In museums, shrines and lists

Famous works

An Important Cultural Property, two cultural properties of Okayama Prefecture, dated blades in the National Museums and their place in the Yamada cutting list.

On this page
  1. Documented works
  2. Three pieces
  3. In the lists
  4. Gallery

Documented works

WorkDesignationWhere it is
Katana by Yosōzaemon-no-jō for 栗山与九郎 (Kuriyama Yokurō), 1521 (Eishō 18)Important Cultural PropertyChūgoku region; owner not on record
Large spear 備州長船祐定 (Bishū Osafune Sukesada), 1504 (Eishō 1)No designationTokyo National Museum (F-15922)
Katana by Yosōzaemon-no-jō, 1523 (Daiei 3)No designationTokyo National Museum (F-17086)
Three katana by Yosōzaemon-no-jō, from 1533 to 1535 (Tenbun)No designationNBTHK Sword Museum, donations
Katana 備前国住長船祐定 (Bizen no kuni-jū Osafune Sukesada), 1568 (Eiroku 11)No designationKyoto National Museum (E甲212)
Katana by 新捨郎 (Shinsutero) Sukesada, 1572 (Genki 3)No designationTokyo National Museum (F-15820)
Katana by Genbei-no-jō, 1577 (Tenshō 5)No designationKyūshū National Museum (F90)
Katana by Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō, 1666 (Kanbun 6), offered to the principal shrine of the provinceCultural property of Okayama Prefecture (2019)Okayama Prefectural Museum; owned by the Kibitsuhiko shrine
Straight sword (剣, ken) signed 祐定 (Sukesada)Cultural property of Okayama Prefecture (1980)Kagamiishi shrine, Bizen
Katana by Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō, 1677, in a cane mountingNo designationMetropolitan Museum, New York
Daishō by Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō, 17th centuryNo designationMetropolitan Museum, New York
Katana with Fudō Myōō, 16th centuryNo designationWalters Art Museum, Baltimore

Three pieces

The 1521 katana that Yosōzaemon-no-jō made for Kuriyama Yokurō is an Important Cultural Property: the list for the Chūgoku region and the Nihon Jinmei Daijiten confirm it, but its owner is not on record. The large spear of 1504 has a blade of more than 70 cm, with a chōji-midare temper, and was donated by Tokugawa Mochitsugu. Tradition says that Katō Kiyomasa used it and that his daughter Yōrin-in took it as a dowry when she married Tokugawa Yorinobu, of the Kishū house.

The 1666 katana by Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō has a blade of 120.3 cm and measures 151.7 cm overall, and weighs 1,800 g. Okayama Prefecture counts it among Sukesada’s highest-level works, made with good steel in the Sue-Bizen style.

In the lists

In the Yamada cutting list (懐宝剣尺, Kaihō Kenjaku, 1797), Yosōzaemon Sukesada and Tōshirō Sukesada are in the second grade, that of ō-wazamono (大業物), and according to the Japanese Wikipedia so is Hikobei-no-jō. Yokoyama Sukesada is in the third (良業物, yoki-wazamono), and Shichibei Sukesada, in the mixed category. The English version of the same list puts only Yosōzaemon and Tōshirō in the second grade, and the Japanese Sword Index gives “Osafune Sukesada” as ō-wazamono without distinction. The ō-wazamono cut through the torso seven to eight times out of ten in the tests attributed to Yamada Asaemon V Yoshimutsu.

In the 誌上鑑定 (Shijō Kantei), the kantei competition of the NBTHK journal, from 1998 to 2024, five Sue-Bizen Sukesada blades and one of the Edo period came up. No work of theirs is on record in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳, Kyōhō meibutsuchō).