Tanto: Mutsu No Kami Daido
Jidai: Late Koto
Mino School
This sword is by the Shodai Daido from the Mino School.
Probably most of you are not familiar with this smith, but he is regarded
as quite a good maker, and is very important historically. He worked in
the very late Muromachi-Keicho period, and is from the Mino tradition.
By judging from the hamon, it is apparent that this is a sword from the
Mino tradition. If you noticed the activity in the hamon as well as the
ji, you should have placed this sword in or around the late Koto period.
After noticing the well made jigane, you should have seen the ji-nie and
chikei that appears in the ji. This should have hinted to you that this
sword was made by a higher than average Mino smith. The hamon is done
in the Shizu style, copying that of the famous Shizu School from the Nanbokucho
period. Nie-deki Gunome with
Mixed with a little Notare-ba, the “feeling” is like of the Ujifusa
style of hamon. Early name is Kanemichi, changed to “O”Kanemichi when
he received the “O” or “Dai” kanji from the Emperor Ogimachi. Later he
called himself “Daido” and then received the title of “Mutsu No Kami”
in Tensho 2. It is also believed that he was the personal swordsmith to
Oda Nobunaga and the fact that he moved to Kyoto at the same time Nobunaga
established his residence in Kyoto seems to support this idea. There are
Juyo-Token by him, as well as joint effort works with Horikawa Kunihiro.
Rated as a Jo-saku smith, he trained many famous swordsmiths, many of which were his own sons. When you read the names of his sons, you will realize what a great smith Daido really was;
1st son: Iga No Kami Kinmichi
2nd son: Izumi No Kami Rai Kinmichi
3rd son: Tamba No Kami Yoshimichi
4th son: Etchu No Kami Masatoshi
As you can see from the list, the very core of the Shinto Mishina School came from Daido. By seeing Daido’s past achievements, one can see how he was a “pioneer” in the early days of the Shinto period.
Accompanied by a NTHK Kanteisho as genuine
