Kantei keys
- Jihada
- A clear, moist grain (uruoi), ko-mokume with ō-hada and masame in the shinogi-ji AT
- Hamon
- Narrow and in nie: small gunome-midare with nie-kuzure, rough nie, inazuma and sunagashi in places, some togariba and some muneyaki AT
- Bōshi
- Shallow, midare-komi with yakizume or a slight kaeri, sometimes kaen AT
- Nakago
- On his signed tantō, unshortened (ubu), somewhat furisode and with a shallow kurijiri tip HD
- Mei
- 兼氏 (Kaneuji) on his signed tantō; in Yamato, according to tradition, 包氏 (Kaneuji) AT
His signed tantō
The official record describes a hira-zukuri tantō with a mitsu-mune and a slight uchizori; a very tight jihada, with large hada here and there and fine nie all over the blade; a hardening of low gunome-midare with ashi, in nie and with sunagashi; a komaru bōshi with a short kaeri. The blade measures 19.5 cm, with a tang of 8.0 cm and a width of 2.0 cm at the base.
After him: the Naoe-Shizu
The Naoe-Shizu resembles the work of the two Kaneuji, with an ever wider hardening: a grander sugata, with ō-kissaki and a wide mihaba, more masame and a whiter jigane, and a wide hardening of ō-midare and ō-gunome-midare with nie-kuzure, sunagashi and togari, according to the Japanese Sword Index.
The attributions to Shizu
According to Japanese Wikipedia, the attribution of works to Shizu goes hand in hand with Hon'ami Kōtoku, who recognised the Inaba Shizu with a signature in red lacquer (shu-mei) “Shizu”; Kaneuji’s signature is not preserved.