Yamato Shizu Katana
S0147
SOLD
A strong o-suriage mumei katana attributed to Yamato Shizu. Hawatare: 2 shaku 2 sun 4 bu (67.87 cm or 26.74"). Shinogizukure, iroi mune, extended chu kissaki. Nie deki gunome notare midare, hotsure, ha nie, kinsuji, sunagashi, hataraki, ashi iri, yo, nado. The jigane is itame nagare mokume mijiri, there is ji nie and chikei. Unfortunately the condition of the jigane is not good enough to be elevated to juyo. Mounted in shirasaya with niju gold foil habaki. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Kanteisho. Sayagaki by Tanobe Michihiro specifying that this is a production from Nambokucho.
It has always been a truism
that Shizu means Kaneuji. Kaneuji originally worked in the Tegai style in
Yamato province during the years 1313 - 1315, his works from that time are
referred to as Yamato Shizu. At that time he used the Yamato Kane
. He then studied with
Goro Nyudo Masamune, after which he changed his signature to Kaneuji, using the
Mino Kane 
. He is thought by many to be the best of
the Masamune Jutetsu, the ten students of Masamune. However, since there
are examples of Yamato Shizu swords after this brief two year period, it is
reasonable to assume that either Kaneuji continued to occasionally make swords
in this earlier style, or that this may have been a group of smiths.
