Maybe 2 smiths?
NAGANOBU (永信), Keiō (慶応, 1865-1868), Izumo –
“Naganobu” (永信), real name Takahashi Rihei (高橋利平),
it is suspicious that is listed with the homonymic smith and first nam as Takahashi Naganobu who wrote his smith name
with the characters (長信) and his first name Rihei with the characters (理兵衛), so maybe this is a double-entry
NAGANOBU (長信), Tenpō (天保, 1830-1844), Izumo –
“Unshū-jū Fuyuhiro (雲州住冬広), “Unshū Takahashi
Naganobu” (雲州高橋長信), “Unshū-han Fujiwara Naganobu” (雲州藩藤原長信), “Un´yō-shi Takahashi Rōshi
Fujiwara Naganobu” (雲州藩藤原長信聾司藤原長信), “Tōto ni oite Unshū-jū Takahashi Rihei Fuyuhiro Naganobu”
(於東都雲州住高橋理兵衛冬広長信), “Edo Kōjimachi ni oite Unshū-han Takahashi Naganobu kore o saku”
(於江都麹街雲州藩高橋長信作之,
“made by Takahashi Nahanobu from the Unshū fief [= Matsue fief] in Edo´s
Kōjimachi”), “Chōshinsai Fuyuhiro” (長信斎冬広), real name Takahashi Rihei (高橋理兵衛). He had studied under the
4th generation of the Izumo-based Fuyuhiro lineage (冬広) and was eventually adopted into the family whereupon he
succeeded as 5th generation Izumo Fuyuhiro, the 17th generation after Wakasa Fuyuhiro (若狭冬広) who was the
founder of the Fuyuhiro line. He used the gō Rōshi (聾司) and Chōshinsai (長信斎). By the way, the former gō means
literally “the deaf officer.
” In the first year of Tenpō (天保, 1830) he went to Edo to study under Tsunatoshi and made
his smith name Naganobu out of the first two characters of his pseudonym Chōshinsai (Naganobu is the Japanese
reading of the characters Chōshin). At that time he lived in the Sannō district (山王) of Edo. Later he was hired by the
Matsue fief (松江藩) of Izumo province which he signed using the colloquial name “Unshū fief” (雲州藩). With this
employment he moved to the Edo residence of the fief which was located in Hirakawa (平河) in the Kōjimachi district
– 743 –(麹町). However, in Genji one (元治, 1864) the fief ordered him back to Izumo because of the bakufu campaign against
the Chōshū fief where he died on the 20th day of the fifth month of Meiji two (明治, 1869) at the age of 64. His
workmanship is similar to Tsunatoshi’s. His blades show a magnificent sugata but he also made smaller blades with
western-style refined steels. Most of his works are in the Bizen tradition. The jigane looks soft, the jihada is muji but tends
sometimes to masame, and the hamon is a somewhat slanting ko-chōji-midare with hard and dark spots along the yakigashira.
But he also applied a suguha or tōran-midare. Because of the gyaku-sujikai yasurime it is assumed that Takahashi Nakanobu
was left-handed. Sometimes he signed in kaisho block script (楷書) on the omote and in gyōsho cursive script (行書) on the
ura side, but in later years he also signed both sides in cursive or rather grass script. There is the urban legend going
round that one of his blades cut through the barrel of a machine gun during World War II. jō-saku
nice blades btw!
