Ishida Masamune

Masamune

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Masamune

Japan · 1300–1400

Gorō Nyūdō Masamune was a medieval Japanese blacksmith widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest swordsmith. He created swords and daggers, known in Japanese as tachi and tantō, in the Sōshū school. However, many of his forged tachi were made into katana by cutting the tang (nakago) in later times ("suriage"). For this reason, his only existing works are katana, tantō, and wakizashi. No exact dates are known for Masamune's life.

Independent artist guide by Momentable. Biography from Wikipedia; artworks credited to the museums that hold them.

Stream Masamune

Ishida Masamune — The living window: art moves here the way it moves in your living room.

life: 1300–1400life
rights: Public domainrights

The work

A selection of 3 works, free to stream.

Tsugaru Masamune
Masamune
Tokyo National Museum

Kanze Masamune
Masamune
Tokyo National Museum

How Masamune worked

From the record of their own practice.

The swords of Masamune possess a reputation for superior beauty and quality, remarkable in a period where the steel necessary for swords was often impure. He is considered to have brought to perfection the art of. Masamune studied under Shintōgo Kunimitsu and made blades in suguha (straight temper line), but he made notare hamon, where the finish on the leading edge of blade slowly undulates where it was quenched. There are also some blades with ko-midare (small irregularities), a style which appears to have been copied from the Old Bizen and Hōki Province styles. His works are well-characterized by striking chikei (dark lines following the grain pattern in the steel above the hamon), kinsuji (lightning shaped lines of nie), and nie (crystals of martensite embedded in a pearlite matrix).