Sanjō Yoshinori

三条吉則

Period

Mid-Muromachi period

School

Sanjō school

Active Years

15th century (mid to late Muromachi period)

Tradition

Yamashiro tradition

Description

The Sanjō school of the Muromachi period

Sanjō Yoshinori was a Yamashiro swordsmith who lived at Sanjō in Kyoto during the Muromachi period and is the representative figure of the lineage that carried the Sanjō name to later ages. The Sanjō school comprises an old line tracing back to the Heian-period Sanjō Munechika and the Yoshinori lineage that flourished on Sanjō Street in the Muromachi period; the two are separated by a great span of time. Yoshinori is said to have continued for several generations and was known as a master of Kyoto work from the mid- to late Muromachi period.

Style

Yoshinori's work is fundamentally a refined, well-ordered execution: the fine, beautiful jigane characteristic of Kyoto work, with a composed hamon of suguha or ko-midare. He also left careful work in tantō and wakizashi.

Surviving works and designations

Very few works of the Yoshinori line survive; the "Tachi, signed Yoshinori" handed down in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture (kept at the Naegi Tōyama Historical Museum), is the only one designated an Important Cultural Property. As a Yamashiro smith of the Muromachi period, he is the most renowned among the smiths who succeeded to the Sanjō name.