Yokoyama Sukesada
横山祐定 (Yokoyama Sukesada)
Swordsmith of the Yokoyama house in Osafune, Bizen, active in the second half of the 17th century and the early 18th.
Profile
Yokoyama Sukesada (横山祐定) is the name under which reference works chiefly mean Kōzuke Daijō Sukesada (上野大掾祐定), the leading Osafune smith of the Edo period. Born in 1633 and known as Heibei (平兵衛), he was the son of Shichibei no Jō Sukesada, and the Yokoyama house counts him as the sixth-generation descendant of Yosōzaemon Sukesada, who worked in the early 16th century. His family was one of the few to keep forging in Osafune after the great flood of the Yoshii River at the end of the 16th century, and under him the school regained its standing. In 1664 he received the title Kōzuke Daijō, which from then on appears in long signatures such as Bishū Osafune jū Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō Fujiwara Sukesada. He worked in the Bizen manner adapted to Shintō shapes: gunome and chōji hamon, with doubled gunome whose heads open like a crab’s pincers (kani no tsume), as well as suguha. In 1666 he dedicated a blade to the Kibitsuhiko shrine (吉備津彦神社, Kibitsuhiko Jinja) in Okayama, now a prefectural cultural property. He died in the sixth year of Kyōhō, aged 89. Other smiths of the house went on signing Sukesada into the 19th century.
Rankings
- Yoki-wazamono (very good) (Kaihō Kenjaku, 1797)
Swords available
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Kōzuke Daijō Sukesada
Katana signed by Kōzuke Daijō Fujiwara Sukesada of the Osafune school (Bizen), dated the 8th month of Hōei 6 (1709). Nagasa 66.6 cm, untouched tang with a single mekugi-ana and a photographed NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken. Katana of the Osafune school, Bizen province, signed Bizen no Kuni Osafune jū Kōzuke Daijō Fujiwara Sukesada saku and dated the eighth month of Hōei 6 (1709), well into the shintō period. According to the original seller, the smith was a son of Shichibei-no-jō Sukesada, received the Kōzuke Daijō title in Kanbun 4 and led the Sukesada workshop through its busiest years. The blade measures 66.6 cm nagasa with 1.8 cm sori, 2.88 cm motohaba and 1.85 cm sakihaba; the photographs show it polished, with a medium kissaki and a clearly readable hamon, although the original seller says nothing about its condition. The nakago appears untouched, with a single mekugi-ana and the long signature accompanied by the date on the reverse. It is mounted in a koshirae with black lacquered saya, purple ito over same and an iron tsuba, with bird-and-peony fittings highlighted in gold. An NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate is photographed with the piece.
54.9/100
€9,540
