A Yosôzaemon Sukesada Katana (備前国住長船与三左衛門尉祐定作)

Within the Sue-Bizen school, many smiths signed with the name Sukesada – but first-generation Yosôzaemon no Jô Sukesada stood apart from all of them. Working at Osafune in Bizen province during the early sixteenth century, he brought an exceptional level of skill to a tradition already crowded with fine makers. This katana was signed and dated in the second month of Daiei 6 (1526), made to commission for a patron recorded as Minamoto Sadatoshi. As Tanobe Michihiro noted in his sayagaki, the identity of Sadatoshi is unknown to us today, but his commission of a blade of this quality almost certainly points to a high-ranking bushi.

The blade presents the classic Sue-Bizen tachi sugata at its most resolved: wide mihaba, a high shinogi that drops steeply toward the mune, and a pronounced sakizori that gives the whole piece a powerful, assertive bearing. The kitae is a dense, excellently wrought ko-itame with fine ji-nie throughout – a healthy and vigorous jigane. The hamon is the centrepiece, and it is remarkable: double gunome-midare at the base and again at the monouchi, connected through the middle via a hirosuguha, with abundant ashi and yô, ko-nie, sunagashi, and a bright, clear nioiguchi throughout. The NBTHK’s 28th shinsa committee specifically noted that this arrangement – gunome at both ends bridged by suguha – is a distinctly rare one even within this smith’s output.

The sword was mounted by Unique Japan in a first-class custom koshirae built around a complete set of fittings by the contemporary master Sonobe Yoshihide. The tsuba, fuchigashira, kozuka, kôgai, and menuki are all executed in shakudô with nanako ground, high-relief carving, and rich kin-iroe, depicting family crest motifs in an elegant Genji-kô and umebachi design. The fittings hold NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon certification; the completed koshirae carries a separate NTHK-NPO Certificate of Designation. The saya is finished in a deep, lustrous gloss purple lacquer (murasaki-urushi ronuri) – a mounting worthy of the blade it carries.