Nagashima Yoshikatsu
長嶋義勝 (Nagashima Yoshikatsu)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Swordsmith of Mito in Hitachi, with dated work from 1860 to 1868; tradition makes him a pupil of Katsumura Norikatsu.
Profile
Nagashima Yoshikatsu (長嶋義勝) worked in Mito, in Hitachi province, as his signature states: Suifu jū (水府住), “resident of Mito”. He sometimes wrote his family name as 長嶌 (Nagashima). His dated blades run from 1860 to 1868, at the close of the Edo period. School tradition holds that he trained under Katsumura Norikatsu (勝村徳勝), smith to the Mito domain. Little else is known of him.
Swords available
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Nagashima Yoshikatsu
Katana by Nagashima Yoshikatsu of the Katsumura workshop serving the Mito domain, dated early 1865, with an ubu tang, koshirae and shirasaya, and NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers. Nagashima Yoshikatsu worked for the Mito domain in Hitachi province as a pupil of Katsumura Norikatsu within the Katsumura workshop, which forged at the clan's residence in Koishikawa, Edo. According to the original seller, he acted as daisaku for the first two Norikatsu, which explains why his signed work is scarce. Shinogi-zukuri blade with iori-mune, 76.9 cm nagasa and 1.3 cm sori, with an extended chū-kissaki. The original seller describes a well-forged itame with ji-nie and chikei, and a gunome hamon with togariba, plentiful ashi and a deep, bright nioiguchi; the bōshi runs in midare and turns back in komaru. The tang is ubu, with sujikai yasurime and one mekugi-ana, signed “Suifu-jū Nagashima Yoshikatsu kore o tsukuru” and dated “Genji ni-nen kinoto-ushi chūshun”. It comes with a silver habaki, a shirasaya and an uchigatana-koshirae with black lacquered saya, openwork iron tsuba with a gilt rim, dark fuchi-kashira engraved with flowers and gilt menuki. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken paper (2019). The photographs also include its plate in a publication devoted to Mito swords and fittings.
62.4/100
€19,790
