Kantei
Whole tachi blade, vertical, with a carving of Fudō in relief above the base and the signed tang, on a black background.

Kyoto · shintō · 1558-1631

Umetada Myōju (埋忠明寿)

Swordsmith, engraver and metalworker of Kyoto, regarded as the patriarch of the shintō swordsmiths

Umetada Myōju, of Nishijin, in Kyoto, was the head of a house of metalworkers and engravers that shortened old swords, inlaid their attribution in gold and made mountings and tsuba. He forged few blades, almost all tantō with carvings, and his only known tachi, of 1598, is an Important Cultural Property. The Japanese Wikipedia calls him the patriarch of the shintō swordsmiths (新刀鍛冶の祖, shintō kaji no so).

Kyoto National Museum, via ColBase

1558-1631
Birth and death
1598 (Keichō 3)
Important Cultural Property tachi
A tachi and a tsuba
Important Cultural Properties
from 1597 to 1631
Dated blades
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Umetada Myōju; Myōju is his religious name, according to Kotobank AT
Kanji and reading
埋忠明寿 (Umetada Myōju) HD
Period
Shintō: from Momoyama to the beginning of the Edo period AT
Province
Yamashiro (山城), in the quarter of Nishijin (西陣), in Kyoto, according to the signature on his tachi HD
School
The Umetada house (埋忠家, Umetada-ke), of swordsmiths, engravers and metalworkers AT
Master
His father, Umetada Shigetaka, also called 明欽 (Myōkin), according to Kotobank and Markus Sesko AT
Title
No honorary title is recorded in his signatures PC
Pupils
The first Hizen Tadayoshi, who signed Musashi Daijō Tadahiro from 1624: according to Markus Sesko and according to the inscription on his katana of 1629, which calls him a pupil of Myōju; Aki Teruhiro, according to the Sekai Daihyakka Jiten AT
In the lists
He does not appear in the Yamada cutting list; the Japanese Wikipedia places him among the very best of shintō (新刀最上作, shintō saijō-saku) AT
What is documented
The tachi signed and dated 1598 and tantō dated from 1607 to 1612; the designations of the tachi (1950) and of a tsuba (1954) HD
The tradition
That his house descended in the 25th generation from Sanjō Munechika, which the Nipponica encyclopaedia considers unbelievable, and that he served Ashikaga Yoshiaki AT

In short

The Umetada house worked by inheritance for the Ashikaga shōgun as swordsmiths and engravers, made habaki and seppa, shortened old blades and inlaid in gold the attribution of the Hon'ami; Myōju later worked for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his nephew Hidetsugu. The encyclopaedias do not agree about his forging: the Nipponica sees it as a secondary activity and places his worth in his tsuba; the Japanese Wikipedia says that he made few blades, but among the very best of shintō. The record of the Kyoto National Museum gives his tachi of 1598 as, probably, his only authentic long blade.

Sections

  1. The Umetada house Life and times His names, the Nishijin workshop, his lords and his pupils.
  2. Blades, carvings and tsuba Work and style The tachi of 1598, the carved tantō, the signature and the tsuba of coloured metals.
  3. In museums and lists Famous works Two Important Cultural Properties, his works in museums and the workshop of the famous swords.
  4. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted and the image credits.