Hida no Kami Ujifusa

Profile

Hida no Kami Ujifusa was the son of Wakasa no Kami Ujifusa (若狭守氏房), a smith who came out of Seki in Mino, and he worked in Owari from the late 16th century into the first decades of the 17th. Family tradition gives his birth as 1567 and has him follow his father into the service of Oda Nobutaka at Azuchi; after 1582 he passed through Gifu before settling at Kiyosu. Around 1592 he received the title Hida no Kami, and when the castle town moved from Kiyosu to Nagoya, around 1610, he moved with it. The same tradition dates his death to 1631 and names his son, Bizen no Kami Ujifusa, as his successor. He signed 飛騨守藤原氏房 (Hida no Kami Fujiwara Ujifusa) and also 飛騨守藤原朝臣氏房 (Hida no Kami Fujiwara no Ason Ujifusa). His Keichō-era work has broad, sturdy shapes, sometimes with an ō-kissaki, an itame hada with ji-nie and a nie-based hamon of notare and large gunome, carrying on his father's leaning towards the Sōshū manner. Signed blades by him are held in public collections in Nagoya.