A beautiful ubu with one hole katana this sword from the Gendaito era boasts of classical like work . The hada has a dense itame with and a wild jigane and the hamon is a notarebased  like gunome/choji midare..This was Sadayoshi’s ode to the Fukuoka Ichimonli school. Ko-nie layers the entire hamon blanketing the nioi-guchi with a turbulent amount of Ara-nie, a very pleasing spectacler. This katana is very sound and healthy like the day it was forged and a real beauty.. The blade is wide and has a wonderful curvature that reminds one of the older schools. The quality of the sword is also outstanding. The hamon is bright and has very good activity. The hada is very wet looking and is forged well with much ji-nie and slight utsuri appears. The overall feel of this blade is one of a well balanced beautiful katana and is very sharp. This blade is a large and extremely healthy and one can imagine what a blade just forged really feels like. The hamon is frosted with nie and the hada is a tightly well-forged itame.

The koshirae is very clean and fundamental with menuki of floral motif . The tsuba is a picturesque depiction leaves in iron tsukashi style. There is a black lacquered saya  along with black same to match.The fuchi Kashira is also of large floral motif set in a cartouche as a backdrop.  The blade is in full polish with shirasaya. The habaki is silver and seppa are gold washed. The sageo is brown as well as the tsuka-ito. A wonderful package to a splendid blade.

Enomoto Sadayoshi is of the Gassan School. Enamoto Sadayoshi is the sword name of Enomoto Yoshiichi. He was born in 1911 and he passed away in 2000. He lived in Shizuoka Prefecture and signed his swords Yusui Shin Sadayoshi. He submitted his first sword for acceptance in Showa 11 (1966) and was rated as a Mukansa grade sword smith in 1996. He was recognized as one of the leading sword smiths in Japan at the time of his death.

Sadayoshi traced his sword-learning lineage as follows: Suishinshi Masahide-Gassan Sadayoshi-Gassan Sadakazu-Gassan Sadakatsu (his teacher). He worked in the styles of the Soshu Den, the Yamato Den, and the Gassan Den. Sadayoshi studied under Gassan Sadakatsu, and his influence can be seen in the jihada of Sadayoshi blades. Gassan Sadakatsu tempered a very clear ayasugi hada as his signature style, and in this hada there can be found a fair degree of contrast in the steel. There are many chikei as ji nie are abundant. Enomoto Sadayoshi took that one step further and produces a very dramatic and vivid jihada on his blades. This is a fine example of his work.

Enomoto Sadayoshi used the name Yorikichi during WWII, and was one of the Rikugun Jumei Tosho. After the war he went on to win many prizes at the NBTHK competition, and became a Mukansa swordsmith before his death at the age of 80. To achieve Mukansa, one must receive an assortment of the eight top prizes, so it is usually a process that takes many years (or decades) as competition is fierce

This sword was ordered made by “Yamaguchi Go” as is inscribed on the nakago.  The Yamaguchi-Go that we could find with that name and that lived in that era was Gogen Yamaguchi.  From  this it would appear that this sword was ordered by this famous Karate-Sensei though not completely verified at this time.

This is some information about him:

Founder of Goju-Ryu: Jitsumi Gōgen Yamaguchi (山口剛玄; January 20, 1909 – May 20, 1989), also known as Gōgen Yamaguchi, was a Japanese martial artist and student of Goju-ryu  Karate under Chojun Miyagi. He was one of the most well-known karate-dō masters from Japan and he founded the International Karate-dō Goju Kai Association.

Prior to his death, Yamaguchi was decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1968 with the Ranjū-Hōshō, らんじゅほうしょう(藍綬褒章), the Blue Ribbon Medal of the fifth order of merit, for his enormous contribution to the spread worldwide of the Japanese martial arts. For many years he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records regarding his rank and achievements. According to an obituary: His name was a household word in Karate circles, and he appeared in all the major Martial Arts magazines and publications, both in Japan and the western world.