Ōsumi no Jō Masahiro

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Ōsumi no Jō Masahiro (大隅掾正弘) was one of the leading pupils of Horikawa Kunihiro (堀川国広), the master who stands at the opening of the shintō period, and worked alongside him in Kyoto, in the Ichijō Horikawa (一条堀川) quarter, during the Keichō era. Tradition holds that, like his teacher, he came from Hyūga province, and he is thought to have carried on the workshop after Kunihiro's death; some blades made in his master's name are also attributed to him. His dated work belongs to Keichō 11 (1606), and he signed Ōsumi no Jō Fujiwara Masahiro (大隅掾藤原正弘). His manner stays close to Kunihiro's: a jigane with a clearly visible grain and a notare hamon rich in nie and mixed with gunome, rooted in the Sōshū tradition. A katana dated 1606, designated an Important Cultural Property, is held by the Tokyo National Museum. This entry gathers the works signed with this name without separating generations.