Description
Listing a really wonderful shinshinto katana by the shinshinto Bizen smith Shinryushi Yokoyama Nagahiro was a student of shodai Yokoyama Sukenaga. Per Sesko’s entry, he is associated with work in Keio era (1865-1868). I have attached the full bio on Nagahiro below. This is a sword that might trick a more senior collector into thinking that they are looking at a koto blade. The jigada is a very beautiful ko-itame thickly covered with ji-nie, with areas of masame and itame nagareru mixed in. A friend who looked at the blade commented that it reminded him of Tegai, and I agree that it has that feeling in some places. The jigane is very clear and there is a lot fine chikei present. The hamon is a very consistent and bright suguha in ko-nie and some small ashi present. The blade is slender and seems clearly to be what the smith felt was a sugata appropriate for a koto utushi. The blade is signed Suō (no) kuni Nagahiro and on the reverse states that the sword was made at the age of 46 (待年四十六歳作之). I will update the listing later this evening with dimensions. The blade is in shirasaya with a nice silver foil habaki. It does not have papers, but the owner (a NMB member) is offering an NBTHK shinsa guarantee (and I will discuss with specifics of this with anyone who would like to purchase this sword).