Amata Akitsugu
天田昭次 (Amata Akitsugu)
A Niigata smith (1927-2013), a living national treasure from 1997; he made his own iron and won the Masamune prize in three different manners.
Profile
Amata Akitsugu was born in 1927 in what is now Shibata (Niigata), the son of a smith. In 1940 he entered Kurihara Akihide's forging school in Tokyo, and in 1952 he assisted Miyairi Akihira with the Ise shrine sword. In 1958, dissatisfied with the material of the time, he decided to make his own iron; an illness kept him from the forge from 1960, and in 1968 he went back to forging at Tsukioka. He was made mukansa in 1972, or in 1973 according to another source, and won the Masamune prize three times, each in a different manner: Yamashiro in 1977, Sagami in 1985 and Bizen in 1996. He forged swords for the Ise shrine, chaired the national swordsmiths' association from 1990 and in 1997 was named a living national treasure. He died in 2013.
Monograph
Amata Akitsugu (天田昭次)
“The Amata of iron”: a swordsmith who made his own steel, won the Masamune Prize in three traditions and was a Living National Treasure, told with the level of evidence of each fact.
Read the monograph
Notable works
- Tachi: plate 16 of the Gendaitō Meisaku Zukan (p. 33).
- Tantō: plate 17 of the Gendaitō Meisaku Zukan (p. 35).
- Wakizashi: plate 18 of the Gendaitō Meisaku Zukan (p. 37).
Rankings
- Mukansa since 1973
- Masamune Prize: 1977, 1985, 1996
- Living National Treasure since 1997