Gassan Sadakazu Katana

Certificate translation

KANTEI-SHO (???) – APPRAISAL

No 152579

katana, signed: Naniwa-j? Gassan Unry?shi Minamoto Sadakazu tsukuru

(????????????)?“Made by Gassan Unry?hi Minamoto

Sadakazu, resident of ?saka.”

Genji ni kinoto-ushidoshi nigatsu hi (??????????“Onaday

of the second month Meiji two (1865), year of the ox.”

According to the result of the shinsa committee of our society, we judge this work as authentic

and rank it as tokubetsu-hozon-t?ken.

August 24, 2007

[Foundation] Nihon Bijutsu T?ken Hozon Ky?kai, NBTHK (??????????)

Sayagaki translation

????????? ????????????????????????????????

??????????

??????????? ???????????

Naniwa Gassan Unry?shi Sadakazu

Genji ninenki kore ari, saku?iki no tasai naru d?k?-ch? suguha deki shikamo kare no majime o

hakki-seri.

Hach? 2 shaku 4 sun 5 rin kore ari.

Koretoki Heisei 19-nen kannazuki kakan Tanzan Hend? kanshi + kaõ

Naniwa Gassan Unry?shi Sadakazu

Dated Genji two 1865. This blade is interpreted in suguha, which was one of the manifold styles

of the smith, and truly shows the character of Sadakazu.

Blade length ~ 72.9 cm

Examined and written by Tanzan Hend?  [Tanobe Michihiro]  in the last third of October of Heisei 19

(2007) + ka?

The Gassan school ( ?? )

The time-honoured  kot?  Gassan school was taken-up again in the  shinshint?  times by  Sadachika  ( ?? ). Sadachika, his civilian name was „kuyama Yasabur? ( ????? ), was born in Meiwa eight ( ?? , 1771) in Sasagawa ( ?? ) in the Nishimurayama district ( ???? ) of Dewa province. It is said that he was a descendant of the Gassan lineage and he died on the 19th day of the fifth month of Kaei four ( ?? , 1851) at the age of 81. But the actual revival of the school has to be attributed to Sadachika´s son Gassan Yahachir?( ????? ) who adopted the name „Gassan” as his family name and who signed „Sada -yoshi ” ( ?? ). Some old transmissions say that Sadayoshi was born in the first year of Tenmei ( ?? , 1781) and died on the 19th day of the second month of Meiji three (1870) at the age of 90. But in Tenmei one his father Sadachika was only ten years old and so another transmission is much more likely, namely that he died in 1870, not at the age of 90 but 71. This, in turn, calculates his year of birth as Kansei two ( ?? , 1800). However, Sadayoshi left Dewa in the early years of the Bunsei era ( ?? , 1818-1830) and went to Edo to study under Suishinshi Masahide. After that, i.e. in Tenp?four ( ?? , 1833), he moved to ?saka where he laid the foundation for the more recent success story of the Gassan school. We know blades from Sadayoshi from the Bunsei to the end of the Kei?era ( ?? , 1865-1868). His  jihada  is the typical Gassan  ayasugi , a  masame  in the Yamato tradition, or a dense  mokume . The  hamon  is either a  suguha  in  nie-deki , a small-dimensioned  ch?ji-midare , or a  koshi-no-hiraita midare . It is said that his adopted son Sadakazu made several  daisaku-daimei  works for him in his later years.

Sadakazu  ( ?? ), who bore the civilian name „Gassan Yagor? ( ????? ), was born in the second month of Tenp? seven ( ?? , 1836) in the village of Sugoshi ( ?? ) in the Inugami district ( ?? ) of ?mi province. He was adopted by Sadayoshi at the age of seven. In Meiji 39 ( ?? , 1906) he was appointed  teishitsu-gigei´in  ( ????? , lit. „ember of the Imperial Arts and Crafts”), the equivalent to the later title of Living National Treasure. He and Miyamoto Kanenori ( ???? ) were the only swordsmiths awarded with this honour. The  teishitsu-gigei´in  program was founded by the Meiji government in 1890 to preserve the traditional arts and crafts. – 125 –

Sadakazu´s  g?  were K?kensai” ( ??? ), „nry?hi” ( ??? ) and „uiy?hi” ( ??? ). He died on July 11th 1918 at the age of 84 and we know from him dated blades from the third year of Kaei ( ?? , 1850) – he was only 15 years old at that time – to his year of death in 1918. That means he was active as swordsmith for about 70 years. He mastered all traditions and is regarded, besides Honj? Yoshitane ( ???? ) and Kurihara Nobuhide ( ???? ), as the greatest  horimono  engraver of the  shinshint?  times. Some suggest Suishinshi Masahide as the founder and Gassan Sadakazu as the last great master of the  shinshint?. Sadakazu also played an important role in passing-on the craft to the subsequent gendait?  swordsmiths. His blades have a rather long  nagasa , a shallow  sori , a wide  mihaba , and a  ch? or an  ?-kissaki , i.e. altogether a magnificent and grand shape, but he also made some blades with a  sugata  in the style of the early Muromachi period. Incidentally, blades made in the Kei?era ( ?? , 1865-1868) are especially impressive. He also made many copies of  kot?  works and worked for the military after the sword ban where more slender and shorter blades were needed. He forged the traditional  ayasugi-hada  of the Gassan school, a  masame  in the Yamato tradition, a  mokume , a  kokume  and also an  itame . According to the tradition he worked in, he tempered an elaborate  ch?ji-midare  in  nioi-deki  with a narrow  yakihaba  and long  ashi  in the style of the ?ei-Bizen school ( ???? ), a  ko-ch?ji-midare  in  ko-nie-deki , a  ch?-suguha-hotsure  in the style of the Yamashiro tradition, or a  gunome-midare  with thick  nie  and  nioi  and plenty of  hataraki  in the style of the S?sh? tradition. The  b?shi  shows a roundish  kaeri  or runs out as  yakitsume . He applied many different  horimono  like dragons, dragon and plum branches,  kenmaki-ry?, waterfalls, Fud?-My??, bonji  and the like. All of them are finely engraved and some remind us of carvings by Ikkanshi Tadatsuna ( ????? ). Sadakazu´s blades show a long and carefully finished tang with a  kurijiri  and  sujikai-yasurime  with  kesh? whereas each file stroke is exactly applied. During the Kei?and Meiji era he added a characteristic  koku´in  (see picture 90), and in the fifth year of Taish? (1916) he forged a tachi  on the occasion of the enthronement of emperor Yoshihito ( ?? , 1879-1926).

*Gassan School information: Courtesy – Markus Sesko (Author), E  Nihon-shinshint?-shi  (pages 124-125),  Click to purchase

*Book page image: Courtesy – Markus Sesko (Author), E Genealogies and Schools of Japanese Sword smiths (page 96),  Click to purchase