A Nidai Takahira Katana (加州金沢住高平作)

Second generation Takahira (Denuemon) worked within the prestigious Kanewaka School of Kaga province, a lineage that served the wealthy Maeda clan and earned the nickname Kaga Masamune for the quality of its steel. The founding smith, Jinroku Kanewaka, was personally invited to Kanazawa by the third Maeda lord, Toshitsune, making the school inseparable from the culture and power of the domain. This katana, signed and dated to a fortunate day in August 1681, carries that legacy in every inch of its blade.

The steel is worked into a clean masame hada – a straight-grain structure that demands exceptional control from the smith and produces a surface of quiet, almost meditative beauty. Lines of chikei run through the jihada like veins of light. The hamon is a bright, free-flowing gunome midare with long ashi reaching toward the edge, enriched by fine sunagashi and kinsen. It is a lively and accomplished temper line that rewards close study.

The koshirae is remarkable for its survival. Dated by certificate to the middle Edo period (late 1600s to mid-1700s), it may well be the original mounting made when the blade was forged. The iron tsuba is shaped as a quince flower with a brass vine-engraved rim and a deeply carved peony design. The iron fuchi carries a solitary silver butterfly, the kashira a high-relief peony with a gold crown, and gold shisa lions serve as menuki. Black samekawa on the hilt and a solid iron kojiri on the lacquered saya complete an authentic, battle-ready set that has endured over three centuries intact.