Osafune Tomomitsu
倫光 (Tomomitsu)
An Osafune smith in Bizen of the Nanbokuchō, of the Kanemitsu line; his ōdachi of 1366 at the Futarasan shrine is a national treasure.
Profile
Tomomitsu worked at Osafune, in Bizen, in the Nanbokuchō. Japanese Wikipedia counts him, with Masamitsu and Motomitsu, in the main line of the school, the one that follows Kanemitsu. His relationship to Kanemitsu is unclear: the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the tradition that he was his pupil, and the dictionary cited by Kotobank, that he was his younger brother. His dated works are of 1366 and 1369.
His best-known blade is an ōdachi (大太刀, very long sword) of 126 cm signed “備州長船倫光” (Bishū Osafune Tomomitsu) and dated the second month of Jōji 5 (1366), engraved with Kurikara (倶利伽羅, the dragon coiled around a sword) and bonji (梵字, Sanskrit letters). It is kept at the Futarasan shrine, in Tochigi, and has been a national treasure since 1953. Its official record says that it is very well preserved and that, at that size, only the ōdachi of the Ōyamazumi shrine can be compared with it. Kotobank also mentions a tantō of Ōan 2 (1369) at the Erin-ji temple, in Yamanashi, as an important cultural property.
Notable works
- Ōdachi signed “Bishū Osafune Tomomitsu” and dated the second month of Jōji 5 (1366), 126 cm, engraved with Kurikara and bonji, Futarasan shrine; national treasure since 1953.
- Tantō dated Ōan 2 (1369), Erin-ji temple, Yamanashi; important cultural property according to Kotobank.