[ Feature ]
Form : Shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, wide body, thick layer of grain, slight curvature at the waist, and medium cutting edge.
Engraving : The engraving is a stick pattern on both sides with square corners.
Nakago : Raw tang, file marks sloping downwards, decorative file marks, tip rounded, one mekugi hole.
Jigane : The jigane has a fine itame-hada grain with ji-nie and a fine jigane pattern.
Hamon : It is nioi-based cho-ji midare, gunome mixed. The ashii and ha are well defined.
Boushi : The hataki is乱れ込み (unruly) and returns to a sharp point.
[ Highlight ] This sword was crafted by swordsmith Masamine Sumitani in the year following his third Masamune Award, and is a magnificent 76 cm long sword with a cho-ji midare pattern reminiscent of famous swords from the Kamakura period.
Sumitani Masamine (1921–1998) was born on 24 January 1921 in Matsunaga Town, Ishikawa County, Ishikawa Prefecture (now Tatsuimi Town, Hakusan City), into a family that operated a soy sauce brewing and sales business.His real name was Yoichiro (also written as Yōichirō), and the name Masamine was derived from his master, Sakurai Masayuki, taking the character ‘Masu’ from his name and “Mine” from a name chosen by someone knowledgeable in name divination. He grew up gazing at Mount Hakusan, one of the ‘Three Famous Mountains of Japan’ alongside Mount Fuji and Mount Tateyama, and the choice of his name was a serendipitous coincidence. Matsunaga was said to be blessed by the waters of Mount Hakusan, and he once remarked that his own works might also be considered a gift from Mount Hakusan. His grandfather, Yuzaburo, born in the Ansei era, began carpentry apprenticeship before his twenties, moved to Kyoto, and worked on Buddhist temple construction at the Higashi Hongan-ji Temple. Perhaps inheriting his grandfather's talent, he was skilled with his hands and always received perfect scores in art and craftwork during elementary school.
During his time at Ishikawa Prefectural Kanazawa First Middle School (now Ishikawa Prefectural Kanazawa Izumi High School), he became fascinated with sword appreciation in the military-style atmosphere of Kanazawa, which was then home to the headquarters of the 9th Division. He would spend his time waiting for the train home by attending sword appreciation gatherings and discovered a two-foot-long sword by Osaka Shin-to, Gen Shin-kichi, in his family's storehouse. In Kaga, there is a saying that ‘a man must climb Mount Hakusan before he becomes a man,’ so during the summer vacation of my third year of middle school, I climbed the mountain with friends, taking four days round trip, and discovered the joy of mountain climbing, leading me to join the mountain climbing club and explore mountains across the country.Academically, he excelled in science and mathematics but struggled with English. He grew tired of the school's strict focus on academics and the family's expectations for him to inherit the family business. In March 1938, he graduated from Kanazawa First Middle School and began working as a clerk for his uncle, a lawyer in Osaka.
During this time, he learned about the recruitment for the Science and Engineering Department at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto and enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering Department in April 1939. One day, while strolling near the construction site of the campus at the foot of Mount Ikegami, near Todai-in Temple, he noticed a white-painted wooden post with the words ‘Ritsumeikan Japanese Sword Forging Workshop’ written in ink.The strange feeling I had at that moment remains vividly in my memory, standing out like a revelation. The forge was built by Ritsumeikan University President Kojiro Nakagawa as a hobby and as a reference for students. Masayuki Sakurai was invited to serve as the master swordsmith.Sakurai Masayuki's father, Sakurai Manji Masatsugu, was born in 1868 and was also known as Kongo-sai. He taught at the Metalworking Department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and is renowned for having served as the personal swordsmith for Prince Arisugawa. Masayuki inherited his father's expertise and possessed extensive knowledge of swords and forging from a young age. Mr. Sumitani formed a ‘Japanese Sword Research Club’ with about 10 friends, and once a week, they invited Masayuki to give lectures on the history of Japanese swords. Eventually, they were allowed to create swords, and with an unlimited supply of charcoal and steel, they took turns hammering away on Sundays when they did not have classes.
Later, he also made swords at this forge with Masayuki Nagare, who later became famous for his stone sculptures. In March 1941, with the war intensifying, he graduated two years early after three years of study. He decided to become a swordsmith, thinking, ‘If I am destined to die on the battlefield, I might as well do what I want to do and make a sword to take with me to Enma, the god of hell.’Although science and engineering graduates were subject to employment restrictions, thanks to the quick thinking of Ryu Masayuki's father, Nakagawa Kotaro, he was officially accepted as a member of the forge. Every morning at 8 o'clock, he would go to the forge and work on swords until evening. After dinner, he would study sharpening until midnight, then read for two to three hours before going to bed.He slept only 5 to 6 hours a day, immersing himself in sword-making for 1 year and 4 months. While he still struggled with forging and fire control, he was determined to master the art of quenching. Later in life, Masamine reflected that the foundation of his current work, particularly the art of tempering, was mastered during his time at the forge.
In July 1942, the Ritsumeikan training forge was destroyed by fire, leaving only the traditional forge ‘Sanryutei’ intact.Just as he was burning with enthusiasm to create swords, he found himself in a dilemma where he could not make swords as he wanted. At that time, the Kokoku Japanese Sword Forging Workshop, located deep in the mountains on the outskirts of Onomichi City, was looking for a sword smith, and his senior apprentice at the forge invited him to join them.When he decided to leave Kyoto, he was concerned about the intentions of Nakagawa Socho and Sakurai Sensei, but Ryu Masayuki supported him behind the scenes and even persuaded Nakagawa Socho, who was initially reluctant.
Life in the outskirts of Onomichi was very fortunate considering the circumstances of the time.In Kyoto, food was scarce and we ate nothing but potato vines every day, but in the suburbs of Onomichi, we could enjoy freshly caught sea bream, puffer fish, squid, octopus, and other seafood that was so fresh and delicious. In addition, the area was known for its abundance of matsutake mushrooms in the autumn, and I ate enough sea bream, puffer fish, and matsutake mushrooms to last a lifetime. In August 1943, after six months of illness, his senior apprentice, Mr. Yokota, passed away. Although he was now alone, he remained in Onomichi and continued to create swords, supported by the words of the owner of the forge, Mr. Mitsuzen Kanano, who told him, ‘Don't worry about food or materials. Just stay here and make the best swords in Japan.’ "I was not born into a family of sword smiths, so when I think about it, I have always worked as a self-taught craftsman.Even though I studied under Professor Sakurai at Ritsumeikan University, it was only for a year and a half. I had only known my senior apprentice, whom I considered my master, for about six months. I decided that sword making was my destiny, and that I would devote my entire life to it. With this determination, I immersed myself in the study of sword making day after day. In the same year, a sword he submitted to a new sword exhibition sponsored by the Sasebo Naval Base won the special prize, the Naval Base Commander's Award. The sword was about 2 shaku 3 sun (70 cm) long, and the initial forging was done by Mr. Yokota. After Mr. Yokota fell ill, Mr. Sumitani took over his senior apprentice's work and completed the sword. It was a work he was confident in, made in accordance with the Bizen tradition, and it was the first time he signed his name, ‘Seimine.’It was his first work to be recognised in public.
He resumed his life of making swords during the day and sharpening them until midnight, then reading for two or three hours before going to bed. Sleeping only three to four hours a day, sometimes staying up all night, took a toll on his health. He was found to have a chest disease during his military physical examination and was classified as unfit for military service. He continued to create swords silently in the mountains of Bingo Road during the harsh war years. In April 1944, at the age of 24, he married his wife, Tokiko, who was from the same village. Masamine's family ran a soy sauce shop, but Tokiko had always intended to marry a swordsmith.
At that time, he continued to create swords at the training centre of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto under the guidance of his master, Masayuki Sakurai.As the war situation worsened and supplies became scarce, a tendency toward mass production of poor quality swords for the battlefield began to emerge. It seems that swords were being produced under a mass production system, and just as Masami was thinking that he would eventually return to Ritsumeikan to assist his teacher, the war ended. In August 1945, Masami returned to his hometown of Matsuto Town in Ishikawa Prefecture with his wife and their four-month-old daughter.
Following the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, an order was issued to surrender all weapons in Japan to the Allied Forces, and Japanese swords were explicitly included in this list.Famous swords of great artistic value in Japan were also to be confiscated, but thanks to the tremendous efforts of our predecessors in the sword industry, the order was changed to ‘swords of antique value owned by Japanese people of good will may be kept by Japanese people after examination.’ After many twists and turns, the situation remains the same today. Although the suffering of artistic swords themselves was avoided, the creation of swords was prohibited at that time.During that time, Masamine helped with the family business while taking advantage of the area's thriving craft industry to interact with many craft artists and learn seal engraving, sculpture, and netsuke, striving to absorb everything he could outside of sword making. He was unable to create swords after the war, but in 1953, when the first post-war ritual relocation of the Ise Grand Shrine was to take place, he was asked to create a new sword to be offered to the gods, and this led to the reapproval of sword smithing.In June 1954, he finally received approval from the Cultural Properties Protection Committee to become a swordsmith and resumed creating swords. He boldly took on the challenge of the New Sword Technique Presentation, which began in 1955, but for the first two years, he was only selected as a finalist. He built a forge in a vacant lot in the back of his family's property and held a fire-lighting ceremony one day in November 1956. He named the forge ‘Sanryutei,’ after the name of the old forge at Ritsumeikan University, and renewed his determination to devote himself to sword making, carrying on the artistic tradition of Masatsugu Sakurai and Masayuki Sakurai. With his own workshop, he began to work freely on creating swords, and in 1957, he entered his work in the 3rd New Sword Technique Exhibition and received the Excellence Award, skipping the Selection Award.
He won the Excellence Award again in 1958 and 1959, and in 1960, he won the long-awaited Special Award for a sword modelled after the ‘Daiboncho Nagamitsu’. He won the Excellence Award once in 1961, but won the Special Award again in 1962, 1963, and 1964. His award-winning work in 1964 was a replica of Tokugawa Ieyasu's favourite sword, ‘Nikko Sukemasa’, andand was inscribed with the signature of Masamune, a resident of Sōshū Yukinoshita, ‘Kashikatei Masamine, resident of Kashikatei, Sōshū, created in February of the year of the rabbit, under the snow.’ That year, heavy snowfall hit the Hokuriku region, and the sword was created while the forge was buried under snow. For the second post-war 60th Ise Grand Shrine Ritual Relocation (Showa 48), Masamine was entrusted with the honourable task of creating the first sacred treasure, the ‘Tamamaki no Ontachi,’ and completed it in November 1964. He subsequently created an additional 11 swords, including the 2-shaku 6-sun ‘Ho-go Tachi’ in 1966.
In 1965, the ‘New Sword Technique Exhibition’ was renamed the ‘New Famous Swords Exhibition,’ and Masamine won the Masamune Award for his sword ‘Tachi, signed 'Dōyū Ichimonji, created by Masamine of Kasagatatei, August, 1965.’ He also received the Honorary Chairman's Award from Prime Minister Eisaku Sato.At the 2nd Exhibition of New Famous Swords in 1966, he won the Masamune Award again for his sword ‘Tachi, signed by Masamine, resident of Kaga Province, Kamakura period, drifting one-character inscription, made at Kasagatei, February, 1966.’ In 1967, he was certified as a master swordsmith without examination, became a judge for the Exhibition of New Famous Swords, and was designated as an intangible cultural property of Ishikawa Prefecture in the same year.In 1968, he held his first solo exhibition, won the first Kunzan Award in 1972, and received the Masamune Award for the third time in 1974. He continued his experimental efforts to replicate the swords of the Kamakura period while also conducting research on the production of swords from the Shōsō-in repository, including the gold inlay on the blade, the solid gold fittings on the scabbard, the intricate carving on the horn-made scabbard, and the production of the carved scabbard.When exhibitions of his sword works were held, they attracted large crowds of female fans. In 1981, at the age of 60, he was designated as a Living National Treasure (Important Intangible Cultural Property Holder) by the Japanese government. In 1989, he created the ceremonial swords for the enthronement of Emperor Akihito.He also crafted ceremonial swords for Crown Princess Masako, Princess Mako of Akishino, and Princess Kako of Akishino. In 1993, he was awarded the Fourth Class Order of the Rising Sun. He passed away on 12 December 1998 at the age of 77.
"Iron rusts easily and is prone to corrosion.By forging and polishing this metal, which at first glance appears weak and rough, it can be transformed into something precious and beautiful that surpasses even gold and silver. That is what it means to make a Japanese sword."
(Reference: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, ‘My Resume: Masamine Sumiya,’ 1-30 August 1990)
[ Conditions ] There is slight rubbing under the habaki and a very small chip on the tip of the blade. Otherwise, it is in excellent condition.
