Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao
津田近江守助直 (Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao)
Osaka swordsmith, pupil and successor of Tsuda Sukehiro, active in the second half of the 17th century.
Profile
Sukenao was born in 1639 at Takagi, in the Yasu district of Ōmi province. He trained in Osaka under Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro, the second of that line, who regarded him as his leading pupil, and in 1669 he received the title Ōmi no Kami. He married into his teacher's family and took the Tsuda name. For some years he worked in his home province, signing 近江守高木住助直 (Ōmi no Kami Takagi jū Sukenao); after Sukehiro died in 1682 he returned to Osaka and took charge of the workshop. His work follows his master's closely: clean, fine steel and a hamon of gunome or tōran-midare (濤瀾乱), broad rolling waves in bright nioi. On some blades he recorded in the inscription that they were forged from oroshigane, remelted steel. He died around 1693 or 1694.
Rankings
- Yoki-wazamono (very good) (Kaihō Kenjaku, 1797)
Swords available
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Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao
Ōsaka katana signed and dated 1684 by Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao, with a cutting-test inscription, tōran-ba hamon, complete koshirae and NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate. Katana by Tsuda Ōmi no Kami Sukenao, an Ōsaka smith of the early Edo period. According to the original seller, Sukenao trained under Sukehiro, became his brother-in-law and later his adopted son, and took the Tsuda surname in Enpō 3; he would have forged this blade at the age of 46. The blade has a nagasa of 68.2 cm and a sori of 1.2 cm and carries a tōran-ba hamon; the original seller describes a clear, bright nioiguchi, abundant nie with tama in the ji and a tight ko-itame hada. The nakago is suriage with two mekugi-ana but retains the signature, the date of the 2nd month of Jōkyō 1 (1684) and a cutting-test inscription that the original seller considers rare for this smith. The photographs show the blade with a shirasaya and a complete koshirae: a textured red-lacquer saya, a tsuka with same and dark wrap, an openwork iron tsuba with a dragon among waves, gilt dragon fuchi-kashira and menuki, and a gold-foil habaki; the original seller neither dates nor describes the mounting. The NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate appears in the photographs.
41.7/100
€18,720
