* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Futasujihi Sadamune
二筋樋貞宗
Also known as: Osaka Sadamune
- Smith
- Sadamune (Sōshū tradition)
- Era
- Late Kamakura – Nanbokuchō period
- Type
- Uchigatana (katana)
- Designation
- Important Cultural Property (designated 14 November 1953)
- Location
- Nitroplus Co., Ltd.
Description
Sadamune's Representative Work with Two Grooves
The Futasujihi Sadamune is an uchigatana by Sadamune, who brought the Sōshū tradition to maturity. Few of Sadamune's works with reliable signatures survive, and this blade is also unsigned because it was greatly shortened (ō-suriage). It takes its name from the two grooves (futasuji-hi) cut into the shinogi-ji on both faces. The steel shows a well-compacted itame grain, and the hamon is a notare mixed with small ko-gunome. It is counted among Sadamune's representative works. Blade length: 2 shaku 3 sun 1 bu 5 rin (about 70.1 cm).
From Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the Echizen Matsudaira
The blade was owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which is why it is also known by the alternate name "Osaka Sadamune." It was later said to have been received by Yūki Hideyasu. It is also said that his son, Matsudaira Tadanao, lord of Echizen, received it from the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, as a reward for his military service in the summer campaign of Osaka in 1615. From then on it was passed down in the Echizen Matsudaira family and was recorded in the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō, compiled in 1719 (Kyōhō 4).
Designation and Present Whereabouts
After passing through various owners in the modern era, it was designated an Important Cultural Property on 14 November 1953 (Shōwa 28). It is currently owned by Nitroplus Co., Ltd.
Legends & Stories
A Reward for the Summer Campaign of Osaka
The biography of Tadanao contained in the Ittekishū Bassho records that Matsudaira Tadanao received this blade as a reward for his service in the summer campaign of Osaka. The name "Osaka Sadamune," derived from the blade having been at Osaka Castle, the seat of the Toyotomi family, is a typical example of how a meibutsu's name changed along with the rise and fall of the family that held it.
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