Kantei
An unmounted katana, whole and upright, seen from the other side, on a black background.

Kyūshū National Museum, via ColBase · ColBase terms of use

Gorōzaemon · Magoemon · Tatsuno

Life and times

In the late Muromachi period, Osafune filled with forges and turned to mass production; Kiyomitsu was one of its main names, borne by several swordsmiths at once and one after another.

On this page
  1. Osafune, “a thousand forges”
  2. The two best-known Kiyomitsu
  3. Gorōzaemon at Tatsuno
  4. Other Kiyomitsu

Osafune, “a thousand forges”

  • According to the Kyūshū National Museum, in the late Muromachi period the swordsmiths of Osafune multiplied until they produced in bulk, hence the phrase 鍛冶屋千軒 (kajiya sengen, “a thousand forges”). Their main names are Kiyomitsu, Katsumitsu, Munemitsu and Sukesada, and each had swordsmiths of the same name over several generations. Series production (数打物, kazu-uchi-mono) existed alongside commissions to known masters.
  • Kotobank counts Kiyomitsu among the best-known names of Sue-Bizen, with Tadamitsu, Katsumitsu, Munemitsu and Sukesada, and sees in so many swordsmiths with one name the work of a collective workshop. Markus Sesko places the Kiyomitsu signature among the most common on the blades made in series at Osafune.

The two best-known Kiyomitsu

  • The NBTHK names two famous Kiyomitsu, Gorōzaemon-no-jō (五郎左衛門尉, Gorōzaemon-no-jō) and Magoemon-no-jō (孫右衛門尉, Magoemon-no-jō), and treats their works as equivalent in kantei, because they share the same style.
  • Gorōzaemon-no-jō reached his peak around the Tenbun era (1532–1554), and the NBTHK has published a katana of his dated 1555.
  • The NBTHK places the work with the title of Magoemon-no-jō around the Eishō era (1504–1520), almost all of it in suguha. If so, Magoemon-no-jō worked before Gorōzaemon-no-jō, and could not have been his son.

Gorōzaemon at Tatsuno

Between the 22nd and 24th years of the Tenbun era (1553–1555; the NBTHK writes 1554–56), Akamatsu Masahide, lord of Tatsuno castle, in Harima Province, called Gorōzaemon-no-jō Kiyomitsu, who began to work there. About ten blades made at Tatsuno survive. Many he signed together with Masahide or carry the dedication “for Masahide”, and almost all have hitatsura. The NBTHK puts this down to the lord’s taste. Kiyomitsu was also good at suguha.

Other Kiyomitsu

Kotobank records other swordsmiths of the same name who are not from Osafune: a Kiyomitsu of Kaga, from the village of Izumi, in Ishikawa District, of the line of Fujishima Tomoshige, with work from 1494 and a name passed from father to son until the end of the Edo period; and two Kiyomitsu of Kanazawa in the early Edo period, Harima Daijō Fujiwara Kiyomitsu and another with work from 1687.