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One name for dozens of swordsmiths
The Nihon Jinmei Daijiten says that the swordsmiths named Sukesada “number several dozen”: the exact figure is not on record in any open source. The dictionary has entries for four: Hikobei-no-jō, active around the Meiō and Eishō eras (1492-1521); Yosōzaemon-no-jō, from Eishō to Daiei, whom it considers the ancestor of the Edo-period Sukesada; Genbei-no-jō, from Tenbun to Eiroku (1532-1570), and Yokoyama Heibei (横山平兵衛, Yokoyama Heibei), from 1633 to 1721 or 1722. The Kyūshū National Museum recalls that there were several Sukesada at the same time, and that the signatures add names such as Genbei-no-jō, Yozaemon-no-jō, Hikobei-no-jō, Hikozaemon-no-jō or Jūrōzaemon-no-jō.
For Markus Sesko, the first Yosōzaemon (与三左衛門祐定, Yosōzaemon Sukesada) and the first Hikobei (彦兵衛祐定, Hikobei Sukesada) are the most gifted of the end of the Muromachi, followed by the second Genbei. The first Bizen Sukesada of the genealogy belonged to the Kozori group (小反, Kozori), of the end of the Nanbokuchō, of uncertain affiliation.
The Sengoku workshop
In the Sengoku period the Osafune set up series production, of blades called 束刀 (tabagatana) or 数打 (kazuuchi): relatives and pupils worked under the same name, in a kind of collective workshop. Sukesada is among the main swordsmiths of Sue-Bizen, with Norimitsu, Tadamitsu, Katsumitsu, Munemitsu and Kiyomitsu. The specially ordered blades stand apart from the series ones: they bear carvings of deities.
The Yoshii flood
A great flood of the Yoshii river destroyed Osafune. According to Markus Sesko, the Tōbi-gunson-shi chronicle dates it to Tenshō 18 (1590); other sources he collects give 1591, and the Biyō-kokushi, the Daiei era. According to the chronicle, the family of Yokoyama Tōshirō Sukesada (横山藤四郎祐定, Yokoyama Tōshirō Sukesada) survived, with three sons, Shichibei, Genzaemon and Sōzaemon; the second, Gorō, died. The sources disagree on how many families were saved: one or two in Osafune and one in Hatakeda, according to the Kibi-tōken-kō. Tōshirō opened a new forge some 200 or 300 metres south of the old centre.
Sesko relates that Tōshirō succeeded Shichirōemon Sukesada, fourth son of the second Genbei, adopted by his elder brother, the Shichirōemon of the Tenshō era who worked for Kobayakawa Hideaki.
The Yokoyama branch
Yokoyama Heibei was born in 1633 and died on the 29th day of the eleventh month of Kyōhō 6 (1721 or 1722, depending on the calendar), at the age of 89. He descended in the sixth generation from Yosōzaemon, received in 1664 (Kanbun 4) the title of 上野大掾 (Kōzuke Daijō) and led the revival of Edo-period Bizen. He signed 備州長船住横山上野大掾藤原祐定 (Bishū Osafune-jū Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō Fujiwara Sukesada). The Yokoyama remained in Osafune throughout the Edo period. The Tokyo National Museum holds a sword of 1919 (Taishō 8) signed 備前国長船住横山祐定 友成六十代孫 (Bizen no kuni Osafune-jū Yokoyama Sukesada, Tomonari rokujūdai no son): “descendant in the 60th generation of Tomonari”.