Osafune Nagatsugu

Profile

Nagatsugu (長次) was a Bizen swordsmith whom Hawley's register places in the Tenmei era (1781–1789), in the opening years of the shinshintō period. He signed 備前國長船住長次 (Bizen no kuni Osafune jū Nagatsugu), as a resident of Osafune, the province's old sword-making centre, which never regained its former output after the floods of the late 16th century and kept only a handful of workshops through the Edo period. Hawley records him as the son of a Bizen smith who signed 壽次 (Toshitsugu). The reference works give nothing on his training, his pupils or the features of his style, and no work of his has been traced in a public collection.