Antique Japanese Katana Sword with Gold Shishi Menuki and Iron Tsuba, Attributed to Sue-Seki — NBTHK Hozon

• Signature (Mei): Mumei (無銘) - unsigned
• Attribution: Sue-Seki (末関) - late-Muromachi Seki school, per NBTHK kantei
• Certificate: NBTHK Hozon Kanteishō No. 3037363 (Reiwa 7 / 2025)
• Type: Katana
• Period / Province: Late Muromachi Period (Sengoku, 16th century) / Mino Province
• School / Tradition: Seki (Mino-den)
• Mounting: Black lacquer koshirae with iron tsuba and gold shishi menuki
• Blade Length (Nagasa): 63.6 cm (2 shaku 1 sun)
• Curvature (Sori): 2.3 cm - deep Sengoku-period curve
• Mekugi-ana: 2
• Shape: Shinogi-zukuri with iori-mune and chū-kissaki
• Jihada: Itame mixed with mokume, tending to masame in places
• Hamon: Gunome-midare with togari (pointed) and notare, in nioi with ko-nie
• Boshi: Midare-komi

This Katana is a mumei (unsigned) work attributed by the NBTHK, in a current Hozon appraisal (Reiwa 7 / 2025), to Sue-Seki (末関) - the Seki school of Mino Province in the late Muromachi period. It is a genuine Kotō blade of the Sengoku era, the age of Japan's great civil wars, when Seki was the country's most productive sword-making centre.

The sugata tells that story directly: a shinogi-zukuri with iori-mune, a chū-kissaki, and a pronounced 2.3 cm sori over a 63.6 cm blade - the deep, purposeful curve of a 16th-century battlefield katana built for cutting from horseback and in close combat. The blade is healthy and cleanly polished.

The workmanship is classic Mino-den. The jihada is an itame-mokume grain with a tendency to masame, and the hamon is a lively gunome-midare carrying the pointed togari peaks and rolling notare that mark Seki work, set in a bright nioiguchi with ko-nie and running into a midare-komi boshi. Being mumei and attributed, its name comes from the NBTHK's expert reading of these traits rather than from a signature - the normal and respected basis for classifying Sue-Seki blades, most of which left the Seki forges unsigned.

Koshirae Details

The old blade is dressed in a tasteful black Edo-period koshirae. The saya is finished in black urushi lacquer with a dark-blue sageo. The tsuba is a sober oval iron plate with a hammered tsuchime surface and dark patina - quiet, honest ironwork of the kind favoured for a serious fighting mount.

The fuchi is a dark soft-metal fitting with a nanako ground and a plum-blossom design highlighted in gilt, and the menuki beneath the wrap are finely modelled gold shishi (Chinese lion-dogs) among scrolling waves. The tsuka is bound in black silk ito over black-lacquered same in the traditional hineri-maki diamond pattern, and the blade seats into a plain brass habaki. A coherent, dignified mounting around a genuine Sengoku blade.

School History: Sue-Seki and the Mino Tradition

Seki, in Mino Province (today Gifu Prefecture), was the beating heart of Japanese sword production during the late Muromachi period. As the Sengoku wars drove demand to unprecedented levels, the Seki smiths of the Mino-den - one of the Gokaden, the five great traditions - supplied blades to warlords across the country. The term "Sue-Seki" (literally "late Seki") is how the NBTHK classifies work of this productive late-Muromachi Seki school when it is unsigned.

Mino-den workmanship is built for the cut: a firm itame-mokume jigane often showing masame, and an energetic gunome-midare temper with the school's characteristic pointed togari peaks. The greatest Seki names - Kanemoto, with his famous sanbonsugi, and the Kanesada line - were celebrated for blades of legendary sharpness. A Sue-Seki katana is a direct, authentic link to the warring-states samurai who carried exactly this kind of practical, hard-cutting Mino blade into battle - here documented by a current NBTHK Hozon paper.