Kantei
A black-and-white photograph made up of five strips: two wide blade points, a section of blade, the tang with two holes and the whole blade.

Swordsmith of Chikuzen (Kyūshū) · Sa school · Nanbokuchō

Sa Hiroyuki (左弘行)

A swordsmith of the Sa school of Chikuzen, in the Nanbokuchō, known only from unsigned blades

Sa Hiroyuki (左弘行) worked in Chikuzen, in the north of Kyūshū, in the Sa school, in the mid-Nanbokuchō. No signed blade of his is known: what remains are unsigned katana attributed to him, and one of them, in the Tsuchiura City Museum, is a Jūyō Bijutsuhin.

Tsuchiura City Museum and Agency for Cultural Affairs, via Bunka Isan Online

Shōhei (1346–1370)
Period, according to tradition
none known
Signed blades
1 (Tsuchiura)
Jūyō Bijutsuhin
1 (2016)
NBTHK Jūyō Tōken
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Sa Hiroyuki AT
Kanji and reading
左弘行 (Sa Hiroyuki) HD
Period
Mid-Nanbokuchō; tradition places him in the Shōhei era (正平, Shōhei, 1346–1370) AT
Province
Chikuzen (筑前, Chikuzen), in Kyūshū AT
School
Sa or Samonji (左文字, Samonji), of Chikuzen; of the second generation, the one called Sue-Sa (末左, Sue-Sa) AT
Lineage
Son of Yukihiro (行弘, Yukihiro), according to the tradition recorded by the NBTHK AT
What is documented
Two unsigned katana attributed to him: one a Jūyō Bijutsuhin in the Tsuchiura Museum and the other an NBTHK Jūyō Tōken since 2016 HD
The tradition
His father, his era and his place in the school: there is no signed or dated work of his AT

In short

The Sa school was born at the beginning of the Nanbokuchō with Sa, the “Ō-Sa” (大左, Ō-Sa), one of the ten students of Masamune according to tradition, and moved away from the classical Kyūshū style towards the Sagami manner. Hiroyuki belongs to the following generation: the NBTHK records that, according to tradition, he was the son of Yukihiro and worked in the Shōhei era. No signed work of his is known.

The katana of the Tsuchiura City Museum, of 70.0 cm, is a Jūyō Bijutsuhin and has a documented history: a Hon'ami origami of 1688 and a gift from the shōgun in 1696. Another, of 73.6 cm, passed the NBTHK’s 62nd Jūyō Tōken session in 2016, which judged it the blade that most resembles Hiroyuki.

Sections

  1. Chikuzen, Shōhei era Life and times The Sa school of Chikuzen and the little that is known of him.
  2. Ō-kissaki and Nanbokuchō nie Work and style Jihada, hamon, bōshi, sugata, nakago and mei: what the two described blades say.
  3. Two unsigned katana His blades The katana of the Tsuchiura Museum and that of the 62nd Jūyō session.
  4. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted and the image credits.