Tachi (long sword) blade

From Bizen Province, Japan
Muromachi period, around AD 1400

This blade is signed 'Bishi Osafune Moro (Kage)' ('Morokage from Osafune in Bizen Province'). He was one of the group of swordsmiths, including Chikakage and Morikage, who are thought to have moved from ōmiya in Kyoto to Osafune in the fourteenth century. This tachi blade is of the typical long and slender Osafune shape of the ōei era (1394-1428). It has a mixed hamon (the crystalline structure of the blade edge) of clove pattern and gunome (abrupt undulation).

L. Smith, V. Harris and T. Clark, Japanese art: masterpieces in (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)

, Hakubutsukan shozō Nihon-Ch (Tokyo National Museum, 1987)