A Naoe Shizu Katana (直江志津)

This is a katana of extraordinary presence. The eye goes immediately to the sweeping o-kissaki – almost 11cm of steel culminating in a boshi so clear and complex it reads like a fingerprint of the smith’s mastery. Woven in midare-komi fashion in the general shape of a Jizo-boshi, it is bright, healthy, and deeply compelling. The hamon itself is a study in controlled energy: gunome with togariba (pointed peaks), swept through with sunagashi and kinsuji, the nioguchi knife-sharp throughout.

The Naoe Shizu School took root when students of the O-Shizu tradition – itself founded by the legendary Shizu Saburo Kaneuji, a pupil of Masamune – moved to the Naoe district of Mino province. What distinguished Naoe Shizu from O-Shizu was precisely what you see here: a superior sugata, wide mihaba, and imposing o-kissaki lending what scholar Nagayama Kokan described as a grand appearance. The jihada is clear, shiny itame with swirling mokume, its folding pattern directly influencing the sunagashi in the hamon. This was once a tachi, carried in the warring mid-Nambokucho period.

The NBTHK Juyo Token certificate – serial number 1210, issued 30 July 1964 – is a vintage of unusual significance. At the time of issue, Juyo Token was the very highest distinction available; Tokubetsu Juyo would not be introduced until 1971. The judging was fierce and the bar high. Only the finest swords in Japan passed. That this blade did so, and so early, is testament to its quality in no uncertain terms.