Both sides of the point of a blade, horizontal, with the whitish temper in irregular waves.

Photo: dealer in Japan

Gunome-midare · Taki no mizu

Work and style

His fame, in the sources consulted, is for cutting: the Yamada list includes him, and one of his blades bears a nickname that speaks of how clean its cut is.

On this page
  1. Taki no mizu
  2. In the Yamada cutting list
  3. A signed wakizashi
  4. Gallery

Taki no mizu

Markus Sesko cites a blade by Bungo no Kami Masayasu with the inscription 滝之水 (Taki no mizu), “waterfall water”: in the Yamada tradition, a nickname for the blade that cuts in such a way that the severed part falls like the water of a waterfall.

In the Yamada cutting list

Japanese Wikipedia places him in the group of 65 swordsmiths of the Yamada list, the 懐宝剣尺 (Kaihō Kenjaku) of 1797 and the 古今鍛冶備考 (Kokon Kaji Bikō), in which the list mixes the grades ō-wazamono, yoki-wazamono and wazamono without saying which corresponds to each one.

A signed wakizashi

The photos on this page are of a wakizashi signed 豊後守源正全 (Bungo no Kami Minamoto Masayasu): they show a wide gunome-midare temper, with irregular peaks, and the signature carved on the tang. None of the scholarly sources consulted describes his style; there are as yet no published kantei keys that would allow the generations to be told apart.