Sōshū-den
相州伝 (Sōshū-den)
The Kamakura tradition of Sagami: the most nie-rich steel of the five and the school of Masamune.
Style and characteristics
Blades of strong, bright nie, with chikei in the steel and kinsuji and inazuma in the temper. The jigane is a pronounced itame; the hamon mixes loose notare and gunome, without the order of Bizen, with the light gathered in the nie. From the Nanbokuchō period the blades widen, with a long kissaki and a thinner kasane.
History
It arose at the end of the Kamakura period, when the shogunate called smiths from Yamashiro and Bizen to Kamakura; tradition names Shintōgo Kunimitsu as its founder and Masamune as the smith who brought it to its height. The pupils attributed to Masamune, the jittetsu, carried his manner across the country, which is why the style is also recognised in Etchū, Chikuzen and Mino. After the Nanbokuchō period the Kamakura school continued with Hiromitsu and Akihiro and, later, with the Tsunahiro line in Odawara.
Smiths of the school
- Akihiro 秋広
- Amata Akitsugu 天田昭次
- Gō Yoshihiro 江義弘
- Hasebe Kunishige 長谷部国重
- Hiromitsu 広光
- Kawasaki Akihira 川﨑晶平
- Masamune 正宗
- Matsuba Hongyō 松葉本行
- Miyairi Akihira 宮入昭平
- Miyairi Kiyohira 宮入清平
- Miyairi Kozaemon Yukihira 宮入小左衛門行平
- Ogawa Kanekuni 尾川兼圀
- Ogawa Kanekuni 尾川兼國
- Rai Kunitsugu 来国次
- Sadamune 貞宗
- Sanekage 真景
- Shintōgo Kunimitsu 新藤五国光
- Sō Masachika 宗昌親
- Sōshū Hiromasa
- Sōshū Tsunahiro 相州綱広
- Sukezane 助真
- Yukimitsu 行光