Hizen Munetsugu
肥前宗次 (Hizen Munetsugu)
First generation (shodai)
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Hizen Iyo no Jō Minamoto Munetsugu
Work of the first Iyo no Jō Munetsugu of Hizen, with an untouched tanago-bara tang, a suguha hamon with utsuri, and a han-tachi koshirae whose tsuba is signed Umetada. The first Iyo no Jō Munetsugu, whose civil name was Sakai San'emon, came from a family of priests at the Tenmangū of Nagase, the birthplace of the first Tadayoshi; he later moved to Nagase-machi beside Saga castle and then to Isahaya. A document kept by his descendants dates the grant of the Iyo no Jō title to 1606. Within the Hizen school he is an exception: he almost always finishes the bōshi in midare-komi, works in a Sōshū idiom after Shizu, and gives the tang the tanago-belly shape. This blade, by contrast, is in suguha, which is rare for him: a bluish ko-itame hada with mokume and ji-nie, running masame along the edge and utsuri across the whole surface, at its liveliest in the lower part, with a clear nioiguchi of ko-nie, fine ashi and pronounced sunagashi. It measures 70.9 cm nagasa with 2.1 cm sori; motohaba 31.0 mm and motokasane 7.35 mm; it weighs 829 g bare and 1,126 g mounted. The koshirae is han-tachi in black lacquer, with fuchi-kashira and tsuba engraved in katakiri-bori with geese flying through a storm, a shakudō fukurin, and the signature 埋忠 (Umetada) on the tsuba. Shirasaya and tsunagi are included.
66/100
€12,560
