A 1386 Osafune Tachi by Hidemitsu, Given by Tokugawa Yoshimune
In the Arimoto district of Wakayama City stands Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine, founded in the seventeenth century by the first lord of the Kishū domain, Tokugawa Yorinobu, as a guardian against misfortune at the unlucky northeastern corner of Wakayama Castle. Its deity was invited from the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. Among the shrine's treasures is a tachi signed Bishū Osafune Hidemitsu, a blade later given to the shrine by Tokugawa Yoshimune.
The signature carries a date: the fourth year of the Shitoku era, which corresponds to 1386, although the rest of the dated inscription is now illegible. That places the blade firmly in the Nanbokuchō period. It was forged at Osafune in Bizen Province, the area of present-day Setouchi City in Okayama, the most prolific swordmaking centre in Japanese history.
The Yoshimune connection gives the sword a particular resonance. Yoshimune began as the fifth lord of Kishū before becoming the eighth Tokugawa shogun, and his gift of an old Bizen blade to a shrine his own house had established ties the weapon to the domain's founding family across two generations of rule.
Why the Blade Was Designated
The sword was named an Important Cultural Property on 29 August 1950, registered as a single item in the crafts category. It is worth being precise about its rank, because some popular accounts mistakenly describe it as a National Treasure; the national database lists it clearly as an Important Cultural Property.
Its value lies in maker, date, and provenance together. The Osafune school of Bizen was the largest single lineage in the long history of Japanese swords, and among the smiths who signed Hidemitsu, the maker is associated with the so-called Kozori group, a body of Osafune smiths working outside the main Kanemitsu line in the Nanbokuchō period. A reliably dated 1386 blade is valuable precisely because it anchors the smith's work to a fixed point in that crowded century. Add to this the documented gift by a future shogun to a shrine of his family's founding, and the object becomes a piece of the Kishū Tokugawa story as much as a specimen of Bizen steel.
The crafts designation protects this layered significance: the forging of a major regional school, the security of a firm date, and the recorded act of dedication by Tokugawa Yoshimune.
What to Look For, and Where
As a shrine treasure rather than a museum exhibit, the blade is not on regular public view. Travellers interested in it should treat the shrine as a place to understand its setting rather than to see the sword on demand, and should look to the Wakayama Prefectural Museum for occasions when Bizen blades of this kind are displayed.
The shrine itself sits at the northeastern guard point of Wakayama Castle, and its story is bound up with the founding of the Kishū domain. The choice to invite the deity from Kamakura's Tsurugaoka Hachiman is itself telling, a deliberate link between the new Tokugawa seat in the west and the old Minamoto shrine in the east. Visiting the site, with the castle nearby, sets the gift of the sword in its proper geography.
When an Osafune blade of the Nanbokuchō period is on display, look for the qualities that made Bizen steel famous: the figured grain of the surface and, where the school is at its best, the cloudy reflection within the steel known as a Bizen utsuri. A dated blade like this one also lets a viewer place a single object precisely within the sweep of fourteenth-century swordmaking, which is a rarer pleasure than it sounds.
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Q&A
- Is this blade a National Treasure?
- No. Despite some accounts to the contrary, the national database designates it an Important Cultural Property, not a National Treasure.
- Who gave the sword to the shrine?
- Tokugawa Yoshimune, who was the fifth lord of Kishū before becoming the eighth Tokugawa shogun. The shrine had been founded by the domain's first lord, Yorinobu.
- What does the 1386 date tell us?
- The blade is signed with the fourth year of the Shitoku era, equivalent to 1386, in the Nanbokuchō period. A firm date anchors the smith's work within a busy century of Bizen production.
- Why was the shrine founded where it is?
- It was placed at the northeastern corner of Wakayama Castle, traditionally the direction of misfortune, as a protective shrine, with its deity invited from the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura.
Basic Information
| Name | Tachi, signed Bishū Osafune Hidemitsu / Shitoku 4 (remainder illegible) (gift of Tokugawa Yoshimune) |
|---|---|
| Category | Craft (sword) |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (designated 29 August 1950) |
| Quantity | One |
| Period | Nanbokuchō period, dated 1386 (Shitoku 4) |
| Maker | Osafune Hidemitsu (Bizen Province) |
| Owner | Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine (Arimoto, Wakayama City), Wakayama Prefecture |
| Viewing | Shrine treasure; not on regular public display |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/6313
- Osafune Hidemitsu (Meitō Gensō Jiten, Japanese)
- https://meitou.info/index.php/秀光
- Osafune school (Wikipedia, Japanese)
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/長船派
Last verified: 2026.06.23