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The Fukuoka Ichimonji school
- The school was born in Fukuoka, in Bizen, on the banks of the Yoshii river, and is called Ichimonji after the “一” (ichi, one) that its smiths chiselled on the nakago. Tradition has it begin with 則宗 (Norimune).
- The Kotobank dictionary counts Norifusa among Norimune’s successors, together with Sukezane and Yoshifusa.
- The Japanese Wikipedia puts him on a par with 吉房 (Yoshifusa) and 助真 (Sukezane), the two great names of the school at its peak.
- Markus Sesko names him twice: among the smiths of the mid-Kamakura sugata, in the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, and in the Katayama Ichimonji school, which he places at the end of the Kamakura period or in the Nanbokuchō.
Katayama
- According to tradition, he lived in Katayama, and that is why he is called Katayama Ichimonji. The Japanese Wikipedia records that opinions differ on where it was: next to Fukuoka, or the Katayama of Bitchū.
- The same Wikipedia calls 則包 (Norikane) “a great master of Katayama Ichimonji, like Norifusa”; by Norikane is an unsigned naginata of the Uesugi shrine, one of the swords of Uesugi Kagekatsu, an Important Cultural Property.
Dates
The records of the two national works date him to the Kamakura period, in the 13th century, in Bizen. His dates of birth and death are not known, nor the name of his master.
