Kantei
Detail of a blade with a dragon carved in relief and a row of Sanskrit characters.

Tokyo National Museum, via Bunka Isan Online · © Tokyo National Museum

Jūyō Bijutsuhin · prefectural properties · museums

Famous works

None of his blades is a National Treasure or a national Important Cultural Property in what was consulted; he has Important Art Objects, cultural properties of two prefectures and blades in museums in Tokyo and New York.

On this page
  1. His designated works and those in museums
  2. In the lists and the treatises
  3. A blade of the school
  4. Gallery

His designated works and those in museums

WorkDateDesignation or location
Katana signed 出羽国大慶庄司直胤 (Dewa no kuni Taikei Shōji Naotane), commissioned by Sugihara Masakane (杉原正包); a copy of Kagemitsu or Kanemitsu1815 (Bunka 12)Important Art Object (重要美術品, Jūyō Bijutsuhin), according to the NBTHK
Katana signed 造大慶直胤 (Taikei Naotane kore o tsukuru), 72.35 cm, a Sōshū work in the style of Gō Yoshihiro1834 (Tenpō 5)Important Art Object, according to the NBTHK; exhibited in 2025
Katana signed 藤原直胤 (Fujiwara Naotane), a Bizen copy1837 (Tenpō 8)Important Cultural Property of Okayama Prefecture since 2003, privately owned; the prefecture places it in Tsuyama in its record and in Okayama in its list
Katana of 1847 signed 荘司筑前大掾藤直胤 (Shōji Chikuzen Daijō Fuji Naotane), naginata of 1810 and wakizashi of 1855 signed 七十八翁藤直胤 (shichijūhachi-ō Fuji Naotane, “the old man of 78”)1810-1855Tangible Cultural Property of Mie Prefecture since 1982, owned by a private individual in Matsusaka
Daishō signed 造大慶直胤 (Taikei Naotane kore o tsukuru), from the Sanada house of Matsushiro1836 (Tenpō 7)Jūyō Tōken (重要刀剣) of the NBTHK, according to the Japanese Wikipedia
Katana signed 大慶庄司直胤 (Taikei Shōji Naotane), 75 cm, with a dragon and bonji, commissioned by Kakei Takahiro (筧孝寛), and its wakizashi, 44.8 cm—Tokyo National Museum
Katana dated 1839 and a wakizashi1839 (Tenpō 10)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, since 1891

In the lists and the treatises

  • Edo sansaku (江戸三作), the three great smiths of Edo, with Suishinshi Masahide and Minamoto Kiyomaro: the NBTHK devoted an exhibition to the three at its museum in 2025, for the two hundredth anniversary of Masahide’s death.
  • According to the NBTHK, he is the most outstanding pupil of the Suishinshi school, and what survives of him, in quantity and quality, is comparable to that of Koyama Munetsugu.
  • In the ranking of Shintō swordsmiths that Tomita Kiyama made in 1933, published in 1935 in the 日本刀辞典 新刀篇 (Nihontō jiten Shintō-hen), he appears as 大慶庄司直胤 (Taikei Shōji Naotane) among the “sewanin” (世話人), a group of honour outside the eastern and western blocks.
  • It is not recorded in the sources consulted that he appears in the Yamada cutting lists (1797-1830).

A blade of the school

The NBTHK’s 70th Jūyō Tōken designation (2025) includes a katana of 1815 signed by Suishinshi Masahide as swordsmith to the Akimoto, on which the names of Sadahide, Naotane and Mitsuhide also appear.