Article brought to you by Fantasy Weapons and Swords
Goro Nyudo Masamune is a legendary figure who is regarded as the best swordsmith japan has ever produced. He is believed to have lived in the Sagami Provence around the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth.
by Masamune
Kamakura Period, 14th Century
No exact dates are known and he is believed to have been trained in the art of swordmaking by swordsmiths from the Yamashiro and Bizen provinces. Some swordsmiths reputed to have been instrumental in his training include Awataguchi Kunitsuna and Saburo Kunimune.
The swords made by Masamune were remarkable as they were superior in beauty and quality to any other swords being made in this period, despite the often inferior quality of the steel available at that time. He is reputed to have perfected the art known as ‘nie’ which involved embedding martensitic crystals in a matrix to resemble stars in the sky.
It is very rare to find any swords signed by Masamune. Some examples, accepted as his work include the Daikoku Masamune, the Kyogoku Masamune and the Fudo Masamune.
His swords appear in the Kyôho Meibutsu Cho which catologues excellent swords and was created for the Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune in 1714. Altogether 41 swords made by Masamune appear in the catalogue along with blades by other famous swordsmiths including Awataguchi Toshiro Yoshimitsu and Etchu Matsukura Go Umanosuke Yoshihiro.
The most famous Masamune sword is known as the Honjo Masamune was passed as a symbol of the shogun from generation to generation of the Tokugawa. It is reputed to have been used to split the helmet of a general of the Uesugi Kenshin, Honjo Shigenaga who survived the attack and went on to claim the sword as his own after the battle. Shigenaga later sold the sword to Toyotomi Hidetsugu and then it came into the possession of Ieyasu Tokugawa who passed it down to his successor. This continued until 1945 when the location of the sword was lost.
One of the few swords actually signed by Masamune is the Fudo Masamune which was bought for 500 Kan by Toyotomi Hidetsugu in 1601 and later given to Shogun Ieyasu and then to Meda Toshilie who returned it to the shogun. It was later passed down through the Owari Tokugawi. It is approximately twenty five cm long and bears a carving on the front outer edge of roots. The blade has a carving of a Buddhist deity Fudo Myo-o from which the name is derived.
Image by kpratt
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.