There is still an axe to grind. Nagayama Kokan mentions Hosho SADAMUNE as the actual founder of Hosho-school. Fujishiro also names SADAMUNE without giving an example (oshigata). Both assume Hosho KUNIMITSU as the mythical founder of Hosho school without any blade surviving. Dr.Homma, who came across almost every important blade in existence, never mentioned a single example of Hosho SADAMUNE. NBTHK is not perfectly consistent. In English Token Bijutsu magazine No.40 they say:"...pinning down to SADAMUNE should be avoided, because his authentic works are quite rare...". In No.50 (1992) they say:"...Since SADAMUNE is represented by no definitely genuine specimen, it is desirable not to mention his name in kantei..."
However, gimei in his name are quite frequent and Iimura's example in Koto Taikan has not been published ever since (at least as far as I know).
Let's stick to "Sam the mune" from Soshu (sorry Guido, I couldn't resist), for he was a hell of a Toko.
reinhard
