On this page
Style
The hallmark of the school is the 綾杉肌 (ayasugi-hada), a steel with regular waves along the blade that is also called 月山肌 (Gassan-hada), and the 月山彫 (Gassan-bori) engraving. According to the family, his father and he also master the Sōshū tradition. His signature usually reads 大和国住月山貞利 (Yamato no kuni-jū Gassan Sadatoshi), and when the engraving is his own, 彫同作 (hori dōsaku).
Works
Katana with a dragon grasping the sword (剣掴み龍, ken tsukami ryū), 71.3 cm, according to him. Photo: the smith himself 
Tachi of 76.9 cm, according to him. Photo: the smith himself 
Tachi of 58.3 cm, according to him. Photo: the smith himself 
Tachi with a dragon among pine, bamboo and plum, 72.8 cm, according to him. Photo: the smith himself
In the NBTHK catalogues
At the 2017 Shinsaku Meitōten he presented a katana of 73.1 cm. At the Gendai Tōshokuten he exhibits as mukansa: a katana of 74.6 cm in 2021, a tachi of 81.5 cm in 2022, a tachi of 79.2 cm dated October 2023 with the word 喜寿 (kiju, his seventy-seventh year) in 2024, a tantō of 27.3 cm in 2025 and a katana of 75.9 cm in 2026, signed 大和国住月山貞利彫同作 (Yamato no kuni-jū Gassan Sadatoshi hori dōsaku), with his kaō. In the polishing division (研磨の部, kenma no bu) of the 2026 catalogue, a katana of his from early that year, with his engraving, won his polisher, Manazu Hitoaki (真津仁彰), of Osaka, an effort prize (努力賞, doryokushō), the third of the division.
Notable works
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought in 2004 a katana blade of his dated 16 May 2004 (no. 2004.401a, b). According to him, it was signed by him and his son Sadanobu.
Between 1983 and 1984 he made a copy of the sword 丙子椒林剣 (Heishi Shōrin-ken), a National Treasure, and in 2003 a tachi for the Kasuga Wakamiya shrine. He also says that he has forged ceremonial tachi for the yokozuna Takanohana, Wakanohana and Hakuhō, and that in 2016 he restored the blade of a tachi of the Kasuga Taisha shrine, a National Treasure.