* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Futasujihi Sadamune
二筋樋貞宗
Also known as: Osaka Sadamune
Description
Sadamune's masterwork with twin grooves
The Futasujihi Sadamune is an uchigatana by Sadamune, who brought the Sōshū tradition to its height. Almost no reliably signed Sadamune blades survive, and this one too is unsigned, having been shortened (ō-suriage). It takes its name from the two parallel grooves (futasuji-hi) cut through the ridge on both faces, together with carved Sanskrit characters. The steel shows a tightly forged itame grain, and the temper line is a suguha-based pattern mixed with small gunome and notare, ranking it among Sadamune's representative works. It measures 2 shaku 3 sun 1.5 bu (about 70.3 cm).
From Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the Echizen Matsudaira
The blade was once owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, hence its alternate name "Osaka Sadamune." After his death it passed to Yūki Hideyasu and then to his son Matsudaira Tadanao, lord of Echizen, who is said to have received it from the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada as a reward for his service in the summer campaign of Osaka in 1615. It subsequently descended in the Echizen Matsudaira house and is recorded in the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō, compiled in 1721.
Designation and present whereabouts
Having passed through several owners in the modern era, it was designated an Important Cultural Property on 14 November 1953. It is now held in a private collection.
Legends & Stories
A reward for the summer campaign of Osaka
Variant texts of the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō record that Matsudaira Tadanao received this blade as a reward for his service in the 1615 summer campaign of Osaka. Its alternate name, "Osaka Sadamune," recalling that it once belonged to Hideyoshi in Osaka Castle, is a reminder of how a meibutsu's name could shift with the rise and fall of the house that held it.
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