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Documented works
| Work | Designation | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Katana 吉行 (Yoshiyuki), the one Sakamoto Ryōma wore | No designation; catalogued as an object of Sakamoto Ryōma | Kyoto National Museum, donated by the Sakamoto family in 1931 (M甲158) |
| Oshigata of the same blade, taken on 27 September 1924, before the last polish | Document | Archive of the sword workshop of Japan Steel Works in Muroran (Hokkaidō); found in 2021 |
| A Yoshiyuki “inherited from the Tokugawa”, given to Tanakadate Aikitsu | Tradition | Whereabouts unknown |
The night at the Ōmiya
According to the Japanese Wikipedia, Ryōma received from his brother Gonpei, through Saigō Takamori, the sword of the Sakamoto family, a Yoshiyuki; in a letter of 1867 he wrote that a connoisseur had judged it the equal of an Awataguchi Tadatsuna, that he always wore it at his belt and that he was proud of it. The Kyoto National Museum explains that, when he was attacked at the Ōmiya (近江屋, Ōmiya) in Kyoto, Ryōma tried to parry the blow with the katana without managing to draw it from the scabbard, and died of a cut to the head.
The fire and the lost temper
Until 2015 it was doubted: the blade had no curvature and its temper was straight, nothing like the manner of Yoshiyuki. That year, the Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum in Kōchi found a document of the donation according to which the blade was warped in the great fire of Kushiro (Hokkaidō) on 26 December 1913, when the Sakamoto house burned down, and was polished again. In the autumn of 2015 a curator of the Kyoto National Museum saw another temper beneath the present one, and a scanner for cultural properties revealed the trace of Yoshiyuki’s kobushigata-chōji; the museum announced it in 2016.
The Japanese Wikipedia gives its measurements: a blade of 71.1 cm, a sori of 0.15 cm and a width of 3.10 cm at the base. The fire took away its curvature and its temper; the later polish gave it a wide, straight temper and erased the cut of that night on the shinogi. Dark shadows, remains of the original temper, can be seen at the yokote and the monouchi. The shirasaya bears an inscription saying that Ryōma’s sword suffered the Kushiro fire of 26 December 1913.
The oshigata of 1924
In July 2021 an oshigata of the blade, taken on 27 September 1924 in Sapporo before the last polish, turned up in the archive of the sword workshop of the Japan Steel Works plant in Muroran: it is the only document of its earlier state.
Works on display
The katana was shown at the Kyoto National Museum in the exhibition marking 150 years since Ryōma’s death (15 October to 27 November 2016) and at the Edo-Tokyo Museum (29 April to 18 June 2017), according to Internet Museum.
In the lists
He does not appear in the wazamono list of the Japanese Wikipedia, which does include his brother Yoshikuni. No work of his is recorded as designated, nor in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳, Kyōhō meibutsuchō).