SIGNED NIHON KAJI SOSHO IGA NO KAMI FUJIWARA KINMICHI AND KIKU, EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

The eldest of the four sons of Kanemichi (Daido) of Seki (catalogue number 279), Iga no kami Kinmichi was titled Nippon kaji Sosho [The foremost among Japanese smiths] by the Tokugawa bakufu, having supplied an order for 1000 swords within one hundred days at the time of the Osaka Castle campaign in 1610. As a result he acquired some authority over all the smiths in Japan, and he and his descendants controlled the granting of titular honours (juryomei, or zuryomei) from the Imperial Household thereafter. It might be significant that the great smiths in Edo at the time, like Yasutsugu, Hankei, and Kotetsu did not obtain such honours since they were close to the Bakufu. This blade is by the third generation in the style set by the first generation.