This is a beautiful example of a Kai Mihara blade. The blade is Shobu-zukiri in shape with gomabashi horimono. The Hada is a beautifully rendered itame loaded with ji-nie and well worked throughout masame can also be seen. The hamon is a gunome-midare and very bright.a stout looking blade with incredible workmanship.

While Osafune smiths were thriving in Bizen Province, there were a few prominent smith of the Aoe school in Bitchu Province in this period. ‘Meikan’ lists the smith names of Ietsugu, Kagetsugu, Hidetsugu, Moritsugu, Kunitsugu and Munetsugu as well as some smiths who were active after the Oei and Eikyo Eras.

There is a school called ‘Mihara’ in Bingo Province of which the smiths were active from previous period. The school includes a considerable number of smiths, but there are few distinguished smiths and their workmanship does not show peculiarity so much.　Also there is a term of ‘Kai-Mihara’ which it is used for the smiths of the school who were active in the end of the Muromachi Period, for instance ‘Mihara Ju Kai Masazane’. They tempered chu-sugu-ha with few hataraki, occasionally o-midare based on gunome and forge whitish jigane. There are extant works of Masaoku, Masazane and Masanao.

The blade is with koshirae. There are shishi menuki and matching fuchi/kashira. the habaki is silver foiled with a cloud design. The saya is a black lacquer finish with a rust colored sageo and brown tsuka-ito. the tsuba is of iron with a floral leaf pattern design. All in all a great piece to study and will provide many hours of viewership and pleasure.