Kantei
The two sides of a rusted tang, with a signature cut on one and a date on the other, below the start of the blade, on a black background.

Echizen · Shimosaka school · shintō

Shimosaka Tsuguhiro (下阪継広)

A swordsmith of the Shimosaka school of Echizen, with the title of Ōmi no Kami, of whom only his grade in the cutting list and a few signed blades are on record

The Yamada cutting list places Shimosaka Tsuguhiro among the wazamono, with no dates or biography. A katana signed 近江守藤原継廣 (Ōmi no Kami Fujiwara Tsuguhiro) bears on the other side of the tang 越前住下坂 (Echizen jū Shimosaka): a swordsmith of the Shimosaka school, in Echizen, with the title of Ōmi no Kami, by whom there is a blade dated 1680.

Photo: dealer in Japan

wazamono
Cutting rank
Ōmi no Kami
Title
1680 (Enpō 8)
Dated blades
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Shimosaka Tsuguhiro in the cutting list; Ōmi no Kami Fujiwara Tsuguhiro in his signatures AT
Kanji and reading
下阪継広 (Shimosaka Tsuguhiro) in the list; 近江守藤原継廣 (Ōmi no Kami Fujiwara Tsuguhiro) in the signature; the school is written 下坂 (Shimosaka) HD
Period
Shintō; a blade dated 1680 (Enpō 8) HD
Province
Echizen (越前), according to his signature 越前住下坂 (Echizen jū Shimosaka) HD
School
Shimosaka (下坂), whose head in Echizen was the house of Echizen Yasutsugu AT
Master
Not recorded PC
Title
Ōmi no Kami (近江守), in his signatures; the year is not recorded HD
Cutting rank
wazamono (業物), fourth grade of the Yamada cutting list AT
What is documented
Blades signed with his title and his school, one of them dated 1680, and a wakizashi in the Fukuoka City Museum HD
What is not on record
His dates of birth and death, his master and the year of his title; nor that the Shimosaka Tsuguhiro of the list is the Ōmi no Kami Tsuguhiro of the signatures, although it is likely PC

In short

Tsuguhiro is one of the least documented swordsmiths in the Yamada cutting list: the list gives his name and his grade, and nothing more. His signatures say a little more: the title of Ōmi no Kami, the Shimosaka school and the province of Echizen, and one of them the date 1680. None of the sources consulted expressly links the two, or gives his biography or traits of style of his own.

Sections

  1. The Shimosaka school Life and times From Ōmi to Echizen: the school of the Yasutsugu, his names and what is not on record.
  2. His blades and his signature Work and style What his signatures say, a museum wakizashi and his place in the lists.
  3. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted and the image credits.