Fujita Kengo Nagahiro
藤田永弘 (Fujita Nagahiro)
Chōshū swordsmith and pupil of Yokoyama Sukenaga, working in Hagi (Nagato) and Yamaguchi (Suō) between 1860 and 1872.
Profile
Nagahiro (永弘) was born Fujita Tokujirō (藤田徳次郎); he later took the name Kengo and used the art name Shinryūshi (真龍子). He trained under the first Yokoyama Kaga no Suke Sukenaga (祐永), of the Yokoyama family of Osafune in Bizen. He worked first in Hagi, the castle town of the Chōshū domain in Nagato, and later moved to Yamaguchi in Suō; his known signatures run from 1860 to 1872, spanning the last years of the shogunate and the first years of Meiji. Local tradition places him in the service of the Chōshū domain, making blades for its samurai during those years. Depending on the period he signed Chōshū Hagi-jū Nagahiro, Nagato no kuni-jūnin Fujita Shinryūshi Minamoto Nagahiro or Suō no kuni-jūnin Shinryūshi Fujiwara Nagahiro saku. His hada is a tight ko-itame with ji-nie, sometimes showing yakumo-hada (八雲肌), and his hamon ranges from gunome-chōji-midare to suguha. Many of his blades carry horimono, often a dragon. He died in 1879.
Swords available
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Fujita Kengo Nagahiro
Katana signed by Fujita Kengo Nagahiro, of the Yokoyama school, dated 1863 on the tang. It comes with a black-lacquered mounting and with a shirasaya storage scabbard. Late Edo katana signed 長州萩住藤田謙吾永弘作 (Chōshū Hagi-jū Fujita Kengo Nagahiro saku), a smith who, according to the original seller, trained in the school of Yokoyama Kaganosuke Sukenaga and also used the art name 真龍子 (probable reading: Shinryūshi). The blade measures 81.6 cm nagasa with 1.4 cm sori, with iori-mune and bō-hi carved on both faces; the photographs show a notare hamon with gunome, chōji and pointed elements, a bright nioiguchi and abundant ko-nie, over a tightly forged ko-itame jigane. The tang, declared ubu by the original seller and confirmed as such by the images, retains two mekugi-ana and bears on the reverse 君万歳文久三年十二月十五日 (Kimi banzai Bunkyū sannen jūnigatsu jūgonichi), that is, the 15th day of the 12th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863). The sword is accompanied by a katana mounting with black-lacquered saya, an iron tsuba decorated with gold clouds and a gilt habaki, as well as a shirasaya. The original seller states an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon certificate, which does not appear in the photographs.
70.3/100
€14,990
