A Nidai Tadahiro Wakizashi (近江大掾藤原忠広)

Second generation Tadahiro – born Hashimoto Heishiro in Saga, Hizen, in 1614 – is among the most celebrated smiths of the entire Shintô period. Guided by his father Shodai Tadayoshi and masters such as Shodai Masahiro and Yoshinobu, he took over the school at nineteen when his father died in 1632. By 1641 he had been awarded the prestigious title of Omi Daijo – at just 28 years of age. He would go on to forge blades for sixty years, dying at 81 in Genroku 6 (1693). Fujishiro ranks him Jojo-saku and o-Wazamono: among the very finest of the Shintô era.

This long, healthy wakizashi (moto-haba 3.2cm) was made during the Kanbun era (circa 1661-1673), in the twilight of his career – identifiable by the signature style and the gradual point of the nakagojiri. It has recently been polished and shows everything one hopes for from Tadahiro Nidai: his iconic suguha hamon, precise as a laser beam, and the body packed so tightly it resolves into the much-prized konuka hada. The ubu nakago with kiri yasuri filing is intact.

What lifts this sword above the already-high standard of a Nidai Tadahiro is the presence of horimono (engraving) – a rarity on his blades, as Fujishiro himself notes in Nihon Shinto Jiten. One side carries a depiction of ken with sankozuka (a sword with a vajra thunderbolt hilt); the other bears goma hashi (altar chopsticks of Shintô shrines) with a bonji character for good fortune. A sword of this calibre, certified NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon, would pair magnificently with a thoughtful custom koshirae.