Mino Kanefusa tanto

KANEFUSA (兼房), 4th gen., Tenbun (天文, 1532-1555), Mino – “Kanefusa” (兼房), “Nōshū Seki-jū Kanefusa” (濃州関住兼房), “Seki-jū Iwami no Kami Kanefusa (関住石見守兼房), first name Seizaemon (清左衛門), Zenjō school, priest name Zen´ō (善応), he worked first in Seki but went then for a while to Gifu (岐阜), he returned to Seki and moved eventually to Inuyama (犬山) in Owari province, with the granting of the honorary title Iwami no Kami in Daiei seven (大永, 1527), he changed his name to Kunifusa (国房), it is noted that he was very talented but also sick and therefore there are not that many blades known by him, he adopted his younger brother Kyōzaburō Kanefusa (京三郎兼房) – the 1st gen. Ujifusa (氏房) – and officially transferred the line of inheritance of the oldest son in the second year of Kōji (弘治, 1556) up to him, also transferred was the honorary title Seki-kaji-tōryō (関鍛冶頭領), the 4th gen. Kanefusa died in the fifth month of the third year of Eiroku (永禄, 1560), chū-jō-saku

KANEFUSA (兼房), 5th gen. → UJIFUSA (氏房), 1st gen. (Kyōzaburō, 京三郎) – The Kanefusa line is quite branched and individual works are often hard to attribute. This goes also back to duplicate names, that means the four sons of the 3rd gen. Kanefusa – the 4th gen. Kanefusa, Kawachi no Kami Kiyofusa (河内守清房), Wakasa no Kami Ujifusa (若狭守氏房), and Sukefusa (助房) – signed all with the name Kanefusa in their early years and allowed some of their students to use the name Kanefusa too. And they in turn interhited the name to their own successors.