Tsuda Sukehiro Katana

Sukehiro the 2nd was born in the village Uchida in Settsu province. In 1658 he received the title of Echizen no kami when he was only 21 years old.
In 1667 he was appointed swordsmith of Aoyama Inaba no kami Munetoshi, Lord of the Osaka castle.
From 1674 onwards his signatures were inscripted cursively. Blades signed in that way are called
Maru ( round ) Tsuda. In the preceding period Sukehiro´s signature were insribeb with squarish characters and therefore indicated as Kaku ( square ) Tsuda.
The Sukehiro swords with toran hamon are qualified as being wazamono and those with suguha hamon as o - wazamono. This Katana is the only Maru Tsuda katana outside of Japan, and it is placed in the Shinto Taikan on Page 44. Another Katana is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Bosten. That one is kaku Tsuda.
Nidai Sukehiro passed away in 1682 the age of 46 years.

In the Shinto Bengi of Kamada Natae, Nidai Sukehiro is listed as number one of all Shinto smith´s.
Fujishiro Yoshio sensei counts him as one of the 9 Saijo saku smith´s of the Shinto period.

This Blade will be get juyo Token in the neext few years.