Heianjō Nagayoshi
長吉 (Nagayoshi)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Name of a family of Kyoto smiths who signed «Heianjō Nagayoshi» over about five generations of the Muromachi period; the best known worked around 1492-1521 and excelled in blade engravings.
Profile
Heianjō (平安城) is the old name of the capital, Kyoto, and the Nagayoshi put it before their name in the signature, «平安城長吉 (Heianjō Nagayoshi)». According to the genealogy published by Markus Sesko, the family had at least five generations: the first signs in the Ryakuō era (1338-1342) and the fifth in the Eishō era (1504-1521). These are the eras of the blades, not the life dates of each smith. Japanese Wikipedia says that the first signed with the Kyoto district where he lived and that the Heianjō signature begins with the second; of the fifth it says he was a son of Sanjō Yoshinori and that he sometimes worked outside Kyoto, in Nara, Mikawa and Ise.
The Nagayoshi most talked about is the one from the end of the Muromachi period. The dictionaries collected by Kotobank give blades of his dated to the Meiō and Eishō eras, and say that he made katana, tantō and yari (槍) spears, with very fine horimono (彫物) engravings. He is linked with Muramasa of Ise: one tradition makes Muramasa his pupil and another puts it the other way round, and some explain it as an exchange between the two workshops. None of the three versions has a document to prove it. The Kotō Taikan reproduces blades signed «Heianjō Nagayoshi».