SIGNED BIZEN KUNI SANETADA, KAMAKURA PERIOD (13TH CENTURY)

Few naginata of the early Kamakura Period survive. This example has the typical graceful curve of the period, without the extended dimensions and swelling at the monouchi which characterizes later work. There two smiths signing Sanetada in the Ko-Bizen School, the first working around the Genkyu era (1204-06) and the second working around the Kangen era (1243-47). There were three others working at the end of the Kamakura Period, but the shape and uncontrived nature of the hamon of this blade indicate that it was probably made by one of the two early smiths.