Kantei
The same tantō on the other side, on a black background: two parallel grooves along the back and a small engraved sign near the point.

Kyoto National Museum, via ColBase · ColBase terms of use

Hitatsura · engravings · short blades

Work and style

Short blades, almost always engraved, with a temper that spreads over the whole blade: the keys to recognising his work, from the shape to the signature.

On this page
  1. Shape (姿, sugata)
  2. Steel (地肌, jihada)
  3. Temper (刃文, hamon)
  4. Point (帽子, bōshi)
  5. Engravings (彫物, horimono)
  6. Tang and signature (茎・銘, nakago and mei)
  7. The 1376 tantō

Shape (姿, sugata)

  • His blades almost always measure less than one shaku (about 30.3 cm); those of Hiromitsu, more. The NBTHK cites as exceptions a wakizashi of 1 shaku 7 sun (about 51.5 cm) in the Tokyo National Museum and a small tachi. The length of that tachi, “2 shaku 7 bu” in the English translation, has yet to be checked.
  • The wakizashi of 1398: hira-zukuri, mitsu-mune, 31.35 cm long, 0.35 cm of curvature, 2.8 cm wide at the base and 0.5 cm thick.
  • The unsigned katana attributed to him: 69.9 cm long and 2.25 cm of curvature.

Steel (地肌, jihada)

Itame with mokume, abundant ji-nie and chikei, on the wakizashi of 1398; on the tantō of 1376, itame with somewhat prominent mokume, ji-nie and chikei.

Temper (刃文, hamon)

  • The style of Hiromitsu and Akihiro is hitatsura, with chōji with wide, round heads (団子丁子, dango-chōji), tobiyaki, yubashiri and deliberate muneyaki, without looking forced. For the NBTHK it was an innovation followed by the Sue-Sōshū of the Muromachi period and by swordsmiths of other provinces. Pronounced dango-chōji is seen more in Hiromitsu.
  • The wakizashi of 1398: gunome with chōji and some ko-notare, in hitatsura, with yubashiri, tobiyaki and some muneyaki, kinsuji and sunagashi. The tantō of 1376: clear kinsuji and inazuma. The attributed katana: large gunome in hitatsura.
  • His hitatsura is described as more vertical than that of Hiromitsu, with square gunome and togari-ba.

Point (帽子, bōshi)

On the wakizashi of 1398, a small midare-komi on one side and straight (sugu) on the other.

Engravings (彫物, horimono)

  • Almost all his blades bear simple engravings (katana-hi, gomabashi, suken); those that bear none are very rare. Markus Sesko counts Hiromitsu and Akihiro among the post-Masamune Sōshū masters famous for their engravings, above all for their bonji.
  • The tantō of 1376 bears on one side a sword (利剣, riken) on a lotus pedestal and on the other the bonji “kān” with two grooves (二筋樋, futasuji-hi), in the Sōshū tradition. The attributed katana bears bōhi on both sides.

Tang and signature (茎・銘, nakago and mei)

  • The wakizashi of 1398: unshortened tang (生ぶ, ubu), kurijiri end, katte-sagari file marks and a five-character signature below the first hole.
  • His tang is described as short, in tanagobara, with a kurijiri end and kiri file marks. The file marks do not match those of the wakizashi of 1398.
  • In the genuine signature, the first stroke of the character 広 (hiro) is horizontal; in that of Hiromitsu, vertical.