Hisamichi

Profile

Hisamichi worked in Kyoto within the Mishina school during the second half of the 17th century. He trained under Iga no Kami Kinmichi (伊賀守金道), head of the school, who gave him his name, and around the start of the Kanbun era he received the title Ōmi no Kami (近江守) together with leave to cut a chrysanthemum above his signature. He signed Ōmi no Kami Hisamichi zō or Ōmi no Kami Minamoto Hisamichi, often beneath a chrysanthemum or an edagiku (枝菊), a chrysanthemum on its stem. He is counted among the Kyō go-kaji (京五鍛冶), the five smiths of Kyoto, alongside the sons of the school's founder. His blades are sturdily made, with ko-itame and masame; the hamon begins with a Kyō-yakidashi and ranges from suguha to gunome midare with square-shaped passages, and the bōshi is the pointed school form with a medium turn-back. Tradition places his death in 1711; having no son, he adopted a successor who kept the name and title, so the signature does not always tell the generations apart. The Tokyo National Museum holds a katana of his signed with the edagiku.