Ishidō Korekazu
石堂是一 (Ishidō Korekazu)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Name carried by the Edo branch of the Ishidō school, in Musashi, from the 17th century to the Meiji period.
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Ishidō Korekazu (石堂是一) is the name handed down through the generations of the Edo branch of the Ishidō school, from the 17th century into the Meiji era. The founder, Kawakami Sakon (川上左近), came from Gamō district in Ōmi and claimed descent from the Ichimonji smiths of Bizen; he settled in Edo and signed with the title Musashi daijō (武蔵大掾). The school deliberately pursued the style of Kamakura-period Fukuoka Ichimonji: broad chōji in nioi-deki with ko-nie and utsuri, though with less sori and a finer itame than the old models. By the school's own tradition, the house worked for the shogunate from the 18th century onwards. The best-known member of the line is Unju Korekazu (運寿是一), active at the end of the Edo period. School tradition counts him as the seventh generation, a nephew of Chōunsai Tsunatoshi (長運斎綱俊) adopted by the sixth Korekazu, and credits him with service to the shogunate, the name Ryūsensai (龍泉斎) from 1869 and a death in 1891. Many signatures of the line do not say which generation made the blade.
Swords sold
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Ishidō Fujiwara Korekazu
Seventh-generation Korekazu of Edo, rated jōjō-saku, with bōhi on both sides, an ubu tang holding a single hole and a sayagaki by Hon'ami Mitsumago dated 1953. Nephew of Ishidō Unju Korekazu and known as Masatarō, he succeeded as the seventh-generation Korekazu in Edo. No blades of his are known after the sword-wearing ban; he died on 24 November 1891, aged 75. He is rated jōjō-saku and worked in Bizen-den and Sōshū-den, above all in Sōden-Bizen. The blade, signed 石堂藤原是一精鍛之 (probable reading: Ishidō Fujiwara Korekazu kore o seitan su), measures 70.3 cm nagasa and 1.5 cm sori, with 2.94 cm motohaba, 0.59 cm kasane and 580 g; it carries bōhi on both sides and a slightly elongated kissaki. The hada is a clean, well-forged ko-itame; the hamon a suguha leaning to nioi-deki with scattered ko-ashi, in the manner of a copy of an older blade (kotō utsushi); the bōshi is round with a double line. Ubu tang with a single mekugi-ana and a one-piece gold habaki. A sayagaki by Hon'ami Mitsumago, dated January 1953, attributes it to Edo Ishidō Korekazu. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers. The koshirae has a black-lacquered saya bearing a family crest, an iron mokkō-gata tsuba with animals and plum in high relief with gold inlay, iron fuchi-kashira and shakudō menuki with a tool motif and gold inlay. Shirasaya included.
60.9/100
€11,660
