Mei:
(Aoi Mon) Yasutsugu omote Nanban tetsu oite Bushu Edo Saku Kore
Nagasa:
74.2cm
Hada:
Mokume mixed with itame
Hamon:
Sugu Ko-midare
This is an amazing Katana made by the main line of 3rd generation Ichinojo Umanosuke Yasutsugu. The lineage of authorative Yasutsugu (up to 11th generation) continued into the Meiji era. Umanosuke was a child when the 2nd Yasutsugu had passed away in 1646 and there was a family dispute as to who should succeed him - the son (Edo Sandai) or the younger brother (Echizen Sandai). It was decided that Umanosuke would be the legal heir as the third generation at Edo, where the family made swords for the Tokugawa Shogunate every other year. The younger brother, Shiruemon, was given the family home and became known as the Echizen Sandai.
Edo Sandai Yasutsugu is rated Jo Saku. The blade is signed "Yasutsugu omote Nanban tetsu oite Bushu Edo Saku Kore", which means 'The sword was made by Yasutsugu, living at Edo in Musashi Province, using Southern Barbarian iron'. It is also inscribed with an Aoi Mon (Hollyhock family crest), reserved exclusively for the Tokugawa Shogunate. Permission to inscribe this on his swords and also the kanji of 'Yasu' was conferred by Tokugawa Ieyasu to the first Yasutsugu in 1603.
This blade has a long nagasa of 74cm, ubu, double silver habaki, high quality shirasaya, and Tokubetsu Hozon papered from the NBTHK. Fresh polished and any kind of kizu does not exist on this blade.