A Nidai Kanesada Katana (越後守包貞)

Echigo no Kami Kanesada – the second generation of that name – stands among the very finest swordsmiths of Ôsaka-shintô. Adopted by the first generation Kanesada, he inherited both the name and the mantle of excellence that came with it. When the first generation’s natural son came of age, he relinquished the Echigo no Kami title and thereafter signed with his given name, Sakakura Gonnoshin Terukane. This katana was made during the height of that earlier period – signed with the full court title – and represents his greatest ambitions in steel.

The hamon here is immediately arresting: a spectacular tôran-ba, the surging wave temper line that fellow Ôsaka master Sukehiro pioneered, rendered here with dense ko-nie and long ashi reaching toward the cutting edge. Sunagashi drifts through the temper in brushed streaks. Beneath it, the ko-itame hada is exquisitely forged, alive with ji-nie and chikei – the hallmarks of a smith who never produced a substandard work. The NBTHK juyo token white paper judges both the ji and ha as kenzen – perfectly healthy – a ringing endorsement of its condition after more than three centuries.

Dr. Satô Kanzan, one of the foremost sword scholars of the twentieth century, wrote his sayagaki on the shirasaya in April 1973, declaring this katana a masterwork among all works of Kanesada. The ubu-nakago is unaltered, retaining its original iriyamagata-jiri butt and confident sujikai-yasurime file marks. The beautiful five-character goji-mei – carved in flowing cursive – is as compelling a signature as one will encounter on any Ôsaka-shintô blade. Kanesada II counts some eighty blades at the jûyô and tokubetsu jûyô level; this is among those that set the standard.