Tango no Kami Jumyō
丹後守寿命 (Tango no Kami Jumyō)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Line of smiths of Mino origin settled in Owari, active from the early 17th to the early 19th century.
Profile
A line of smiths who signed with the name Jumyō (寿命), sometimes read Toshinaga, in Owari province during the Edo period. The founder, a native of Seki in Mino whose civilian name was Kondō Sukezaemon, settled in Owari early in the 17th century and in the Kan'ei era received the honorary title Tango no Kami (丹後守), hence the signature Tango no Kami Fujiwara Jumyō. School tradition holds that the line ran through five generations under the patronage of the Owari Tokugawa, into the first years of the 19th century. It belongs to the group of Mino smiths who settled in Kiyosu and later in Nagoya, known as Owari Seki. The name means "long life" and was regarded as auspicious. The blades follow the Mino manner: a tight ko-itame hada with areas of masame, and a hamon of wide suguha or gentle notare with small midare. The signature alone does not always tell which generation made a given blade.
Swords available
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Tango-no-kami Fujiwara Toshinaga
A long, robust katana by the first Toshinaga of Owari, early Edo period, with a signed ubu tang, Tokubetsu Hozon paper and an uchigatana koshirae with burgundy saya. The original seller attributes this work to the first Tango-no-kami Fujiwara Toshinaga, a smith born in Seki (Mino) who settled in Owari and served the Owari Tokugawa house; the sayagaki on the shirasaya identifies him as the shodai. Shinogi-zukuri blade with iori-mune, nagasa of 76.2 cm and sori of 1.2 cm, wide at the base with little taper and an extended chū-kissaki; it weighs 802 g without habaki. Bo-hi are carved on both sides. The original seller describes itame-hada with masame, abundant ji-nie and chikei, and a hamon of gunome and togari-ba with tobiyaki, ashi and sunagashi. The tang is ubu, with a single mekugi-ana, iriyama tip, ō-sujikai yasurime and a long signature on the shinogi-ji, as the photographs confirm. It comes with an uchigatana koshirae: burgundy lacquered saya with a granular surface, iron mokkō tsuba with gold and silver inlay, oborogin fuchi-kashira with cherry blossoms, shakudō menuki and a white rayskin tsuka with grey-blue ito, plus a shirasaya with sayagaki. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper dated 4 December, Reiwa 6.
62.3/100
€11,340