Kashū Kanewaka
兼若 (Kanewaka)
Generation 2
Second Kanewaka, son of the founder of the line; he worked in Kanazawa, Kaga province, in the mid-17th century.
Profile
Kanewaka, known as Matasuke (又助), was the second smith of the Kanewaka line in Kanazawa, Kaga province. He was the third son of the first Kanewaka, a smith from Mino who worked for the Maeda clan and who in 1619 received the title Etchū no kami (越中守) and began signing Takahira (高平). School tradition holds that his elder brother Kagehira (景平) took part in his training before he inherited the Kanewaka name. He was active in the middle of the 17th century and died in 1677. His signature reads Kashū-jū Kanewaka (加州住兼若 or 賀州住兼若), sometimes followed by his personal name, Matasuke. His hamon include gunome midare, hako-midare, suguha and saka-chōji. A comparatively large body of his work survives, tantō among it in good number. His eldest son carried the line on as the third Kanewaka.
Swords available
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Kashū-jū Kanewaka
Attributed to the second Kanewaka generation of Kaga, Meireki era, with an ubu tang, NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers issued in December 2025, uchigatana koshirae and shirasaya. The Kanewaka line of Kaga begins with Jinroku, a smith who came from Mino and claimed descent from Shizu Saburō Kaneuji; he received the title of Etchū no Kami and thereafter signed “Etchū no Kami Takahira”. The succession continues with Matasuke, the second generation, and Shirōemon, the third. Because the periods in which each generation signed “Kanewaka” overlap, and daisaku and daimei are common, attributing an undated blade is difficult; the original seller reports that recent research places this piece with the second generation, Matasuke, in the Meireki era (1655-1658). The blade measures 69.9 cm of nagasa with 1.3 cm of sori, 3.11 cm of motohaba, 0.65 cm of motokasane, 0.70 cm of shinogi-kasane and 2.10 cm of sakihaba. The tang remains ubu. The NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper was issued on 1 December 2025. An uchigatana koshirae with a kuro-kawari-nuri saya and a shirasaya accompany the blade.
62.4/100
€11,020
