SADAKAZU GASSAN [MEIJI 1868 SETTSU] SHINSHINTÔ JÔJÔSAKU

                He was a pupil of Sadayoshi, is called Yagorô, and his Gô is Unryûshi.  He was designated as an Imperial Court Artist on Meiji Sanjûkyûnen (1906) Shigatsu Yokka (4/4).  He died at the ripe old age of 84 on Taishô Shichinen (1918) Shichigatsu Nanoka (7/7).  He also made daisaku for Sadayoshi in his twilight years.  He began making swords at the age of fourteen, and continued until near the year of his death, and this actually reaches across a span of seventy years.  His works in his early period are gôtô with a shallow sori, hamon is suguba or an exuberant ô-midare.  In his twilight years he made mostly choji ha in a guntô body.  He made many types of jitetsu and hamon along the lines of each of the dens of Bizen, Sôshû, Yamashiro and Yamato.  He was also skilled in horimono.  Hairyû, hata hoko, Fudô nado are seen, and he was an expert second only to Honjo Yoshitane and Kurihara Nobuhide.  After the prohibition against wearing swords in Meiji Yonen (1870), even though the tôshô around the whole country were seen to lose their employment, Sadakazu stayed as a good tôkô.  However, the demand in this world was completely lost, and the buyers welcomed only gimei of famous smiths.  Inevitably, in order to make a living, Sadakazu is also thought to have made counterfeits in response to this demand.