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Kamakura, at the end of the 13th century
- A Sagami swordsmith of the second half of the Kamakura period, with dated blades from 永仁 (Einin) 1, 1293, to 元亨 (Genkō) 4, 1324, according to the Japanese Wikipedia, or to 元亨 (Genkō) 2, 1322, according to the NBTHK. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is known.
- The dictionaries give him the common name Shintōgo, the religious name 光心 (Kōshin) and residence in Kamakura.
- According to tradition he lived in Numahama, in the Yamanouchi district of Kamakura (today Numa, in Zushi), and was trained among the Yamashiro and Bizen swordsmiths who worked there: those of Awataguchi and those of Fukuoka Ichimonji.
- Markus Sesko counts him, with those of Awataguchi, Rai, Fukuoka Ichimonji and Osafune, among the swordsmiths of the “magnificent” shape (豪壮, gōsō) of the mid-Kamakura period.
His father and his master, according to tradition
The most widespread version, which dates from the Muromachi period according to the Japanese Wikipedia, makes him the son of Awataguchi Kunitsuna, the youngest of the six Awataguchi brothers, born when his father had already been summoned to Kamakura, and a student of Bizen Saburō Kunimune.
The old treatises give three possible masters: Kunimune, Ichimonji Sukezane and Kunitsuna. As Kunitsuna is documented until around 建長 (Kenchō) 7, 1255, it has been proposed that Kunimitsu was the son of his old age, or that there were two Kunimitsu, a first and a second who signed Shintōgo. These are hypotheses.
Two genealogies in one book
The oldest treatise, the Kanchi-in-bon Meizukushi (a copy of 1423, with a text that reaches 1316), contains two genealogies that do not match:
- that of the Sagami swordsmiths: Sadakuni, Kunihiro, Sukezane, Kunimitsu and, after him, Kunishige, Kunihiro, Yukimitsu and Masamune;
- that of the Kamakura swordsmiths: Kunimune and Kunimitsu, and after them Shintō Tarō, Shintō Bunshirō, Daishinbō Yūkei, Tōsaburō Yukimitsu and another pupil.
In other words: the oldest source contradicts itself about who his master was.
His students
The Japanese Wikipedia only says that the old genealogies place Yukimitsu and Masamune after him. The English Wikipedia goes further: because of the likeness in style, he is generally held to be the master of Masamune, Yukimitsu and Norishige, and he had several sons who probably forged under his name.
Taima, Hasebe and a monk swordsmith
- The same Meizukushi tells that Shintōgo’s grandfather offered a sword to the retired emperor Kameyama when he visited Taima, in Yamato; hence a link with the Taima swordsmiths has been proposed.
- The signature 新藤五長谷部國光 (Shintōgo Hasebe Kunimitsu) has been read as meaning that the family was Shintō-Hasebe or that it lived in Hasebe.
- Because of that signature and of the Sanskrit letters (梵字, bonji) he carves on his blades, he is considered a monk swordsmith (法師鍛冶, hōshi kaji) of Shingon Buddhism.