Hello, world. Welcome to Samurai Museum Shop. Thank you for finding our website. In this post, we would like to introduce one of the prominent Japanese swordsmiths. We hope you will enjoy reading this post.
Masayuki was born in the 18th year of the Kyoho era (1733) as the first son of the second-gen Ijichi Masayoshi (伊地知正良). According to available records, Masayuki was active during 1772-1817 (the end of the Edo period). Masayuki first called himself Masayoshi (third-generation Masayoshi) after taking over his father’s school. And in the first year of Kanei (1769), he received Hoki no Kami (伯耆守) as an official title and changed his maker’s name to Masayuki. He passed down the maker’s name, “Masayoshi” name to his first son. Masayuki died at the age of 86 in the first year of 1818.
Masayuki was one of the most famous swordsmiths in the Satsuma domain (today’s Kagoshima prefecture) in the late Edo period, apart from Okuyamato no Kami Motohira. It is said that Masayuki was passionate about training his students. There were 60 swordsmiths who learned the sword-forging technique under Masayuki.
Satsuma province had a high ratio of Samurai population compared to other parts of Japan. And they are famous for their military power ruled by Shimazu clan. We assume a swordsmith needed to be very skilled to stay active and popular in this demanding place. Masayuki was one of them.
Masayuki’s father served the Satsuma domain. It was highly likely that Msayuki also forged swords for this domain, considering his prestigious position.
We hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you are interested in checking his work, we happen to acquire two antique Katana signed by him. More information is available by clicking the image below.
