Hachiya Nagamitsu

Hachiya Nagamitsu is a kodachi (small tachi) forged by Nagamitsu, the founding master of the Bizen Osafune school and one of the leading swordsmiths of the mid-Kamakura period. The blade measures roughly 56 cm, with a maru-dome groove cut through on both sides and an inlaid patch (umegane) set into the front groove about one sun above the ha-machi. Originally forged with an inokubi-kissaki (boar-neck point), later resharpening that lowered the yokote has left the blade with an elongated point today. The steel and temper line preserve the sound, dependable quality characteristic of Nagamitsu's work. The name derives from a ronin surnamed Hachiya who is said to have owned the blade during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's era; Hideyoshi himself reportedly kept it as a makuragatana (a protective sword placed by his pillow while sleeping). It later passed through Hideyoshi's consort Matsu-no-maru to Kyōgoku Shuzen-no-shō Takamichi, and is recorded as having been given to Okudaira Tadamasa, lord of Nakatsu domain in Buzen Province. The Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō sword register lists it at a value of thirty gold sheets, a valuation reconfirmed by the Honami family's 1686 appraisal. It passed into private hands in the late Meiji era and received the old National Treasure designation (equivalent to today's Important Cultural Property) in 1934. It is now held by the Tokyo National Museum, where it is catalogued in the museum's collection database as the kodachi signed Nagamitsu, meibutsu Hachiya Nagamitsu.