Shikkake Norinaga
則長 (Norinaga)
A Yamato smith of the late Kamakura period, son of Norihiro and in practice the founder of the Shikkake school; two tachi of his are important cultural properties.
Profile
Norinaga worked in Yamato province in the late Kamakura period, around the time of Kanenaga of the Tegai school. The Heibonsha encyclopedia cited by Kotobank gives his father, Norihiro, active in the Kenji era (1275-1278), as the founder of the Shikkake school (尻懸派, Shikkake-ha), but no blade of Norihiro survives: the school’s work begins with Norinaga and continues, generation after generation, into the Muromachi period. For that reason the Nipponica encyclopedia treats him as its true founder. Where exactly they lived is not known.
The name passed through several generations, and the sources do not say to which one each blade belongs. He signed “大和則長作” (Yamato Norinaga saku), “made by Norinaga, of Yamato”. Two tachi with that signature are important cultural properties: one from the Maeda house, lords of Kaga, which Maeda Toshinari offered in 1909 to the crown prince and which is now in the Tokyo National Museum, and another, of 73.3 cm, a gift of the shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu, in the Kuroda Institute of Ancient Culture, in Nishinomiya.
Notable works
- Tachi signed “Yamato Norinaga saku”, of the Maeda house of Kaga, offered in 1909 to the crown prince, Tokyo National Museum; important cultural property.
- Tachi signed “Yamato Norinaga saku”, 73.3 cm, a gift of the shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu, Kuroda Institute of Ancient Culture; important cultural property.