Tairyūsai Sōkan

Profile

Tairyūsai Sōkan (泰龍斎宗寛) trained in Edo under Koyama Munetsugu, whose workshop stood in Fukagawa Hakozaki, and is counted among his leading pupils. He is held to have come from Shirakawa in Mutsu, on the Abukuma river, whose name, Abukumagawa (阿武隈川), appears in his early signatures. His known work begins around 1847; about 1854 he took the name Tairyūsai, and from 1857 he signed in reisho (隷書) script, sometimes shortened to Tairyūsai Kan (泰龍斎寛). He worked throughout in the Bizen tradition, first with a chōji midare very close to his teacher's and later with an even ko-gunome chōji midare with yakigashira. His blades are wide with a high shinogi, at times with a mitsu-mune; the hada is a tight ko-mokume or ko-itame with ji-nie and utsuri, and he was a capable carver of horimono. He died in 1883. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, holds a katana by him dated 1866.