Lot Essay
Among several dozen smiths signing Sukesada during the Muromachi period, this smith has been identified as Hikobei no Jo Sukesada, the father of Yosozaemon Sukesada, together among the greatest of the Sue-Bizen school, and active around the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth century. The great length of the blade follows that of naginata of the Kamakura and Nanbokucho periods, and the swelling at the mono-uchi reflects the changing shape in cutting weapons owing to the trend to combat on foot during the Sengoku jidai (Age of the country at war).