# The Honjo Masamune > Goro Nyudo Masamune (attributed) - Late Kamakura period, first half of the fourteenth century (attributed) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/masamune/honjo-masamune/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-03 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Goro Nyudo Masamune (attributed) - **Date:** Late Kamakura period, first half of the fourteenth century (attributed) - **Medium:** Forged and folded steel; shinogi-zukuri with iori-mune - **Dimensions:** Nagasa 65.2 cm (2 shaku 1 sun 5 and a half bu), sori 1.7 cm, as recorded in the 1939 designation and in the Agency for Cultural Affairs register - **Object type:** Arms and armour - **Period:** Japanese, Kamakura period - **Current location:** Unlocated since January 1946. Listed by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs on its public register of nationally designated cultural properties whose whereabouts are unknown. - **Attribution:** attributed ## Summary A katana of about 65 centimetres, attributed to Masamune, that stood as the object of the Tokugawa shogunate: after Tokugawa Ietsuna received it in the seventeenth century it was handed symbolically to each succeeding shogun on taking office. It was designated a National Treasure on 29 May 1939. In December 1945 Tokugawa Iemasa, seventeenth head of the house and President of the House of Peers, took it with other family swords to the Mejiro police station in Tokyo under the occupation order to surrender all blades. On 18 January 1946 the police handed them to an American sergeant whose name was written down phonetically in katakana. Nobody has seen the sword since, and nobody has ever identified the sergeant.The record exists because of what stands behind it. Japanese swords carry the oldest continuous authentication system in world art: the Honami family, appointed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1590s as the sword-authentication office with an official seal, who issued folded certificates called origami that stated a blade's maker and its value in gold, and whose fee was a percentage of the value they themselves assigned. That is a hereditary authentication board with an interest in the number it writes down, and its documented failures are as instructive as its successes.The Honjo Masamune is also, legally, no longer a National Treasure. All pre-war designations were reduced to Important Cultural Property in 1950 and had to be re-submitted to regain the higher rank. A sword that has been missing since 1946 cannot be re-submitted. The most important lost object in Japanese art lost its status by not being there. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1300-1340-before 1561** Made in Sagami province, attributed to Goro Nyudo Masamune `[disputed]` (origin) Unsigned and later shortened. The attribution is traditional and was recorded by the Honami before it was ratified by the 1939 designation. Two named connoisseurs who examined the blade, Imamura Choga in 1880 and Honami Koson in 1943, doubted it on quality grounds. The state's own register calls it only attributed to Masamune. - **before 1561-c. 1561** Umanosuke, a retainer in an army opposed to the Uesugi `[disputed]` (ownership) The Kyoho Meibutsucho entry says only that Umanosuke carried it. How he came by it is unrecorded, and as Schiller observes, the original owner was in no condition to be asked. English Wikipedia places the encounter at the battle of Kawanakajima in 1561; the Meibutsucho entry places it after the siege of a castle during one of the Uesugi campaigns and does not name the battle. - **c. 1561-1590s** Honjo Shigenaga (1540-1614), general under Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagekatsu `[disputed]` (capture) Shigenaga was seated on a folding camp stool receiving captured heads when Umanosuke attacked him and cut his helmet in half, seriously wounding him, before Shigenaga killed him. The sword took a couple of chips in the edge, hakobore, from cutting through the kabuto. Shigenaga kept it and it took his name. The chips were still there in 1939: the designation records one large hakobore near the base, several smaller ones along the edge, and kirikomi, cuts, on the back of the blade. Those marks were deliberately left in the polish and are traditionally not shown in an oshigata. Graded disputed rather than documented: the sole authority for this link is the Kyoho Meibutsucho of 1719, a register compiled by the Honami more than a century after the events it records, and known to this record through a single modern study of it. - **1590s-1595** Toyotomi Hidetsugu `[disputed]` (sale) Shigenaga, stationed at Fushimi and short of funds, sold the sword to Hidetsugu, nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for 13 mai of gold. Hidetsugu was forced to commit suicide in 1595. Graded disputed rather than documented: the sole authority for this link is the Kyoho Meibutsucho of 1719, a register compiled by the Honami more than a century after the events it records, and known to this record through a single modern study of it. - **1595-1600s** Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then Shimazu Yoshihiro `[disputed]` (gift) Hidetsugu presented it to Hideyoshi; it then went to Shimazu Yoshihiro, who gave it to Tokugawa Ieyasu. English Wikipedia inserts a second passage back to Hideyoshi between Shimazu and Ieyasu; the Kyoho Meibutsucho as translated by Schiller does not. The discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved. - **1600s-1651** Tokugawa Ieyasu, then Tokugawa Yorinobu, then Tokugawa Ietsuna `[disputed]` (inheritance) Ieyasu gave it to his son Yorinobu, founder of the Kii branch, who presented it on the occasion of his retirement to the shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna. Graded disputed rather than documented: the sole authority for this link is the Kyoho Meibutsucho of 1719, a register compiled by the Honami more than a century after the events it records, and known to this record through a single modern study of it. - **1651-1868** The Tokugawa shoguns, as an object of the office `[disputed]` (regalia) Schiller states that after Ietsuna received it the sword became one of the treasure swords of the Tokugawa and was symbolically presented to each succeeding shogun on taking office, which places it with the shogunal succession rather than with a branch house. English Wikipedia says instead that it remained in the Kishu Tokugawa family. Both readings are in print; the succession account is the better argued and is the one that explains why the sword mattered. - **1868-1945** Tokugawa Iesato, then Tokugawa Iemasa (1884-1963), seventeenth head of the Tokugawa house `[documented]` (inheritance) Iesato, from the Tayasu line, became sixteenth head of the Tokugawa after the fall of the shogunate. Iemasa was his eldest son and succeeded him. Iemasa served as President of the House of Peers. His only son Iehide died in 1936, and he adopted Tokugawa Tsunenari, his daughter's son, who is the present head of the house. - **1945-12-1946-01-18** Mejiro police station, Tokyo `[documented]` (surrender) Under the occupation order to surrender all swords, Iemasa took the Honjo Masamune with other family blades to the Mejiro police station in December 1945. English Wikipedia says thirteen other prized heirloom swords went with it, fourteen in all; Schiller says only that other swords went with it and gives no number. On 18 January 1946 the police handed the swords to an American sergeant, reportedly of the 7th Cavalry Regiment per Schiller, and of the Foreign Liquidations Commission of Army Forces Western Pacific per Wikipedia. The two accounts are not reconciled anywhere consulted. - **1946-01-18-present** Unknown `[unknown]` (loss) The sword has not been seen since. Iemasa complained to the authorities, since swords of artistic and historic merit were supposed to be examined and returned; he was told it could not be found and had probably gone abroad. Schiller records that his letters, and those of other owners of important swords, were answered elaborately and politely, but that no thorough investigation appears to have been launched. No claimed rediscovery has ever been substantiated. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - The Honjo Masamune has never been offered at auction and no valuation for it has ever been published. Its entry in the 1719 Kyoho Meibutsucho, the shogunate's own register of famous objects, is marked mudai, no value given: the only register that could have priced it declined to. No blade attributed to Masamune could be traced to any public sale in the sources consulted. The figures given in the narrative are for other swords, above all for the National Treasure tachi Yamatorige bought by the city of Setouchi, and are there only to establish what this class of object does when it is for sale at all. ## Literature - 1719, Kyoho Meibutsucho, compiled by Honami Mitsutada at the command of the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. The Honjo entry reads: gyobutsu; suriage, nagasa 2 shaku 1 sun 5 and a half bu; mudai, no value given. - 1928, Hazawa Bunko, ed., Tsuguhira Oshigata, with the collected oshigata of Honami Kotoku and Honami Koon, Hazawa Bunko, 5 August 1928. Carries the reproduction of the Tsuguhira tracing of this blade. National Diet Library. - 2014, C. U. Guido Schiller, 'The Honjo Masamune / Meibutsu Honjo Masamune', Nihonto Message Board, October 2014. Cites the Kyoho Meibutsucho, the 1939 designation text, Homma Junji (Kunzan), and Markus Sesko's study of the Honami family, and acknowledges declassified United States government documents from the National Archives at College Park obtained through Stephen Thorpe. - 2013, Markus Sesko, 'The Kotegiri Masamune', for a named Honami-era Masamune attribution that modern scholarship rejects. - 2018, Markus Sesko, 'Hon'ami Koson', for the twentieth-century Honami line, the decline of the main house and Koson's role in the founding of the NBTHK. ## Open questions - Who received the swords on 18 January 1946? Schiller reports a sergeant said to be of the 7th Cavalry Regiment; Wikipedia says a representative of the Foreign Liquidations Commission of Army Forces Western Pacific. Neither account cites the other and neither is reconciled anywhere consulted. - What was the sergeant's actual name? The katakana ko-r-de-i-ba-i-mo has been re-romanised as Koridie Beimo and as Coldy Bimore. No serviceman has been matched to any version, and no source consulted documents a systematic search of United States Army personnel records. - How many swords did Tokugawa Iemasa surrender? Fourteen in all according to Wikipedia; Schiller gives no number; a Japanese commercial site says thirty-two. - Did the sword pass with the shogunal office or stay in the Kishu Tokugawa branch after 1651? Two published accounts disagree. - Where and when was Umanosuke's attack on Honjo Shigenaga? Wikipedia says Kawanakajima in 1561; the Kyoho Meibutsucho entry names no battle, only a siege during a Uesugi campaign. - Did the sword pass back through Hideyoshi's hands between Shimazu Yoshihiro and Tokugawa Ieyasu? Wikipedia inserts that step; the Meibutsucho as translated does not. - Is the government register entry 63 the Honjo Masamune? The Agency for Cultural Affairs does not use the name. The identification rests on the coincidence of the 1939 designation year and the 65.2 cm length with the designation text. - What is in the declassified United States records? Schiller's acknowledgements refer to scans of declassified US government documents from the National Archives at College Park, but the article does not say what they contain about the sergeant or the swords. - Was the blade actually by Masamune? Imamura Choga in 1880 and Honami Koson in 1943 both found it artistically unremarkable. It cannot now be re-examined. - Which of the three surviving oshigata is closest to the blade? They are not superimposable, and the Tsuguhira tracing appears to have been redrawn in part for the 1928 printing. - Was the Setouchi crowdfunding target reached in January 2019 or January 2020? The city's own page gives the day and month without an unambiguous year and reporting differs. ## Sources - [1] Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, register of nationally designated cultural properties whose whereabouts are unknown, entry 63: designated name katana, unsigned, attributed to Masamune; Important Cultural Property; designated Showa 14 (1939); length 65.2 cm; individual owner; Tokyo; no theft recorded. The register is published under the campaign title Let us recover our cultural properties and asks the public for information. - [2] Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, index page of the same register of missing nationally designated fine art and craft properties, which places entry 63 in its context among the other missing designated objects. - [3] C. U. Guido Schiller, 'The Honjo Masamune', Nihonto Message Board, October 2014, PDF. Fetched and its text extracted directly for this record. Source of the 29 May 1939 designation date, the verbatim designation description, the Kyoho Meibutsucho entry with its mudai valuation, the Umanosuke and Shigenaga account, the ownership chain, the shogunal succession reading, the December 1945 and 18 January 1946 chronology, the katakana transcription of the sergeant's name, the Imamura Choga and Honami Koson inspections of 1880 and 1943, the Homma Junji comparison to the Ishida Masamune, and the figure of 3,000 Masamune origami. A collector-community publication with full footnotes and a bibliography, not a peer-reviewed or museum source, and labelled as such. - [4] Wikipedia, 'Honjo Masamune', for the 1561 date, the count of fourteen swords surrendered, the Kishu Tokugawa reading, and the identification of the recipient with the Foreign Liquidations Commission of Army Forces Western Pacific. Tertiary; used only where it differs from source 3, and the differences are recorded as differences. - [5] Wikipedia, 'Masamune', for the smith's dates, the three accepted signed works, the Masamune juttetsu, the Tenka Sansaku, and the census of designated Masamune blades and their locations. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the Tokyo National Museum and Tokugawa Art Museum catalogue entries. - [6] Nagoya Touken World, 'The Honami family and the origami', for the descent from Honami Myohon under Ashikaga Takauji, Hideyoshi's appointment of Honami Kotoku as sword-authentication office with the hon seal in 1596-97, the physical form and required contents of an origami including the daitsuke valuation, the mai, oban and kan valuations, the fee of ten mai of silver per hundred mai of gold appraised, the terms Tanuma origami and awase origami, the standing of ko-origami issued before Honami Kochu, the monthly conferences of the branch families, and the end of the Honami role in the Meiji period. A well-documented commercial museum-affiliated site, not an academic one. - [7] Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai, English pages: founding in February 1948 as a government-authorised foundation at a moment when the Occupation Forces were attempting to confiscate all Japanese swords, the purposes of the society, the Sword Museum opened in May 1968, the four certificate grades, and the current fee scale. - [8] Wikipedia, 'Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai', for the founding date of 24 February 1948 and the founders Homma Junji and Sato Kan'ichi, the exclusion of art swords from the firearms prohibition decree on 1 June 1946, the 1981 discovery that many old-system Tokubetsu Kicho Token certificates had been issued to fakes, the resignation of the chairman and all directors in September and the removal of the judges concerned, the replacement of the system in 1982, and the 2006 to 2012 disputes including the Diet questions, the ministry inspections, the 344 recorded regulatory violations and the unregistered-sword case. Tertiary, drawing on the Japanese article; flagged for replacement with contemporary press and the ministry's own findings. - [9] Markus Sesko, 'Hon'ami Koson', for Koson's birth as Kawaguchi Teikichi on 29 April 1879 and death on 26 July 1955, his apprenticeship under Hon'ami Ringa from 1890 and adoption into a branch line rather than the main house, his independence from 1907, his introduction of the gokaden system, his post-war role as adviser, trustee and shinsa member of the newly founded NBTHK, and the collapse of the Honami main line in the Meiji period, whose nineteenth head pawned the official seal and whose last head became a shoemaker. - [10] Markus Sesko, 'The Kotegiri Masamune', for a blade attributed to Yukimitsu while owned by Sano Nobuyoshi and re-attributed to Masamune after Maeda Toshitsune acquired it, and for Sesko's own view that the Masamune attribution is dubious and Sadamune more likely on stylistic grounds. - [11] Setouchi City official crowdfunding portal for the purchase of the National Treasure tachi Yamatorige: a target of 513,090,000 yen, being 500,000,000 yen for the sword and 13,090,000 yen for facilities, achieved on 26 January with more than seventeen thousand supporters in aggregate, the campaign running to 31 March 2020. - [12] Wikimedia Commons file page for the 1928 reproduction of the Tsuguhira oshigata of this blade, giving the source as Hazawa Bunko, ed., Tsuguhira Oshigata with the collected oshigata of Honami Kotoku and Honami Koon, 5 August 1928, via the National Diet Library, and the public domain licence. Read from the Commons API on 4 August 2026. - [13] Japanese Wikipedia, 'Masamune', for the Masamune matsusatsu-ron: proposed in 1896 by Imamura Nagayo, also read Choga, a sword appraiser who served as keeper of swords at the Imperial Household Ministry, published as a serial commentary in the Yomiuri Shimbun; his arguments that no genuine signed Masamune had ever been seen, that the reputation postdates Hideyoshi, that Masamune is absent from the list of 182 master craftsmen selected in Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's time, and that the Honami family created the reputation at Hideyoshi's political direction. Also for the position that the ten disciples are a later fabrication because their working periods do not overlap, and for the two lost long-signature blades dated 1314 and 1328. Tertiary and in Japanese; flagged for replacement with the 1896 newspaper run itself. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. 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