{"product_id":"antique-japanese-katana-sword-by-tanba-no-kami-terukado-with-gold-lacquer-saya-iron-mokko-tsuba-and-notare-hamon-nbthk-hozon","title":"Antique Japanese Katana Sword by Tanba-no-kami Terukado with Gold Lacquer Saya, Iron Mokkō Tsuba and Notare Hamon - NBTHK Hozon","description":"\u003c!-- Katana 89 — mumei, attributed Tanba-no-kami Terukado 丹波守照門 — NBTHK Hozon 3036709 — Edo\/Shintō — Tokyo Nihonto --\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"product\"\u003e\u003cheader\u003e\u003c\/header\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"specs\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSignature (Mei):\u003c\/strong\u003e Mumei (unsigned) — attributed by the NBTHK to \u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e丹波守照門\u003c\/span\u003e Tanba-no-kami Terukado\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSwordsmith:\u003c\/strong\u003e Tanba-no-kami Fujiwara Terukado — leading Seki smith of the early Edo period\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSchool \/ Tradition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Zenjō lineage, Seki — Mino-den tradition\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePeriod \/ Province:\u003c\/strong\u003e Edo period, \u003cem\u003eShintō\u003c\/em\u003e — Mino Province (Seki, modern Gifu Prefecture)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCertificate:\u003c\/strong\u003e NBTHK Hozon Tōken (保存刀剣) No. 3036709 — issued 28 May Reiwa 7 (2025)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJapanese Registration (Tōroku-shō):\u003c\/strong\u003e Hyōgo Prefecture No. 6063 — originally issued 12 December Shōwa 26 (1951)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMounting:\u003c\/strong\u003e Complete katana koshirae — gold-speckled lacquer saya with same panel, cloisonné enamel fuchi-kashira, iron mokkō tsuba\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBlade Length (Nagasa):\u003c\/strong\u003e 70.9 cm (2 shaku 3 sun 4 bu)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCurvature (Sori):\u003c\/strong\u003e approx. 1.2 cm (4 bu) — shallow Kanbun-shintō curvature\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMekugi-ana:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShape (Sugata):\u003c\/strong\u003e Shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, chū-kissaki\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHamon:\u003c\/strong\u003e Notare with gunome mixed in, nioi-deki with a soft, luminous nioiguchi\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBoshi:\u003c\/strong\u003e Notare-komi with a rounded turnback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn \u003cstrong\u003eNBTHK Hozon-certified katana\u003c\/strong\u003e attributed to \u003cstrong\u003eTanba-no-kami Terukado\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the outstanding Seki smiths of the early Edo period. The blade measures a full \u003cstrong\u003e70.9 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e in nagasa with a shallow sori of roughly \u003cstrong\u003e1.2 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e. When the NBTHK names an individual smith on an unsigned blade rather than stopping at a school, it means the workmanship carried enough of that smith's specific character for the panel to identify the hand. In this case the name is unusually precise: Terukado was used by one man across a single generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003esugata\u003c\/em\u003e dates the blade on sight. A 70.9 cm nagasa with barely 1.2 cm of curvature and a compact \u003cem\u003echū-kissaki\u003c\/em\u003e is the \u003cstrong\u003eKanbun-shintō\u003c\/strong\u003e shape almost exactly — the near-straight, businesslike profile that dominated Japanese swordmaking in the 1660s and 1670s, when the drawing arts had displaced cavalry work and a blade was judged on how fast it came out of the saya and how cleanly it tracked. Terukado received his Tanba-no-kami title in 1659, placing him precisely in that generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003ehamon\u003c\/em\u003e is a flowing \u003cstrong\u003enotare\u003c\/strong\u003e with \u003cem\u003egunome\u003c\/em\u003e worked into it, executed in \u003cstrong\u003enioi-deki\u003c\/strong\u003e with a soft, luminous \u003cem\u003enioiguchi\u003c\/em\u003e that glows rather than glitters. The undulations are broad and unhurried, rising and falling in long intervals along the monouchi and tightening as they approach the yokote. It is a controlled, quietly confident temper — the work of a smith with nothing to prove, supplying men who could tell the difference. The \u003cem\u003eboshi\u003c\/em\u003e follows the hamon into the kissaki as \u003cstrong\u003enotare-komi\u003c\/strong\u003e and turns back roundly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blade is in good polish, healthy in the ji and readable end to end. The nakago carries two mekugi-ana and an even dark patina consistent with its age and long documented life in Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"koshirae\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKoshirae Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mounting is the most immediately arresting thing about this sword, and it is a genuinely sophisticated assembly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003esaya\u003c\/strong\u003e is lacquered in a dense \u003cstrong\u003egold speckle\u003c\/strong\u003e — a warm ochre field flecked throughout, catching light along the entire curve — with a contrasting panel of black-lacquered \u003cem\u003esame\u003c\/em\u003e (rayskin) at the koiguchi end, its pebbled texture set against the smooth gold. A heavy \u003cstrong\u003eblack and gold sageo\u003c\/strong\u003e picks up the same two-tone scheme. Very few antique koshirae are built around gold this openly, and fewer still carry it off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003efuchi and kashira\u003c\/strong\u003e are the pieces to look at closely: a matched pair in \u003cstrong\u003ecloisonné enamel\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003cem\u003eshippō\u003c\/em\u003e), worked in white and pale green blossoms with green and blue foliate scrollwork and coral-red accents on a dark ground, framed in fine metal wire. Enamel fittings of this quality are far scarcer than carved metal ones — the technique is unforgiving, and surviving examples in this condition, with the colours still clean and the wirework intact, are not common on the market.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003etsuba\u003c\/strong\u003e deliberately answers all that colour with silence: an iron plate in \u003cstrong\u003emokkō-gata\u003c\/strong\u003e with a single hitsu-ana, its surface a rich pitted texture under a deep brown-black patina, the rim slightly raised. Austere iron against enamel and gold is a classic Japanese pairing, and it is the reason the mounting reads as considered rather than merely rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003etsuka\u003c\/strong\u003e is wrapped in black silk ito in \u003cem\u003ehineri-maki\u003c\/em\u003e over full panels of white \u003cem\u003esame\u003c\/em\u003e with large, well-defined nodes, and carries \u003cstrong\u003egilt menuki\u003c\/strong\u003e modelled as a seated robed figure in the manner of a sage, cap on his head, rendered with real character in the face and drapery. The \u003cstrong\u003ehabaki\u003c\/strong\u003e is a plain single-piece copper alloy collar, undecorated — the correct restraint at the one point where the eye should go straight to the steel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"smith-background\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Swordsmith: Tanba-no-kami Terukado \u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e丹波守照門\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis name was \u003cstrong\u003eZenjō Sōemon\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e善定惣右衛門\u003c\/span\u003e), also known as Sōkurō. He was not a distant claimant to the Zenjō name — he was born into the house itself, the senior family of Seki, and signed his early work \u003cstrong\u003eKanekado\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e兼門\u003c\/span\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cstrong\u003eUjifusa\u003c\/strong\u003e, then head of the Zenjō family, left Seki for Nagoya, Sōemon succeeded him. That succession made him head of the Zenjō house and \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ekaji-gashira\u003c\/em\u003e — head of the swordsmiths of Seki\u003c\/strong\u003e, the largest swordmaking town in Japan. He held the court title \u003cem\u003eTanba-daijō\u003c\/em\u003e, and in \u003cstrong\u003e1659 he was raised to Tanba-no-kami\u003c\/strong\u003e, changing his signature to \u003cstrong\u003eTerukado\u003c\/strong\u003e at that moment. Blades signed Terukado are therefore all from the second half of his career, after he had reached the top of his profession.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe worked for a demanding clientele and travelled to reach it: commissions from \u003cstrong\u003ehigh-ranking samurai\u003c\/strong\u003e took him beyond his native Mino to \u003cstrong\u003eEdo\u003c\/strong\u003e and to \u003cstrong\u003eKuwana in Ise\u003c\/strong\u003e. His tangs carry the Zenjō name openly — \u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e於関善定作之\u003c\/span\u003e (\"made at Seki, Zenjō\"), \u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e善定後裔丹波守藤原照門\u003c\/span\u003e (\"descendant of Zenjō\"), \u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e於濃州関以粹鉄治之\u003c\/span\u003e (\"forged at Seki in Nōshū from refined steel\"). A rare surviving \u003cem\u003edaishō\u003c\/em\u003e by his hand exists, matched and mounted for formal castle attendance, and his work is held in museum collections and papered to Tokubetsu Hozon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne detail matters more than any other for a collector. \u003cstrong\u003eTerukado was a single-generation name.\u003c\/strong\u003e He alone used it; after his death the house reverted to the Kanekado signature, which the family has carried down to the present day. An attribution to Terukado does not point at a lineage or a workshop spanning centuries — it points at \u003cstrong\u003eone identifiable man, working within a window of roughly twenty years\u003c\/strong\u003e, at the head of the Seki smiths. That is an unusually precise thing for the NBTHK to say about an unsigned blade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"school-history\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSeki and the Zenjō Lineage\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeki, in Mino province, was the largest swordmaking town in Japan, and the Zenjō line ran it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMino-den\u003c\/strong\u003e was the youngest of the \u003cem\u003eGokaden\u003c\/em\u003e, the five great traditions, and by the Sengoku era it was the most productive. The town's smiths organised themselves into a self-governing guild, the \u003cem\u003ekaji-za\u003c\/em\u003e, within which the seven strongest workshops formed the \u003cstrong\u003eSeki Shichiryū\u003c\/strong\u003e — the Seven Schools of Seki. The \u003cstrong\u003eZenjō school\u003c\/strong\u003e was its principal house: successive heads of the Zenjō line were the \u003cem\u003esōryō-ke\u003c\/em\u003e, the senior family, and served as head of the Seki smiths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe school was founded by \u003cstrong\u003eZenjō Kaneyoshi\u003c\/strong\u003e, born in 1395, son of Kaneyoshi of the Yamato Tegai school. He carried Yamato technique into Mino and produced work of unusual refinement for the province — ko-kissaki, a slightly narrow mihaba, an elegant curve close enough to Awataguchi that the two have been confused, with masame mixed into the jigane and a tight nioi-based hoso-suguha. His blades are regarded as having the most beautiful shape in all of Mino-den.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is the ancestry Terukado claimed on his tangs, and it is the tradition this katana descends from: a Seki blade from the senior lineage of the largest sword town in Japan, certified by the NBTHK, registered in Hyōgo since 1951, and complete in a mounting of gold lacquer and enamel that has stayed with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e","brand":"Tokyo Nihonto","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57040235561284,"sku":"KATANA89","price":6200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/4080\/8516\/files\/Katana89_320K_0040_GenerativeFill5.jpg?v=1784993875","url":"https:\/\/tokyo-nihonto.com\/products\/antique-japanese-katana-sword-by-tanba-no-kami-terukado-with-gold-lacquer-saya-iron-mokko-tsuba-and-notare-hamon-nbthk-hozon","provider":"Tokyo Nihonto","version":"1.0","type":"link"}