Tachi Sword Signed “Nagamitsu”
This tachi longsword was forged in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century by a swordsmith named Nagamitsu in the western province of Bizen (present-day Okayama Prefecture). Bizen and the neighboring province of Bitchu were famed for their high-quality iron sand and their tradition of steel craftsmanship. This region produced many notable swordsmiths, but perhaps none as prolific as Nagamitsu; more than 70 swords attributed to him are known to survive today, some 700 years after they were forged. Most of these weapons were once owned by elite samurai and noblemen, as was this sword. Along with a set of ornate mountings, it was dedicated to the shrine in 1753 by Tokugawa Ieshige (1712–1761), the ninth head of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867. The sword is designated an Important Cultural Property.