Tegarayama Masashige
手柄山正繁 (Tegarayama Masashige)
A shinshintō smith (1760-1830), born in Harima, who worked in Ōsaka and in Edo in the service of Matsudaira Sadanobu, lord of Shirakawa, and signed as his retainer.
Profile
Masashige was born in 1760 at Tegarayama, in Harima province, and died in 1830, according to the biographical dictionary Nihon Jinmei Daijiten (日本人名大辞典, Nihon Jinmei Daijiten) cited by Kotobank. He worked first in Ōsaka and then in Edo, as a craftsman in the service of Matsudaira Sadanobu, lord of Shirakawa, in Mutsu, from whom he received the surname Tegarayama, the name of the place where he was born. In 1803 (Kyōwa 3) he obtained the title Kai no Kami (甲斐守, “governor of Kai”). He also used the gō (号, artistic name) Tankasai.
He signed “奥州白河臣手柄山正繁” (Ōshū Shirakawa shin Tegarayama Masashige), that is, “Tegarayama Masashige, retainer of Shirakawa, in Ōshū”. The Kyoto National Museum holds a katana and a spear (yari) with that signature, both dated the second month of Kyōwa 1 (1801).
Notable works
- Katana signed “Ōshū Shirakawa shin Tegarayama Masashige” and dated the second month of Kyōwa 1 (1801), Kyoto National Museum.
- Yari (spear) with the same signature and the same date, also in the Kyoto National Museum.