Echizen Kanehiro (fss-789)

This beautiful Tanto comes in a very nice polish. The hamon is extremely subtle with a Notare/gunome based in suguha temper. This blade was made in the Echizen/shimosaka style from the shinto era. The hada is a masame mix with mokume and very finely done. The sword shows off the blades fine qualities in a very clear sashikomi polish. The blade is in HIRA-ZUKURI shape.

This blade from the Shinto era comes in shirasaya with an ivory mekugi-ana ringlet and is in a fine Japanese polish. The work on this sword is very elegant. In the hamon you can see tsunagashi and kinsuji with a well defined habuchi with some ko-nie to frost the top and also in the valleys there is much Nie to be seen.. The hada is well forged with some masame running here and there mixed with itame. The style is that of Hira-zukuri. A quality of hada called Echizen-gane which was indicative of this school can be found on this blade.

The blade is signed: Echizen-no kuni-Shimosaka-Kanehiro

From the later Muromachi period onwards, Mino province saw a steady outflow of swordsmiths, a trend that saw its peak in the Momoyama and early Edo period. Reason was for the most part the then significant demand for swords and thus local daimyô began to recruit famous masters to work for them on their lands. Mino blades, or Seki blades in particular, were regarded as being durable and sharp and so a downright wave of migration of Mino/Seki swordsmiths can be seen, especially in the neighboring provinces of Owari and Echizen. As for Echizen, the province also gave a new home to many formerly Ômi-based Shimosaka smiths, thus we use classifications like “Echizen-Seki” and “Echizen-Shimosaka” to refer to these two different currents. The “trend-setters” of the Echizen-Seki group were first and foremost the Tenbun-era (1532-1555) Kanenori and the two Keichô-era 1596-1615) masters Kanenori and Kanetsune .