* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro
津田越前守助広
Also known as: Second-generation Sukehiro; Kaku-Tsuda; Maru-Tsuda; originator of the toranba temper
Description
Master of the Osaka Shinto School
Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro was an early Edo-period swordsmith born in Settsu Province in 1637. He became the adopted son of the first-generation Sukehiro, commonly known as Soboro Sukehiro, learned forging under him, and received the honorary title Echizen no Kami in 1657. He later entered the service of Aoyama Muneshun, the keeper of Osaka Castle, and became the representative master of the Osaka shinto school. He is ranked among the very finest shinto smiths and his blades are classed as great cutters.
The Invention of Toranba
What made Sukehiro's name immortal was the toranba, the "billowing wave" temper pattern he himself devised. Likened to great waves surging in and drawing back, this hamon gives roundness to the crests of a broadly undulating notare, producing a magnificent effect with a deep nioi mouth and abundant nie. The style strongly influenced his contemporaries in Osaka and was inherited in turn by smiths of the later shinshinto period. It may fairly be called one of the great inventions in the history of the Japanese temper line.
Kaku-Tsuda and Maru-Tsuda
Sukehiro varied the manner of his signature throughout his life, and this serves as a guide to dating his work. From about the age of twenty-two to thirty he signed with the prefixes Minamoto or Fujiwara; from thirty-one to thirty-eight he cut the character "tsu" in an angular regular script, known as Kaku-Tsuda; and from thirty-eight to forty-six he cut it in a rounded cursive manner, known as Maru-Tsuda.
Reputation and Surviving Work
Sukehiro died in 1682 at the age of only forty-six. Despite his short life he is said to have left some 1,700 blades, outstanding in both range and quality. He is called a yokozuna of shinto swordsmithing alongside Horikawa Yasusada of Edo, and together with Inoue Shinkai of Osaka he receives the highest evaluation as one of the two great figures of the Osaka shinto school. Collaborative blades by the two men survive, testifying to the vitality of the Osaka forges of the day.
Legends & Stories
The toranba temper Sukehiro devised is said to render in the hamon the surge and retreat of ocean waves. In a life of only forty-six years he is held to have forged some 1,700 blades, and he was ranked with Inoue Shinkai of Osaka as one of the two great figures of the Osaka shinto school. Collaborative blades by the pair still survive, testimony to a relationship between two supreme masters who competed with and yet acknowledged one another.