A Yasutsuna Katana (阿波守康綱)

Awa no Kami Yasutsuna worked in the Yasuhiro branch of the Kii Ishido school, a lineage that looked directly to the great Bizen Ichimonji masters of the Kôtô period for its inspiration. He divided his working life between Kii province (present-day Wakayama) and the flourishing city of Osaka, and on this particular blade he took the unusual step of recording his whereabouts in the nakago inscription itself: Oite Sesshu Joka Tsukuru Kore – crafted near a castle in Sesshu. That castle can only be the great Osaka-jo, originally raised by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1583. It is a rare and personal detail that places the sword precisely in the cultural and physical landscape of early Edo Japan.

The blade delivers everything a Kii Ishido sword should. The hamon is a vibrant choji-midare with billowing clove-blossom forms extending in true high-yaki fashion across the width of the blade, punctuated by hints of koshibiraki and fine sunagashi throughout. Nie is plentiful and bright. The jihada is a well-worked itame with flowing masame in the shinogi-ji, scattered tobiyaki temper spots in the ji, and a light but discernible utsuri – hallmarks all of the Bizen-inspired tradition this smith carried forward. The koshi yujo yasuri habaki is a fine single piece.

The koshirae is a beautifully preserved early Edo mounting. The tsuba is the standout piece: an iron sukashi design of the Heianjo-Zogan school, dating to the 1600s, with brass-inlay tomoe motifs symbolising the threefold division of Man, Earth, and Sky – certified NTHK-NPO Kanteisho in its own right. The fuchi-kashira carry elegant kikyo (bellflower) decoration in shakudo and gold, while the menuki depict an ikebana arrangement. The blade holds a sayagaki by Dr. Kanzan Sato – former director of the NBTHK – dated February 1973, one of the most authoritative attributions any Shintô sword can carry. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon certified.