Yasutsuna

Japanese: 安綱 - やすつな

Years of birth: unknown. A swordsmith from Ohara, Hoki Province (Tottori Prefecture) in the mid-Heian period. He is the oldest swordsmith to have engraved his works. Sword books from the Muromachi period state that he was a swordsmith around the Daido period (806-810), but today he is considered to have been from the same era as Munechika in Kyoto, around the Eien period (987-989). A relatively large number of his works remain for a swordsmith from the Heian period, but they are all tachi, and show the old style of forging with itame and burning in small irregular blade patterns. His most famous masterpiece is the famous "Doujigiri Yasutsuna" (National Treasure, Tokyo National Museum), the tachi used by Minamoto no Yorimitsu to slay Shuten-doji on Mt. Oe.

(Harada Kazutoshi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

生年：生没年不詳
平安中期の伯耆国(鳥取県)大原の刀工。作品に銘をきるようになった最も古い刀工。室町時代の刀剣書では大同(806～810)ごろの人としているが,今日では京の宗近と同時代,永延(987～989)ごろの人とみられている。平安時代の刀工としては作品が比較的多く現存するが,すべて太刀で,板目の鍛えに,小乱れの刃文を焼いた古様な作風を示している。代表作として源頼光が大江山で酒呑童子を退治したときの太刀,名物「童子切安綱」(国宝,東京国立博物館蔵)が特に有名である。

(原田一敏)

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