Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukemitsu

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Sukemitsu is the leading name of the Yoshioka Ichimonji (吉岡一文字), the branch of the Bizen Ichimonji school that settled at Yoshioka, north of Fukuoka, towards the end of the Kamakura period. More than one smith used the name, and the signature does not always tell them apart. The best documented of them signed with a title and clan name, 備前国吉岡住左近将監紀助光 (Bizen no kuni Yoshioka-jū Sakon Shōgen Ki no Sukemitsu), sometimes preceded by the character 一 (ichi). Two dated works by him are known: a naginata of 1320, once owned by the Maeda house of Kaga, and a tachi of 1322; both are designated cultural properties of Japan and remain in private hands. Tradition holds that the tachi was a gift from the shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu to Abe Tadaaki. His blades follow the manner of the group: tachi with a pronounced koshizori, often heavily shortened, a well-forged itame hada with fine ji-nie, and a chōji-midare hamon in nioi, more even in height than in Fukuoka Ichimonji work, with ashi that tend to slant and a midare-komi bōshi.