Description

Kanesada was a lineage of swordsmiths based in Seki, Mino Province (present-day Seki City, Gifu Prefecture), whose name was carried on through successive generations from the founder. Among them, the second-generation Kanesada was a master active from around 1493 to 1526 in the late Muromachi period, whose personal name was Kichiemon-no-jō. According to the touken-world.jp directory, the second-generation Kanesada is regarded, alongside Magoroku Kanemoto, as one of the twin pillars representing the Seki swordsmiths.

Because the second-generation Kanesada wrote the character for "sada" using the variant form "㝎," he is popularly known as "Nosada" to distinguish him from other smiths named Kanesada. There are various theories as to whether he was the natural son or an adopted heir of the first-generation Kanesada, and one tradition holds that he was born in Kai Province before moving to Seki.

Nosada's blades display a bold, practical shape with a wide body, thin body thickness (kasane), and an elongated point (kissaki). The steel combines itame with masame grain and shows pronounced shirake utsuri (a pale shadowy reflection). The hamon is distinguished by a togari-gunome pattern reminiscent of a row of cedar trees, and some works display a playful side, bearing cutting-test inscriptions (saidan-mei) or engraved nine-character Buddhist invocations (kuji).

Nosada's work was ranked at the very top, Saijō Ōwazamono, in Edo-period sword-rating texts such as the Kaihō Kenjaku and Kokon Kaji Bikō, and thanks to its renowned sharpness came to be called "Senryō Kanesada" (thousand-ryō Kanesada) in the Edo period for the high prices it commanded. Representative works include the cutting-test-inscribed blade "Sasa no Tsuyu" and the cross-bladed spear "Ningen Mukotsu," said to have been favored by Kimura Shigenari of the Toyotomi clan. Nosada's blades were widely favored by Sengoku-period warlords, and were owned by figures such as Kimura Shigenari and Mori Nagayoshi of the Oda clan.