Other Famous SwordsTantōImportant Cultural Property

包丁藤四郎

Hōchōdengiri Tōshirō

Aussi connu sous le nom de: Kitchen-Knife Tōshirō; Miyoshi Nagayoshi's Blade

Forgeron

Awataguchi Yoshimitsu (Tōshirō Yoshimitsu)

Époque

Mid to late Kamakura period (late 13th century)

Type

Tantō

Classement

Important Cultural Property

Lieu de conservation

Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

Description

Hōchōdengiri Tōshirō is a tantō of approximately 27.0 cm forged by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu and bearing one of the most unusual names in the entire canon of famous Japanese swords: 'kitchen knife Tōshirō.' The name derives from a tradition praising the blade's sharpness by comparing it to a chef's knife — specifically alluding to the famous passage in Zhuangzi where the master cook Pao Ting butchers an ox so perfectly that his blade finds only empty space between bones and never dulls. This praise-name perfectly captures the Yoshimitsu aesthetic: not dramatic, not violent, but so refined in its cutting edge that it seems to encounter no resistance. The sword is associated with Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522–1564), the Sengoku warlord who dominated the Kinai region before Oda Nobunaga and is now recognized by historians as a proto-unifier who established the template that Nobunaga would follow. It is an Important Cultural Property held at the Kyoto National Museum.

Légendes et récits

The Zhuangzi passage that gives this sword its name is one of the most beautiful in Chinese philosophy. The master cook Pao Ting is carving an ox. His blade has been in use for nineteen years and still looks freshly sharpened. Why? Because he has learned to find the spaces — the gaps between bones, between sinews, where nature has already made room. His blade never struggles. It moves through emptiness. The lord watching him says: 'Excellent! Your skill is perfect.' And Pao Ting replies: 'What I follow is Tao, which is above mere skill.' To name a sword after this story is to say something specific about a blade: not that it is hard or strong or fierce, but that it is so perfectly refined it finds no resistance. It moves through the world the way insight moves through a problem — without friction. This is the highest compliment possible for a cutting edge. And it is a compliment paid to a blade by Yoshimitsu, whose genius was precisely that quality: not drama, not power, but perfect, frictionless refinement. The name was well chosen.