Other Famous SwordsWakizashiImportant Cultural Property

石田正宗

Ishida Masamune

Also known as: Ishida Blade; Mitsunari's Sword

Smith

Masamune (Sōshū Masamune)

Era

Late Kamakura – early Nanbokuchō period (early 14th century)

Type

Wakizashi

Designation

Important Cultural Property

Location

Sannomaru Shōzōkan, Tokyo

Description

Ishida Masamune is a wakizashi (short sword) forged by Masamune of Sagami Province — universally regarded as the greatest swordsmith in Japanese history — and named for Ishida Mitsunari (1560–1600), the chief administrator of the Toyotomi government who owned it. The blade measures approximately 35.2 cm and exemplifies Masamune's distinctive Sōshū-den style: a deeply grained steel with abundant ji-nie and ji-kesho, a wildly active hamon of irregular gunome with pointed peaks, and the brilliant flashes of kinsuji and inazuma for which Masamune is celebrated. Wakizashi by Masamune are significantly rarer than his tachi, making this blade doubly precious. Mitsunari — in modern reassessment recognized as one of the most capable administrators of the Sengoku era — carried this sword into the political storms that culminated at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), where his western coalition was destroyed and he was subsequently captured and executed. The sword is now an Important Cultural Property held at the Sannomaru Shōzōkan in Tokyo.

Legends & Stories

The most famous story associated with Ishida Mitsunari in his final hours concerns not the sword but a persimmon. Led to the execution ground at Rokujō-kawara on the first day of the tenth month of 1600, he was offered a persimmon when he asked for tea. He refused it, saying persimmons were bad for phlegm. His guards laughed: what did it matter now? Mitsunari answered that a man who lives for a great cause does not neglect his health even at the moment of death. This story, whether true or embellished, captures something essential about the man: relentless, rational, committed to principle until the last breath. The sword named for him carries that quality into its steel. Masamune's blades are famous for their ferocious activity — swirling nie, flashing kinsuji, the turbulent hamon that looks like a storm caught in iron. There is nothing resigned about such a blade. It is the sword of a man who went to his death unbroken.