Bingo Tradition

Bingo Province (present-day eastern Hiroshima Prefecture) lies in the central part of the Chūgoku region and has long been a key transport hub linking the San'yōdō and San'indō roads. Facing the Inland Sea, Bingo also had good maritime transport and functioned as a corridor through which goods, people, and culture of western Japan passed. These geographic conditions gave Bingo's sword culture an openness that allowed it to absorb technical influences from both the San'yōdō and San'indō directions.

Bingo smiths first appear clearly in the historical record in the late Kamakura period. Because Bingo Province had long been a manor of the great temples of Yamato, Bingo smiths were strongly influenced by Yamato smiths. Among Bingo smiths were Kokubunji Sukekuni, whose activity dates back to the late Kamakura period, and the Bingo Mihara school (Mihara-ha), whose founder was Masaie. The latter, centered on Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, achieved its greatest development as a group of smiths during the Nanboku-chō to Muromachi periods.

The greatest feature of the Mihara school lies in the style of its hamon. Rather than the chōji-midare and gunome-midare for which the Bizen-den was known, the distinctive expression of the Mihara school is a style based mainly on suguha, in the lineage of the Yamato-den, with fine komidare and ko-ashi mixed in. Although this suguha may look simple at first glance, controlling the subtle variations within it, such as changes in the number, length, and manner of appearance of the ashi, requires advanced technique.

The jigane is a fine mokume-hada, also called Mihara-hada, and pieces in which the half of the flat surface nearer the shinogi appears white are also said to show the Mihara no wake no kitae. The jihada is mostly relatively calm and well ordered, embodying the Mihara school's aesthetic that values refinement over showiness. The taihai (overall form) is mostly characterized by shallow sori and well-formed shapes, showing a balance between practicality and refinement.

Around the time of the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Mihara-mono were reputed to cut well, and the name of Mihara spread throughout the country. In the Kaihō Kenjaku (Kansei 9 (1797)), written by Yamada Asaemon in the Edo period, Masaie of around the Ōei era is listed among the saijō ō-wazamono in the wazamono table.

The Mihara region was a major production center of Mihara-mono from the late Kamakura period to the early Edo period. Even today, the fine works of the Mihara school, known as Mihara-mono, form a distinct category in Japanese sword appraisal, and they are being reassessed as hidden masterpieces among regional swords.