Kashū Katsuie
加州勝家 (Kashū Katsuie)
Smith name of Kaga province carried by several generations during the Muromachi period, at the root of the Darani group.
Profile
Katsuie is a smith name used in Kaga by several generations during the Muromachi period, and a signature alone does not always show which of them made a given blade. School tradition places the first Katsuie early in the 15th century and links him to the Chiyozuru (千代鶴) smiths of Echizen, from whom the Hashizume group descends; that group in turn gave rise to the Darani (陀羅尼) line, of which Katsuie is regarded as the founder. Most surviving works date from the first half and middle of the 16th century. Signatures include Katsuie saku (勝家作) and Kashū Fujiwara Katsuie (加州藤原勝家). The work attributed to the name shows gunome-midare mixed with notare and ko-gunome, with sunagashi. In the Edo period the Darani group, led by Katsukuni (勝国), became the largest body of Kaga smiths working under the Maeda.
Rankings
- Wazamono (good) (Kaihō Kenjaku, 1797)
Swords sold
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Katsuie
A late-Muromachi kotō of the Kaga Darani school, with a kuro-rō-nuri koshirae commissioned specifically for this blade and three photographed documents. Katsuie of Kaga is held to be a son of Echizen Chiyozuru Kunitsugu, of the Rai Kuniyasu line; he moved to Kaga around the Ōei era (1394) and founded the Kaga Darani school, which in the Edo period enjoyed Maeda patronage until the end of the shogunate. The blade, signed 勝家 (Katsuie), is heavily shortened but keeps a good outline, with a clear difference between moto and saki: 67.7 cm nagasa, 1.3 cm sori, 29.8 mm motohaba and 6.9 mm motokasane; it weighs 696 g bare and 938 g mounted. The hada is ko-itame with mokume, finely worked and tight; the hamon a ko-notare with gunome, a clear nioiguchi and fine nie along the edge, with one gunome hardened at the level of the yokote; the bōshi is straight with a rounded tip. The tang is ō-suriage and carries five mekugi-ana, plainly visible in the photographs. Three documents accompany it: NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon dated 22 August 2025, a 正真刀 (shōshin-tō) certificate from the Tōken Kenkyū Rengōkai, and a third paper with oshigata. The uchigatana koshirae, in black rō-nuri lacquer, was commissioned by a collector specifically for this blade: navy ito over same, gilt menuki, a dark oval tsuba with plum and gold detail, two sets of gilt seppa and a plated suaka habaki with relief carving. Shirasaya and tsunagi included.
45.8/100
€7,820
