Minamoto no Masao

Lineage and Career

Minamoto no Masao, also known as Suzuki Masao, was a swordsmith of the late Edo Period. He was a native of Mino Province (southern present-day Gifu Prefecture), and his given name was Suzuki Jirō. He moved to Edo, lived in Shitaya Okachimachi (near present-day Ueno, Taitō Ward, Tokyo), and was a skilled smith who studied under Minamoto Kiyomaro, whose skill stood out even among the smiths of the shinshintō period. His master Kiyomaro is counted, together with Suishinshi Masahide and Taikei Naotane, as one of the Edo Sansaku (Three Great Smiths of Edo).

Work in Hakodate

In 1857, when the Tokugawa shogunate began building the Goryōkaku fortress and an ironworks at Hakodate (present-day Hakodate, Hokkaido), Masao was invited by the Hakodate magistrate, Hori Oribe no shō. He crossed over to Hakodate and forged swords there. His forging in Hakodate took place from 1858 to 1860 and is well known. Works of this period are said to have used iron sand produced around Hakodate. As a smith who forged swords from Ezo materials, this period forms a distinctive phase of Masao's career.

Style

Masao's work is distinctive even within the Kiyomaro school, characterized by a shallow curvature, a broad blade width, and an extended, strong kissaki. He tempered midare hamon in the Sōshū-den style, centered on rough nie, and was particularly skilled at low-set hamon in large gunome-midare with squared-off peaks.

A katana signed Minamoto no Masao, dated the eighth month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), is held by the Touken World Foundation and was designated as a Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken (Especially Worthy of Preservation). It measures 70.3 cm in length with 1 cm of curvature. A late-Edo shinshintō work, it inherits the style of his master Kiyomaro while showing Masao's own character.

Reputation

Masao's working period was short, from about 1853 to 1866, and his surviving works are considered precious. His signatures are all remarkably fluent, and he is said to have been exceptionally skilled at writing. The year of his death is not known in detail. Hayama Enshin, who was active in the Meiji Period, was his pupil. In the shinshintō rankings he is counted among the jōsaku. As one of the representative smiths of the Kiyomaro school, he carried on his master's bold style, and he is also notable for forging swords in Hakodate during the construction of Goryōkaku.