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Shimosaka Ichizaemon

Also known as: Shimosaka Ichizaemon; primary name: Shimosaka Ichizaemon
Details: individual; goldsmith/metalworker; Japanese; Male
Other dates: 1590-1605 (active)
Biography: Swordsmith in Echizen, later also Edo. The first of Yasutsugu family, the best known of the Echizen groups. He came from a family of swordsmiths in the village of Shimosaka in Omi Province. He was known as 'Shimosaka Ichizaemon', and is believed to have travelled around Japan in his youth, working in both Mino Province and Kyoto. His early work was sometimes signed 'Shimosaka'. He moved to Echizen sometime in the 1590s, by which time he had acquired the title 'Higo daijo', and entered the service of the daimyo Matsudaira Hideyasu, the third son of Tokugawa leyasu. He was later retained by the first and second Tokugawa shoguns Ieyasu and Hidetada, receiving from Ieyasu the first character 'Yasu' of his name and the privilege of carving the triple-hollyhock mon on his work. This was around 1605 when, with a high income and shogunal sponsorship, he was able to live alternately in his Echizen home and in the Tokugawa estate in Edo. His son continued this practice of alternate residence, but from the third generation the family divided into Echizen and Edo branches. The Edo branch is said to have continued for eleven generations into the Meiji era, and the Echizen branch for nine generations. Both the katana and the wakizashi were made by the third-generation Yasutsugu in Edo.