Taira Akimori

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Akimori was a smith of the Takada school of Bungo, in Kyūshū, working in the closing decades of the Muromachi period. Like many Takada smiths of the kotō era, he prefixed his signature with the clan name Taira (平), the habit that gave the group its name, Taira Takada. School tradition identifies him with the second generation of Nagamori (長盛) and holds that he received the character aki (鑑) from the Bungo daimyō Ōtomo Yoshiaki (大友義鑑); several smiths of the workshop bear that character, but few of his own works survive. He was active as the tachi gave way to the katana, and his blades are practical weapons in the sue-kotō manner. A katana signed 平鑑盛 (Taira Akimori) and dated to the second month of Tenbun 16 (1547) is known; work attributed to him shows a well-forged ko-itame and a gunome-midare hamon with ashi and a soft nioiguchi. One of his blades carries a cutting-test inscription made in Edo in 1674.