Kinjū
金重 (Kaneshige)
A smith of the late Kamakura period who, according to tradition, moved from Echizen to Seki, in Mino; he is counted among the ten disciples of Masamune and held to be the origin of the Seki smiths.
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Japanese dictionaries read his name Kaneshige (金重); Kinjū, the Sino-Japanese reading of the same characters, is another form by which he is called, and the index of the Kotō Taikan lists him as Kinshige. He was a smith of the late Kamakura period whose dates are unknown. The dictionaries make him a native of Echizen, of Tsuruga according to one encyclopedia, later settled in Seki, in Mino province.
Tradition counts him among the ten disciples of Masamune (正宗十哲, Masamune jittetsu), and a biographical dictionary credits him with laying the foundations for the later rise of the Seki smiths. According to a genealogy of the Seki smiths kept at the Kasuga shrine of the town, his son was Kaneyuki, and through a daughter of the latter he entered the Kanenaga family of the Yamato Tegai school; from that union the seven branches of Seki are said to descend. The sources consulted attribute no protected work to him. He is not the Tsuruga Kaneshige of Echizen, who came much later, even though they share the characters of the name.