Izumi no Kami Kanesada

Izumi no Kami Kanesada — The Kanesada Name and the Eleventh-Generation Aizu Kanesada

Izumi no Kami Kanesada is both a sword signature and the name of swordsmiths. The best known are the second-generation Kanesada (known as "Nosada"), active at Seki in Mino Province (present-day Seki, Gifu Prefecture) in the Muromachi period, and the eleventh-generation Aizu Kanesada, active in the Aizu Domain at the end of the Edo period. Nosada is covered on this site's smith page "Kanesada (Nosada)"; this page focuses on the eleventh-generation Aizu Kanesada, known as the maker of the sword carried by Hijikata Toshizō, vice-commander of the Shinsengumi.

The Aizu Kanesada Line

A branch of the Kanesada family of Seki moved to Aizu, and from the Momoyama period to the end of the Edo period it made swords there for eleven generations. This line is called Aizu Kanesada (the Furukawa family).

The Eleventh-Generation Aizu Kanesada

The eleventh generation was born in Aizu-Wakamatsu on the 13th day of the 12th month of Tenpō 8 (January 8, 1838) and served the Aizu Domain from Kaei 5 (1852). He at first signed "Kanemoto" (兼本), but in the 12th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863) he received the title Izumi-no-kami and changed his signature to "Kanesada". From Meiji 2 (1869) to Meiji 7 (1874) he forged at Kamo in Echigo, and his works of this period are called "Kamo-uchi". In Meiji 25 (1892) he presented a sword to the Crown Prince, and he died in Tokyo in Meiji 36 (1903) at the age of 67.

Hijikata Toshizō's Izumi no Kami Kanesada

The Hijikata Toshizō Museum in Hino, Tokyo, holds the sword by the eleventh-generation Aizu Kanesada known as Hijikata's own. It is inscribed "Keiō 3, 2nd month" on one side of the tang and "Izumi no Kami Kanesada" on the other, and has a blade length of 70.3 centimeters. In 1965 (Shōwa 40) it was designated a tangible cultural property of Hino City as the "katana signed Izumi no Kami Kanesada". How the sword returned to Hijikata's family home in Hino after his death in battle is unclear, as no reliable record has been found.

A letter written by Kondō Isami in the 10th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), however, mentions an "Izumi no Kami Kanesada, two shaku eight sun" long. Because the eleventh generation received the title Izumi-no-kami only in the 12th month of that year, and because the length does not match the surviving sword, Hijikata is thought to have also owned a blade by the second-generation Izumi no Kami Kanesada (Nosada). Shiba Ryōtarō's novel Moeyo Ken portrays Hijikata's Kanesada as a work of Nosada, but this is regarded as a fictional device of the novel.