Osafune Chikakage
近景 (Chikakage)
An Osafune smith in Bizen of the late Kamakura and early Nanbokuchō, from Nagamitsu’s workshop; two tachi of his are important cultural properties.
Profile
Chikakage worked at Osafune, in Bizen province. The Nipponica encyclopedia cited by Kotobank counts him in Nagamitsu’s workshop, alongside Kagemitsu, and Japanese Wikipedia gives him as Nagamitsu’s son or pupil, with no evidence deciding between the two. The official record of one of his blades places him around the Shōō era (1288-1293), and the latest dated work known of him is a tachi of the fifth month of Kenmu 2 (1335).
He signed “備前国長船住近景” (Bizen no kuni Osafune jū Chikakage), “Chikakage, resident of Osafune, in Bizen province”. Two tachi with that signature have been important cultural properties since 1950: the one of 1335, in the Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo, and another, of 71.8 cm, that Tōyama Tomokiyo, lord of Naegi, offered in 1774 to the Shinmei shrine and that is now kept in the Tōyama Museum of Naegi, in Nakatsugawa (Gifu).
Notable works
- Tachi signed “Bizen no kuni Osafune jū Chikakage” and dated the fifth month of Kenmu 2 (1335), Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo; important cultural property.
- Tachi signed “Bizen no kuni Osafune jū Chikakage”, 71.8 cm, offered in 1774 to the Shinmei shrine by the lord of Naegi; important cultural property.