Sukemitsu

Profile

Sukemitsu, also known as Yokoyama Sukemitsu (横山祐光), worked in Mito, Hitachi province, in the closing years of the Edo period. Born in Edo, he trained in the Yokoyama school of Bizen, which gave him the character suke (祐) of his smith name. Family tradition holds that, while travelling through Mutsu and Hitachi, he assisted the Mito smith Katsumura Norikatsu at the forge, and that this work brought him into the domain's service under Tokugawa Nariaki. In 1857 Nariaki set up an arms workshop on Mount Shirahata (白旗山, Shirahatayama), west of Mito castle, and drew craftsmen from other provinces; Sukemitsu was attached to it, as his signature records: Suifu Shirahatayama-jū Sukemitsu (水府白旗山住祐光), "resident at Shirahatayama in Mito". The domain register of 1860 lists him as a craftsman ranked among its retainers. He died in 1873 at his house below the hill. His descendants kept the forge going as village smiths, making tools for farm and forest work.