（Token Bijutsu No.590）

 

Nihon Koto Shi

(History of Koto)

 

By Dr. Honma Junji

 

 (36)

 

(P.36)

12. Osafune-mono and Kozori-mono

(Osafune swords and Kozori swords)

 

There were two major schools of Ichimonji and Osafune in the former period of Bizen Province. Entering this period, there are no important smith of the Ichimonji school and  Osafune smiths come to represent this province. Representative smiths of the Osafune school of this period are students of 1st or 2nd Kanemitsu, like Rin-Tomomitsu, Motomitsu, Masamitsu and Shigemitsu as well as Yoshimitsu and Yoshikage who belong to the school. Amongst them, it has been confirmed by their production dates, that Rin-Tomomitsu, Motomitsu, Masamitsu and Shigemitsu were the students of 1st Kagemitsu. There may be a few generations of these smiths and their active ages are as follows; Rin-Tomomitsu between the Bunwa and Eiwa Eras, Motomitsu and Masamitsu between the Enbun and Oei Eras, Shigemitsu between the Koan and Oei Eras, Yoshimitsu between the Genkyo and Eiwa Eras and Yoshikage between the Kenmu and Oei Eras. Also two collateral schools represented by Motoshige and Nagashige exist in this province. There seem to be two generations of Motoshige between the Showa and Joji Eras. Shigezane was a younger brother of 1st Motoshige and the production dates between the Kareki and Oei Eras have been confirmed. As described before, a commonly accepted theory that Nagashige was a younger brother of Chogi, is not correct. I conclude that Chogi is a younger brother or a student of Nagashige. Another theory that Nagashige and Chogi are the same smith could be denied by oshigata of Nagashige with a production date of the Jowa Era and of Chogi with a production date of the Koei Era (if the oshigata are genuine). Incidentally, extant works of Chogi with production dates, range from the Shohei (or Enbun) to the Koreki Era.

 

(Reference oshigata)

“BISHU OSAFUNE MASAMITSU”

 

  “BIZEN (NO) KUNI JU OSAFUNE SAHYOE (NO) JO MOTOMITSU”

 

      BISHU OSAFUNE TOMOMITSU”   “JOJI 2 NEN 8 GATSU HI”

 

        BISHU OSAFUNE JU KANEMITSU”  “KAN-O 3 NEN 8 GATSU HI”

 

 

             “BISHU OSAFUNE JU MOTOSHIGE”  “KAN-O 3 NEN 8 GATSU HI”

 

                    “BIZEN (NO) KUNI) OSAFUNE JU YOSHIKAGE”

 

(P.37)

One theory states that Chogi, with production dates of the Koreki Era, are the works of the 2nd generation of which another smith name is Nagakiyo. However, I believe extant tachi with the mei of ‘Nagakiyo’ are not the works of 2nd Chogi. Generally speaking, Nagakiyo is much inferior to Chogi in skill. There is a smith called Nagamori who is said to be a student of Chogi. He left a naginata with the production date of Shohei 8 (or Bunwa 2) and two tanto with the production dates of Shohei 11 (or Joji 5) and Kentoku 2 (or Oan 4). It is speculated that Nagamori was active at the same time as Chogi. In addition there is a smith called Kanenaga (or Kencho) and there are a certain number of o-suriage mumei katana attributed to Kanenaga, but I have seen only one tanto with mei and a production date of the Joji Era.

 

(Reference photos and oshigata)

Tokubetsu Juyo Token : Tanto Mei “BI(  ) OSAFUNE KANEMITSU”

                                 “ENBUN (  ) NEN 2 GATSU HI”

 

   “BISHU OSAFUNE JU NAGAMORI”  “SHOHEI 11 NEN 3 GATSU”

 

 

                             “BISHU OSAFUNE KANENAGA”

 

(P.38)

The workmanship of the smiths described above reflect the flavour of the period well. Kanemitsu and his students temper gunome (pointed kataochi-gunome) and notare. Motoshige and his students do gunome in nioi-deki or nioi-hon-i in a smaller pattern, and Nagashige and his students do o-midare mixed with notare and gunome in nie-deki ( they occasionally temper hamon in nioi-deki). Nagashige and Nagamori temper ko-midare. It is interesting to know that the production date of Kanemitsu and his students accords to the era of the Northern Court but Chogi and his students to the eras of the Northern and the Southern Courts.

 

(Reference photos)

Juyo Bunka Zai : Tachi Mei “BIZEN (NO) KUNI OSAFUNE  JU YOSHIKAGE”

 

(P.39)

There is a smith group called ‘Kozori-mono’ amongst Osafune smiths. This term has been used vaguely and the detail of their lineage and other smiths is not yet certain. It seems that Kozori is a name for a group of Osafune smiths who were active in the late Nambokucho Period, but the literal meaning of Kozori is not certain. A book written by Hasegawa Chuemon Naotsugu says “Kozori smiths lived in Osafune and Shigeyoshi and Morihisa founded the group”. They demonstrate a similar workmanship to that of Kanemitsu. Their hamon is tempered in a smaller pattern than that of Kanemitsu and Motoshige. As a whole, they are inferior to Kanemitsu in skill and nie is more emphasised.” ‘Sengaku Sho’ lists 55 smiths who belonged to Kozori, but the smith names of Shigeyoshi and Morihisa are not included. The list includes many smith names of the Kamakura Period and I am very doubtful of its authenticity. Anyway, it seems to me that Kozori includes Osafune smiths who were active in the late Nambokucho Period and whose lineages are not certain. Hidemitsu, Mitsuhiro, Nariie, Tsunehiro and Yoshikiyo who left extant works certainly belong to the Kozori school. Generally speaking, they demonstrate a similar workmanship to Kanemitsu but their gunome is usually tempered in smaller pattern. Meanwhile, Hidemitsu tempers ko-gunome in regular pattern like Yoshii smiths. Hidemitsu left extant works with production dates between the Oan and Shitoku Eras, and Nariie with production dates between the Koan and Eiwa Eras. Amongst Kozori smiths, Hidemitsu and Nariie left a certain number of extant works. They do not make sugata with wide mi-haba and o-kissaki like Kanemitsu but one similar to that of Oei-Bizen smiths. A theory says that Kozori-mono means small tachi (in comparison to those of the early Nambokucho Period) and it came to be used as their school name, but this has yet to be studied.

 

(Reference oshigata)

“BISHU OSAFUNE NARIIE”   “OAN (  ) NEN 3 GATSU HI”

 

       “BISHU OSAFUNE HIDEMITSU”   “SHITOKU 3 NEN (  ) GATSU HI”

 

(P.40)

Tadamitsu, Kiyomitsu and Norimitsu are well known as Sue-Bizen smiths of the end of the Muromachi Period. Though, it must be noticed that there are their extant tanto with production dates of the Joji Era, also oshigata of Morimitsu and Munemitsu with production dates of Joji era, are listed in swordsmith directories.

 

(Reference photos)

Tokubetsu Juyo Token : Tachi Mei “BISHU OSAFUNE JU MOTOSHIGE”

                                “KENMU 1 NEN 9 GATSU HI”