Osafune Norimitsu

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Norimitsu (法光) is a name of the Osafune (長船) school of Bizen. The Japanese classification of smiths by cutting quality, which Japanese Wikipedia records from the Kaihō Kenjaku (懐宝剣尺) and other books, lists Osafune Norimitsu (長船法光) in its first and second generations (初二代, sho-nidai). A blade signed 備前国住長船法光作之 (Bizen no Kuni-jū Osafune Norimitsu kore o tsukuru) is dated 永禄十年二月吉日 (Eiroku jūnen nigatsu kichijitsu), the second month of Eiroku 10 (1567); the signature does not state the generation. According to the dictionaries collected in Kotobank, the Osafune school worked in Osafune, in Bizen, from the middle of the Kamakura period to the end of Muromachi, and until the Muromachi period it was the largest school of smiths in Japan.