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The Osafune school
- For the NBTHK, 光忠 (Mitsutada) was the real founder of the Osafune school, the largest in the history of the Japanese sword, from which came Nagamitsu, 景光 (Kagemitsu) and 真長 (Sanenaga). It places Mitsutada around the Hōji and Kenchō eras (1247–1256).
- Mitsutada has no dated blade; that is why Nagamitsu’s dated work is what fixes the chronology of the school, whose earliest dated blade is a tachi of his of 1274, according to the Japanese Wikipedia.
- Osafune is the school with the most surviving blades bearing a signature and date, and in the classification by provinces it stands at the centre of the Bizen tradition (備前伝, Bizen-den).
Thirty years of dated work
- The NBTHK writes that of Nagamitsu “we have works dated Bun'ei 11 (1274) and Kōan 8 (1285), and that period is certain”.
- Kotobank places his work between the Bun'ei and Kagen eras (1264–1306), with dated work from 1274 to 1304. The Japanese Wikipedia also records tachi dated 1289 (Shōō 2) and in the Einin, Shōan and Kagen eras (up to 1306).
- Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is known.
One, two or three Nagamitsu?
Old tradition, from treatises such as the 古今銘尽 (Kokon meizukushi), distinguished two swordsmiths with the same name and gave the second the signatures of 左近将監長光 (Sakon-no-shōgen Nagamitsu). It was the common opinion until recently.
Today the prevailing view is that of a single swordsmith, including the Sakon-no-shōgen signatures, with some thirty years of work; his late work would include blades made by his pupils in his name (代作, daisaku). Kotobank records that two and three swordsmiths have also been proposed. The debate is not closed.
Junkei, another swordsmith
From the early Muromachi period it was said that 順慶 (Junkei) was the monk’s name of Nagamitsu in old age; treatises such as the 能阿弥本 (Nōami-bon) and the 長享銘尽 (Chōkyō meizukushi) record it. After the Second World War, the study of his blades led to seeing him as another person: the NBTHK finds no traits of Nagamitsu in him and today classifies him in Ko-Bizen. Six blades signed by Junkei are known: two Important Cultural Properties, two jūyō bijutsuhin and two jūyō tōken.
His pupils
According to the Japanese Wikipedia and Kotobank, from his workshop came his son 景光 (Kagemitsu), 真長 (Sanenaga), 長元 (Chōgen), 真光 (Sanemitsu) and 近景 (Chikakage). With him begins the heyday of the Osafune school. The NBTHK considers Chikakage his pupil.
