Chōunsai Tsunatoshi
長運斎綱俊 (Chōunsai Tsunatoshi)
First generation (shodai)
Swordsmith born in Yonezawa, Dewa, who worked in Edo for the Uesugi clan from the 1820s until 1863.
Profile
Katō Hachirō (加藤八郎), who used the art name Chōunsai, was born in 1798 in Yonezawa, Dewa, the third son of Katō Kunihide and younger brother of Katō Tsunahide. He trained under Suishinshi Masahide, then went to Osaka to study with Suzuki Harukuni, travelled through western Japan and worked for a time in Kumamoto. Around 1823 he settled in the Uesugi residence at Azabu in Edo, where he lived until his death at the end of 1863. In 1856 he passed the name Chōunsai to his son Koretoshi, the second generation, and began signing Chōjusai (長寿斎). He was regarded as one of the leading Bizen-den smiths of his day in Edo: his usual hamon is a nioi-based gunome-chōji with ashi, sometimes a tall ōbusa gunome-chōji, and more rarely tōran-ba or suguha. From the Ansei era onward many blades bear his signature together with Koretoshi's. His workshop was large; his pupils included Koyama Munetsugu, Takahashi Naganobu and Seiryūken Moritoshi, as well as his nephew Ishidō Korekazu.
Swords available
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Chōunsai Tsunatoshi
Shinshintō blade from Edo, signed and dated 1846 by one of the leading names of the period, mounted in a koshirae with an unusually shaped iron tsuba. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon. Katana by Chōunsai Tsunatoshi, one of the leading names of the shinshintō period, active in Edo. The blade is signed and dated 1846, so it carries the date cut by the smith himself. It measures 71.2 cm nagasa with 2 cm sori, a pronounced curvature for a blade of its period. It is sold mounted in a koshirae with an unusually shaped iron tsuba with a raised rim, fuchi-kashira bearing phoenixes, flower-cart menuki and a black-lacquered saya. The original listing includes a complete oshigata of the blade, useful for reading the tang and the temper before seeing it in person. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers are included.
62/100
€12,310
