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天田 貞吉 Amata Sadayoshi, gendaito.
Amata Sadayoshi is the father of modern day living national treasure Amata Akitsugu. Amata Sayayoshi began making swords on his own in 1931, we do not know yet what he was doing prior to that time. This is a later work of Amata Sadayoshi before his premature death in April of 1937. Ours is signed “Echigo no Kuni jū Amata Sadayoshi, Showa Ju Ichi Nen Ni Gatsu” and inscribed with date “an auspicious day in the 2nd month, the 11th year showa”, February 1936. nagasa – approx. 69.9 cm ~ 27.5″. With new polish by Woody Hall. The nioi guchi is fantastic. A new solid silver habaki & honoki shirasaya by John Tirado. NTHK certificate, score 70 of 100 (San Francisco sword show Aug 2022).
He made very high quality gendaito, and he was said to be a man of great pride. He is known to be a personal friend of Isoroku Yamamoto, the admiral that planned the Pearl Harbor attack…
If not for his early death, Sadayoshi would have received more recognition due to his high skill. Because he died at an early age, there are not very many swords left to represent him. But all examples that are available are all of very good quality and manufacture. He was said to be a man of great pride. He is known to be a personal friend of Isoroku Yamamoto, the admiral that planned the Pearl Harbor attack…
Amata Sadayoshi is rated Saijo saku. In the article called “WWII Japanese swordsmiths ranking” on JapanesSwordIndex.com Jinsoon Kim is credited for organizing the article for our research today. The following paragraph is the intro to the article. “In 1942, Kurihara Hikosaburo, the man who revived the Japanese Sword twice, reported about 400 gunto tosho’s ranking at Tosho Banzuke (刀匠番附). He classified as 7 ranks and included lots of wartime swordsmiths. In addition, winners of the 6th Shinsaku Nihonto Denrankai (新作日本刀展覽會, 1941) were reported at Nihon Kendo Oyobi Token (日本劍道及刀劍) by Hagio Takahashi. From Special Honor Seats to the 5th seat (S: 特別名譽席(鍛刀總匠), 1: 國工, 2: 準國工, 3:優秀, 4:佳作, 5:新進), about 250 smiths were given. Both references enable us to investigate their standing and very valuable information in Gendaito research.”
Source- http://japaneseswordindex.com/tosho.htm
Page from John Sloughs book – “Modern Japanese swordsmiths” page 155.
Translation – above worksheet.
NTHK 2022 West Coast Shinsa
CERTIFICATION
SWORD For Item Number: 728
Signature: Echigo no Kuni-jū Amata Sadayoshi – Shōwa jūichinen nigatsu kichijitsu
(越後国住天田貞吉・昭和拾一年二月吉日) – “Amata Sadayoshi, resident
of Echigo province, on a lucky day in February of Shōwa eleven (1936)”
70 – 84 Kanteisho Origami Points: 70
Length: 2 shaku 3 sun (~ 69.7 cm) Curvature: 6 bu (~ 1.8 cm)
Construction: shinogi-zukuri
Mune: iori-mune
Mekugi-ana: 1
Nakago: sujikai-yasurime with keshō
Horimono: –
Kitae: ko-itame
Hamon: suguha mixed with gunome-ashi
Bōshi: tending to yakizume
Period: Shōwa (1926–1989)
“As for Amada/Amata Sadayoshi, the reading of the family name is an interesting conundrum. The Dictionary of Notable Persons lists him as Amada, but most sword-related sources say Amata. And his son Akitsugu is uniformly quoted as Amata Akitsugu. So, either Sadayoshi changed the reading of his family name at some point, his son took a different reading, or it was Amata all along.” -Markus Sesko.
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