Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art (Maeda Ikutoku Foundation Sonkeikaku Library Branch)

The Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art is a comprehensive art museum representing Ishikawa Prefecture. Its predecessor, the Ishikawa Museum of Art, opened in 1959 (Shōwa 34), and the museum moved into its current building in 1983 (Shōwa 58). The museum houses the Sonkeikaku Bunko Annex of the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation, which permanently displays the Foundation's collection, centered on the heritage of the Maeda family of Kaga Domain. This makes it an extremely important destination for Japanese sword enthusiasts.

The Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation is an incorporated foundation established in 1926 (Taishō 15) by Maeda Toshinari, the 16th head of the Maeda family, who ruled the 1,000,000-koku Kaga Domain throughout the Edo period. Its original name was Ikutoku Zaidan. The Foundation has managed and preserved to this day the art objects, armor, and documents that generations of the Maeda family kept in their collection. The collection includes many National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, and its sword department is known as the finest collection in Japan.

National Treasure and Tenka Goken: “Ōdenta Mitsuyo”

The long sword inscribed “Mitsuyo saku (meibutsu Ōdenta)” held by the Sonkeikaku Bunko is one of the National Treasure swords famed as the Tenka Goken (Five Greatest Swords under Heaven). It is believed to have been forged in the late Heian period (11th century) by the smith Mitsuyo (Miike Mitsuyo) of Miike in Chikugo Province. As a sword with spiritual power, it was regarded as the foremost treasure of the Maeda family. It is said to have passed from the Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave it to Maeda Toshiie, the first lord of Kaga Domain. Since then, it has been kept under strict care for more than 400 years as a family treasure of the Maeda family.

National Treasure: “Tomita Gō”

The unsigned katana attributed to Gō Yoshihiro (meibutsu Tomita Gō) is also designated as a National Treasure. It is highly regarded as a masterpiece by Gō Yoshihiro of Etchū Province, a master smith of the Nanboku-chō period (Gō Yoshihiro is also spelled with a different character for Gō). The name “Tomita Gō” derives from its former owner, Tomita Ippaku, a senior retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It is said to have passed to the Maeda family in Keichō 3 (1598).

Important Cultural Property: “Maeda Tōshirō”

The short sword inscribed “Yoshimitsu (meibutsu Maeda Tōshirō)” is an Important Cultural Property attributed to Tōshirō Yoshimitsu, a master of the Awataguchi school in Kyoto during the Kamakura period. It was handed down for a long time as a collection piece of the Maeda family, and it conveys the sharpness and dignity characteristic of Yoshimitsu's short swords to this day.

The special exhibition “Famous Swords of the Maeda Family of Kaga Domain: Ōdenta Mitsuyo, Treasure of the Tenka Goken, Comes to Ishikawa,” held from March 26 to May 26, 2024 (Reiwa 6), commemorated the opening of the entire prefectural section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen. The three swords Ōdenta Mitsuyo, Tomita Gō, and Maeda Tōshirō were displayed together for the first time in 57 years.

At the Sonkeikaku Bunko Annex of the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation, crafts, paintings, documents, and other works from the Foundation are exhibited on a rotating basis, and swords are also shown for limited periods. Because of the significance of Ōdenta Mitsuyo to the Maeda family, it is displayed only once every few years.