This is a flawless incredible Koto era O-Tanto from the Shimada School.  The horimono is very well made and comes with papers and shirasaya with a Tanobe Sensei’s sayagaki.  This is an exquisite blade for any collector. Below is information on the Shimada school to appreciate this item even better.

The Shimada school, founded by Yoshisuke, thrived in Shimada of Suruga Province from the middle of the Muromachi Period and the smith name of Yoshisuke was succeeded to until the Edo Period. ‘Koto Mei Zukushi’ says that the first generation of Yoshisuke was active in the Kosho Era and the second generation in the Meio Era. As far as I know, the Eisho is the earliest production date of Yoshisuke. Sukemune was a son of 1^st Yoshisuke and it is believed that there were two or three generations. Hirosuke was a student of 3^rd Yoshisuke. The Shimada school includes many smiths. Amongst them, Yoshisuke, Sukemune and Hirosuke are the representative smiths of the school and we can see many extant works of them today. Yoshisuke tempers notare mixed with gunome, o-notare, gunome-midare, ko-midare and sugu-ha (tanto). His workmanship resembles to that of the Sue-Seki and the Sengo schools. The Shimada school also tempers hitatsura similar to that of Sue-Soshu smiths. 1^st Yoshisuke was the most skilful smith of the school, followed by Hirosuke. Hirosuke makes sugata with wide mi-haba and extended kissaki then tempers o-midare, which looks like sugata of the Nambokucho Period. Sukemune was inferior to Hirosuke in skill. Some smiths of the school were retained by the Takeda family of Kai Province (one of the most powerful warlords in the Sengoku Period). There is an extant work of Yoshisuke with the production date of Eisho 3 and the inscription of ‘Takeda Iau no Kami Ason’ (‘Shoji-mei’ or the name of owner) also of Hirosuke with the production date of Eiroku 2 and the inscription of ‘Taira no Ason Hara Mino Nyudo Shoji Kore’. There is a famous tanto nicknamed ‘Osoraku-zukuri’ by Sukemune and owned by Katagiri Katsumno. Four hiragana of ‘O So Ra Ku’ are carved on the tanto and it means ‘Perhaps’ (Perhaps, no tanto in this shape could exist.). Nagasone Kotetsu copied this osoraku-zukuri (wakizashi).

Suruga (Sunshu) province is next to Sagami (Soshu) province along the

Tokaido road. The major swordsmiths are Yoshisuke, Hirosuke and Sukemune.

All these smiths lived in the Shimada region. The Yoshisuke

line served the Imagawa family in Suruga for many. Their existing work

closely resembles that of sue-Soshu swordsmiths such as Hiromasa and

Tsunahiro. There are signed examples of both the second and third generation

.

From the Nihonto Koza

KEIZU OF SHIMADA YOSHISUKE KEI 島田義助系

YOSHISUKE 義助: Around KÔSHÔ 康正 (1455-1457).

[TN: His common name was KEIKIN

YOSHISUKE 義助: Around EISHÔ 永正 (1504-1521).

YOSHISUKE 義助: Around TENMON 天文 (1532-1535).

HIROSUKE 広助: Around KÔJI 弘治 (1555-1558).

KUNISUKE 国助: Around TENSHÔ 天正 (1573-1592).

TERUYOSHI 輝吉: Around KÔJI 弘治 (1555-1558).

He also inscribed HIROSUKE 広助.

TERUSUKE 輝助: No remarks.

SUKEMITSU 助光: No remarks.

YOSHITSUNA 義綱: Around TENMON 天文 (1532-1535).

SADAHIRO 定広: Around TENMON 天文 (1532-1535).

YASUHIRO 康広: Around EIROKU 永禄 (1558-1570).

HIROTSUGU 広次: Around TENMON 天文 (1532-1535).

TERUHIRO 輝広: Around TENMON 天文 (1532-1535).