Fujishima Tomoshige

Fujishima Tomoshige and the Fujishima School

Fujishima Tomoshige was a swordsmith active from the late Kamakura period into the Nanboku-chō period. He was from Fujishima in Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture) and studied under Rai Kunitoshi in Kyoto. Around Shōwa 1 (1312) he is said to have moved to Kaga, where he became the founder of the Kashū (Kaga) Fujishima school. Since ancient times Echizen has been a key traffic junction on the Hokurikudō highway. In the Kamakura period there were early stirrings of sword production there, but in Tomoshige's era sword production in Echizen and Kaga achieved full-scale development.

Tomoshige's era was a time of turmoil in the Nanboku-chō wars, and Echizen was also shaken by the fighting. In Kaga, the province neighboring Echizen, which had been the stage of the conflict between Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada, Tomoshige established sword manufacturing as a local industry. He also developed an individual style that inherited the techniques of the Rai school, descended from the Rai Kunitoshi lineage. This shows that, amid the wide circulation of information and technology, provincial smiths were digesting the work of renowned central schools.

Style and Jigane

The distinctive features of Tomoshige's blades are notare combined with gunome, ko-chōji and togari-gokoro, with bright nioiguchi and abundant ko-nie. This inherits the work of the Rai Kunitoshi lineage and Rai school-style work, and Tomoshige's sensibility and technical skill in developing it as a provincial smith in Echizen and Kaga are worthy of special mention.

The jigane is itame-nagare and tends toward ō-hada, with ji-nie thickly present overall. Compared directly with renowned central schools, it falls short in some respects in the fineness of its jigane. However, his achievement of a bright, moist jigane beauty as a provincial smith has been highly valued. In quenching, control of the hardened width is difficult and requires advanced control of the fire, grounded in experience. The fact that Tomoshige achieved this in the provinces proves his independent technical accomplishment.

Shape and Characteristics of the Tachi Form

Tomoshige's tachi are based on the large-bodied construction characteristic of the Nanboku-chō period. Many are wide in the body (mihaba) with firm kasane, and show a "uniform blade form" with relatively little difference between the motohaba and sakihaba. This form, which might be called "rugged, balanced beauty," is considered to reflect the practical weapon demand of the Hokuriku region. It was also an era in which demand for ōdachi and nagamaki was high.

Some works feature carved decoration (horimono). In addition to bōhi, bonji and sword carvings are known. These are understood to carry Buddhist and magical connotations, and to have answered the religious demand of the temple and shrine powers and warrior families of Hokuriku.

Position in Hokuriku Sword History

After Tomoshige, smiths of the same name continued in the Fujishima school into the late Muromachi period, forming the foundation of sword production in Kaga. In that sense Tomoshige is an indispensable figure in discussing the sword history of Echizen and Kaga, and he is positioned as a smith who early on showed the potential of the later sword culture of Hokuriku. Extant works include the Important Art Object at the Kyoto National Museum, the tachi signed "Fujishima Tomoshige," and the Fukui Prefecture Designated Cultural Property, the tachi signed "Fujishima" (held by the Fukui Prefectural Museum of History). These convey Tomoshige's technical accomplishment to the present day.

TOUKENZA and Fujishima Tomoshige

TOUKENZA covers Fujishima Tomoshige in order to convey the richness of regional sword culture that spreads beyond the framework of the centers of the Gokaden (Yamashiro, Yamato, Bizen, Sōshū, Mino). Tomoshige's works, in which he made Rai school-style work his own in Echizen and Kaga, embody the important theme of Japanese sword history: the regional reception and transformation of central techniques. Its bright, moist style continues to have a direct appeal for modern viewers.