Lot Essay
Naokatsu was trained as a swordsmith but his swords are rare. He seems to have devoted himself to the manufacture of tsuba. He was a student of the swordsmith Shoji Naokatsu I (1805-1858). His early family name was Tsukuda which he later changed to Hata. His tsuba are mainly in the style of Nobuie I and mimic the swordsmith style of the Muromachi and Momoyama periods. He lived in Edo where he worked circa 1850-1865 and is said to have died during the Meiji era. His adopted son Hata Hideaki (1848-1918) was a student of Kano Natsuo and was one of the last artists to work in the late Edo revival school style.