Project Description
三代 政常 — Masatsune, Third Generation tantō in a rare Nanban koshirae
Owari province · Shintō · Kan’ei era (寛永, 1624–44)
- Status: available
MASATSUNE (政常), 3rd gen., Kan´ei (寛永, 1624-1644), Owari – “Mino no Kami Fujiwara Masatsune” (美濃守藤原政常), “Masatsune” (政常), real name Nando Tarōsuke (納戸太郎助), he was actually the son of Daidō (大道) but was adopted by the 1st gen. Masatsune after the unexpected death of his own son Tarōsuke, he received the honorary title Mino no Kami in Genna five (元和, 1619) and died in the second year of Kanbun (寛文, 1662), he worked in the style of the 1st gen. but can not compete in terms of quality, we know a lot of kozuka from him and also excellently executed horimono of a Fudō-Myōō or a suken in the hi, he also signed with a thick chisel whereas he placed the mei at katana and wakizashi on the shinogi-ji of the tang and at tantō centrally on the nakago, wazamono, jō-saku
The third-generation Masatsune signed in full as 美濃守藤原政常 — Mino no Kami Fujiwara Masatsune — his given name Nandō Tarōsuke (納戸太郎助). Born into the Daidō (大道) line, he entered the Masatsune workshop as adopted heir to the first generation after the untimely death of the shodai‘s own son, Tarōsuke. He was granted the honorary title Mino no Kami in Genna 5 (元和, 1619) and died in Kanbun 2 (寛文, 1662). Working squarely in the idiom of the celebrated first generation — the leading name of Owari Shintō, rooted in the Mino (Seki) tradition — the sandai is remembered as a prolific and capable hand: a great many kozuka survive from him, and he was a notably fine carver of horimono, above all Fudō-Myōō and the suken set within a hi. His signature is cut with a characteristically thick tagane; on katana and wakizashi he placed the mei on the shinogi-ji of the nakago, and on tantō centrally down the tang. His work is classed jō-saku for quality and wazamono for cutting ability.
The workmanship follows the Owari-Mino manner: ko-itame tending, hamon — suguha in nie-deki. The nakago is ubu, bearing the thick-chisel mei 美濃守藤原政常 / 政常 placed centrally in the tantō manner.
What distinguishes this piece is its Nanban koshirae (南蛮拵). The Nanban taste, born of the late-16th- and 17th-century trade with Portuguese, Dutch, and Southeast Asian sources, is most often met on the tsuba alone: dense karakusa scrollwork, confronting dragons, and sukashi openwork worked in imported or Nanban-tetsu iron, frequently accented with gold nunome-zōgan. To find that vocabulary carried across an entire tantō mounting — — is decidedly rare.
