Gassan Sadakazu

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Gassan Sadakazu ( Japanese 月 山 貞 一 ; * 1836 in the Ōmi province ; † July 11, 1918 ) was a Japanese swordsmith of the modern Gassan school .

Life

Sadakazu was born under the family name Tsukamoto in Ōmi province. At the age of 7, the swordsmith Gassan Sadayoshi from Osaka adopted him . He first gave him the name Yagoro and later Sadakazu. Sadakazu's dated blades date back to 1850 when he was just 14 years old. In the following years Sadakazu developed into one of the most important swordsmiths of the Meiji period . While many swordsmiths stopped making swords due to the Haitō-rei ( ban on carrying swords) in the course of the Meiji Restoration , Sadakazu was able to continue his work and concentrated more on orders from the military. In 1906 he was even appointed Teishitsu-gigeiin (member of the imperial handicrafts) - a forerunner of today's Ningen kokuhō . As a swordsmith, this honor was only granted to Miyamoto Kanenori .

Towards the end of his creative period, his works were therefore often imitated, whereby he himself signed the blades of his son Gassan Sadakatsu , so that the latter only signed in his own name from 1918 after the death of Sadakazu blades.

After Sadakazu's death, his son Sadakatsu continued the Gassan school, which still exists today.

Nihontō characteristics

Sadakazu forged in the style of Gassan School blades with a Ayasugi- hada . In addition, however, he mastered all swordsmithing traditions and was considered one of the greatest horimono masters of his time. While he initially mainly made stately blades in the style of the early Muromachi and Kotō periods, these became shorter and more delicate with a view to the needs of the military after the ban on carrying swords in 1876.

literature

  • Leon Kapp, Hiroko Kapp, Yoshindo Yoshihara: Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present. Kodansha USA, 2002, ISBN 978-4770019622
  • Kokan Nagayama: The connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords. Kodansha USA, 1998, ISBN 978-4770020710 , p. 293.
  • Morihiro Ogawa: Japanese Master Swordsmiths: The Gassan Tradition. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1989, ISBN 978-0878463091 .
  • Markus Sesko: Encyclopedia of Japanese sword making N-Z .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A Study of the Works of Gassan Sadakazu in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (PDF) The Metropolitan Museum of Art . Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  2. ↑ http://www.nihonto.ca/sadakatsu-3/
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Gassan is the family name, Sadakazu the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Gassan, Sadakazu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 月 山 貞 一 (Japanese, stage name); Tsukamoto Sadakazu (real name); 塚 本 貞 一 (real name, Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swordsmith of the Gassan School
DATE OF BIRTH 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Ōmi Province
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1918