郷義弘
Go Yoshihiro
Also known as: Go Yoshihiro; Genius of Etchū Go; Supreme Among Masamune's Ten Great Disciples
Description
Go Yoshihiro is considered the greatest among Masamune's Ten Great Disciples — and by many accounts the only swordsmith who surpassed his master in raw expressive power. Working in Etchū Province (modern Toyama Prefecture) in the first half of the 14th century, Go Yoshihiro took the Sōshū tradition's technique of heavy nie and wild activity and pushed it further than anyone before or after. His blades display an explosive jigane of churning mokume-itame saturated with thick nie, and hamon of violent activity — kinsuji, inazuma, tobiyaki — that evoke a thunderstorm more than a controlled craft. Surviving signed works are almost impossibly rare; most known pieces carry the authentication of the Hon'ami family ('Gō kiwame'). He is the definition of a legend: fewer than a dozen certain works, and yet an influence that has shaped how swords are evaluated for seven centuries.
Legends & Stories
The almost impossibly rare survival of Go Yoshihiro's work has made him more legend than documented history. Stories of his blades' supernatural cutting ability circulated through the samurai world for centuries; Toyotomi Hideyoshi is said to have prized a Go Yoshihiro tantō above all his greatest swords. The Hon'ami family — Japan's official sword appraisers — placed a 'Gō kiwame' authentication on a blade so rarely, and the certified blade's value rose so dramatically upon authentication, that the art of evaluating Go Yoshihiro's work became an economic and political act as much as an aesthetic one. A certified Go Yoshihiro blade was worth the equivalent of a rice estate of a thousand koku. The mystery of his almost nonexistent signed works, the ferocity of his jigane and nie, and the lineage from Masamune himself — all of these combine to make Go Yoshihiro the most legendary swordsmith Japan ever produced.