Minamoto Kiyomaro — The Bakumatsu Swordsmith Called the Masamune of Yotsuya

Bakumatsu Edo had a swordsmith called the Masamune of Yotsuya. His name was Minamoto Kiyomaro — a master who drank, and who took his own life at forty-one.

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Who Was Minamoto Kiyomaro?

Kiyomaro was one of the finest swordsmiths of the Bakumatsu.

In the vocabulary of Japanese swords, blades of the late Edo period are called shinshinto, "new-new swords." Kiyomaro is rated among the very best of them — so much so that, for work recalling the Kamakura master Masamune, he was called the Masamune of Yotsuya, after the district of Edo where he kept his forge.

He was born in 1813 in Shinano, present-day Nagano, into no samurai or smithing family but something closer to farming stock.

To Edo

Kiyomaro set his mind on smithing young and went to Edo.

Demand for swords had a peculiar character at the time. The long peace meant no real fighting, yet as the Bakumatsu approached, interest in swords among the warrior class was in fact rising. Bound up with the mood of expulsion, blades that cut well were wanted.

Kiyomaro's swords met that want. Beauty of steel, strength of temper line — work that joined function and art won quick recognition.

Warriors gathered to commission blades, and orders did not let up. As a smith, he seemed to have succeeded.

Drink and Debt

But his life did not run smoothly.

He drank. Drunk, the work stopped, and he could not fill his orders. He is said to have taken advances without finishing the blades, piling up debts and unmet obligations.

First-rate at the anvil, his life slid toward collapse. The fame of a master and a dissolute existence — that gap is always cited in telling his story.

Why he drank is not certainly known. The pressure of the work, his character, or something else; the record says little.

Death at Forty-One

In 1855 Kiyomaro took his own life in Edo, aged forty-one (forty-two by the traditional count).

The reason for the suicide, too, is not clearly transmitted. Debt and the impasse of orders he could not complete are proposed as the background.

A man with hands that could forge fine swords ended himself with those hands. As a smith's life, it is unusual, and painful.

Why He Is Still Prized

Kiyomaro's swords remain very highly valued.

The reason is simple: the work is good. Swords of the relatively recent shinshinto period are often ranked below the masterpieces of older ages, but Kiyomaro's work rises past that frame. Some pieces are designated Important Art Objects, and they are prominent in sword exhibitions and scholarship.

Their scarcity raises the value further. Between drink and an early death, the blades he left are few. First-rate in quality, small in number — that combination makes them rare.

In recent years games and exhibitions about swords have made his name familiar to younger audiences. The character presented there is invention, and has nothing to do with the record of the smith himself.

Timeline

For another swordsmith see Nagasone Kotetsu; for the sword world of the Bakumatsu, the fencing schools.