Senko Masazane

Senko Masazane was a swordsmith of the Sengo school active in Kuwana, Ise Province (present-day Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture) during the late Muromachi period. He belonged to the same school as Muramasa, famed for the legend of his "cursed blades," and is ranked among the school's finest smiths, immediately after Muramasa and Masashige.

Lineage

The Sengo school was the largest swordsmithing group in Ise, founded when Muramasa, having trained in Mino, relocated to Kuwana and formed his own workshop. Masazane was a senior disciple of the school, and one genealogy records him as a son of the second-generation Masashige. His signatures include "Masazane," "Sengo Masazane," and "Fujiwara Masazane," and surviving works include spears and tantō as well as swords.

Representative Works

The work that most firmly preserves Masazane's name is Inoshishigiri ("the boar cutter"), the favored blade of Sakai Tadatsugu, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa. The name comes from an episode in which Tadatsugu, hunting with the young Tokugawa Ieyasu, cut down a wild boar with this Sengo Masazane blade; the characters for "Inoshishigiri" were subsequently inlaid in gold on the tang. The sword is said to have been handed down in the household of Tadatsugu's seventh son, Matsudaira Jinzaburō.

Tonbokiri, the celebrated spear of Honda Tadakatsu and one of the Three Great Spears of Japan, is also attributed to Fujiwara Masazane. This large sasaho-style spear takes its name from the tale that a dragonfly alighting on its point was cut in two, and it is widely cited as evidence of Masazane's skill.

Style

His work shows the practical, cutting-oriented character common to the Sengo school as a whole. Many blades bear a box-like gunome or notare hamon, often displaying the school's characteristic matching of the temper pattern on both faces of the blade. The jigane is a tightly forged itame, and the sugata has the sakizori curvature typical of the late Muromachi period.

Reputation

While Muramasa's name became bound up with legends of blades cursed against the Tokugawa house, Masazane is remembered instead as the maker of Inoshishigiri and Tonbokiri — weapons that symbolize the martial deeds of Ieyasu's retainers. He stands as the smith whose surviving masterpieces concretely attest to the technical level of the Sengo school.