古備前友成

Ko-Bizen Tomonari is not merely a great sword — it is the beginning of a story. The Bizen tradition that Tomonari helped found would go on to produce the Ichimonji school, the Osafune masters (Mitsutada, Nagamitsu, Kagemitsu, Kanemitsu), and the long unbroken line of Bizen smiths that extends to the present day — the most sustained tradition of excellence in the history of any craft in any culture. The 'ko' (old/ancient) in 'Ko-Bizen' carries the Japanese evaluation that in origin is the truest expression of essence: the earliest Bizen blades do not merely predate their successors but represent a purity that all subsequent development both builds on and departs from. Tomonari's tachi, its Heian-era deep koshi-zori and fine ko-itame still glowing after a millennium, is the point where that vast tradition was still simple, unelaborated, true. In the Tokyo National Museum, three National Treasure tachi from the Heian period — Mikazuki Munechika, Dōjigiri Yasutsuna, and Tomonari — form a trinity of Japan's earliest sword genius. Each represents a different school, a different vision of what the blade could be. Together they show that the Japanese sword was, from its very beginning, an art.