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The Sa school of Chikuzen
According to the 『往昔抄』 (Ōjakushō), as recorded by the Japanese Wikipedia, the Chikuzen line runs from Ryōsai (良西, Ryōsai), in the mid-Kamakura period, to Sairen (西蓮, Sairen), Jitsua (実阿, Jitsua), Sa and Sa Yasuyoshi (左安吉, Sa Yasuyoshi). Sa, the “Ō-Sa”, signs with a single character, 左 (Sa); he is counted among the ten students of Masamune, and his only signed long sword is the tachi “Kōsetsu Samonji” (江雪左文字, Kōsetsu Samonji), a National Treasure.
The NBTHK’s journal (no. 734, March 2018) records the tradition that “Sa” abbreviates Saemon Saburō (左衛門三郎, Saemon Saburō), and that Ō-Sa was the grandson of Sairen and the son of Jitsua. Sairen has a blade dated 1317 and Jitsua, others of 1333 and 1335. Ō-Sa left tantō dated 1338, 1339 and 1340; between 1340 and 1350 the school passes entirely to the Sagami manner. According to tradition, Yukihiro was his pupil. A tantō by Yukihiro of 1350 is a National Treasure; the Agency for Cultural Affairs says that Yukihiro’s signed works are very few and that this is probably the only dated one.
What is known of Hiroyuki
The text of the NBTHK Jūyō designation (62nd session, 2016) says that Hiroyuki is, according to tradition, the son of Yukihiro and a swordsmith of the Shōhei era, in the mid-Nanbokuchō. It describes the school as having arisen at the beginning of the Nanbokuchō, departing from the classical Kyūshū style, with work that is “bright and clear, with an easy finish”, and counts in it Yasuyoshi, Yukihiro, Yoshisada, Kunihiro, Hiroyuki, Hiroyasu and Sadayoshi. No source gives his birth, his death or any date of his: no signed or dated work of his is known, neither tachi nor tantō.
Markus Sesko cites him, with Yasuyoshi, Yoshisada and Kunihiro, as a representative of the Sa school for the blade shape of the mid-Nanbokuchō. In the NBTHK monthly exhibitions from 1998 to 2024, according to Sesko’s list, he appears only once, with one blade.