Kantei
Close-up of a rusted tang with two holes and several columns of engraved kanji.

Tokyo National Museum, via ColBase · ColBase terms of use

The Kurosaka katana (1459)

Famous works

Only one work by Norimitsu is designated by the State: the Kurosaka katana, which tells its own story on its tang.

On this page
  1. The Kurosaka katana
  2. What the tang says
  3. In the old lists
  4. The tang, from both sides

The Kurosaka katana

  • An Important Cultural Property since 8 February 1958, registered as a tachi; earlier, on 10 May 1938, it had been declared jūyō bijutsuhin. Before 1938 it belonged to the businessman Kawase Torasaburō.
  • The database of the Agency for Cultural Affairs considers it the finest of his works (白眉, hakubi). For ColBase it is an excellent art sword, for its steel and its hamon, and a historical document, because the tang says who made it, for whom, where and when.
  • Sword books have long cited it as a work made at Kurosaka (黒坂打, Kurosaka-uchi).
  • Because the swordsmith’s name is on the ura side (裏, ura), some books and exhibitions treat it as a tachi; the Japanese Wikipedia titles it katana.

What the tang says

SideInscriptionWhat it says
One備前国長船住左衛門尉藤原朝臣則光 (Bizen no kuni Osafune-jū Saemon-no-jō Fujiwara no Ason Norimitsu) · 於作州鷹取庄黒坂造 (Sakushū Takatori-no-shō Kurosaka ni oite tsukuru)Norimitsu, of Osafune, made it at Kurosaka, in the estate of Takatori, Mimasaka Province
Other鷹取勘解由左衛門尉菅原朝臣泰佐打之 (Takatori Kageyu Saemon-no-jō Sugawara no Ason Taisuke kore o utsu) · 長禄参年己卯十二月十三日 (Chōroku sannen tsuchinoto-u jūnigatsu jūsannichi)It was forged for Takatori Taisuke on the 13th day of the twelfth month of Chōroku 3 (1459)

In the old lists

  • In the Yamada cutting list, the 懐宝剣尺 (Kaihō Kenjaku) of 1797, “Osafune Norimitsu, first generation” and Sukeemon Norimitsu are in the rank of 良業物 (yoki-wazamono), the third of four; the first and second generations of Hō Norimitsu are also listed. The Japanese Sword Index confirms it.
  • In the kantei competition of the NBTHK journal, between 1998 and 2024, a blade by Norimitsu, of Sue-Bizen, appeared only once, in issue 518, according to Markus Sesko’s table.
  • The sources consulted record no work of his in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳); it remains to be checked in the complete list.