Osafune Kagemitsu

Osafune Kagemitsu was a swordsmith of the Osafune school who was active in Bizen Province (present-day Okayama Prefecture) from the late Kamakura period through the early period of the Northern and Southern Courts. He was the son of Chōmitsu, a master swordsmith of the Osafune school, and was the third generation of the legitimate line of Osafune continuing from the founder Mitsutada through Chōmitsu to Kagemitsu. He is traditionally called Sahyōe no jō, and numerous dated works spanning approximately thirty years from the Kahoku era through the Kemmu period remain. Because he is well-represented by dated, signed works, he is esteemed as an essential standard-setting smith for authenticating Bizen work from the end of the Kamakura period.

The supreme characteristic of his workmanship lies in his perfection of a distinctive slanting gunome hamon. This refined the gunome used by his father Chōmitsu with orderly sophistication, with each gunome sloping as if one side had a dropped shoulder in a unique composition, and the regularly connected appearance became Kagemitsu's trademark. The jigane consists of closely-packed small itame, praised as exceptionally refined even among Osafune smiths, and the conspicuous appearance of bō-utsuri (bar-like reflection) rising distinctly upward from above the habaki is another noteworthy feature. He is also known as a master of tōshin zōkoku (blade sculpture), particularly skillfully carving kurikara dragons, Sanskrit characters, and Jizō figures on tantō. His handling of katakiri-ba-zukuri tantō, which do not appear in his father Chōmitsu's work, is another distinguishing feature of Kagemitsu.

Several National Treasure tachi are attributed to him as representative works. The "Shōryū Kagemitsu" is a tachi bearing the signature "Bizen no kuni Osafune-jū Kagemitsu," dated to the Fifth Month of Genkyō 2 (1322), and is housed in the Tokyo National Museum. The name derives from a small kurikara dragon carving remaining above the habaki on the tang; it is traditionally transmitted as the sword of Kusunoki Masashige and is celebrated for its later provenance as a possession of the Meiji Emperor. The tantō "Kenshin Kagemitsu" is also a National Treasure, bearing the signature "Bishū Osafune-jū Kagemitsu" dated to the Third Month of Genkyō 3 (1323), with "Chichibu Daibosatsu" engraved on the obverse and the Sanskrit character kirīk on the reverse. It is a celebrated work traditionally transmitted as a sashizoe (side sword) of Uesugi Kenshin, and is housed in the Saitama Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore. Furthermore, tachi and tantō with clear dates are transmitted in various locations as Important Cultural Properties.

In terms of lineage, he inherited the legitimate line continuing from Mitsutada and Chōmitsu, and transmitted the inherited techniques to his son Kanemitsu. Along with his father Chōmitsu and uncle Sanchō, he is known as one of the "Osafune Sansaku" (Three Masters), and his superior technique in finishing the yaki-ba at the kissaki, known as "Sansaku bōshi," is highly regarded. Subsequently, he was positioned among the upper ranks of smiths through his innovation of slanting gunome and the excellence of his tōshin zōkoku. Because he left numerous certain dated, signed works, his pieces have been treasured to the present day as models for the study of Bizen tradition.