Satsuma Masayoshi

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The third Masayoshi, of the Ijichi family, was born in 1733 and succeeded his father, the second of the line. In 1789, on receiving the honorary title Hōki no Kami, he changed the character «yoshi» of his name for another of the same reading. From the age of seventy he added his age to his signature. He was smith to the Satsuma domain, with more than forty pupils, and with Oku Motohira he forms the generation of smiths that made Satsuma shinshintō famous. His last known blade is of 1818 and states that he made it before his death, at eighty-six; he died that same year.