Kantei
A mounted sword with a black-lacquered scabbard and a dark hilt, on a white cloth.

Kakidai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nikkō Sukezane · National Treasures

Famous works

Two National Treasure tachi, one of them Tokugawa Ieyasu’s sword in Nikkō, and about ten Important Cultural Properties.

On this page
  1. The Nikkō Sukezane
  2. The tachi of the Tokyo National Museum
  3. His designated works
  4. In the treatises
  5. The Nikkō Sukezane

The Nikkō Sukezane

  • Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane), the 日光助真 (Nikkō Sukezane), in the Tōshōgū shrine in Nikkō: designated in 1910 under the old law and a National Treasure since 9 June 1951. The official database gives its path: from Katō Kiyomasa to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and from him to the shrine.
  • The Japanese Wikipedia tells it in more detail: it passed from Kiyomasa to Ieyasu in 1609, on the betrothal of Tokugawa Yorinobu and Yaso-hime, Kiyomasa’s daughter; it survived the fire of 1815 with other swords of Ieyasu, and its mounting, the Sukezane-goshirae, is a black uchigatana whose style was copied in the Taishō era.
  • It is in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳).
  • Satō Kanzan wrote of it in 1964, in 『武将と名刀』 (Bushō to meitō), that it has 「絢爛目を奪うものがある」: “a splendour that dazzles”. The Japanese Wikipedia regards it as Sukezane’s most accomplished work.

The tachi of the Tokyo National Museum

Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane), which belonged to the Tokugawa of Kishū, in the Tokyo National Museum. Designated in 1935 under the old law and a National Treasure since 1953, according to the Japanese Wikipedia.

His designated works

The two National Treasures have been checked in the official records; the Important Cultural Properties are given according to the Japanese Wikipedia.

WorkDesignationWhere it is
Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane), the 日光助真 (Nikkō Sukezane)National TreasureTōshōgū shrine in Nikkō, Tochigi
Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane), of the Tokugawa of KishūNational TreasureTokyo National Museum
Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane)Important Cultural Property, 1933Hayashibara Museum of Art, Okayama
Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane)Important Cultural Property, 1939Iwate Prefectural Museum
Tachi 銘助真 (mei Sukezane)Important Cultural Property, 1957Mitsui Memorial Museum, Tokyo
Unsigned, attributed to Sukezane, of the Makino familyImportant Cultural Property, 1956Kyoto National Museum
Unsigned katana, attributed to SukezaneImportant Cultural Property, 1954Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya
Unsigned katana, which tradition attributes to SukezaneImportant Cultural Property, 1920Ryūmon-ji, Saitama
Unsigned tachi, which tradition attributes to SukezaneImportant Cultural Property, 1956Private collection, Tokyo
An attributed unsigned katana (1936) and a signed tachi (1956)Important Cultural PropertyWhereabouts unknown

Of the blade in the Kyoto National Museum, Wikipedia says katana and the e-Museum, tachi; its scabbard is inscribed to say that Narisada, Bingo-no-kami, received it from the shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and it comes from the Makino family.

In the treatises

  • A kantei text of the Takeya system, from between Momoyama and the beginning of Edo, translated by Markus Sesko, puts “Tōgenji Sukezane” in the Sagami section with the grade of 下作 (gesaku), the lowest on the scale, while Shintōgo Kunimitsu is 上作 (jōsaku). It is the assessment of an old treatise, not today’s.
  • The Nikkō Sukezane is listed in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳), and Satō Kanzan praised it in 1964.