A Jitsu’a Naginata-naoshi Wakizashi (実阿)

Jitsu’a (実阿) worked in Chikuzen province during the late Kamakura to early Nanbokuchô periods. He was the son of Sairen Kuniyoshi (西蓮国吉), who worked at the Hakata Dangisho – the military institution established in northern Kyûshû following the Mongol invasions to reinforce the region’s defences. While Jitsu’a’s son, the celebrated Samonji, would go on to found the great Sa school through the Sôshû tradition, Jitsu’a himself held to the classical Yamato-den character of the Kyûshû schools. His position in the lineage – Ryôsai to Sairen to Jitsu’a to Samonji – makes him one of the most consequential smiths in all of Japanese sword history, even if his own surviving work is extremely rare.

This piece is a naginata-naoshi – originally forged as a long naginata, later reconfigured as a wakizashi, with the tang greatly shortened (ô-suriage) and the blade left unsigned. The ji-gane is immediately striking: large ô-itame grain tends toward flowing nagare, standing out from the surface with a wild, vigorous character and abundant chikei and ji-nie. The hamon is a calm, elegant hoso-suguha rich in nie, with frayed hotsure at the edges and plentiful bright kinsuji threading throughout – a refined contrast to the expressive steel beneath.

The blade holds Jûyô Tôken certification from the NBTHK’s 35th session, awarded in April 1989, certificate no. 8537. The shirasaya carries a prized sayagaki by Tanobe Michihiro (Tanzan-sensei), written in the second month of the Year of the Horse (February 2026), which describes the sword as a superior work of simple, honest beauty that fully captures the smith’s unique style. The gold habakiwith nanako dotted ground is a fitting mount for a blade of this age and importance.