Unjosai KATSUNAGA (undocumented)

[mecox]

Folks, an interesting but undocumented Seki swordsmith.  Be good to find out who he was.

I have compiled what I could find and tried to make some sense of it.

Would welcome comments, corrections and ideas.  Following are my notes and pics.

 

UNJOSAI KATSUNAGA 雲上斎 勝永
An apparent mystery with wartime Seki swordsmiths is Unjosai KATSUNAGA, who produced a wide range of blades, but for whom no records were found (so he is reported as “undocumented”). He is not in the 1940 Seki City lists and is not in the Seki swordsmith registration list from 1939. His blades look to be both Showato and gendaito, most are mounted as Army shingunto in various fittings, there are some Naval kaigunto and at least one in wartime civilian mounts. A number are in post-war shirasaya or have been mounted for iaido.
He has a number of mei, which may reflect types of swords produced.

Katsunaga 勝永 (H, O)
Unjosai Katsunaga 雲上斎勝永 (B, C, D?, E, F, G, M)

Seki Unjosai Katsunaga 関雲上斎勝永 (A, J, K)

Unjosai Katsunaga saku 雲上斎勝永作 (L)

Unjosai Katsunaga kitaeru kore 雲上斎勝永鍛之 (I, P)

Katsunaga saku 勝永作 (N)
In regard to his mei, “Katsunaga” is his swordsmith name, however, “Unjosai” is probably not a family name and more likely is a “go” or pseuydonym/penname. “Katsunaga” is said to be a masculine name and there were several noted samurai of the Edo period with it. There was also a samurai in the 1800’s, Sagae Chuzaemon Katsunaga (1806-1864) who became a swordsmith in Edo Tokyo and was of the Mito Domain, Ibaraki.  So what would be this Katsunaga’s family name?
He signs as katana mei, but with variations. Showato blades are signed on the shinogi-ji with a “chippy” cut style (nakirishi mei) that reflects mass production work. Those with well cut mei reflect custom work and are larger characters and centrally located over the nakago shinogi. Mei on custom blades have both a neat formal style, and an artistic cursive style; one variation is of vertical “squarish” characters that are deeply cut using “interpretive” kanji (N and O). Possibly the custom blades are signed by the tosho (shoshi mei).
Only one blade (J) of the examples found has a stamp reported, which is the large “Seki”. One example (A), has a bohi-hi kaki-toshi groove through the nakago; this blade is both neatly finished and signed and could be semi-traditional.
The shape of the nakago also varies, with different amounts of taper and several styles of kiri tip; some with ha-agari Seki type, others slightly angular. The yasurime filing is angled sujikai, with varying degrees of neatness; on some blades there is a criss-cross hagaki section (but possibly just rough work).
Differing hamon were found. The Showato examples tend to be more of a Seki style midare-gunome (A, D, F, H, J, M) some are slightly notare. It appears that the better made and custom blades have suguha hamon (G, I) some with nie-deki (I). No images were found of the other custom made blades.
The typical blade has an average nagasa of 63.0 cm (61.7 to 64.5 cm) and small sori of 1.0 to 1.2 cm. Several blades vary from this:

C: this is a custom blade of 67.4 cm length and sori of 1.8 cm.

D: this is a longer blade which is shortened around 10 cm to 52.7 cm (wakizashi length) with the mune moved and a new nakago ana drilled; the mei is also shortened. The blade has been remounted in shorter shingunto koshirae.

I: this blade has a nagasa of 64.3 cm, however, it has two mekugi ana and is probably shortened by around 7-8 cm. The mei is below the lower hole and kiri nakago tip indicates the shortening. The suguha hamon on this sug-gests water quenching. Of note, it is in wartime civilian mounts.
Basically  there appears to be three types of swords:

(a) Showato oil quenched Seki work suggesting some form of mass production.

(b) quality Seki work possibly semi-traditional with hand forging/folding and neat finish.

(c) top end custom orders, traditionally made and on request with name of client.
Of interest is sword K which has a label on the saya of “The Seki Cutlery Manufacturers’ Association” and “Seki Gifu Japan”. The label shows “Passed” presumably approved for sale. The nakago of sword K is a little rough, no stamp is obvious; these labels look to be used mid to late war, however, are mostly found on “budget” swords with basic wooden saya. The mei of sword J is the same as that of K, both stating “Seki”, and possibly has a similar hamon.  Nagasa for these are K of 61 cm and J of 62.8 cm.
Overall, production of Katsunaga blades suggests a smaller workshop, or several workshops, linked to a sales outlet, with a number of craftsmen involved; the various styles of mei are likely by different people. The examples here show Katsunaga was a Seki smith, and he does look to have some training as a tosho, however, he is not in the Seki registration list.  But who was he and what was his name. There must be a record somewhere.
Malcolm Cox, 2025

 

 

[Brian]

Love it when you research something Mal. For someone relatively unknown, you have presented more info than many recorded smiths have available 

[Lareon]

Excellent contribution to the field

[Mark S.]

Thank you Mal.  One of the Katsunaga blades you referenced was my first ever blade I owned and I have always been on the look-out for other references.  I appreciate your efforts.  Hopefully someday, we will get a better picture of who this smith(s) / shop was.  These blades do seem to be outside the normal  military system/channels and the wide variety of mei styles / blade styles / mountings has always been a bit of a mystery.

[Mark S.]

Resurrecting this one rather than starting new.  One more Katsunaga blade to add to the list just popped up on EBAY.  Too old and technologically challenged to copy and paste the direct link.. but here is a screenshot of the site/blade.  

[Bruce Pennington]

Posting the nakago from the sale: