Ichimonji Sukeshige
助成 (Sukeshige)
A smith of Fukuoka Ichimonji, in Bizen, of the early Kamakura period; one of Go-Toba’s rotating smiths in 1208 and, according to one dictionary, father of Sukezane.
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Japanese dictionaries read his name Sukeshige (助成); he is also known as Sukenari. A biographical dictionary makes him the son of Sukeyuki and the father of Sukezane, of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school of Bizen, although another gives Sukefusa as Sukezane’s father. At first he signed with a different character, 助重 (Sukeshige).
In the second year of the Jōgen era (1208) he was among the rotating smiths (番鍛冶, bankaji) of the retired emperor Go-Toba, and the most widely circulated list gives him the month of November. He used the title Nagato no Kami and signed 一助成 (Ichi Sukeshige), with the stroke of the «one» that gives the Ichimonji their name; the Kotō Taikan records a blade with that signature. His dates are unknown and no protected works are attributed to him: those of the family that are protected, such as the Nikkō Sukezane, are by his son.