Nobukuni Mitsumasa

Profile

Nobukuni Mitsumasa (信国光昌) belongs to the branch of the Chikuzen Nobukuni that descends from Nobukuni Yoshimasa (信国吉政), eldest son of Nobukuni Yoshisada (信国吉貞), the smith who left Buzen in 1602 to serve Kuroda Nagamasa in Chikuzen. From then on the school remained tied to the Kuroda, lords of Fukuoka. The genealogies place Mitsumasa after Nobukuni Shigehisa (信国重久); in the most recent reconstruction of the lineage he was the second son of Nobukuni Yasutoshi (信国安俊) and was adopted into the main house, that of Shigehisa. He worked in Chikuzen in the second half of the 18th century: a blade is known dated 1755, in the Hōreki (宝暦) era, signed with the title Yamato no kami (大和守). Beyond his place in the genealogy and his signatures, the reference works say little about him.