Sakakura Masatoshi

Profile

Masatoshi worked in Mino in the late Muromachi period as a member of the Sakakura Seki (坂倉関) group, one of the branches of the Seki smiths. School tradition makes him the son and successor of one of the group's Masayoshi (正吉), who is regarded as its founder; Japanese reference works also describe him as a relative and pupil of Masashige (正重) of the Sengo (千子) school of Kuwana in Ise. The character masa (正) in the group's signatures closely resembles that of Muramasa (村正), and reference works link the Sakakura smiths to his workshop. Two-character signatures, 正利 (Masatoshi), are known from his hand. Blades attributed to him show a gunome midare hamon with clustered pointed elements (togari), close to the Seki sanbonsugi and to Muramasa's manner, over an itame hada mixed with mokume.