An Echizen katana | Signed Echizen Yasutsugu kore o tsukuru | Edo period, 17th century

Originating from a family line of swordsmiths in Omi Province, the first Yasutsugu established himself in Echizen as a retainer of Matsudaira Hideyasu (1574-1607), son of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616). Yasutsugu’s efforts garnered him the privilege to use the character derived from the shogun’s name, yasu, as the first character for his own name. His evident favour with his lords further extended to the right to engrave the tang of his blades with the shogunate’s hollyhock crest (aoi mon). The later generations of the school alternately worked both in Echizen and Edo. Inscribed on the blade is nanban tetsu [lit. southern barbarian steel], referring to the metal brought over by European merchants in the sixteenth century, and later by the Dutch who held exclusive trade rights with Japan during the Edo period.