Tachi Signed Yamato Norinaga saku

A Signed Work by the Founder of the Shikkake School

In Kamakura-period Yamato Province (present-day Nara Prefecture), five schools of swordsmithing arose — Senjuin, Taima, Shikkake, Hōshō and Tegai — known collectively as the Yamato Gokaden, or Five Schools of Yamato. All of them grew up serving the demand of the warrior-monks attached to the great temples and shrines of Nara. Norinaga, the maker of this blade, is regarded as the effective founder of the Shikkake school; works survive bearing dates corresponding to 1319 and 1340.

This tachi has a cutting edge of 73.3 cm. It shows the sturdy construction typical of the Yamato tradition, with a high shinogi ridge and a broad shinogi-ji. The hamon is based on suguha mixed with small gunome, with tobiyaki appearing in places. Among Yamato blades — made above all for hard use — it is highly regarded for the quality of both its steel and its temper line.

Provenance

The blade was originally transmitted at Tanzan Shrine in Yamato Province (Sakurai, Nara Prefecture). Records show that in 1885 the shrine presented it to Emperor Meiji. It later changed hands and is today held by the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture.

Designation

The blade is designated an Important Cultural Property in the crafts category. Signed works by Norinaga are limited in number, and among the Yamato Five Schools the Shikkake school has left particularly few surviving blades, so this tachi serves as one of the benchmark works for verifying the Yamato style.