Aoe Tsugunao
次直 (Tsugunao)
A smith of Sue-Aoe, the last phase of the Aoe school, in Bitchū, of the Nanbokuchō; a tantō of 1358 and a katana of his are important cultural properties.
Profile
Tsugunao (次直) is one of the smiths whom Japanese Wikipedia counts among the representatives of Sue-Aoe, the final phase of the Aoe school, together with Tsuguyoshi, Moritsugu and Sadatsugu. He signed as a resident of Bitchū province, and his dated works are from the Enbun era (1356-1361): tantō of the third year, 1358, and of the fifth, 1360.
The Tokyo National Museum keeps one of the tantō of 1358, and the Tokugawa Museum, in Nagoya, a heavily shortened katana (ō-suriage) that keeps the signature folded over the tang (orikaeshi-mei); both are important cultural properties. The Kotō Taikan reproduces his signature.
Notable works
- Tantō signed as a resident of Bitchū and dated the eleventh month of 1358; important cultural property, at the Tokyo National Museum.
- Ō-suriage katana with the signature folded over the tang (orikaeshi-mei); important cultural property, at the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya.