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MUNETSUGU (宗次), 1st gen., Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615), Hizen – “Hizen no Kuni Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前国源宗次), “Hizen no Kuni-jūnin Iyo no Jō Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前国住人伊予掾源宗次), “Hizen Isahaya-jū Minamoto Munetsugu” (肥前諌早住源宗次), “Iyo no Jō Minamoto Munetsugu” (伊予掾源宗次), real name Sakai San´emon (境三右衛門), he was born as second son of Sakai Kuranojō Masatsugu (境内蔵丞正次) in Hizen´s Nagase (長瀬), he succeeded instead of his older brother Kohei Sanemasa (小兵衛真正) as head of this family in the 20th year of Tenshō (天正, 1592), the Sakai were actually shintō priests in their main profession and so also

Munetsugu worked as a priest, his nyūdō-gō was Seishin (清心), the tradition says that he received the honorary title Iyo no Jō in the eleventh year of Keichō (1606), two years later the imperial court made him deputy of the office which was in the control of the awarding of honorary titles for sword smiths, so there is also the theory that the granting of the title Iyo no Jō came actually with this appointment, also the 16th year of Keichō (1611) is listed in some sources as date for

the granting of his title, later he moved to Saga (佐賀) to the village of Raikōji (来迎寺) where he received a salary by the Nabeshima family (鍋島) in the amount of 14 koku, there exists the anecdote that Toyotomi Hideyoshi visited once Hizen in the course of preparations for the invasion of Korea, Munetsugu presented hileadership of the school to his son in the ninth year of Kan´ei (寛永, 1632), Munetsugu was somewhat earlier active than the famous Hizen Tadayoshi (忠吉) and worked also in a different style because he focused primarily on the Sōshū tradition, we know date signatures from the seventh to the eleventh year of Kan´ei (1630-1634), his jigane is a rather standing-out itame with nagare and ji-nie all over the blade, the hamon is a gunome-midare mixed with notare in nie-deki which varies in its width, in addition many togari elements as well as kinsuji and sunagashi appear, the nioiguchi is rather wide, the bōshi is midare-komi with hakikake and tends sometimes to kaen, the tang reminds with its bulbous shape of Muramasa´s (村正) tanagobara-gata.