Samonji
左文字派 (Samonji-ha)
The Chikuzen school that signed «Sa»: the Sagami style carried to Kyūshū by Ō-Sa and his pupils.
Style and characteristics
With Ō-Sa the school changed: bright, strong nie, a very tight itame jigane and a notare hamon with gunome of great luminosity; tantō of elegant shape. His pupils (Yasuyoshi, Hiroyuki, Kunihiro, Sadayoshi, Yukihiro) followed that manner with more or less strength.
History
It descends from the Chikuzen smiths Sairen and Jitsua, of a more archaic style. Samonji, called Ō-Sa («the great Sa»), signed with the character «Sa»; he worked in the Nanbokuchō period and tradition counts him among Masamune’s pupils. Two of his blades, the Kōsetsu Samonji and the Taikō Samonji, are National Treasures; his successors’ unsigned work is attributed as Sue-Sa.
Smiths of the school
- Chōshū Akikuni 顕国
- Sa Hiroyuki 左弘行
- Sa Kunihiro 左国弘
- Sa Sadayoshi 左貞吉
- Sa Sadayuki 左定行
- Samonji 左
- Yasuyoshi 安吉