Aizu Kanesada
会津兼定 (Aizu Kanesada)
Line of swordsmiths in Aizu, Mutsu province, a branch of the Seki Kanesada, active from the 16th century into the Meiji era.
Profile
Aizu Kanesada (会津兼定) is the name given to the line of smiths who carried the Kanesada signature of Seki, in Mino, to Aizu in Mutsu. A branch of the family settled there in the 16th century at the invitation of the Ashina (蘆名), then lords of Aizu, and its successors, of the Furukawa family, worked in Aizu throughout the Edo period, eleven generations in all; for several of the middle generations no works are known. Among their signatures is Ōshū Aizu-jū Kanesada (奥州會津住兼定). The eleventh signed Kanemoto at first and later Kanesada; in 1863 he received the title Izumi no Kami (和泉守) and also worked in Kyoto, where the lord of Aizu was then posted. After the Boshin War he spent some years forging in Kamo, in Echigo, and later signed Iwashiro no kuni Wakamatsu-jū Kanesada. The sword carried by Hijikata Toshizō (土方歳三), dated 1867, is his; it is kept in Hino and is a cultural property of the city. He died in 1903.
Rankings
- Yoki-wazamono (very good) (Kaihō Kenjaku, 1797)
Swords available
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Kanesada
Katana signed Ōshū Aizu jū Kanesada and dated 8th month of Ansei 3 (1856), with masame jigane and a sanbonsugi-style hamon; NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken paper, shirasaya and iron-mounted koshirae with azuki-coloured ishime saya. Shinshintō katana signed “Ōshū Aizu jū Kanesada” and dated the eighth month of Ansei 3 (1856), which the original seller attributes to the tenth generation of the Aizu Kanesada line and ranks as jōjō-saku within his work. The blade has a nagasa of 70.9 cm and a sori of 1.8 cm; it is wide, of solid kasane, with a slightly extended kissaki. The seller describes a well-forged masame jigane with chikei, reminiscent of the Sendai Kunikane smiths, and a nie-based sanbonsugi-style hamon with kinsuji and sunagashi; the bōshi is midarekomi with a turn-back. In the photographs the nakago appears intact, with a single mekugi-ana, the signature on the omote and the date on the ura. The habaki is a two-piece copper one with silver. The sword comes in shirasaya together with a koshirae that the photographs show complete: an iron tsuba with characters inlaid in gold, iron fuchi, kashira and kojiri, menuki of a bird and moon highlighted in gold, and an azuki-coloured ishime lacquered saya; the seller describes it without dating it. It is accompanied by an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate, legible in the photograph of the origami, and a full oshigata of the blade.
59.9/100
€21,490
