UK Sword Register

No. 48

Type: Important specially ordered Gendaito (katana)

Nagasa: 69.5 cm Moto-haba: 3.0 cm Saki-haba: 2.6 cm

Sugata: Shallow koshi-zori with a wide mihaba and little tapering towards the kissaki. Low iori-mune, extended chu-kissaki with some damage.

Jihada: A tight ko-mokume hada appearing almost muji hada, bright ji-nie.

Hamon: Gunome-choji midare in dark ko-nie with a thick nioiguchi, many ashi and sunagashi, wide midare-komi boshi.

Horimono: A spectacular Fudokaen and a Fudo bonji on the omote, gombashi-hi on the ura.

Nakago: Ubu with one mekugi-ana, kiri yasurime, kuri-jiri.

Signed on the omote;

SHOWA JU-YON NEN ROKU GATSU KICHI-NICHI (June 1939), KASAMA IKKANSAI SHIGETSUGU, (NI) OITE TOYAMA MITSURU OH TEI NAI, HORIDO SAKU

Inscribed on the Ura:

NIHON DAIGAKU GEIJUTSU KACHO MATSUBARA HIROSHI KENSHIN KORE DOITSU KOKU SOUTO HITORA KATSUKA.

This special order blade, simply as a sword, is a magnificent piece of workmanship from the early Showa period. The quality of both hamon and jihada within a very strong sugata is magnificent and the deeply carved horimono of Fudo, sword and x rope in hand, standing a lichen covered rock and surrounded by flames, is incredible in its depth and detail. The sugata, which is like Keicho-shinto, is exceptionally powerful and good for a sword made at this time. There is considerable sori at the top of the nakago which may indicate that the blade was accompanied by an old style presentation tachi from which it is now separated. The nakago itself is well made and each yasurime is individually cut. The 54-character inscription on the nakago is both finely cut in the kaisho or block-style and of considerable interest and historical importance. The omote side of the nakago gives all the details of the sword and smith, whilst the special order details are presented on the ura of the blade. An explanation of the inscription follows:-

Omote: This gives the date of Showa 14^th year with the character for 4 in the four separate strokes style, rather than the unlucky conventional way of writing the character, which may also be pronounced as "shi" also meaning "death". Unusually, this dating is inscribed in 2 separate and parallel lines right at the top of the nakago. Under this, on the left hand side is the name of the swordsmith, Kasama Ikkansai Shigetsugu, followed by Horido saku, indicating that Shigetsugu had personally carved the horimono. The right hand column states that the sword was made on the estate of the honorable old man, Toyama Mitsuru.

Ura: This side provides the information of who ordered the sword and for whom it was to be presented. It states that the sword was respectfully ordered by one Matsubara Hiroshi, head of the Art Faculty at Nihon Daigaku (university) for the total leader (dictator) of the German Empire, his excellency Hitler! The name Hitler is written in the katakana script as HI TSU TO RA. The second character, TSU, is not pronounced as such, rather emphasising the preceding HI character, viz. HITORA.

Such a sword is most interesting and important from this unique historical point of view and also from the 3 personalities mentioned as being involved in its manufacture. Brief biographical notes of these "contributors" may be found below:

KASAMA IKKANSAI SHIGETSUGU the swordsmith, is arguably the most important swordsmith of the pre-war Showa period. Born in Shizuoka province in 1886, his real name was Kasama Yoshikazu and he became the apprentice of his uncle, Miyaguchi Shigetoshi (himself a pupil of Ozaki Shigetaka) in 1898. They eventually went up to Tokyo where Shigetoshi died in 1906. During the Taisho and very early Showa period the demand for swords was very low and Shigetsugu, along with others, was known to have made some pretty convincing fakes of old swords. He trained many highly talented pupils, including Miyaguchi Toshihiro (who as Yasuhiro, became a founding member of the Nihonto Tanren Kai at Yasukuni shrine) and Tsukamoto Okimasa who eventually became his son-in-law. Shigetsugu made many swords for high-ranking dignitaries of the day, including members of the Imperial family and officials of the influential Chuo Token Kai. In Showa 7^th year (1932) Kurihara Hikosaburo (Akihide as he is better known) invited Shigetsugu to become the chief instructor at his Token Tanren Denshujo (Japanese Sword Forging Institute) situated at his home in Akasaka, Tokyo. Although Shigetsugu accepted the appointment to this important post, it appears that his relationship with Kurihara was somewhat strained and by the summer of Showa 10^th year (1937) was almost over. From this time onwards, Shigetsugu was invited to make swords at the estate of Toyama Mitsuru at Tokiwamatsu in Shibuya, Tokyo. The nakago inscription records that this is where the sword under review was made.

Shigetsugu, as well as his teacher before him, was highly skilled at horimono carving and the Fudokaen (Fudo in the flames) carved on this sword, is considered to be his favourite or trademark horimono. In about 1938 or 1939, Shigetsugu suffered an illness which left him partially paralyzed and from this time on he concentrated on carving horimono and mei only. Many swords with his signature are signed in a running Sosho style of calligraphy rather than the kaisho or block style of this sword. According to Ikkansai Takehana Shigehisa, the modern day representative of the school, swords signed in Sosho style were made by pupils substituting for Shigetsugu (Dai-saku) whilst those in the Kaisho style, as with this sword, are from Shigetsugu’s own hand.

After the war Shigetsugu was prevented along with everyone else, from making swords but largely due to his wartime prosperity and no doubt because of the circumstances prevailing immediately after the cessation of hostilities, he was able to retire in 1945 at the age of 59. He maintained an interest in swords and later moved to Chiba prefecture, where he died in 1965 at the age of 80.

TOYAMA MITSURU was born in 1855 and was a great admirer of Saigo Takamori. He founded several secret societies, the most famous of which was the Kokuryu-kai or Black Dragon Society. This and similar societies were originally manned by ex Ronin and by the early Showa period, under Toyama’s inspirational leadership, developed into rich, powerful and highly influential, extreme right wing patriotic societies.

As with a number of extreme right-wingers of the time, Toyama was an avid collector and patron of Japanese swords and swordsmiths and Shigetsugu and several of his pupils were able to make swords at his estate at Tokiwamatsu in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. As previously mentioned. Toyama himself was also quite involved with Kurihara Hikosaburo at the Token Tanren Denshujo and even when he was in his eighties, would act as sakite (hammerman) for Shigetsugu or Akihide. He was a board member of the Denshujo and together with Shigetsugu, founded the Tokyo Swordsmith’s Association. He died at the age of 90 in 1944. Without the facilities he provided and the encouragement he gave to swordsmiths of the day, it is difficult to see how they could have prospered so well and concentrated so much on their art. These characters (Kurihara, Shigetsugu and Toyama) together laid many of the foundations, on which the modern sword makers of today could build and prosper, and as such, they are owed a debt of gratitude.

MATSUBARA HIROSHI was the man who commissioned Shigetsugu to make this sword for Hitler. He was an interesting and important professor of art and a member of Toyama’s Kokuryu-kai. It was he who founded and became the head of the art faculty of Nihon Daigaku which in the Showa period, as a popular university, was known as a hotbed of right-wing student activity. Such was his importance that a 700-page biography was written entitled "Matsubara-den". This book contains a number of interesting photographs of Matsubara who was a great admirer of Japanese swords and swordmakers and mentions that he commissioned the above sword for Hitler. He was known to have visited Shigetsugu and watched him at work and had a particular admiration for the work of Soshu Masamune and Muramasa!

During the late 1930’s, Matsubara spent much time in Europe, the majority of which was in the university city of Heidleberg in Nazi Germany. Here it is known from his biography that he mixed with the elite of the Nazi society he so admired. It is most probable that here he met with Hitler and conceived the idea that the Fuhrer might appreciate a gift of the epitome of Japanese art, namely a Japanese sword.

It will be seen from the foregoing that this unique sword has many interesting attributes. Not only is it a magnificent example of the swordsmith’s art by a master craftsman of the time, but it is the only sword known in the world to bear an inscription that mentions Hitler himself. It is a fascinating combination between art and historical artifact and reflects many of the most interesting aspects of Japanese swordmaking in the early Showa period.

MIYAGUCHI SHIGETOSHI (Shigetsugu's teacher)

Mei: "IKKANSAI SHIGETOSHI",

"OITE SUNPU MIYAGUCHI IKKANSAI SHIGETOSHI".

His real name was Miyaguchi Hachiro. He was born in Shizuoka of Suruga province in Tenpo 9th and became a student of Hamabe Toshinori of Inaba Province and his teacher adopted him. Afterwards he came back to Shizuoka and resumed the use of his original family name, "Miyaguchi". It is said that he used "Hisatoshi" as his smith name while he was in Inaba Province.

After he changed his name to "Ikkansai Shigehiro", he learned Horimono from a student of Ozaki Suketaka of Osaka. Finally he used "Shigetoshi" as his smith name. He lived in Kurma town of Shizuoka city after the Meiji Restoration. Shigetoshi died in 1906 at the age of 69. The workmanship is that Jihada is dense Ko-itame and the Hamon is Choji-midare in Nioi-deki or Gunome in Ko-nie-deki.

KASAMA SHIGETSUGU

Mei: " IKKANSAI TERUMASA", "IKKANSAI KASAMA SHIGETSUGU"

"KASAMA IKKANSAI SHIGETSUGU"

His real name was Kasama Yoshikazu. He was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1886 and apprenticed himself to his uncle Miyaguchi Shigetoshi in 1900 and then learnt from Morioka Masayoshi who also lived in Tokyo. Shigetsugu worked at the Nihon-to Tanren Denshujo as a chief instructor; afterwards he worked at a workshop of Toyama Mitsuru in Tokiwamatsu of Shibuya, Tokyo. He died in Kamagaya of Chiba Prefecture at the age of 80. He was very good at Horimono. He signed in Kaisho style or block style when he made by himself and he signed Sosho style or running style when his students substituted for him. He favoured Choji-midare of Bizen-den also tempered Gunome-choji. The style of the Horimono is different from modern Horimono. It can be said that he is the last smith who practiced "Tosho-bori".

MIYAGUCHI TOSHIHIRO

Mei: "MIYAGUCHI IKKANSAI TOSHIHIRO", "YASUHIRO" etc.

His real name is Miyaguchi Shigeru. He was born in Hayashi-cho of Koshikawa, Tokyo in 1897 as a son of Yonezawa Kanshiro Masatoshi. His father and Toshihiro were adopted into the Miyaguchi family. He learnt from Kasama Shigetsugu after his father's death then started using "Ikkansai" as his personal title from August 1916. He used "Toshihiro" as his smith name in the early Showa era but changed to "Yasuhiro" after he became an instructor of Nihonto Tanrenjo built inside the Yasukuni Shrine in 1933, then he was recruited by Okura Nihonto Tanrenjo in 1936 and worked there. He died in 1956 at the age of 57. His Hamon is Suguha or Gunome-choji.

SAKAI SHIGEMASA
Mei: "SHIGEMASA" "SHIGEMASA" ("Masa" is a different character)

"SAKAI IKKANSAI SHIGEMASA, HORI DOSAKU"

His real name was Sakai Hiroshi. He was born, as the third son of Sakai Yasujiro who is the younger brother of Miyaguchi Masatoshi in Otowa-cho of Shizuoka prefecture in 1905 then became a student of Kasama Shigetsugu in 1921. He became an independent smith in 1932 and worked in Nihonto Tanren Kai and Okura Nihonto Tanrenjo. He is good at Horimono as well as his teacher. He tempered Saka -choji which is a tradition of the Kasama school in his early years then tried various Hamon like Gunome-midare and Choji-midare after World War 2. He had lived and worked in Higashiyama-cho of Itabashi Ward in Tokyo since 1941 and died in 1995 at the age of 90.

TSUKAMOTO OKIMASA

He was born in 1914 in Fukushima Prefecture and his real name is Tsukamoto Shinpachi. He called himself a student of Yamamura Masanobu of Echigo province. He became a student of Kasama Shigetsugu then got married to a daughter of his teacher. His workmanship is that the Hamon is Gunome-midare like Kiyomaro and Choji-midare with many Hataraki and Jihada and Jigane are superior to other Gendai-to smiths. It is often said that he is the best smith in the Gendai-to times. Okimasa died in 1960 at the age of 45.

TAKEHANA SHIGEHISA

Mei: "TAKEHANA IKKANSAI SHIGEHISA TSUKURU KORE"

He was born in February 1949 and Shigehisa may be considered the Sandai (third generation) from Kasama Shigetsugu. He became an apprentice to Sakai Shigemasa in 1971 and acquired a swordmaking license in 1977, becoming independent in the following year. He has won several prizes in the annual swordmaking competition since his first entry in 1978. His philosophy is to consider what type of sword represents today's taste and that the swordsmith should answer that demand, but on the other hand, he is never lazy in his research into Jigane. He is also skilled at carving Horimono.

(The above notes and family tree of the school, were kindly supplied to me by the present day swordsmith and representative of the school, Takehana Ikkansai Shigehisa who I have also included. )

(This sword was awarded a score of 76 points and a Ninteisho certificate by the Nihon Token Hozon Kai at their New York shinsa in 1997).

It was exhibited at To-ken Taikai ’99.

Clive Sinclaire

Bexley, April 2000

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