Kantei
A short, curved blade, horizontal, with the point to the right, the light, wavy temper along the edge and the rusted tang, with one hole, to the left.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History (bulletin “Tayori”, no. 138) · © Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History

Echizen · Hashizume · Kaga

The lineage and its times

A line of smiths that came from Echizen, settled in southern Kaga and died out in the early Edo period.

On this page
  1. From Echizen to Hashizume
  2. The generations
  3. In the history of Kaga

From Echizen to Hashizume

  • According to the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History, the Hashizume line comes from the Chiyozuru of Echizen: it begins with Kunitsugu, who moved from Echizen to Kaga in the mid-Muromachi period, and his son Ietsugu, the first, settled in Hashizume, a village in the Nomi district, today part of Komatsu. That is why its blades are called Hashizume-mono.
  • The museum describes him as the centre of the line, active in the Muromachi period, and calls him “Kaga Aoe” for his style, close to that of Aoe of Bitchū.

The generations

  • The museum’s list of works follows the name over two centuries: “Ietsugu” in the 15th century; 加州藤原住家次作 (Kashū Fujiwara-jū Ietsugu saku) in 1522 and in the first half of the 16th century; “Kashū Fujiwara Ietsugu saku” in the second half; and a wakizashi “Kashū-jū Ietsugu” in the first half of the 17th century.
  • The museum relates that the name continued for two more generations in the shintō period, with few works, and supposes that the lineage died out in the early Edo period.

In the history of Kaga

  • The Japanese Sword Index relates that the Kaga smiths grew when, with the Maeda’s move to Kanazawa in 1583, others joined those who had long been there, such as Fujishima Tomoshige and Shōgen Ietsugu.
  • From the Hashizume line comes the 陀羅尼 (Darani) school, with Katsuie, Ietada and Ieshige, who recited the Sonshō dhāraṇī while forging and engraved it in the signature.