and study different styles of sword forging. It is documented that he was taught Bizen Den by Ishido Korekazu, and Soshu Den under Soshu Tsunahiro. For most of his career Masahide had devoted his efforts towards mastering Sukehiro’s toranba and Shinkai’s notare hamon.

Masahide, however, was much more than a simple swordsmith. He was also a theorist, author and teacher. Towards the middle of his career he changed his thoughts on forging. Masahide wrote that the flashy, wide hamon seen on so many swords of the time tended to break easily. He detailed in one of his three books, “Token Buyo Ron” some 25 examples of blades breaking. It was after his research, he made the decision to return to making functional, durable swords which cut well. This change in philosophy, theory and style was known as Fukkoto or sword revival, which was an effort to return to the forging techniques of the Heian and Kamakura periods.

As stated previously, Masahide was an excellent teacher. He was said to have trained over 100 swordsmiths including his two best students Hosokawa Masayoshi and Taikei Naotane, the teacher of his pupil Naomasa the maker of this blade. Taikei Naotane (大慶直胤) ————-Although Taikei Naotane was within the Suishinshi group, he was among the top swordsmiths. He had an amazing ability to forge all kinds of different styles of swords wonderfully. When he made a Bizen Den style, it looked like Nagamitsu from the Ko-to time with Nioi. Also, he did Sakasa-choji as Katayama Ichimonji had done.

Naomasa died on the 24th day of the eleventh month Meiji twelve (明治, 1879), we know his date signatures are from the seventh year of Kaei (嘉永, 1854) to the sixth year of Meiji (1873

Code: 25166