Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada
宗左衛門尉祐定 (Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Signature name used by several Sukesada smiths of Osafune in Bizen from the early Edo period; the first was a son of Tōshirō Sukesada.
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Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada is a name used by several smiths of the Sukesada family of Osafune, in Bizen, from the early Edo period onward; the signature does not tell which generation made a given blade. The first was the fourth son of Yokoyama Tōshirō Sukesada (横山藤四郎祐定). He survived, with his father and two brothers, the great flood of the Yoshii River at the end of the Tenshō era that devastated Osafune, and with them took up forging again in the Genna era (1615–1624), bridging late-Muromachi Bizen work and the shintō period. Blades bearing this name are known with dates in the Kanbun era (1661–1673). The work follows the sue-Bizen manner, with an itame hada and a gunome-based hamon, and with the tang covered it is at times mistaken for late-Muromachi work. The smiths signed Bizen no Kuni jū Osafune or Bishū Osafune Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada, including the common name that most Sukesada of the time left out. From this branch descended Sukehira (祐平), who trained under Motohira of Satsuma in the late 18th century and was the father of Sukenaga (祐永).
Swords available
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Osafune Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada
Kotō katana from the Osafune school of Bizen, signed by Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada around the Genki era, with an intact tang with a single mekugi-ana, shirasaya and complete koshirae. A kotō-period blade forged at Osafune, Bizen province, by Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada, one of the leading masters of the last generation of Sukesada smiths, active around the Genki era. The nagasa is 70.9 cm and the sori 1.6 cm. The photographs show a notare hamon with gunome in nioi deki and a kissaki of moderate proportions. The tang, with a rounded tip, retains a single mekugi-ana and bears a long signature on the omote: Bizen no Kuni jū Osafune Sōzaemon no Jō Sukesada; there is no engraved date. The piece comes with a shirasaya and a complete koshirae: black lacquered saya, tsuka with same and black ito wrapping, a lobed iron tsuba with four small openings, dark fuchi and kashira decorated with karakusa and a mon of three bars within a circle, and a white-metal habaki with a textured lower section. According to the source data, the blade holds an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper, which does not appear in the photographs.
60.7/100
€13,270
