Tachi〈Meinshujukeicho〉

Tachi Signed "Inshu-ju Kagenaga": A Shogun's Gift to a Fishing-Town Shrine

On the slope of Naka-o hill in Arida, a coastal town south of Wakayama City, sits Susa Shrine. Among its possessions is a slender single-edged tachi a little over 68 centimeters long, signed on the tang with five characters: Inshu-ju Kagenaga, meaning "Kagenaga, resident of Inaba Province." Inaba is the eastern half of present-day Tottori Prefecture, and Kagenaga worked there during the Muromachi period.

The blade is shinogi-zukuri with an iori-mune (a ridged back shaped like a gable roof). The grain of the steel is a fine ko-itame, and the temper line runs as a narrow suguha touched here and there with small irregularities. The tip is unaltered, with a single peg-hole and a kurijiri end. Shrine records hold that Kagenaga studied under Awataguchi Yoshimasa, a Yamashiro-school smith from Kyoto, and earned the nickname Inaba kokaji, the "little smith of Inaba." That Kyoto pedigree shows: the trim shape and tight steel read as Yamashiro work transplanted to the provinces.

A Memorial Sword from the Eighth Shogun

The blade reached Arida in 1721. That year, Kyoho 6, marked the fiftieth memorial of Tokugawa Yorinobu, the tenth son of Ieyasu and the founder of the Kishu branch of the Tokugawa family. To honor his grandfather, Tokugawa Yoshimune, by then the eighth shogun in Edo, presented an old tachi apiece to nine shrines across Kii Province. Susa Shrine received this one.

Many such gifts survive only as bare blades. The Arida example is unusual because the whole offering stayed together: the blade, its mounting, a double storage box, the inventory slip, and the written statement of intent that accompanied the dedication. The mounting itself dates to the Edo period and was made for the occasion, with a hanada-blue silk wrap, shakudo fittings carrying a split-diamond crest in colored inlay, and a lacquered scabbard bearing the same motif.

The sword first entered the national registers in 1915 under the old Law for the Preservation of Shrines and Temples, then was re-listed as an Important Cultural Property on 29 August 1950 when the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect. The accompanying itomaki-tachi mounting is registered together with the blade.

The Shrine That Guards Against the Blade

Susa Shrine is old. Its founding is placed in 713, and it honors Susanoo, the storm deity of Japanese myth. Sailors once lowered their sails in respect as they passed; the shrine became a protector of safe passage at sea, and, because of Susanoo's fierce character, a guardian against injury by the sword. A grandfather giving a fine blade to such a place was a fitting gesture.

The main hall you see today was rebuilt in 1711 on Yoshimune's order, a one-bay nagare-influenced structure raised by the Kishu domain's own master carpenters. Every 14 October the grounds fill for the Chida Festival, locally nicknamed the "Chida brawl," where fishermen scramble for six sea bream thrown from before the sanctuary; catching one is said to bring a year of good hauls.

A practical note for travelers: the Kagenaga tachi is a guarded shrine treasure and is not kept on open view. You can visit the shrine, its rebuilt main hall, and the festival freely, but seeing the blade itself depends on special exhibitions, which appear from time to time at museums in the region. Confirm before planning a trip around the sword.