Fukuoka Morimasa
守昌 (Morimasa)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Swordsmith of the Fukuoka branch of the Ishidō school in Chikuzen, active in the early 18th century.
Profile
Morimasa (守昌) worked in Fukuoka, Chikuzen province, within the local branch of the Ishidō (石堂) school, whose smiths served the Kuroda domain. The branch was founded by Koretsugu (是次), who learned the Bizen tradition in Edo under Ishidō Korekazu (石堂是一), and was carried on by Moritsugu (守次). Morimasa is one of the three Ishidō smiths that the Fukuoka domain reported in the Kyōhō-era survey of swordsmiths (享保諸国鍛冶御改, Kyōhō shokoku kaji on-aratame), alongside Moritsugu and Morikatsu (守勝), which places him in the early 18th century. Blades signed 筑前国福岡住守昌 (Chikuzen no kuni Fukuoka-jū Morimasa) are known. The school worked in the Bizen manner, with chōji hamon, often bag-shaped (fukuro-chōji), and utsuri showing in the steel. Nothing further is known of his life.
Swords available
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Chikuzen Fukuoka-jū Morimasa
An uncommon signed work of the Fukuoka Ishidō school, around the Kyōhō era (1716), with an ubu tang holding a single hole and a gunome-chōji hardened very high. Morimasa was a smith to the Kuroda clan within the Fukuoka Ishidō school. His father Moritsugu, head of the school, was held to be a seventeenth-generation descendant of Norimune of Fukuoka Ichimonji. The original seller stresses how rare a signed example is: many Morimasa blades had their signatures removed in the Edo period so they could pass as early Fukuoka Ichimonji. The piece, signed 筑前国福岡住守昌 (Chikuzen no Kuni Fukuoka-jū Morimasa), dates from around Kyōhō (1716) and measures 69.9 cm nagasa with 1.9 cm sori, 3.07 cm motohaba and 0.71 cm motogasane. The hada is itame mixed with masame and a faint utsuri; the hamon a showy, shifting gunome-chōji with pointed heads and inverted chōji, hardened very high: the close-up shots show it bright and well defined. The photographs show a tang with a single mekugi-ana, kurijiri and an uncluttered signature. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers dated 16 February 2026. The mounting, which the original seller does not describe, appears complete in the photographs: a glossy black fluted saya, a round iron tsuba with hitsu-ana, matching fuchi-kashira and fan-shaped menuki in white metal. No shirasaya is included.
56.7/100
€6,980
