A Shohei Katana (晶平)

At 83.4cm nagasa, this is a formidable sword – the longest ever offered by Unique Japan and a deliberate tribute to the massive blades of the Nambokucho period (1333-1392), when smiths forged o-dachi of extraordinary length and sweep. The man responsible is Seitan Shohei of the celebrated Miyairi School in Saitama prefecture, who would have been around forty years old when he completed this work in the summer of Heisei 23 (2011). Two generations before him stood maestro Miyairi Shohei, a former Living National Treasure whose school built its name on the Soshu tradition. That lineage is very much alive in this blade.

The steel tells the story clearly. A well-forged ko-itame hada with flowing nagare-hada streams along the body of the blade, providing the structural foundation for a brilliantly compact gunome-midare hamon filled with sunagashi and kinsuji. The boshi is a refined hakikake – literally sweeping – and the spine carries the rarely seen mitsu-mune, the three-sided ridge associated with the Soshu school and Yamashiro masters. The curvature at 2.7cm is dramatic and entirely deliberate, giving the sword the presence of a Nambokucho-era tachi in a katana mount. At 1.04kg it is a serious sword, yet moves with grace.

The koshirae is made in the Satsuma tradition – a long, lacquered saya fitted with a brushed iron tsuba signed Shohei Kitae Kore (forged by Shohei), depicting cherry and plum blossoms in a refined, geometric treatment. The menuki show a temple guardian at rest under an umbrella, likely crafted by the Goto School in the late Edo period. The sword comes with its own custom katana-bako (sword box) inscribed Cho Wa (harmony), which names the smith, polisher (Ogawa Kazuyoshi) and koshirae maker (Morii Norifumi). As is the policy of the NBTHK and NTHK-NPO, no external certificates are issued for works by living smiths; the box itself serves as the document of authenticity.