Lawrence_Lee

Hi Oli, You’re absolutely right, and I must apologise for my previous oversight: I had initially conflated the 7th and 8th generations as they both practiced during the Showa era. However, looking at the verified timeline, the 2nd Gen was active between 1801 and 1848 (though died in 1858, while the 8th Gen’s career spanned from 1956 to 1989. This leaves a gap of roughly 188 years to be shared among 7 generations. This averages out to about 27 years per generation. See https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS1402 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS1416

To address Oli's point about the number of generations: in the Japanese Shūmei tradition, the 'Family' functions simultaneously as a bloodline and a professional School. When a highly skilled apprentice is chosen to succeed the master, they are often formally adopted into the family (a practice known as Yoshi-engumi). Therefore, the name 'Hosokawa' represents a continuous professional lineage where the 'surname' acts as a brand of the school. Spanning five generations (from the 2nd to the 7th) over roughly 150 years is mathematically sound, averaging 30 years per successor. This allows the lineage to maintain its identity and 'Seal' even when there is no direct biological heir.

Hi Bruce, I totally understand the confusion! It does look like a wild coincidence, but in the Japanese sword-making tradition, this is actually a very structured practice called Shūmei (襲名, Succession of Names). It wasn’t a coincidence that two guys named Hosokawa used the same name/seal; it’s because they belonged to the same lineage. The WWII smith (7th Gen) was the direct professional descendant of the 1800s smith (1st/2nd Gen). In this culture, inheriting the "Brand Name" (Masayoshi) and the family "Seal" (Kokuin) was a way to show legitimacy and honor the founder. As for your question regarding the specific Kanji in the Kokuin: as a native Chinese speaker, I would describe this as a highly stylised or artistic form of Zhuanshu (Seal Script). It is quite difficult to pinpoint the exact character it originates from just by looking at the strokes, though I suspect it could be "義" (Sometime the '我' part was written in a separate way, as the picture below shows). However, based on my experience with Chinese seal carving, the minor variations in detail you pointed out don't necessarily constitute a different character or identity. In this context, they are effectively the same Kokuin. Given that this functioned much like a Family Crest, it is not surprising at all that Masamori would use it even before officially inheriting the Masayoshi name. Regarding the different form of writing the first Kanja of Hosokawa, the one has a '糸' on its side is a very ancient way of writing it in China. The '小' part was simplified into three dots sometimes, so it was consequently written as '細'. Therefore, they are the same Kanja in fact. However, when Japanese was being standardised during the Meiji Restoration, the '糸' version was designated as the sole official form, which is likely what caused this distinction. Lastly, I've sent some messages to your facebook account about the Mantetsu survey (it was that survey led me to this post in fact), I'd appreciate it if you can have look whenever you are available. https://meitou.info/index.php/細川正義#i8e2d584 https://tokka.biz/sword/masamori.html