On this page
From Kanefusa to Ujifusa
The NBTHK tells, in a 2025 article by Ōi Gaku, that he began by signing 兼房 (Kanefusa), the name of his father and of his grandfather, of the Seki family that it calls 関善定 (Seki Zenjō). In 1556 (Kōji 2) he inherited the headship of the Seki swordsmiths from his elder brother, 石見守国房 (Iwami no Kami Kunifusa), and did not take the name Kunifusa when the latter died, in 1560.
On the 19th day of the 4th month of 1570 (Eiroku 13) he received the title of 左衛門少尉 (Saemon-shōjō) and changed the name Kanefusa to 氏房 (Ujifusa); on the 22nd day of the same month, that of Wakasa no Kami, and one more. From then on he signs with the title: a blade signed Kanefusa, from before 1570, cannot bear it.
In the service of the Oda
The JSSUS, summarising a 1986 article by Tanobe Michihiro, says that Oda Nobunaga engaged him to work for him alone and that he moved to Azuchi in 1577, with his son, in the service of Oda Nobutaka. It is also said that he worked in Gifu and in Kiyosu (Owari), and that before that he was in Fuchū (Suruga) in the service of Imagawa Ujizane, from whom he would have received the character 氏 (uji) of his name. The NBTHK only says that he changed his name in the same month that he received his titles and does not mention Imagawa.
Dates without a source
His civil name and his dates of birth and death are not recorded in any of the sources consulted.
His son, Hida no Kami Ujifusa
His son, 飛騨守氏房 (Hida no Kami Ujifusa), was born in 1567 (Eiroku 10), according to the JSSUS: he moved with his father to Azuchi in 1577, moved in 1610 to the swordsmiths’ street in Nagoya, retired in 1631 and died that year, aged 65. He was followed by his eldest son, Bizen no Kami Ujifusa, the third generation. The NBTHK gives him the title “in Tenshō 12 (1592)”, but Tenshō 12 is 1584 and 1592 is Tenshō 20: the date is wrong in one of the two.