One of the true masters of Keicho Shinto. This smith can be found in most books and especially the ” Masters of Keicho Shinto by Markus Sesko “.. There is an outstanding gunome midare hamon. The hamon has an abundant amount of hataraki/activity and in a fresh polish will stand out beautifully. There are many tobyaki/yubashiri above the hamon. The hada is very clear and has a milky appearance and is well forged.  This is mounted in shirasaya with silver rain storm style habaki.   This sword is from an old collection and is papered to Den Masanori.

Masanori was from the Yamada (山田) family and signed his name in early years with the characters (正法). He came originally from Miyatsu (宮津) in Tango province and was a late smith of the lineage of SanjōYoshinori (吉則). Via a stopover in Yamashiro, he moved to Fukui (福井) in Echizen province where he became a student of Kanenori (兼法). We know date signatures from the 13th year of Keichō(1608) to the fourth year of Keian (慶安, 1651). He had one successor who moved later to Edo. Although Masanori was mostly active somewhat later than Keichō, his early works are nevertheless interpreted in Keichō-shintōstyle. We can see a strong resemblance to Mino, or to be precise to Sue-Seki and Kanefusa (兼房) in his works, but certain blades remind of Hizen Tadahiro, Echizen Yasutsugu, or of the Horikawa school.

A fine example of the older style blades this sword is polished and mounted in shirasaya “. A fresh polish would greatly enhance the value of the blade as well as accentuate the hada and hamon activity.The hamon is a wonderfully active Gunome midare with a hada of itame. Many hataraki can be seen within the hamon. Therer is a nice older silver habaki. The blade appears ubu but shortened a little bit at the machi possibly but could be ubu. There are 2 holes in the tang from prior mountings.